This multi-part expository study of the epistle to the Colossians was preached at Flagstaff Christian Fellowship beginning in 2015. Audio and manuscripts are available for each lesson.
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November 1, 2015
Garrison Keillor has made a career out of his monologues about the fictitious Minnesota town, Lake Wobegon, “the little town that time forgot and the decades can’t improve.” It’s the town “where all of the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the children are above average.” He says that in Lake Wobegon, people lock their cars in the summer, not because they’re afraid of theft, but because they’re afraid that someone will throw a lot of unwanted zucchini from their garden into the car.
Over the years, I’ve read a few other characteristics of small towns: “It’s a small town when you don’t have to use your turn signal, because everyone knows where you’re going.” “It’s a small town when you can’t walk for exercise because every driver offers you a ride.” “It’s a small town when people know the news before the paper comes out, but they take the paper anyway to see whether the editor got the stories right.” Well, we can’t rightly call Flagstaff a small town any more, since we’ve grown to about 75,000. But we’re surrounded by small towns, such as Seligman, Ash Fork, Winslow, and Tuba City.
I mention small towns because Colossae was a small town, about 100 miles east of Ephesus in western Asia Minor (modern Turkey). It was about 10 miles from Laodicea and 13 miles from Hieropolis. Colossae had once been a fairly important town, but the trade route had shifted to go through Laodicea so that by Paul’s day, its importance had dwindled. The population was mostly Gentile, but a sizeable Jewish population had settled there several centuries before (Douglas Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and Philemon [Eerdmans/Apollos], p. 27). Bishop Lightfoot (Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon [Zondervan], p. 16) wrote, “Without doubt Colossae was the least important church to which any epistle of St. Paul was addressed.” It would be as if in our day Paul wrote an inspired letter to the church in Seligman.
So you have to ask, “Why would Paul write to this relatively insignificant church?” The answer is that this small town church had some big time doctrinal threats to its well-being. We can be thankful for this problem, because it prompted Paul to write this wonderful little letter that sets forth the supremacy and all-sufficiency of Christ more forcefully than in any of his other letters.
Paul had not yet visited Colossae personally (Col. 2:1). The church there had been planted by Epaphras, a native (Col. 1:7; 4:12), who was probably converted and discipled during Paul’s extended stay in Ephesus (Acts. 19:10). Epaphras also probably planted churches in Laodicea and Hieropolis (Col. 4:13). The church in Colossae met in the home of Philemon (Philem. 2), whose runaway slave, Onesimus, had met Paul and Christ during Paul’s Roman imprisonment. Paul sent Onesimus back to Philemon, urging him to forgive and welcome back his runaway slave as a brother in Christ.
But the church in Colossae was being plagued by false teaching, and Epaphras was not sure how to deal with it. So he went to Rome and found Paul, who was under house arrest in his own quarters (Acts. 28:30-31). In response, Paul wrote Colossians and then probably expanded it into the letter to the Ephesians. Both epistles are similar in structure and content, but in Colossians the emphasis is on Christ as the head of the church, whereas in Ephesians it’s on the church as the body of Christ, the head. Colossians is much more focused in attacking the false doctrine that was infiltrating that church, whereas Ephesians is more general.
Some scholars think that Ephesians may have been a circular letter, intended for several churches in Asia Minor. If so, it could be the letter coming from Laodicea that Paul mentions in Colossians 4:16. If not, then the letter to Laodicea is a lost letter, which in God’s sovereignty was not intended to be included in the New Testament. At the same time, Paul also wrote the short letter to Philemon and probably sent all three letters back with Tychicus (Eph. 6:21; Col. 4:7), while Epaphras stayed with him in Rome.
It’s not easy to figure out the exact nature of the false teaching in Colossae. In the past two centuries commentators have suggested at least 44 different views (Peter O’Brien, Word Biblical Commentary, Colossians-Philemon [Zondervan], p. xxxi)! We have to piece together the elements of the false teaching by looking at various emphases in the letter, much like listening to one side of a phone conversation. Probably, like most false teaching, it was a blend of several errors.
There was a strong Jewish ascetic element (asceticism is the belief that holiness comes by denying yourself certain basic needs and comforts), which emphasized circumcision, dietary and ceremonial laws, and the observance of holy days as the way to victory over the flesh (Col. 2:11, 14, 16, 18, 20-23). So it was legalistic, emphasizing rule-keeping as the way to be holy.
Also, the false teachers promised their followers deeper wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:8). Paul counters this by saying that in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). The false teachers may have promised that people would experience “fullness” through their insights. Paul counters this by asserting that all the fullness of deity dwells in Christ in bodily form (Col. 1:19; 2:9) and that “in Him, you have been made complete” (Col. 2:10). You don’t need to add anything else.
The false teachers also over-emphasized the role of angels. The Bible teaches the existence and importance of angels (Heb. 1:14), but the false teachers were teaching that we should worship angels, based on visions that they claimed to have seen (Col. 2:18). Paul counters this by showing that Jesus Christ created all angelic beings for His purpose and glory (Col. 1:16) and He is over them all, including the fallen angels (Col. 2:10, 15). Thus we should worship Him, not angels.
Thus, like most false teaching, the Colossian heretics mixed a number of false teachings that they had taken from different religious, philosophical, and cultural views. Douglas Moo concludes (ibid., p. 59):
The false teachers were probably people from within the Colossian Christian community who were bragging about their ability to find ultimate spiritual “fulfillment” via their own program of visions and asceticism. This program was drawn partly from Judaism, particularly in its focus on rules about eating and observing certain days. They were preoccupied with spiritual beings, probably because they viewed them as powerful figures capable of having a significant influence on their lives.
He adds (p. 60), “The false teachers were appealing to spiritual beings, visions, and rules to find security in this very uncertain universe. In doing so, they were questioning the sufficiency of Christ.” So Paul’s corrective was to proclaim the supremacy of Jesus Christ over all (Col. 1:18) and His sufficiency for all (Col. 3:11).
We can divide the book into two broad sections, the polemical (chapters 1 & 2), where Paul argues against the false teaching by exalting Christ alone as preeminent; and, the practical (chapters 3 & 4), where he shows how Christ’s preeminence should affect us and our relationships. Chapter 4 contains a relatively lengthy personal section, probably because Paul didn’t know most of the people receiving this letter and he wanted to couch his corrective teaching in this personal framework.
With that as an overview, I want to make three observations before we look at the first two verses. First, Paul did not write Colossians as a theological treatise to be analyzed by scholars, but as a pastoral letter to be read and understood by common, small town people who were relatively young in their Christian faith. The most mature of these people were probably no more than five years old in the Lord! Since they were mostly Gentile (Col. 1:21, 27; 2:13; 3:5-7), they weren’t coming from a biblical background.
If the Holy Spirit directed Paul to write these profound truths about Jesus Christ to these original readers, many of whom probably couldn’t even read, but had to listen to the letter as it was read, then it’s not too deep for us to grasp if we depend on the Spirit to teach us. Many modern American Christians, if they read at all, stick to pretty shallow self-help books or sensational testimonies, but avoid wrestling with meaty theological books. I encourage you to go deeper! You can do it!
Second, right theology is the basis for right living. We tend to avoid theology because we find it either too difficult or just plain boring. If a preacher starts talking about theology, our eyes glaze over and we tune out. We want him to skip the theology and get to the practical stuff. We prefer amusing anecdotes and heart-warming stories. But Paul wanted these small town folks to know that what we believe about Jesus Christ is not irrelevant to life. Rather, it’s absolutely crucial. It affects our morals (Col. 3:5-9) and our relationships in the church, in our homes, in our jobs, and with those in the world (Col. 3:12-4:6). False teaching never leads to true godliness (Col. 2:23).
Third, the test of solid theology can be summed up by answering the question, “Where does it put Jesus Christ?” Does He merely have a place in it, or does He occupy the central and supreme place? Is He presented as fully God and fully man in one person, or has either side of that truth been slighted? Is His sacrificial death on the cross presented as sufficient for life and godliness, or do we need to add the latest insights from the world to deal with our problems?
Years ago, I was wrestling with whether to allow some small groups in our church in California to use some books that blended psychology and Christianity. These books, The Twelve Steps for Christians, which claims on the cover to be “based on biblical teachings,” and When Your World Makes No Sense [Oliver Nelson], by Dr. Henry Cloud (republished as Changes That Heal), purport to help emotionally hurting people with insights that traditional biblical teaching lacks (Cloud, pp. 16-17).
I had a nagging uneasiness with these books that I couldn’t identify until I read the chapter in J. C. Ryle’s Holiness [James Clarke & Co.], “Christ is All,” and, about the same time, John MacArthur’s Our Sufficiency in Christ [Word]. Both of these sources helped me see that the flood of books that blend psychology and Christianity assume that Christ is not sufficient for our emotional and relational problems. They do not direct us to His supremacy and sufficiency for life and godliness. Rather, much like the Colossian false teaching, they blend worldly philosophies with Bible verses often taken out of context, to give the appearance of wisdom (Col. 2:23), but they don’t exalt Christ as Lord. They don’t lead the readers to exclaim with the psalmist (Ps. 73:25-26):
Whom have I in heaven but You?
And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
So, the test of solid theology is that it exalts Christ as supreme and sufficient for all who believe in Him. Now I want to focus on Colossians 1:1-2, where Paul shows us that …
God has equipped His church in Christ so that we might be His church in Flagstaff.
My two points come from two parallel phrases in the Greek text of verse 2, “in Colossae” and “in Christ.” I’m taking the liberty of replacing “in Colossae” with “in Flagstaff.” When we see how God has equipped us in Christ, then we can be what He wants us to be as His church in Flagstaff.
We see three ways God has equipped His church in Christ:
Colossians 1:1: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God ….” Apostle means “sent one,” and is used in two ways in the New Testament. Sometimes it refers to a messenger sent out by the church for a special task (2 Cor. 8:23; Phil. 2:25; Rom. 16:7). But it is mainly used of the twelve plus Paul, probably James, the Lord’s brother, and perhaps Barnabas (1 Cor. 9:5-6; 15:7; Acts 14:4, 14; Gal. 1:19). These men had seen the risen Lord (Acts 1:21-22; 1 Cor. 9:1); they had unique authority to perform miracles (2 Cor. 12:12); and they were directly appointed by Christ (Mark 3:14; Acts 9:15; Gal. 1:1), who gave them authority to found the New Testament church (Eph. 2:20; 1 Thess. 2:6; 1 Cor. 12:28-29).
As such, the office passed away with John’s death at the end of the first century. There is no biblical warrant for the Roman Catholic doctrine of apostolic succession. We have the foundational, authoritative apostolic teaching in the New Testament.
Paul was not an apostle because he took an aptitude test and decided that this would be a good career fit. Rather, He was an apostle “by the will of God.” God had sovereignly laid His hand on Paul to save him and to conscript this formerly zealous Jew as His apostle to the Gentiles. Although there are no true apostles today, if you know Christ it’s by the will of God. And the Holy Spirit sovereignly distributes various spiritual gifts to all whom He saves (1 Cor. 12:11). The point is, serving Him is not optional for believers. It’s mandatory. You’re a conscript, not a volunteer!
Note the family terms that Paul uses here. Timothy was not an apostle because he had not seen the risen Lord. But he was “the brother.” Paul refers to the church as brethren and God is our common Father. (After “Father,” the KJV adds, “and the Lord Jesus Christ,” but the earliest and best manuscripts lack the phrase.)
God becomes your Father through the new birth, when He gives you new life and you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You share this new life in Christ in common with all who have been born again. You begin a relationship with God as your Heavenly Father and with all of your brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s always wonderful when you meet a fellow believer who may be from a different country, but there’s an instant bond in Christ that makes you feel closer to this brother in Christ than you feel to natural family members who don’t know Christ.
Families, by their very nature, are set off from the rest of the world. You can crash a party, but you can’t crash a family. You join a family only by birth, adoption, or marriage. If you haven’t come in through one of those ways, you’re an outsider and don’t belong. In the same way, God’s family, the church, is set apart from the world. We are to be distinct from the world because we share new life in Jesus Christ.
Paul underscores our distinction from the world by calling us “saints.” Some versions translate it as “holy,” which is the meaning of “saints.” The Roman Catholic Church sets apart some especially noteworthy Christians as saints, but the Bible refers to all believers as saints or holy ones. It means that we are set apart from the world for the Lord. We are a people for His possession (1 Pet. 2:9).
Paul also refers to the Colossians as “faithful brethren.” Some commentators say that it should be translated “believing brethren,” but that’s a tautology. All true believers are brethren and vice versa. Since this is the only place in Paul’s letter greetings that he uses this phrase, he may be referring to those who had remained true to the faith and had not been carried away by the false teachers. The enemy continually stirs up false teaching to try to deceive the saints (Eph. 4:14). That’s why you need to be doctrinally grounded so that you can remain faithful when the winds of false doctrine try to blow you off course.
But also, our distinctiveness as God’s family is seen in Paul’s favorite phrase, “in Christ.” Formerly, born into this world as sinners, we were “in Adam.” Now, born into God’s family we are “in Christ,” the new man. This refers to our secure position before God where He views us just as He views His Son. In Him, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Col. 1:14). In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3). In Christ, we have been made complete (Col. 2:10). As Paul sums it up in Ephesians 1:3, in Christ God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. We inherit everything we need for life and godliness in Christ, and you’re in Christ if you’re a member of God’s family through faith in Christ.
If you put a message into a bottle and secure it with a cork, that message will be protected because it’s in the bottle. It may get battered around by the waves, but it won’t sink and be destroyed because it’s in the bottle. In the same way, if you’re in Christ, you are protected from the evil forces of this world that seek to destroy you. You are secure in Him, because He is at the right hand of the Father, “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come” (Eph. 1:21). That’s ultimate security!
Thus God has equipped us by giving us His Word through the apostles and by setting us apart in His family in Christ. Also,
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father” is a form of greeting, but it is more than just an empty phrase. It’s a prayer that we as God’s people would experience the riches of His grace and peace. God’s grace is His unmerited favor toward us in Christ. It means that He does not deal with us according to our sins. We are accepted in His presence, not because of our performance, but because “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). God’s grace is a motivating, liberating power that gives victory over sin and the desire to draw near to our loving Father.
God’s peace comes from the Hebrew “shalom,” and refers to total well-being, both inward and outward. Through Christ, we have peace with God (Rom. 5:1). He Himself is the basis of our peace with one another (Eph. 2:14). Because our God is both sovereign and loving, we can have inward peace even in trials, knowing that He is working them together for our good (Rom. 8:28).
So this short opening greeting shows us how God has equipped us to be His church in Christ. But He hasn’t saved us to live for ourselves. Thus …
These saints were in Christ, but they were also in the pagan city of Colossae, just as we are in pagan Flagstaff. God puts us in Christ, but He doesn’t want us to join monasteries to live apart from this world. As Jesus prays (John 17:15-18),
“I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.”
Even though Colossae was a small, insignificant town, God placed His people there to proclaim the good news of Christ to all who would hear. And He has placed us in this city to be both “in Christ,” but also “in Flagstaff.” Flagstaff claims to be the world’s first “dark sky” city, which is great for looking at the stars. But it’s also a just plain dark city! We His people are His light in this dark city to point lost people to the Light of the world.
Sadly, thirty years after Paul wrote to Colossae and to Laodicea, the apostle John wrote to the church of Laodicea, warning them that the Lord was about to spew them out of His mouth because of their spiritual lukewarmness (Rev. 3:14-22). The testimony for Christ there was flickering dimly. Now (in modern Turkey) it is almost totally extinguished.
Jesus said (Matt. 5:14, 16), “You are the light of the world…. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” That’s our mandate in Christ and in Flagstaff!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2015, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
November 8, 2015
A bishop who had just had a cup of tea with a parishioner commented, “I’m glad to see in what a comfortable way you are living.” The churchgoer replied, “Oh, bishop, if you want to know how we really live, you need to come when you’re not here.” (Reader’s Digest [3/84], p. 16)
Unfortunately, a lot of Christians live that way, keeping up a good front to impress others with their spirituality. But if you knew how they really live, you’d find that they are faking it. They don’t live as authentic Christians. We all value authenticity, especially when it comes to our faith. But how can we know if our faith is genuine? What are the marks of authentic Christianity?
Many of the Colossian Christians had been unsettled by some false teachers who had arisen in their midst. They were telling these relatively new believers that they needed to observe designated holy days, avoid certain foods, and keep certain rules in order to be spiritual. They implied that the gospel which Epaphras had taught the Colossians was not complete or accurate. They needed to add the insights and rules of the false teachers to be genuine believers.
Paul wrote to the church to assure them that the gospel they previously received through Epaphras was the genuine item. It proved its authenticity by the fruit that it had produced in them and was producing in others everywhere it went. In so doing, Paul emphasized, as he often did, three virtues that are essentials of authentic Christianity: faith in Jesus Christ, love for other believers, and the hope of heaven. Also, in Paul’s opening comments, he reflects the authentic Christian virtues of thankfulness and prayer. Putting it together, we learn that …
Authentic Christians are marked by thankfulness and prayer, faith in Christ, love for the saints, and the hope of heaven.
It’s obvious that the Colossians were very different after they heard and believed the gospel which Epaphras preached. If people have not changed, we can assume that either the true gospel was not preached or that it was not believed. Belief in the true gospel results in the changes that Paul himself embodied and that he mentions here.
Colossians 1:3: “We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, …” Paul had not yet met these new believers, but when he heard Epaphras’ report, he welled up with thankfulness to God for how these mostly Gentile former pagans had responded. As a result, he and Timothy (“we”) began to remember them often in their prayers.
The fact that Paul thanked God for the Colossians’ salvation shows that he believed that God is the author and giver of salvation. If as some teach, salvation is the result of sinners exercising their free will, then Paul would have congratulated the Colossians for making such a wise choice, much like a waiter will tell you when you give him your order, “Excellent choice!” I always feel like telling the waiter, “I’m glad that you recognize my culinary genius!” Paul knew that when people responded in faith to the gospel, it was because God had opened their hearts to respond (Acts 16:14). Thus it is appropriate to thank God when He works the miracle of the new birth into dead sinners’ hearts.
In line with this, if God is not sovereign in saving sinners, then you’re wasting your time to pray that lost people would be saved. If God is not able to change the hearts of stubborn, self-willed sinners by giving them new life, then when you pray for their salvation, God’s answer would be, “I’d like to see them saved, too, but it’s not up to Me; it’s up to their free will. But I’m with you—I sure hope that they decide for Me!”
But if God is mighty to save, then we can and should pray for the salvation of the lost and give thanks when it happens. Prayer for the salvation of the lost is implied when the Lord directs us to pray (Matt. 6:10), “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” For God’s kingdom to come on earth, people must be converted and come under the lordship of the king.
Thankfulness and prayer are major themes in this short letter. In Colossians 1:12, Paul says that we are to be joyously “giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.” In Colossians 2:7, he says that we are to be “overflowing with gratitude.” In Colossians 3:15-17 he exhorts the church to “be thankful,” to sing “with thankfulness in your hearts to God,” and to do everything “in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”
Concerning prayer, in addition to Paul mentioning his constant prayers for the Colossians (1:3), in 1:9-12 he specifies the content of his prayers. In Colossians 4:2, he combines prayer and thanksgiving when he commands, “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.” And in Colossians 4:12, he reports that Epaphras was “always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.”
If, like me, you’re prone to grumble about minor irritations and frustrations that pop up just about every day, I hope that you can see that grumbling and thankful prayer are opposites! In fact, thankful prayer is the antidote for grumbling. The next time you find yourself grumbling about something, stop, confess it to the Lord, and instead, by faith thank Him for bringing this irritation into your life so that you can learn to trust Him and rely more fully on Him through prayer. Thankfulness and prayer are marks of authentic Christianity.
The reason Paul thanks God is because he sees in the Colossian church the common triad of Christian virtues: their faith in Christ Jesus, their love for all the saints, and the hope laid up in heaven for them, as contained in the gospel which Epaphras had preached to them. Faith, hope, and love are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13:13; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 5:8; Romans 5:1-5; Galatians 5:5, 6; Ephesians 1:15, 18; 4:2-5; and, Hebrews 6:10-12; 10:22-24. One writer says that they are a sort of “apostolic shorthand” for genuine Christianity (R. C. Lucas, Fullness and Freedom [IVP], cited by Kent Hughes, Colossians and Philemon: The Supremacy of Christ [Crossway], p. 17). Let’s look at each of these three virtues:
Some claim to believe in Jesus, but if you asked them to explain the gospel, they would not be able to do it. But to have genuine faith in Christ, you must understand the gospel.
“Gospel” means “good news.” I mention this so that we’re not just throwing around Christian jargon without considering its meaning. The Christian message is not primarily an ethical or moral code, but rather good news to those who deserve God’s judgment. As the angel announced to the shepherds on the night that Jesus was born (Luke 2:10), “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
To understand that good news, we first must understand the bad news: we all have sinned and deserve God’s righteous judgment. We stand before God guilty and condemned and we cannot save ourselves. That’s why we need a Savior. And Jesus, the eternal God who took on human flesh through the virgin birth, is the Savior whom God sent to bear our punishment on the cross. The good news is that God offers salvation as a free gift to every sinner who does not work for it, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly (Rom. 4:5). There is no better news in the world than that!
It is God’s “word of truth” (Col. 1:5). Through Epaphras the Colossians had previously heard it, learned it, and understood it “in truth.” This last phrase probably means that the Colossians truly or authentically understood the message that Epaphras had proclaimed to them (Douglas Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and Philemon [Eerdmans/Apollos], p. 89).
Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Love So Amazing: Expositions of Colossians 1 [Baker], p. 54) makes the point that the gospel does not first come to us through our heart, our emotions, or our will, but rather to our minds or understanding. This runs contrary to so much modern evangelism. A person goes to an evangelistic meeting where after some stirring music and heartwarming testimonies the evangelist gives an emotional appeal of how Christ can help the person with her difficult marriage or his alcohol addiction. Then he calls on those who want to invite Jesus into their lives to make a decision by raising their hands or coming forward. But he has not made clear the content of the gospel. Rather, it’s an appeal to the emotions or to the will that bypasses the mind. Often such appeals result in false converts who were moved emotionally at the moment, but they did not understand the content of the gospel.
Before the gospel can be believed or accepted it must be learned and understood. We must understand something of who God is: He is “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Col. 1:3). In verse 8, Paul also mentions the Holy Spirit, which shows that he had a trinitarian understanding of God’s nature (see 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 1:3, 5, 13). When He was on this earth, Jesus Christ relied on, submitted to, and revealed to us His heavenly Father. As Jesus, He is fully man. As the Lord, He is fully God, one with the Father (John 10:30). As the Christ, He is God’s Anointed One, the Savior whom God promised as the descendant of David (Psalms 2, 110). He came to offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice, the fulfillment of all the Old Testament sacrifices, sufficient to satisfy God’s wrath so that He could justly forgive all our sins.
Paul also describes the gospel as “the grace of God” (Col. 1:6). Grace is central and essential to the gospel. It means that we are sinners who rightly deserve God’s judgment. But it also means that because Jesus paid the penalty we deserve, God can be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:26). Thus Paul could write (Eph. 2:8-9), “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
So when you share the gospel, make sure that you make the content of the gospel clear. The Holy Spirit must open the mind of the lost person so that he can truly understand the grace of God (1 Cor. 2:14). And the Spirit must grant faith to that lost person so that he can stop trusting in his good works and believe the good news of God’s grace in Christ Jesus. The gospel is good news that contains specific truth content.
The Colossians were mostly Gentile pagans, vainly living for the lusts of the flesh, when the gospel came to them. But when God opened their minds to understand, their hearts to respond and their wills to believe, they were dramatically changed. But this powerful change wasn’t unique in Colossae. Paul tells them (Col. 1:6) that “in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing.” He did not mean (here or in Col. 1:23) that the gospel had gone out to every people group in the world at that time. Rather, he is emphasizing that the gospel was not restricted to the Jews. Rather, it was spreading all over the Roman Empire with the same powerful results. As Paul wrote in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
“Bearing fruit and increasing” may point to the internal and external aspects of the gospel’s power. Internally, the gospel bears the fruit of the Spirit in the lives of believers. It gradually but inevitably changes their thinking and behavior. Externally, the gospel increases as transformed believers tell others the good news. Paul emphasizes this powerful effect of the gospel to underscore its authenticity. The true gospel that Epaphras had proclaimed in Colossae had changed their lives and also the lives of others as it spread around the Roman Empire. Authentic Christians understand and believe Christ’s gospel.
Paul had heard of the Colossians’ “faith in Christ Jesus.” The Greek construction here may emphasize faith “in the sphere of” Christ, meaning that He is “the sphere in which ‘faith’ lives and acts” (Peter O’Brien, Word Biblical Commentary: Colossians-Philemon [Zondervan], p. 11). In other words, our faith must be in all that Christ is and all that He did for us on the cross. But saving faith is always in the person of Jesus Christ, not just in doctrines about Him (see, Douglas Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and Philemon [Eerdmans/Apollos], p. 84).
Faith has no merit in itself, but rather is only as valid as its object. You can have all the faith in the world in a defective airplane, but that won’t make the plane fly or get you to your destination. Many in the cults claim to have faith in Jesus, but their “Jesus” is a false Jesus who was conceived by the cult founder. He is not the Jesus revealed in the apostolic testimony of the New Testament. Our faith must be in the Jesus revealed in Scripture. But the point here is that we are not only to believe correct teaching about Jesus Christ, but also to believe in Christ Himself. He alone is our Savior.
Thus authentic Christians are marked by thankfulness and prayer and by faith in Christ and His gospel.
Often Paul couples faith and love as genuine indicators of conversion (e. g., Eph. 1:15; 1 Thess. 1:3; 3:6; 2 Thess. 1:3; 1 Tim. 1:14; 2 Tim. 1:13; Philemon 5). As he says (Gal. 5:6), “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.” While faith is essential for beginning a relationship with Jesus Christ, it is worthless if it does not result in love for others, especially for “all the saints” (Col. 1:4; 1 Cor. 13:1-3, 13). Love is the distinguishing mark of Christians. As Jesus said (John 13:34-35), “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Authentic Christian love is “in the Spirit” (Col. 1:8), which means that the Holy Spirit produces this love as His fruit in believers. The flesh is basically self-serving, resulting in the deeds of the flesh, which include (Gal. 5:20-21), “enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.” But Paul describes the love which the Spirit produces in us (1 Cor. 13:4-7),
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
I encourage you to put those verses on a 3x5 card and read them over and over until they influence your relationships with your family and in this church. If relationships were perfect or ideal, we wouldn’t need the repeated commands to love one another. These commands imply that we’ve got to work continually on our relationships. Love would not need to be patient if the other person were not irritating you. It would not need to be kind or not jealous or not provoked if the other person always acted in a loving way toward you. We all must battle the flesh daily by denying self and seeking the other person’s highest good. Sacrificial love for others, just as Jesus loved us, is an essential mark of authentic Christianity (Eph. 5:1-2). Finally,
Colossians 1:5: “…because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel ….” Grammatically, the phrase, “because of the hope,” could go all the way back to verse 3, meaning, “We give thanks to God … because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” Or, it may refer back to faith and love, meaning that their faith and love spring from their hope of heaven (the NIV translates it with this sense). Or, it could refer to love only as springing from their hope.
Probably the best way to understand it is that their faith and love were because of their common hope of heaven. Before Epaphras preached the gospel to them, they had no hope and were “without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). But the gospel brought the hope (or promise) of heaven and on account of this hope, they believed in Christ and grew in love for one another. “Hope” here does not refer to the act of hoping, but rather to the objective content of hope, namely, God’s promise of heaven for all who believe in Jesus. Since we’re going to be spending eternity with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we’d better learn to love one other now!
I realize, of course, that in heaven all the saints will be perfectly sanctified, so it will be easier to love them than it is now. While we’re all in the process of sanctification, the saints (including myself!) all have some rough edges. Thus some realistic wise guy wrote, “To dwell above with the saints we love, O that will be glory! But to dwell below with the saints we know, well that’s a different story!” But, difficult as it may be, our hope of heaven should motivate us to grow in love for all of God’s redeemed people.
But the point here is, the foundation for faith and love is our hope for heaven. That hope is certain, laid up for us, because it’s based on the promises of God, who cannot lie; but it’s not yet realized. I’m convinced, however, that as American Christians, who live pretty well in this world, we live too much for this world and not enough for the world to come. The apostle Paul wrote (1 Cor. 15:19), “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.” Can you say that? One Puritan writer put it, “Were earthly comforts permanent, who would look for heavenly?” I’m sure that our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world have their hope in heaven, not in the things of this world. To the extent that we sense how fleeting and how uncertain life is, we will put our hope in the salvation that is laid up for us in heaven.
Someone has said, “Sincerity is the key to success. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made!” We’re all prone to fake it, aren’t we! It’s not spiritually healthy to be overly introspective, but sometimes it is good to do an inside checkup. Paul exhorts (2 Cor. 13:5), “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” So, ask yourself, “Is my Christianity authentic or am I faking it?” Here are the tests:
Am I marked by thankfulness and prayer? Is my faith in Jesus Christ and His gospel? Am I working at genuine love for all of God’s people, especially those I rub shoulders with every day? Am I motivated in all I do by the hope laid up for me in heaven?
Perfection in these things is not required or possible in this life. But to be authentic Christians, we should be working at and making progress in thankfulness and prayer; faith in Christ and the gospel; love for one another; and the hope laid up for us in heaven.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2015, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
November 15, 2015
One thing I love about kids is their strong desire to grow up. The late pastor Ray Stedman said that once he asked a boy how old he was. Quick as a flash he said, “I’m twelve, going on thirteen, soon be fourteen.” He was eager to grow up.
Every parent has a growth chart somewhere on a wall or closet door, where you measure your kids’ heights every few months. When they see how much they’ve grown, they beam with delight. I remember going to Disneyland as a boy and discovering that I didn’t quite reach the bottom of the sign that gave the height requirement for driving the miniature cars. Wow, was I disappointed! Finally, of course, I reached that goal, but that only whet my appetite to turn 16 so that I could get my driver’s license and drive a real car. I wanted to grow up!
As a parent, it always brings great joy when your kids grow old enough to learn what pleases you and then they do it. “Daddy, I helped Mommy bake your favorite cookies!” “Daddy, I knew you didn’t feel well, so I made you a card!” You know that they’re growing because they want to do things to please you.
Have you ever thought about what spiritual growth looks like? Can you measure it by how often you go to church or by how many ministries you’re involved in or by how much you give? Sometimes those things may reflect spiritual growth, but they aren’t at the heart of it. At the heart of spiritual growth is learning how God wants us to live so that as His children, we can please Him by living that way. In his prayer for these new Colossian believers, Paul shows what spiritual growth looks like:
Spiritual growth means growing to know how God wants us to live so that we seek to please Him in all things.
I’m approaching this prayer as a picture of spiritual growth, but don’t miss the fact that it is a prayer. It shows us how Paul prayed for these new believers, most of whom he did not know personally. Along with Paul’s other recorded prayers (Eph. 1:15-23; 3:14-21; Phil. 1:9-11; 1 Thess. 3:9-13; 2 Thess. 1:3-12), we can learn how to pray for our families, our friends, for ourselves, and for other believers. When Paul says here that he and Timothy had “not ceased to pray” for the Colossians, he means that they had often remembered them in their prayers. Use this prayer as a guide for your prayers!
Paul’s prayer here actually begins in verses 3-8, where he thanked God for their faith in Christ Jesus, their love for all the saints, and the hope laid up for them in heaven. Now he tells them his request, that they would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will so that they will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in every way. Then he lists four things that please the Lord (indicated by four participles in the Greek text): bearing fruit in every good work; increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with God’s power so that we can steadfastly and patiently endure trials; and, joyfully giving thanks to the Father for His great salvation. I’m going to treat this prayer from the perspective of what spiritual growth looks like.
Colossians 1:9: “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding ….”
Paul’s prayer that the Colossians would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will does not mean that he wants them to know whether they should take a different job offer or marry a particular person. Rather, he’s asking that they might know God’s moral will as revealed in His Word. “Being filled” with this knowledge is a prayer that they would be controlled by this knowledge so that it would govern every thought, word, and deed. Since God’s moral will is a reflection of His holy character, Paul’s prayer is that these new believers would grow to know God Himself as He has revealed Himself in His Word.
The false teachers who had infiltrated the Colossian church may have been emphasizing how their teachings would bring you fullness of knowledge. To counter this claim, Paul emphasizes the theme of fullness by repeatedly using the words “all” or “every”: “all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Col. 1:9); “to please Him in all respects” (Col. 1:10); “bearing fruit in every good work” (Col. 1:10); “strengthened with all power” (Col. 1:11); and, “for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience” (Col. 1:11; see, also, Col. 2:3, 9-10). He wants us to know that every spiritual need that we have is to be found fully in Christ. So why go elsewhere?
Paul modifies this true knowledge of God’s will with two words (Col. 1:9): “in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”
“Spiritual” is emphatic by position and applies both to “wisdom” and “understanding.” Spiritual wisdom and understanding come from God’s Spirit and stand in contrast to the worldly wisdom of the false teachers (Col. 2:23). “Wisdom” is an Old Testament concept emphasized often in the Book of Proverbs. The same Greek words for both “wisdom” and “understanding” often occur together in the Septuagint, as in Proverbs 9:10:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
The main idea behind the Hebrew concept of wisdom is “skill.” The men who were able to construct the tabernacle according to God’s plan as revealed to Moses are called “wise,” meaning skillful (Exod. 31:3, 6; 36:1-2). Just as a skilled carpenter can take a piece of rough wood and shape it according to a plan into a beautiful and useful piece of furniture, so the wise person is able to take the rough elements of life and shape them according to God’s plan into something beautiful and useful to Him. Spiritual wisdom requires learning about God and how He wants us to live so that our lives will not be ruined by sin, but rather will become a finely crafted product that will cause others to be attracted to the Maker, who displays His glory in us.
Wisdom and understanding are somewhat synonymous, but there may be a subtle nuance of difference. “Wisdom” refers to knowing how God’s Word commands us to live, whereas “understanding” refers to insight, perception, or the ability to discern between things. Understanding enables us to put the pieces of wisdom together in specific situations. In 2 Timothy 2:7, after using the analogies of the solider, the athlete, and the farmer, Paul tells Timothy, “Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” The Lord would enable Timothy to grasp mentally the truths of those analogies and put them together so as to gain insight into how he should conduct his ministry.
Early in the 20th century Bishop H. C. G. Moule (Colossian and Philemon Studies [Christian Literature Crusade], p. 58) warned against what he called “an untheological devotion,” or a sentimental religion which thought that it could be healthy on a minimum of reasoned doctrine. But, he said, such people are easily swayed by the current fashions of thought or by attractive personalities. More recently, D. A. Carson (A Call to Spiritual Reformation [Baker/IVP], p. 104) observed that in the Western church, “the knowledge of God declines while our fascination with techniques and fads increases.” He’s right. I often get offers to attend pastors’ conferences or buy books that promise to tell me how to have a successful church. But these techniques and fads come more from the world than from God’s Word. Spiritual understanding is the ability that God gives to be able to bring together the principles of His Word so that we can stand against the ungodly trends of our times.
How do you become filled or controlled by the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding? To illustrate, when I was in the Coast Guard and we were navigating in the fog, we used two things to keep from running into something. First, we used our radar, which would show up an object as a little blip on the screen. We couldn’t see it out the window because of the dense fog, but the radar said, “Look out! Something is out there!” But in addition to the radar, we’d send a man to stand on the bow. Sometimes it was so foggy that you could barely see him, but he would wear a headset so that he could talk with the bridge. Sometimes he could see something from his vantage point that those on the bridge couldn’t see.
In the same way, two things have helped me grow in spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that my life hasn’t run aground in the moral fog of this world. The first is prayerfully to read and meditate on the Word of God. By reading the Bible over and over and thinking about what it says and asking God for understanding, I can see the blips of danger on the screen and avoid smashing into them. God’s Word exposes the dangerous winds of doctrine that are blowing in our times. It also reveals the way that Satan has tempted people in the past and the consequences when they have yielded to his evil schemes. All of you men should burn into your minds the portrait of the foolish man in Proverbs 7, whose first mistake was to go near the home of the loose woman. Then he succumbed to her enticement, “as a bird hastens to the snare. So he does not know that it will cost him his life” (Prov. 7:23). God’s Word imparts spiritual wisdom and understanding.
The second way I’ve been helped is by reading church history and Christian biographies. God’s Word is like the radar, but reading church history is like the guy on the bow. You don’t depend on him alone, but sometimes he can help you interpret what you’re seeing on the radar screen or point out something that you missed. By reading what God’s people have faced down through the centuries and how they either succeeded or failed, you gain insight into our times.
For example, in his book The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors [Banner of Truth], Martyn Lloyd-Jones has a chapter on “Sandemanianism.” I had never heard that term until I read that chapter back in the late 1980’s, but I instantly realized that this error from a man named Robert Sandeman in the early 1700’s was exactly the same error that John MacArthur combats in his books, The Gospel According to Jesus [Zondervan] and Faith Works [Word]. It’s the error that saving faith involves only bare assent to the work of Christ, not repentance. Also, by reading (twice now) Iain Murray’s two-volume biography of Dr. Lloyd-Jones, I’ve learned how he insightfully applied God’s Word to the spiritual battles in his day. That has helped me navigate the foggy waters of our day.
As we grow in the knowledge of how God wants us to live, the result is that we will walk worthily of the Lord, pleasing Him in every way.
The knowledge of God’s will leads to a walk that is worthy of the Lord. The result of all biblical knowledge should be godly conduct. And the primary motive for godly conduct is not that we can live a happier and better life (although that always is the result), but rather that we please and glorify the Lord.
Before we look at the four ways Paul says that we can please the Lord, note that this is a walk. That implies steady progress in a deliberate direction. You don’t get there by a dramatic spiritual experience or a quick fix, but rather by steady, deliberate, day by day growth in understanding through God’s Word.
It’s also a walk that is “worthy of the Lord.” Dr. Carson (pp. 105-106) explains that this had a more profound meaning in the first century, where most cultures were shame-based. In America we don’t usually think this way, but in shame-based cultures, to dishonor your father is a really big deal. So here Paul is urging these new believers to live in a way that would bring honor to the Lord, who gave Himself on the cross to rescue them from Satan’s domain of darkness (Col. 1:13-14). So in every situation, we should ask, “What sort of speech or conduct would honor or glorify the name of the Lord? What would please Him the most?” Paul spells out four ways that we can please the Lord:
Fruit is what God accomplishes through us as we depend on Him. As Jesus taught (John 15:5), “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Good works are the outworking of the life of Christ flowing through us as we rely on Him. Although we could go into more detail, fruit generally consists of Christlike character, conduct, and converts (Rom. 15:26-28; 1 Cor. 16:15; Gal. 5:22-23; Heb. 12:11; 13:15). We’re saved by grace through faith apart from works, but genuine saving faith inevitably produces good works (Eph. 2:8-10). While fruit takes time, if there is no sign of fruit, a person should question his faith.
This phrase may mean that we are growing to know God better. Or, it could mean that we are growing by knowing God better. Either way, there is the idea that we must know God Himself. Since God is an infinite being, to know Him is an infinite process. As a parent, it always pleases me when my children want to spend time with me so that they can know me better. In the same way, we please God when we desire to spend time with Him in His Word so that we can know Him better.
The knowledge of God (vs. 10) is inseparably connected with the knowledge of His will (vs. 9) and with obedience to that will (walking worthily, pleasing Him, bearing fruit, v. 10). In John 14:21, Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” If you want to get to know Jesus better, then obey Him. He only reveals Himself to those who obey Him.
You can see this principle in human relationships. You don’t disclose yourself to those who are not worthy of your trust. You won’t share your heart with just anyone, but only with those who care enough about you to keep your trust. In the same way, when the Lord sees that we love Him and are trustworthy because we obey Him, He will reveal Himself to us. It pleases God when we bear fruit and grow to know Him better through His Word.
“Strengthened” is a present participle, indicating our need for a continual infusion of God’s power. “All” power points to the fact that it is an unlimited supply. “According to His glorious might” is literally, “according to the might of His glory.” God’s glory is the outward manifestation of His splendor or inherent majesty. Often in the Old Testament, it was a blinding light, a bright cloud, or lightning with thunder. Whenever anyone encountered God’s glory, he fell to his face in awe and reverence, afraid that he would die.
In the New Testament, we see God’s glory in Jesus Christ (John 1:14). Sometimes it was veiled, but at other times, such as on the Mount of Transfiguration, when He performed miracles, in the Garden when the soldiers fell backwards, or on the cross when the sky was darkened and the earth quaked, His glory was seen. God’s glory in Christ knocked the belligerent Paul to the ground, blinding him, and bringing him into submission to Jesus Christ.
Paul here says that we please the Lord when we are strengthened with all power according to the might of His glory. I ask you, as I’ve asked myself, do you experience this mighty power of God in your life? Before you answer, keep reading! Otherwise, you may think, “If I were experiencing God’s mighty power, I’d see people miraculously healed through my prayers. I’d command demons and they would flee. I’d see the dead raised. I’d preach and 3,000 would get saved. I’d always see dramatic answers to my prayers.
But that’s not what Paul says. He says (Col. 1:11), “Strengthened with all power, according to the might of His glory, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience.” Huh? You don’t need steadfastness and patience if God is miraculously delivering you in every situation. You only need steadfastness (endurance in trials) and patience (bearing with difficult people) when there are no miraculous deliverances! The word “joyously” can either go with “steadfastness and patience” or with “giving thanks.” Either way, Paul is saying that when we bear up in difficult circumstances or with difficult people with joy in the Lord because of His great salvation, we are experiencing God’s mighty power in our lives. We please the Lord when we experience His sufficiency in our weakness and His grace to sustain us in our trials (2 Cor. 12:7-10).
Thus we please the Lord when we bear fruit, when we grow to know God better, and when we experience His power so that we are steadfast and patient in our trials. Finally,
Col. 1:11b-12, “… joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.” As I said, “joyously” could go either with steadfastness and patience or with giving thanks. Either way, the point is that when we go through trials, we please God if we don’t grumble, but rather are filled with joyous thanksgiving to Him. We live in a world of grumblers. If we are joyously thankful people, we’ll stand out as lights in the darkness (Phil. 2:14-15).
How do you develop this joyous, thankful attitude in the midst of difficult problems or difficult people? Paul’s answer is to set your mind of the fact that the Father has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light (the Greek text has the definite article before “light”). The picture in Paul’s mind is the division of the land of Canaan in the Old Testament. After Israel conquered Canaan, they divided up the land by lot. Each tribe received a portion of the land to live on and pass on to their descendants after them.
Even so, Paul is saying that the Father has given us an inheritance that we share with all the saints in the light. We all have Christ in us and enjoy His full salvation. Individually, we’ve been given gifts to use for the common good. And, we should pass this spiritual heritage down to our children and grandchildren. They should see our joy in the Lord, even when we go through trials, and want to experience the same blessings that we enjoy.
