The Blacklist

CODDLING OR CONQUERING?

Here in Naples, life is pretty good, isn’t it? In fact, in Florida, life’s pretty sweet! No state income tax - all good in my books (pun definitely intended). And in fact, in America, it really doesn’t get better than this anywhere in the world!

I was just thinking about this the other day. If I drive 30 minutes into Fort Myers, I have hundreds of different lunch options I can choose from. I can go to a variety of grocery stores to get random snacks, a plethora of clothing stores to get trendy outfits, and a number of barbershops to get a fresh cut to finish the day (this applies to me now that I get haircuts again).

All the amenities we have because of how prosperous our country has been are a great gift and a blessing. However, because of how good we have things, it’s very easy for us to get casual about the way we live life… casual about the way we live life.

CONTEXT

I mean, just think about it for a moment. Have any of us ever wondered where our next meal is gonna come from? Have any of us ever feared for our safety because of widespread crime and corruption in the community? Those are just things we don’t have a category for! Our perspective is limited, and as a result, it can be hard for us to grasp how important some things are and how unimportant other things are.

JKJ

And again, it’s not sinful to enjoy and take advantage of the privileges we enjoy in our country. God is the One who sovereignly has placed us here! However, my concern is that the ease of our lives and the casualness that comes as a result of that ease, if we’re not careful, can easily bleed into our approach to the Christian life.

And if not college, then it’s chores! I know the dishes aren’t gonna wash themselves, but I’ll get around to it when there’s time, we like to say. But that time never seems to come, does it?

Paul had a similar, yet much greater, concern for the well-being of the Colossian church in that same arena. And as we’ll find in over the next week or two, Paul’s concerned because he’s saying, “There is nothing casual and nothing lassies-faire about the Christian life. This is war.”

The list goes on. The moral of the story is this: Being casual about life is very easy and very tempting.

As we’ve already seen in Colossians, Paul’s been retraining the Colossians on how to think about God and how to live for God as a result of that retraining. In chapter, 1, Paul reminded them of the wisdom of the true gospel, before contrasting that with the folly of any false gospel in chapter 2. Now, here in chapter 3, Paul is delivering an emphatic charge to the Colossians: “If you’ve really been raised with Christ, then go walk in Him!”

If you guys remember from a few weeks back, we saw in verses 1-2 that the believer must set their minds on the things of heaven and seek after the things of heaven. Why? Paul tells us why in verses 3-4: because our lives are now hidden with Christ in God and when He is revealed, we will be revealed with Him in glory. Sweet truths!

That brings us to the passage we’ll be in over the next two weeks. Everything that Paul says here, here being verses 5-7, is to come as a result of the gospel truths from verses 1-4. Essentially, we can understand it like this: “Believer! You have been raised with Christ. You will also be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore, or because of this, go and put to death the deeds of the flesh.”

You see, Paul was well aware of the Colossians’ way of life when he wrote to them. The Colossians may have lived in a smallish town, and their city may not have had all the glitz and glamour of the bigger cities like Ephesus or Laodicea, but it wasn’t like their quality of living was suffering by any means! In every sense, life wasn’t that bad! We don’t hear of any persecution going on. We don’t hear of any class distinction. We don’t even hear about any social or economic issues in the city. Colossae was just your typical suburban town in Ancient Rome. Sounds pretty much like our context, doesn’t it?

We’re gonna spend the next two weeks in this passage, but we’re gonna look it at from a few different angles. Before we actually walk through the passage in context of the letter at large, I want to spend time fleshing out what Paul has to say in verse 5. We’ve been talking all semester about battling sin at the heart level, and this passage is as a good of a charge to and a guide on how to as any that we’ll find in Scripture. Paul is essentially forcing the Colossians, and by extension all of us, to ask ourselves this question: “Am I coddling my sin or conquering my sin?”

