The Mark of a Believer

Colossians 3:12–14 ESV

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Introduction

English Standard Version Chapter 3

12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones

Expected of Us

Whenever a person is expected to do something or behave in a particular manner, a reasonable instruction is usually given to an individual that can be carried out.

For example, children are expected from their parents to go to school, make good grades, perform reasonable chores and respect their elders.

When your parents told you not to ask for anything when you all went inside of the grocery store.

Employees are expected by their employers to do their job, come to work on time, act in an ethical manner and make decisions that are in the best interest of the company.

Athletes are expected to consume a healthy diet, be in their best physical shape and give 110% effort every time they are engaged in their respected sport.

People are usually not blind sided by expectations unless it is not clearly stated what is required of them. Paul leaves no room for interpretation of what is expected of us in his letter to the Colossians.

In , Paul gives us a list of behaviors that we are to put to death since we are raised with Christ:

Colossians 3:5–10 ESV

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

col

Sexual immorality

Idolatry

Filthy language

Anger

Wrath

Malice and others

In the the 12th and 13th verses of this chapter Paul provides a list of virtues that are expected of every person who has entered into a relationship with God by way of grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Compassion hearts

Kindness

Humility

Meekness

Patience

Forbearance

Forgiveness

Love

As children of God we are expected to exemplify every virtue that is listed out here in our selected text this morning. Not one person is exempt from exemplifying these virtues because Paul did not make a suggestion when he told us to put these virtues on, but rather he made a command. The phrase “to put on” in the original language literally means “to clothe oneself with something” which means that these virtues are to be visible and noticeable to every person we come in contact with.

These virtues are to be uniform between every believer and we should be intentional about being compassionate, kind, humble, meek, patient, forgiving and loving. Every believer should be cut from the same cloth because every believer has the Holy Spirit dwelling on the inside of them who enables them to represent God the way He is supposed to be represented.

The question we have to wrestle with this morning is “How do we exemplify qualities that are expected of us if we don’t know what they look like?”

Compassion

Compassion is a deep awareness of and sympathy for one’s suffering. Compassion is a deep, inner movement of the heart that causes a person to do something to change a person’s situation.

The compassion we have for one another should the reflect the compassion God has toward us.

Every believer should show compassion because the heart of God is to show compassion to those who cannot help themselves.

So what does is look like when believers shows compassion?

In the 6th chapter of the Gospel of Mark starting at verse 34 Jesus is surrounded by a multitude of people after teaching in synagogues and preaching about the kingdom of God. And the bible declares that when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd while being in a deserted place. The compassion of Jesus caused Him to do something to change their situation so over five thousand men no including women and children were fed off of two fish and five loathes of bread.

On June 1st two complete strangers crossed each others paths which resulted in both of their lives changing forever. A white 19 year old male from Phenix City, AL by the name of Corbin Simpson donated a kidney to a black 41 year old woman by the name of LaShonda Brown from Columbus, GA after he discovered her GoFundMe page.

This man’s compassion transcended a racial difference, a generational gap, and a geographical restraint to meet the need of someone who could not help them self. When you are a believer, you should not pledge allegiance only those who are apart of your Greek or sorority organization, those with the same blood type flowing through your veins or those who have the same social status as you, but to any and everyone who is in need of compassion.

Compassion should be extended to:

The oppressed and the needy

The prisoner

The widows and the orphans

The bereaved

The children

The compassion we display will magnify God and give Him the glory that He is deserving of, but the only way we can do that is when we demonstrate compassion.

Not only are we to put on compassion, but we should be on kindness.

Kindness

Kindness is expressed from the great love received from God and is shown toward their neighbors.

So what does it look like when believers are kind?

In , Paul was shipwrecked in an island called Malta and the native people of that island showed unusual kindness toward Paul and welcomed him when they made a fire because the rain started to fall and the temperature began to drop.

That really won’t mean much to you until you understand that the people on that island did not speak Paul’s language, which was Greek, so an obvious language barrier existed, yet they decided to go out of their way to have Paul’s best interest at heart.

Kindness is also exemplified in when the Good Samaritan bandaged the wombs of a Jew and paid for his hotel after two men from the same race had previously bypassed the injured Jew on their way to Jericho.

These two stories will gain greater clarity on how we should model kindness when we understand that both individuals who expressed kindness to their neighbor were not a part of the family of God. So if unbelievers can express kindness toward believers, how much more is it expected of us to express kindness to those who are believers and unbelievers?

Humility

Humility is having the “I am second” attitude with God and with people.

The natural state of every human being is to think of themselves first, but the believer is commanded to have a humble state of mind.

Only those who are humble are truly able to say that they serve God and people.

The Apostle Paul gave us the greatest example of humility when he described our our Lord and Savior in his letter to the Philippians.

Philippians 2:5–8 ESV

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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We must learn how to put on humility if we are going to be the kingdom family that God desires for us to be.

The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Php 2:5–8). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

Meekness

Meekness is the ability to control your natural instincts that will cause you from living in harmony with others.

When you are meek, you are even-mild and calm tempered. You are not easily provoked by those around you but rather gentle toward them.

When you are meek, you are even-mild and calm tempered. You are not easily provoked by those around you but rather gentle toward them.

Experienced from Us

Our natural instinct is to clap back at someone who has done us wrong. Meekness is not a sign of weakness, but meekness is strength under control. Meekness is knowing that you have the power and all the tea to really tear an individual down to their core but you’re choosing to handle the situation in a different way.

This is really important for us to understand because there will be times when you are going to deal with some situations that are not under your control so you must allow the Holy Spirit to take full control of you in that moment.

How do we know that the Holy Spirit will enable us to be meek?

Galatians 5:22–23 KJV 1900

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

gal 5:

I would like to suggest to you that the only way that you will be able to exemplify meekness is when you are intentionally under full control of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 5:18 ESV

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

Patience

Patience with our brothers and sisters are as such:

Not getting angry when someone hasn’t changed at the rate we have expected them to.

Allowing people to grow without criticizing them

Not becoming easily angered when you don’t get your way

The ultimate expression of patience is of course from God himself toward us.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

It is irresponsible of us as believers to be impatient with our brothers and sisters when God is patient toward us. If we are going to truly reflect the image of God, we must choose patience over anger, frustration and resistance.

As much as some people get under our skin:

Voice

Behavior

Lack of certain quailities

we cannot be effective in their lives if we are not around them.

Experienced from Us

The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Php 2:5–8). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.perienced from Us

Essential to Us