Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Picture of the Teams

You knew which team they were on because of what they were wearing.

You immediately identified them because of their appearance.

And that is similar to our passage for today.

Paul tells the Colossians to put on this character because that is who they are to be...

When you chose to follow Christ - God chose you (His people) to act a

As early as 1 Thess 1:4, but stated more clearly in Col 3:12 and 2 Pet 1:10, we find the reminder of the manifestation of God’s grace linked with an imperative, an exhortation also to live in it, to prove oneself as one whom God has sanctified.

For it is only if and when faith is lived out that election is evident (cf.

Titus 1:1).

We can speak of election in true fashion only when we also give due weight to what John in partic.

emphasizes, but which is always implicit: the commission to fruit-bearing service, obedience, and a God-fearing and God-trusting life.

Compassion - Lit. Bowels of Mercy - Seat of Emotions - heart felt compassion

Kindness - God’s goodness - human attribute of kindness

Humility - The Philippians text also provides a nice commentary on “humility,” as involving valuing “others above yourselves” and “not looking to your own interests but … to the interests of others”

Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub.

Co., 2008), 277.

Gentleness - A fourth community-fostering virtue is gentleness (praütēta), which the standard Greek lexicon for the New Testament nicely (if somewhat expansively) defines as “the quality of not being overly impressed by a sense of one’s self-importance.”100

The model is again Jesus, who claimed to be “gentle (praüs) and humble (tapeinos) in heart” (; cf.

21:5; ).

Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub.

Co., 2008), 277–278.

Patience - If “kindness,” Wright suggests, refers to our basic approach to people, so “patience” refers to the kind of reaction we should display toward them.

Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub.

Co., 2008), 278.

Bear With - The verb “bear with” (anechomai), as the translation suggests, indicates a somewhat grudging willingness to “put up with” difficult circumstances.

Bear - Therefore, while not requiring the greatest display of Christian kindness and patience, “bearing with one another” is nevertheless a first and necessary step in establishing community.

The demand acknowledges that every Christian fellowship is made up of all kinds of people and that we will accordingly sometimes find ourselves in close fellowship with people who are very different than we are.

For the sake of maintaining community, we will sometimes have to “put up with” people with whom we would not normally choose to associate.

Sunday School Teacher, Communion, Kitchen

Forgive - “Forgive” translates a Greek verb (charizomai) that conveys the idea that forgiving others is an act of grace, freely offered, often not “deserved.”106

Paul frankly recognizes that in the Christian community there will be times when a person will have a grievance, a “cause for complaint,” against someone else within the fellowship.

Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub.

Co., 2008), 279.

Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub.

Co., 2008), 279.

Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub.

Co., 2008), 278.

Notice that it does not say

Let me get mushy here for bit...

This is better than I could have dreamed.

But we still haven’t arrived as a community...

Could we grow in our compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience