Putting on The New Life of Christ For The New Year

: (5-11) 12-17 (ESV)

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 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. 14 And above all these put-on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Goal: For the Hearer to Understand what putting to death our “old self” and putting on our “new self” (In Christ) really looks like and means.

Good Morning Sons & Daughters of St. Paul’s … May the Grace & Peace of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with you all … Let Us Pray.

Well, the season of Advent is over and we are again facing the impending start of another year. We spent all of Advent talking about the lineage of Jesus as recorded in the first chapter of Matthew. Now that we hopefully really know Jesus’ path from the Old Testament to the New, we can now start to talk about what it means to be "In Christ.” For our purposes here today, I have focused on the epistle reading for today but i think we need to start at verse 5 rather than verse 12.

Verses 5-11 says the following …

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

The reason that I want to start here is because we are faced with a quandary in our Epistle reading. We are told by Paul what it looks like to put on Christ. But, in my study of this passage of scripture I was torn because I think we need to know what to cast off of our earthly vessels before we can even think of “Putting on Christ.”

Before we even get to this “New Self,” we must deal with the old one. Paul tells us to put to death what is Earthly in us. He calls Christians to act on the basis of their gift of faith. He even lists some things in verse 5 that I think many of us have struggled with at some point in our lives.

He talks about:

Sexual Immorality

Perversions of God’s design for marriage would apply here.

Impurity

Sex before marriage or using your body as a tool to get what you want are examples that are applicable here.

Passion

Now, not all passions are bad. A passion to proclaim the Gospel is definitely ok. A passion that leads you into sin is what Paul is getting at here.

Evil Desire

Wanting eye-for-an-eye justice or wanting others to hurt for seemingly no sane reason is what we are talking about here.

Covetousness

Covetousness, which is idolatry. “Whatever you set your heart on and put your trust in is truly your god”

covetousness, which is idolatry. “Whatever you set your heart on and put your trust in is truly your god”

Paul makes us aware that because of this list, God’s wrath is coming. God’s attitude toward sin and unbelief will be fully revealed in the final judgment. And because of that, He reminds us that we need to clean up our acts. Paul tells us to put them all away as a person might “put off” dirty clothing. We have to start stripping ourselves of the behaviors that cause us to fall into sin.

Those behaviors that Paul lists in verse 8 are:

as a person might “put off” dirty clothing.

God’s attitude toward sin and unbelief will be fully revealed in the final judgment.

Anger

We have to start stripping ourselves of the behaviors that cause us to fall into sin. We need to check ourselves.

Paul calls Christians to act on the basis of their gift of faith (). covetousness, which is idolatry. “Whatever you set your heart on and put your trust in is truly your god”

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible (p. 2047). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.We have to start stripping ourselves of the behaviors that cause us to fall into sin. We need to check ourselves.

He reminds us that we basically need to clean up our acts. We have to start stripping ourselves of the behaviors that cause us to fall into sin. We need to check ourselves.

Wrath

He reminds us that we basically need to clean up our acts. We have to start stripping ourselves of the behaviors that cause us to fall into sin. We need to check ourselves.

Malice

Slander

Obscene Talk from our mouths

Now think about the last year of your lives and think about how your behavior stacks up against this list. Paul then tells us to not lie to one another … especially concerning the practices of the “old self.” Certainly we have witnessed huge violations of many of these behaviors in the last election cycle. We saw people making a living trying to dig up dirt on their opponents to try and get an upper hand in their race. No party was exempt from these listed behaviors. But Paul tells us that we need to leave all of this behind. We need to stop committing these sins and become dead to them.

(ESV) reminds us ...

11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

This verse from Romans reminds us that the old self must die before we can again be alive in Christ. Our bodies cannot exist in both states. A choice must be made.

Now that we have addressed what it means to strip away the old self … we must look to this “new self”that we are to put on in Christ and what it will require of us. We must remember that in Baptism, we put on Christ and enter into a saving relationship with Christ.

tells us ...

27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

in Baptism, we put on Christ () and enter into a saving relationship with Christ. image of its creator. Our new relationship of faith restores the image of God that was lost because of sin. The image consists in knowledge of God and holiness. “The image of God is the knowledge of God, righteousness, and truth. Lombard is not afraid to say that original righteousness ‘is the very likeness to God which God implanted in man’ ”

Our new relationship of faith restores the image of God that was lost because of sin. The image consists in knowledge of God and holiness. “The image of God is the knowledge of God, righteousness, and truth.” Verse 11 shows us that In Christ, distinctions are removed ...

Our new relationship of faith restores the image of God that was lost because of sin. The image consists in knowledge of God and holiness. “The image of God is the knowledge of God, righteousness, and truth. Lombard is not afraid to say that original righteousness ‘is the very likeness to God which God implanted in man’ ”

whether national (Greek and Jew)

In Christ, distinctions are removed, whether national (Greek and Jew), social (barbarian and Scythian), or economic (slave and free). Scythian. From present-day southern Russia, they were thought to be the most barbaric of the barbarians.

social (barbarian and Scythian)

or economic (slave and free).

Just a side note … The Scythian’s were from present-day southern Russia and they were thought to be the most barbaric of the barbarians. So we are really hitting the extreme ends of the spectrum.

