Colossians 3:1-17

Getting Dressed

Last night we sent Arabelle and Logan off to camp Grammy. We are in the stage before we actually miss them. As I am helping Logan pack, he is setting up outfits so we can pack outfit by outfit. And I am thinking, there was a time when you couldn’t get yourself dressed. When you pooped your diaper and had to just sit there waiting for someone to take care of that situation. And now he is choosing out what clothes he will wear for the whole week. The boy is growing up (sniff).

And Arabelle dresses herself everyday… and she only occasionally needs a do-over. “I’m… afraid you can’t go out of the house wearing that… is what Anna says.” If Mom’s not home, Arabelle goes out looking creatively fabulous!

But Dylan can sometimes get himself dressed, but he gets into awesome situations. We hear frustrated “HELP!” from his room… and he has both pants in one whole of his underwear. Or he has attempted to pull off a sweater and shirt at the same time… and it has captured and swallowed his head, and he is stumbling around… Hilarious.

Last time, Logan tried to help him like a Band-aid, just tear that sucker off quickly. Dylan was not pleased.

More about all of that later.

Is it all About Sin – God’s Rules?

Two weeks ago we tackled the end of 2 Colossians. And it makes this radical statement:

It isn’t all about ritual and rules, it is about relationship with and victory in Jesus. The final verse of Colossians 2, has a great punctuation, a great summary:

23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

Okay. That is all about human rules, and we are prone to build rules and rituals in everything we do… rules are easy, relationships are hard.

But where does that leave us with God’s rules? Not the human rules, not the human rituals, but what about all the things God says are rules? And I am going to use a word that is hard for many of you, because it has been used to judge and condemn, even to abuse… but just bear with me…

What about sin?

The Bible talks a lot about sin. And I think of all the things that God says are wrong. All the rules. And these are God’s rules, so maybe everything we said last week doesn’t apply?

Certainly Christianity isn’t about our rules.

Maybe, possibly, it is about God’s rules? It is about sinning less.

This is a picture of Christianity. It is all about sin-management. It is all about behavior modification. And we can find Scripture to support this idea, and right in the middle of our passage today is a great one:

Colossians 3:5-9

5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices

The wrath of God is coming! You better sin less. Isn’t that the focus of much of our lives? Haven’t we heard that story again and again?

Living in a Cycle of Sin and Shame

I believe that this is the picture of Christianity that most people have… including many or even most “Christians”. They believe in Jesus, they believe in forgiveness… and that forgiveness gets applied in the following way.

I sin. I mess up. I feel guilty, in fact I feel shame. I repent, I resolve not to do it anymore… I screw up, I sin again. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Again and again… and that is life. Caught in a cycle of sin and shame.

Is that life? Is that what Christianity is all about? Does that sound familiar?

I have lived in that cycle. As a teenager… let me get real, a huge focus of the lesson I heard was “SEXUAL PURITY!” 95% sexual purity, maybe 5% gospel. Maybe less. It was all behavior modification. And struggling with lust, with pornography, in an ongoing cycle of sin and shame… that was Christian “life”.

Is that Christian life?

And here is what is true about that, I didn’t make up that passage… that stuff about not sinning is in the Bible. And what is more WE WANT TO SIN LESS. We don’t want to tick God off. We want to be holy and pure. We read a list like that and we don’t want any of it. Almost everything on that list we immediately recognize as bad for us, as gross, and we want it gone.

anger, rage, malice, slander…

sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry…

Caught with the Sweater

This passage uses two phrases. Put to death… and take off. Two commands. Put to death the sin. Take off the sin like an old garment.

But if we only live in this passage, we focus on the death. Necromania comes from the word used here, obsession with death and dead things. Death is a reality of life… but focusing and obsessing over what is dead is not life, it isn’t healthy.

I love the second image, “putting away”, taking off like a garment, “rid yourselves” of all this garbage. But just focusing on the things we have to take off is pretty empty.

But behavior modification is a pretty empty life.

We are Dylan, crying with the sweater caught on our ears, and it hurts to take it off.

And then, we know this cycle, we put it back on, layer the shirt, layer the sweater, try to take it off again. IT HURTS AGAIN!!!

We take it off… then we are cold, or bored, or hungry, or lonely, or needy in a thousand ways, so we put that same old garment again. Then we feel shame, and we rip off the sweater again. And it hurts again, and again, and again.

You all ready for good news? The word gospel literally means good news, what I have described so far isn’t good news. It isn’t the gospel.

What I have described so far is Theistic moralism and it is the functioning belief of most “Christians” in our world. There is a God, he rewards people who “do good” and punishes people who “do bad.” And living in light of that means a focus on doing “less bad”.

There is good news.

Putting on Life

This passage is sandwiched, it is surrounded by something that sets a very different tone.

The focus is less on the taking off… though it is necessary. But the focus is on Seeking and Setting.