There used to be a lot of ways I could tell that my kids were growing. I could measure them on the growth chart. I could see their pant legs creeping up over their socks. They needed bigger shoes. They started eating as much as I eat. Personally, they were growing when they started thinking about life’s important issues and talking with me about more grown up things. In their case, it happened all too quickly! Now, they’re all married, rearing children of their own.
How can you tell if you’re growing spiritually? There are many different ways. But here Paul shows that you’re growing if you’re learning more and more through God’s Word how He wants you to live. And you’re growing if, as His child, you’re seeking to live as He wants you to live in order to please Him.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2015, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
November 22, 2015
Guilt has plagued the human race since Adam and Eve fell in sin. The various ways of trying to get rid of guilt are so numerous that they would be funny, if guilt were a laughing matter.
The oldest method is “Operation Fig Leaf”—cover up your sin and casually pretend that there’s no problem. But facing the holy God while wearing fig leaves is like attending a black tie dinner in your underwear. You can’t feel comfortable or inconspicuous!
The second-oldest method is to blame the other person, or even to blame God. When God confronted Adam with his sin, Adam blamed both his wife and God by saying (Gen. 3:12), “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Parents know that all children are born with this technique in place, ready to use at the first twinge of guilt. But we keep using it as adults. We’re all prone to swear at the pedestrian when we’re driving and at the driver when we’re pedestrians.
Another tactic is rationalization: “It wasn’t really wrong and besides, everybody is doing it.” Some rationalize by blaming circumstances: “What else could I have done in that situation?”
Then there’s the “time will take care of it” approach. This is the theory that if you just give it enough time, people will forget what you did and your guilt will dissipate into the air like smoke.
Another common method is for those who were wrong to attack those who accuse them of wrongdoing: “Look who’s talking! You’ve got plenty of dirt in your life and you’re accusing me?” Or, they accuse God of being unfair or unloving. But they refuse to admit that they were at fault.
Still others deal with guilt by comparing themselves to others who are worse than they are: “Sure, I get angry, but I’m not like those terrorists, blowing up innocent people!” Or, “Yeah, I sometimes look at porn—after all, I’m a red-blooded guy! But I’m not a child-molester or a sex addict!” Often this approach is coupled with balancing out their guilt by saying that they’re a basically good person, or they have a good heart.
A more brazen approach is simply to deny guilt by arguing that there is no such thing. These folks go to a psychologist who doesn’t believe in God and he assures him that guilt isn’t real. “You’re a good person; you shouldn’t have these bad thoughts about yourself! Focus on building your self-esteem.”
You can probably come up with many more strategies for dealing with guilt that you’ve encountered—maybe some of them you’ve even used yourself!. But the amazing thing is that in spite of all of these creative approaches to get rid of guilt, it still persists as a major problem for the human race. We can try to push it down and ignore it, but it keeps gnawing at our soul. Or if, through a seared conscience, we’re able to block it out completely, we still must face the very real possibility that when we die we’ll stand before God, the righteous Judge of all the earth.
So the crucial question is, “How can I really be forgiven by God?” How can I know that when I stand before Him someday, my sins will be covered? We need to answer that question carefully by viewing God as He has revealed Himself in His Word, not by how our society may conceive Him to be. Our culture commonly views God as a “good ol’ boy,” who may not like sin, but who would never judge it. If that’s how God really is, then we don’t need to worry about our sins and we can shrug off our guilt feelings. But if God is holy and has settled wrath against all sin, then our guilt is real and must be dealt with God’s way. Since we’ve all sinned many times and many ways, we all need to understand clearly, “How can I really be forgiven by God?”
Paul gives us an answer to that question in Colossians 1:13-14. In the context, he’s sharing the content of his prayer for these relatively new believers whom he had not seen. He prays that they would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will so that they would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in all respects. One aspect of pleasing Him is to give thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. Verses 13 & 14 sum up the greatest of those blessings, that in Christ the Father has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to Christ’s kingdom, where we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. So the solution to guilt is to be forgiven by God, and …
To be forgiven by God we must see our desperate condition and lay hold of God’s only solution.
Our desperate condition is that if we are not in the kingdom of God’s beloved Son, we are under the authority (“domain”) of darkness, helpless to rescue ourselves. God’s only solution involves redemption, the forgiveness of sins, which we obtain through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Col. 1:4; Acts 26:18).
Colossians 1:13: “For He rescued us from the domain [lit., authority] of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, ….” Clearly, Paul saw only two possibilities: either we are in the kingdom of God’s beloved Son or we are under the authority of darkness. There is no middle ground.
Paul’s designation of Jesus as “the Son of His [the Father’s] love” is probably an allusion to Jesus’ baptism, where God’s voice came out of heaven (Mark 1:11), “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” God spoke the same words on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:5): “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” These references point to the eternal relationship of love between the Father and the Son and to the fact that Jesus is the only one whom God sent who could save us from our sins through His death on the cross. The term here emphasizes the contrast between being in Satan’s evil domain of darkness versus being in God’s kingdom, where we are placed in Christ, the supreme object and expression of God’s love.
The kingdom of God’s beloved Son is the realm where Jesus Christ rules, where He is Lord. I believe there is a future kingdom when Jesus will return and reign on earth on the throne of David in fulfillment of God’s many promises to Israel (2 Sam. 7:12-13; Dan. 7:13-14). But here, Paul is talking about the present form of Christ’s kingdom, where He is king over all who have submitted to His rightful lordship. The idea that you can believe in Jesus as your Savior, but wait until later to submit to Him as Lord, is foreign to the Bible. You are either under Jesus’ lordship or you are in darkness under Satan’s authority.
Paul is echoing here what the risen Lord Jesus had said to him on the Damascus Road at the moment of his conversion. In Acts 26:15-18, Paul relates the Lord’s words:
And the Lord said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.”
Note all of the parallels between the Lord’s words to Paul at his conversion and Paul’s words to the Colossians in our text. In both texts the Gentiles move from darkness to light. In Acts, God opens their eyes so that they turn from darkness to light. In Colossians, God rescues them from darkness and transfers them into the realm of light. In both texts, there is mention of forgiveness of sins and an inheritance that the Gentiles receive in Christ. Acts mentions faith in Christ, which Paul also states in Colossians 1:4. But the point both in Acts 26 and in Colossians 1 is that there are two and only two possibilities: either a person is under Satan’s domain of darkness, or he is in the kingdom of God’s beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no middle ground.
“Darkness” in the Bible can represent a number of unfavorable conditions. It can refer to spiritual ignorance. In Ephesians 4:18, Paul says that the Gentiles are “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.” In a similar vein, he says of the unbelieving (2 Cor. 4:3-4), “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Just as blind people are in total darkness and cannot do anything to see, so spiritually blind people are unable to see the light of the gospel, unless God opens their blind eyes.
Darkness also pictures sin. John 3:19-20 states, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” In Romans 13:12, Paul writes, “Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.” He goes on to mention the sins of drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, and strife.
But even worse, there is a malevolent evil being behind the pervasive spiritual ignorance and sin. Thus darkness is also representative of Satan’s domain as in our text. In Luke 22:53, Jesus said to the Jewish chief priests and temple guards who had come to arrest Him, “but this hour and the power of darkness are yours.” In Ephesians 6:12, just before exhorting us to put on the full armor of God, Paul explained, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” We live in a world temporarily given over to Satan, where spiritual and moral darkness prevail.