How will we know what category we’re in? Look at verse 5 and think to yourself, “Do I put to death the members of my earthly body?”Tonight, I want us to take some time studying what it looks like to conquer sin the way God tells us to conquer sin. So, here in , Paul presents 5 vices that must die in the Christian's life: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed. Follow along as I read.

Colossians 3:5–7 NASB95

5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

1) IMMORALITY MUST DIE ()

INTERPRETATION

Number 1: immorality must die… immorality must die. Notice the beginning of verse 5:

“Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality...”

The NASB unfortunately doesn’t capture the force of Paul’s command here very well, but the ESV and the NIV communicate what Paul is saying perfectly: put to death all that is earthly in you. The language Paul uses here is incredibly forceful. This verb was used to communicate the idea of taking the life force out of something… Think of the idea as “causing something to cease leaving.” It’s a really vivid verbal picture. Understand it this way: since they were saved, the Colossians weren’t supposed to just scold their sin, or slap it on the wrist - they were to murder it.

Romans 8:13 NASB95

13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Galatians 5:24 NASB95

24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

An easy way to think of the list of sins to kill in verse 5 is like a Christian hit list. All of these vices have to die, but they’re definitely not going down without a fight. And what was the first sin Paul put at the top of the Colossians’ hit list? Sexual immorality.

As we go down the looking glass of sins here on the hit list in , you’ll see that although each sin is different, they’re related in the sense that they go increasingly from external to internal. So Paul starts with immorality as the external outworking of the internal problem of greed, which amounts to idolatry, as we’ll see by the end of our time tonight.

So with that in mind, let’s get back to immorality. The word here, porneia, is a pretty ugly one. This word group was used by the Gentiles in ancient Greece and ancient Rome to talk about prostitution. The idea is that of “selling out” what has been reserved by God for marriage between one man, and one woman. Every single kind of unlawful sexual activity is included in this word group. What does that mean? Anything done outside of marriage that is reserved for marriage falls in this category of porneia.

But why exactly does Paul start a list of sins on death row with immorality? It seems like a statement of the obvious. By default, most of us would intellectually agree that this is a pretty wicked thing. The reason Paul puts it first is because Scripture has a lot to say about it!

Romans 1:28–29 NASB95

28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,

1 Corinthians 6:9 NASB95

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,

Ephesians 5:3 NASB95

3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;

1 Thessalonians 4:3 NASB95

3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;

IMPLICATION

Now, the Colossians at large came from a Phrygian background. Why is that important? Immorality was not just normal, it was a core part of religion. The Phrygian people worshipped false gods in an ecstatic way - this stuff was incredibly mystical, incredibly demonic, and incredibly immoral. This is the context out of which these believers in Colossae were saved! Paul’s telling them here, “You all may have been immoral and defiled in the worship of false gods, but you must be pure and undefiled in the worship of the true God.”

But friends, we’d be foolish to think that things are much different in our day. Many of us came from immoral backgrounds. We may not have been frantically worshipping wooden statues, but we were frantically worshipping ourselves and each other, weren’t we?

Think back to when we were in chapter 2… What was Paul rebuking the false teacher in Colossae for? Was it lawlessness? Was it false worship? No, it was legalism. So our first thought might be, “If they were struggling with legalism, typically legalists don’t live immoral lives. So Paul, why are you wasting time talking about immorality?” It’s because legalism and lawlessness are two extremes, but one core problem: both come as a result of self-righteousness.

The lawless “Christian” is self-righteous because he twists God’s Word to coexist with his out-of-control passions. The legalistic “Christian” is self-righteous because he twists God’s Word to coexist with his out-of-control fears. Two issues, one problem.

So beloved, how are we doing when it comes to battling immoral inclinations in our hearts? Running away from the problem doesn’t actually solve anything. Neither does pretending it isn’t there! We have to remember that there’s a big difference between having convictions we believe as opposed a lack of opportunity. Are we doing well in this area because we’re actually doing war against our flesh, or because we just haven’t had the opportunity to act on our evil desires?

How are we doing when it comes to battling immoral inclinations in our minds? Don’t forget, Jesus makes it clear that sinning at the thought level is the equivalent to sinning at the physical level.

Matthew 5:27–28 NASB95

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Matt.

Yikes! The principle there at large applies to guys and girls! These are the battles that are fought moment by moment and more often than not, nobody around you knows when they’re going on. That means that each and every one of us, if we want to actually conquer this sin of the heart and not coddle it, we have to put into practice in those moments: put off the sinful thoughts of the old man, renew our minds with principles from the Word, and put on the righteousness of Christ by the power of the Spirit.

That type of battle requires an intimate knowledge of how our hearts produce immoral and wicked thoughts. This leads us to the second vice that must die in the Christian’s life: impurity… impurity.

2) IMPURITY MUST DIE ()

INTERPRETATION

Look at verse 5 again in . What’s the second imperative to the Colossians? Impurity must die.

“Therefore put to death… impurity.”

This word group for “impurity” communicates the idea of “uncleanness.” Think of it as a “state of moral corruption.” This moral corruption encompasses physical impurity… religious impurity… and by default, moral impurity as well.

What’s interesting is that if you drop the prefix from this word in the Greek, it’s the word for “clean”. That should evoke the idea of Old Testament sacrifices! In order to be a pleasing sacrifice to the Lord, bulls and rams and goats and sheep had to be unblemished and clean. Flip that on it’s head now. By definition, bulls and rams and goats and sheep that were blemished and unclean were an abomination to the Lord. So, if is clear, and our lives are supposed to be a living sacrifice to God, then this uncleanness, this lack of moral purity, must go. So we can understand Paul’s words like this: “Colossians, since you’ve been saved, murder immorality in your life. Next on your hit list is this: impurity, or uncleanness.”

Matthew 23:27 NASB95

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.

Romans 1:24 NASB95

24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.

1 Thessalonians 4:7 NASB95

7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.

IMPLICATION

Remember what we brought out earlier: the Colossians were known to be susceptible to legalistic tendencies. But as far as we can understand from this letter and Paul’s letter to Philemon, they had good intentions! They wanted to be obedient! They wanted to be holy! They wanted to be pleasing to God! We can all say amen to that, right?

However - here’s the catch - they were being fooled into thinking that obedience to the Law in of itself was the key to pleasing God. They didn’t have their completed New Testaments yet! They had the preaching of the apostles and their associates, and their written Old Testaments. But their problem was this - they had forgotten that God didn’t and doesn’t care about mindless obedience to the Law. He cares about obedience from a pure heart.

Romans 6:19 NASB95

19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

So friends, in what ways are we prone to believing that doing religious things is what matters to God? In what ways are we prone to forget that God cares about our heart motives, not our physical activity?

If we’re honest, it’s easy to brush aside the battle for purity in our hearts. After all, we’re busy trying to conquer immoral inclinations from the first part of the verse, right?!? But, here’s the thing - we will never gain traction that lasts in the arena of immorality if we don’t address the impurity in our hearts that feeds it.

How do we murder impurity in our hearts? We have to murder our motives! We have to be honest with ourselves on why we do what we do. So why do we do what we do? In every realm? In every situation? In every relationship? When I’m asked to pray for a meal, is my motive to impress everyone at the table with my biblical knowledge or to bless everyone at the table with encouraging truths? When I’m at a church gathering, do I ignore the people that I don’t think can serve me or do I seek to serve everyone else? All in all, the cure for impurity is replacing a high view of myself for a high view of God.

But in order to do that, we have to discern what’s putting fertilizer on the stalks of impurity and by extension, the leaves of immorality in our hearts. This brings us to the 3rd vice that must die in the Christian’s life: passion… passion.

3) PASSION MUST DIE ()

INTERPRETATION

Back to . The third imperative is this:

“Therefore put to death… passion.”