Colossians 3:1-14

1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

If you have been raised with Christ… the whole picture changes. Where should our focus be? Seek the things that are above… set you minds on things above.

This becomes such a long phrase in English. Each of these are short commands in Greek.

Seek Up.

Think Up.

Where should you focus be. With Christ, on Christ, on your new life of glory in Christ, at the right hand of God.

Seek up. Think up.

A Practical Guide to Seeking and Thinking Up

That could be vague, so here’s a super practical guide:

Sure there is some taking off. That is part of it. But the taking off is secondary in focus, it is a necessary step in the process of putting on.

You have already put off the old self…

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.

Now doesn’t all that sound beautiful? That sounds like life! And if all that stuff is possible in my life, that sounds like good news. And if all that is the new life to which I am called forever, that sounds like GREAT NEWS!

“Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumsided and uncircumsided, slave or free…” all the old categories disappear, all racial and cultural and ritual and economic barriers disappear, Christ is all and in all.

And we put on beautiful things, beautiful clothes. We Dress Up. Compassion, kindness, humility, meekness (which is strength held under control), patience. Forgiving… as He forgave us.

And above, get dressed in love, that is the best garment, the best clothes, it binds everything together in perfect harmony. Like that final touches, the perfect scarf that makes the outfit all fit together? (I don’t know, do scarves do that?)

There are six commands here. Seek up, Think up, Put to death, Take off, Put on all these things and Put on love.

Seek up. Think up. Dress up.

Where is our attention supposed to be? On the up! On the putting on. On life. And we only take the other stuff off because it is in our way.

Getting Dressed without Panic

We don’t obsess about the “nots”, about the things we are forbidden to do. An obsession with the forbidden leads right back into the cycle of sin and shame. That isn’t Christianity, that is moralism.

We seek the things above, we set our hearts and minds on the good things, the beautiful things, the things of God, the things above.

We put on beautiful garments: compassion and kindness, humility, meekness, which is strength under control, patience…

And as we do that, we come across shreds of our old selves. This malice and un-forgiveness is interfering with your ability to be compassionate.

You don’t panic. You don’t freak out. You don’t feel shame. You don’t start beating yourself up thinking you are a terrible person.

The other day I put on a shirt that didn’t look good with my pants. I wasn’t sure, I asked Anna. She confirmed my suspicion that it didn’t match.

I didn’t panic. I didn’t freak out. I didn’t feel shame. “Why do I always do this!”

What did I do? I took off the offending garment and I put on something better.

Seek up. Think up. Dress up.

You

If you are caught in a cycle of sin and shame: Stop. Take it off.

Now I don’t want to trivialize this, it can be really hard to stop. We are like Dylan stuck in the sweater… we may need help getting it off.

We talked about the power of the Holy Spirit. That power within you, if you have put your faith in Jesus, that is what empowers you to knew life. That is the gentle hand that lifts the sweater off your head without ripping off your ears.

The Holy Spirit convicts you of sin. That is not the focus and obsession of your life, take off that old busted grossness and put on something better!

And God loves to work through his people. You may need to confess your sin to a wise brother or sister in Christ, get some help from someone who can help, gently but as firmly as necessary.

But you don’t just stop behaviors… you replace them with behaviors.

You don’t just stop habits, you have to replace them with new habits.

You don’t just stop addiction… you have to replace it with new things, new structure, new and better life.

Christianity isn’t just about getting naked from sin. It is about getting dressed in the most beautiful, heavenly, joyous, life-giving clothes. And that is where your focus should be.

Get help taking off your sin, this is a place where you can do that.

But put your eyes, your focus, your direction, on what is to replace that.

Seek up. Think up.

We Are a Beautiful People

And we become a beautiful people.

A people focused on life and heaven… and dressed ready for it. We are his bride and we are getting dressed for the wedding. Imagine if someone walked in here and saw a people dressed in compassion… kindness… humility… forgiveness… love. And that doesn’t stay in here, we wear those clothes everywhere we go.

What happened to your anger? Oh that, I took it off, I wanted to wear patience instead.

What happened to your bitterness? Oh, yeah that was old me. New me wears forgiveness, looks and feels way better.

We grow in maturity as Dylan, Arabelle and Logan are. There was a time when I sat in my own poopy diaper. Both literally and metaphorically. I was once dead and trapped in my sin.

But God saved my life, forgave my sin, wiped me clean, and called me and empowered me to a better way.

We move past the stage of having sweaters stuck on our heads. We start putting on beautiful clothes. Sometimes, like Arabelle, our style is questionable at first. But we learn, we mature.

We seek up. We think up. We dress up.

We are not a people obsessed with sin. The only attention we give to sin is just enough to take it off and put on something better, more beautiful, more joyful and more life-giving.

We are a people obsessed with life, life in Christ, heavenly life, putting on beautiful things and becoming, therefore, absolutely, eternally, incredibly good-looking people.

And may I say, you are a beautiful bunch of people.