Scythian. From present-day southern Russia, they were thought to be the most barbaric of the barbarians.

In verse 12 Paul talks about us “putting on .... as Gods chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience bearing with one another ...” These virtues are a tall order when we look at them as things that “we” are supposed to put on. But we must remember that those Virtues are not ours to accomplish on our own … they are gifts provided by God. They are Christ’s virtues.

Virtues are not ours to accomplish but are gifts provided by God. They are Christ’s virtues. chosen ones

My Beloved, we must keep in our minds that we cannot accomplish or attain such virtues on our own. All we have to do is go to the shopping mall during the Christmas rush to see that ... ALONE, we will surely fail at one or more of these listed virtues. This whole process is a testament to our ability to combat Satan and the earthly temptations that he throws at us daily. Only by putting Christ can we defeat Satan. We think we are strong, but without Christ interceding for us, we would surely falter at each and every temptation that we are faced with. As we each struggle with our own temptations … we should begin to understand the struggles of others. You have heard me say many times over my time here … We are to use our trials as ministerial tools to help others facing similar situations.

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible (p. 2047). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.

As we each struggle with our own temptations, so we understand the struggles of others. you also must forgive.

And then Paul tells us to do something that, if we are being honest, we all struggle with. He says that we aren't supposed to complain about each other … and we are supposed to “forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven us.” Forgive others? Yeah … forgive others. Just think of where we would be if our Father in Heaven was unable to forgive us for having to allow His one and only Son to pay for the price of our sins. I think that trumps anything that anyone has ever done to any of us. We get so caught up in our feelings (I am as guilty of this as anyone here) to the point where we cant see what forgiving the people who have hurt us even looks like. We want to be angry because sometimes that seems easier for us than being loving. Again Our Father in heaven loved us so much that “He gave up his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have .... Eternal Life. ()

We are told to live in harmony. Can we even picture that? Have we seen that in our lives and the relationships that we have in our lives? Mr Webster defines Harmony as : (a) An interweaving of different accounts into a single narrative; (b) a systematic arrangement of literary passages (as in the gospels) for the purpose of showing agreement or harmony. We should always be seeking harmony because that “bond of perfection” or agreement is like a belt that holds all things together.

So Paul, starts off telling us what our “old self” consists of and then He eloquently describes what the “new self” should look like in Christ.

Verse 16 is my favorite section in this passage. It tells us “16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” So once we have put on Christ, this tells us what to do next. I have talked about this numerous times as well. We should be praising God for the Good and the Bad. We should be in His word on a continual basis. Then it will move in our hearts. We should be thankful in all situations. We should sing the parts of the service’s liturgy with fervor because this is one way we can directly respond to the blessings that He has provided to us. We should never let that opportunity go un-used. Great expressions of joy and thankfulness naturally flow from the rich doctrine of Christ.

We finish this passage with a tasking from Paul. He says “and whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Did you catch that ? Do EVERYTHING in Jesus name … We must never lose sight of the fact that there is no division between the sacred and the secular concerning what a Christian says and does. Christ should accompany us in all facets of life. Others should see the gospel reflected in all we say or do. We are to be thankful to God through what Jesus offers us as we put him on in our “new self.”

Great expressions of joy and thankfulness naturally flow from the rich doctrine of Christ.

There is no division between the sacred and the secular concerning what a Christian says and does. Christ should accompany us in all facets of life.

We get so caught up in the bright shiny things of this world. We get almost obsessed trying to accumulate what we think we need in this world. We must remember that it is all temporal. The biggest lasting impact that we can make in this world is in the relationships that we have and how we have cultivated them. That is our true legacy.

Last year i saw this commercial that depicted a scene in a homeless shelter. It was Christmastime and it was full of people volunteering to help and be present with the residents of the shelter. Then it flashes forward to a homeless man playing on a piano and a very different scene is being depicted. He is playing the song “Please dont you forget about me.” As He is playing, the shelter is devoid of volunteers and the uplifting aura that was present at the Holidays, is no where to be found.

I bring this story up because it proves our Human nature. We are part-time worshippers and part-time citizens and we sadly, we sometimes are part-time Christians. We get too caught up in our lives that we cant see the need in others lives. If we truly thought that Christ was really accompanying us wherever we go and in everything that we say and do, we are surely falling short of His example of love. He too is saying to us today … “Dont You forget about about Me.” We cant expect Him to be in us if we are too busy to be in Him. We must be thankful and engaged in our worship to Our God and his Son Jesus Christ. We cant be so worried about our present lives that we forget the pursuit of our Eternal Lives.

You maybe asking yourself ... What is the good life? Is it prosperity, popularity, or pleasure? No, it is the life we receive from Jesus, including gifts that we cannot make or purchase: forgiveness, love, peace, and thankfulness. Jesus’ life fills us with virtues rather than vices and enables us to be a blessing rather than a bane to others. Let us strive to show that love this coming year. Because that Love, shown to others in Christ name, means more than any resolution that we may be making for the New Year. Amen?

What is the good life? Prosperity, popularity, pleasure? No, it is the life we receive from Jesus, including gifts that we cannot make or purchase: forgiveness, love, peace, and thankfulness. Jesus’ life fills us with virtues rather than vices and enables us to be a blessing rather than a bane to others.