This concept of “passion” is that of a lustful sort. Basically, the word group communicates the “experience of strong desire, or passion.” Remember - Paul adds this to the Christian’s hit list as the next progression after immorality and impurity. So - this “passion” Paul is speaking of is in reference to out-of-control impulses and emotions that cloud our judgment and our thinking.

Romans 1:26 NASB95

26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,

1 Thessalonians 4:3–5 NASB95

3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;

1 Thessalonians 4:5 NASB95

5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;

IMPLICATION

Remember what Pastor Daron talked about last week? We gotta get to know our biographies when it comes to the war against sin. And what was the biography of the Colossians? Pagan worship that was driven by out-of-control emotionalism and wild passions. How’d that end up? More often than not, in moral impurity and rank immorality. Is it starting to sound familiar yet?

This is the main issue that comes from living life by however we feel. In our culture, this is the norm! This is expected! It’s how I used to live. My motto in life as an unbeliever was to become more and more dependent on doing all things based on my impulses and snap judgments. That sounds cool until you realize that our hearts are wicked and full of all kinds of twisted things. You put those two things together and you’ve got a sin-driven terrorist running around in the streets! This is what Paul talks about in , isn’t it? God gave them over to their passions, which led to what? Remember what we just read in ? It led to moral impurity and rank immorality. Notice the pattern.

So friends, we have to analyze our lives and our hearts and see where we tend to make decisions and build beliefs based on our emotions and passions. What exactly are we passionate about? And once we determine those things, why exactly are we passionate about them? Once we determine that, then we need to ask: how has that passion helped me bring God glory? If it has, then praise the Lord! That means you’re passionate about what God’s passionate about: sanctification and fortification of biblical conviction. But if it hasn’t, then take a hard look at all the areas of sin that you tend to struggle with and ask this question: In what ways is this passion of mine producing impurity in this area of my life and by extension, making me susceptible to immorality?

But in order to accurately determine our passions, we have to know experientially where they originate from. This leads us to the 4th vice that must die in the Christian’s life: evil desire… evil desire.

4) EVIL DESIRE MUST DIE ()

INTERPRETATION

Back to . The fourth imperative?

“Therefore put to death… evil desire.”

“Evil” here is an adjective modifying the word for “desire”. The idea of the word group is an “evil desire, or longing.” Paul’s using it here to describe “a desire for something forbidden; a craving… a lust.”

Let’s put together what we’ve seen so far: First, Paul commands the Colossians to execute immorality. Then, execute the impurity that leads to immorality. After that, execute the passion that produces impurity. Now, execute the evil desire that brings forth passion.

Ephesians 4:17–19 NASB95

17 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

Ephesians 4:18–19 NASB95

18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

1 Peter 2:11 NASB95

11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.

IMPLICATION

The Colossians used to participate in ecstatic idol worship. It was rife with immorality. It was marked by impurity. It was driven by passion. And it was fed by evil desires.

And desires, in of themselves, aren’t a problem, are they? We’re expected to want good things! In fact, it’s encouraged! But - and there’s always a but - what do we do when we don’t get them? Good desires quickly turn into wicked and evil desires… strong desires… lusts of the worst order.

The Colossian believers had desires too! They might have lived two thousand years ago, but they were still human. They had the desire to get married during their single days. They wanted to enjoy good friendships with others and have affection from their parents. They were just like us!

However, that also means they were just like us. Sinners… Of the highest order. A desire for marriage left unfulfilled according to expectations led to a pursuit of immorality. A desire to enjoy friendships with others led to being enslaved to the opinions of others. And a desire for affection from parents descended into anger and rebellion against family structures in general.

And that sounds like any one of our lives, doesn’t it? Sin is sin, and we’re all peers when it comes to that dynamic of our lives.

So… my friends… in what ways are we analyzing our desires? What do we do when we don’t get what we wanted? What do we do when we don’t get what we expected? What do we do when someone else gets what we were hoping to get?

Beloved - we have to call this issue out for what it is - unbelief! At the end of the day, when our desires turn from normal to abnormal, it’s because we have a low view of God and a distrust of His promises.

What do I mean by that? If we had a high view of God, we would remember that His goodness is abundant, . We would remember that He is in the heavens and does whatever according to His pleasure, wouldn’t we? .

If we trusted His promises, we would remember that “all things work together for good to those who love God”, . We would remember that He will never desert us or forsake us, wouldn’t we? .

But at the end of the day, our issue is greed. We desire and when we don’t get what we want, our desire turns evil and that discontentment grows in passion and that passion produces impurity which in turn, leads us into immorality. Which, leads us to the 5th and final vice that must die in the Christian’s life: greed… greed.

5) GREED MUST DIE ()

INTERPRETATION

Look at the last part of . Notice the 5th imperative and the relative clause at the end.

“Therefore put to death… greed, which amounts to idolatry.”

“Greed” here can best be understood as covetousness. It’s the idea of being insatiable. No matter what, you’re never satisfied. It’s desiring to have more than is due to you… a striving for material possessions. For you vocabulary fanatics, it’s “avarice.”

Understand Paul here to be going progressively deeper and deeper to the core of our sin. Immorality was first. Impurity was second. Lustful passion followed. Then was evil desire. Lastly? Greed, which at the end of the day, amounts to idolatry.

Luke 12:15 NASB95

15 Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”

Galatians 5:19–21 NASB95

19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

IMPLICATION

The believers in Colossae had a lot of good things going for them. The apostle Paul himself affirmed the love of God in them, their exemplary faith, and their expectant hope in the return of King Jesus. They were incredibly well taught and firmly established in the truth. However, at the time Paul wrote them, they were facing some mighty foes: the world, the devil, false teachers in the church. But what was the true greatest enemy before them? Their own flesh.

At the end of the day, the root of our sin comes down to greed… covetousness. It was the cause of undoing for many godly men we read about in Scripture! Abraham coveted a son, and when he didn’t think God was going to deliver, he took matters into his own hands and conceived the father of the Muslim faith. Saul coveted his reputation, and when he didn’t think God was going to deliver, he took matters into his own hands and ended up being stripped of his kingdom. Samson coveted companionship, and when he didn’t think God was going to deliver, he took matters into his own hands and ended up being undone by his ungodly wives. Solomon suffered the same fate.

So when we battle our sin… When we set our minds to do war against our flesh… do we confront our hearts at this level? Are we truly honest with ourselves about why we really sinned in an area of our lives?

The root of our sin, all in all, is that we think we know better for our lives than God does. And that temptation doesn’t go away, even for believers. As long as we’re trapped in these grave clothes called bodies, the temptation will come. However - there is a way to victory. In Christ, sin and death has been conquered. He seals all of His own with the Holy Spirit, who will ensure that each and every soul that God the Father has given to God the Son will endure until the day of redemption. That is a guarantee.

In order to access that power though, we have to call our sin for what it is. What is it? Idolatry! We sin because we have set up gods in our hearts other than the God of the Universe who purchased us from the slave market of sin with the blood of His Beloved Son! Think about that! If we’re believers, we have no reason to grieve the Holy Spirit by rebelling against God’s Word. tells us this! So, let’s make our battle cry.

1 Corinthians 10:14 NASB95

14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

CONQUERING, NOT CODDLING!

Okay… That was a lot. We’ve looked at extensively. We saw 5 vices that must die in the Christian’s life: immorality… impurity… lustful passion… evil desire… and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

Our sin is intricate and extensive! It’ll take a lifetime to get to it all, and even then, there’ll be more! Studies like this are so helpful in giving us an experiential knowledge of who our biggest enemy is: ourselves. When it comes to the Christian life, we are our own worst enemies.

So what does it look like to put these sins to death and murder them on a practical level? Great question! You’ll have to come back next week for that. For now, let’s get to conquering our sin, right? Let’s pray.