So the picture of the world apart from Jesus Christ is desperate and hopeless. Unbelievers are spiritually ignorant and excluded from the life of God because of the hardness of their hearts. They love their sin and do not want to come to the light, where their evil deeds would be exposed. And, they’re under the domination of the “world forces of this darkness,” headed by Satan himself.
And the startling thing is that there is no middle ground! People are either in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, under His lordship, or they are in Satan’s domain of darkness, under his authority. We’re talking about relatively nice, good people. Many of them are faithful to their mates. They love their children. They hold down responsible jobs. They’re good neighbors. They’re good citizens in our country. They’re not law-breakers. Many of them are church members. But they’re in Satan’s domain of darkness!
You may be wondering why I’m emphasizing this so heavily. The reason is, unless we diagnose the problem correctly, we will apply inadequate solutions. If the relatively “good” people in the world do not see their true condition as God’s Word describes it, they will be content to go on living as they do, not realizing how eternally perilous their situation really is (Martyn Lloyd-Jones has a masterful treatment of this in Love So Amazing [Baker], pp. 167-180). They’ll think, “Sure, we’ve got a few problems, but with a little counseling, some psychological techniques, and maybe some prescribed medications to help, we’ll be okay.” They won’t see their need for the gospel.
But their desperate condition requires more than some self-help techniques, including a self-help “Jesus” who is their life-coach in the sky. He will get you through your problems by helping you build your self-esteem. But all of the self-help approaches do not diagnose the problem deeply enough. The biblical diagnosis is that if we are not under the lordship of Jesus Christ, we are in Satan’s domain of darkness. So, what is required?
For God to rescue us implies that we cannot rescue ourselves. The powerful enemy over the realm of darkness and our spiritual blindness combine to render us spiritually helpless to pull off our own rescue. In fact, until the Lord opens our eyes, we don’t even know that we need rescuing (Acts 26:18)! God alone has the power to overcome the evil prince of darkness and pull off such a rescue.
The modern terrorist movement has given us a graphic picture of what it means to be under the authority of darkness. When terrorists kidnap a victim, they usually take him blindfolded to a location where he is totally lost, so that if he escaped, he wouldn’t know which way to run. They sometimes keep him blindfolded for days, chained to a wall in some bare room. He’s not free to come and go and is cut off from family and friends. In a weird psychological condition known as the Stockholm syndrome, some terrorist victims begin to sympathize with and even defend their captors.
Isn’t that just like many who are held hostage by the devil to do his will? They’re lost and blinded, enslaved to Satan, free only to do what he wants them to do. They cannot follow God because they’re chained by their sins. Those chains of sin often alienate them from family and friends as relationships are strained and severed. They’re miserable, unable to live as God created them to live. And yet, when you talk to them about Christ and the freedom He offers, they defend their evil captor in spite of the misery he has brought them!
The hostage situation has also shown us that it’s no easy matter to rescue people held captive by terrorists. Sometimes rescue operations succeed and we rejoice, but all too often, they fail and the hostages are killed. Spiritually, salvation is not a human operation. We cannot rescue lost sinners. They can’t rescue themselves. Only God can rescue them. There’s a picture of this in Exodus 6:6-8, where the Lord tells Moses,
Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am the Lord.”
This is to say simply that salvation is from the Lord. It is not due to self-effort and it is not even a joint-effort. It is God’s doing. C. H. Spurgeon often made this point in his sermons which God used to bring many to saving faith. In one (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit [Pilgrim Publications], 6:259) he said,
I must say … that the doctrine which leaves salvation to the creature, and tells him that it depends upon himself, is the exaltation of the flesh, and a dishonouring of God. But that which puts in God’s hand man, fallen man, and tells man that though he has destroyed himself, yet his salvation must be of God, that doctrine humbles man in the very dust, and then he is just in the right place to receive the grace and mercy of God.
When God opens the eyes of sinners to see their desperate condition and that He alone can save them, all that they can do is to cry out to Him for mercy:
Leon Morris (The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross [Eerdmans], 3rd rev. ed., p. 11) points out that when we hear the word redemption, we immediately think in religious terms, whereas the average man in the first century heard it and thought in non-religious terms. It applied especially to the release of prisoners of war by the paying of a ransom or to the freeing of a slave through paying a price. John Stott (The Cross of Christ [IVP], p. 176) states, “In the Old Testament property, animals, persons and the nation were all ‘redeemed’ by the payment of a price.” After citing examples of each of these, he concludes (ibid.),
In all these cases of ‘redemption’ there was a decisive and costly intervention. Somebody paid the price necessary to free property from mortgage, animals from slaughter, and persons from slavery, even death.
In the case of our redemption from slavery to sin and Satan, the price was the blood of Jesus Christ. (The KJV adds in our text, “through His blood,” which a copyist probably added from Eph. 1:7, but there is not sufficient manuscript evidence for this phrase in Col. 1:14.) Jesus’ blood means, His death. He died as a substitute for sinners, paying the just penalty that God decreed.
Paul uses the word forgiveness rarely. I believe he used it here because the Lord used it with Paul that day on the Damascus Road (Acts 26:18). It means to release from debt. In the case of our sins, God releases us because Christ paid the debt by His shed blood. Thus, God is free to be both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). That leads to the last point:
As the Lord told Paul (Acts 26:18), as he proclaimed the gospel to the Gentiles, they would receive forgiveness of their sins “through faith in Me.” Redemption and forgiveness are both in Christ (Col. 1:14). By trusting in Him, we receive those benefits which He obtained when He died and rose again.
We can’t do anything to earn God’s redemption and forgiveness. We can’t do penance or build up merit to qualify for these blessings. Christ did it all. The Puritan, Richard Hooker, put it (cited by Stott, p. 190), “God doth justify the believing man, yet not for the worthiness of his belief, but for his worthiness who is believed.” As the author of Hebrews makes clear, the Old Testament sacrifices could never take away sins. But Christ offered one sacrifice for all time and obtained eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12; 10:11-14). As a result, the assurance God gives to all who believe is (Heb. 10:17), “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Believing in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross is the only way to know that God has forgiven all your sins.
Years ago, a cartoon showed a psychologist listening to a patient. He said, “Mr. Figby, I think I can explain your feelings of guilt. You’re guilty!” The human race is guilty before God. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). But as Romans 3:24 goes on to say, “Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”
I read (“Our Daily Bread,” 5/93) about a gravestone in a cemetery in New York that has no date of birth, no date of death, and no epitaph. There is only the person’s name and one word: “Forgiven.” No matter what you may accomplish in life, “Forgiven by God” are the most important words that could possibly be put on your tombstone! Make sure that it applies to you because your faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2015, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
November 29, 2015
In 1835, the great British preacher, Charles Simeon, then in his seventy-sixth year, stood in his pulpit at Holy Trinity Church in Cambridge and cited from Colossians 1:18 (KJV), “That in all things He might have the preeminence.” Then he added, “And He must have it; and He will have it; and He shall have it!”
Those impassioned words were repeated to Bishop Handley Moule from memory in 1868 by one who had been there. He reported that Simeon actually rose in height as his soul straightened his body to bear witness to the Redeemer’s glory. The effect was powerful, as seen by the fact that the man could remember the scene and the words 33 years later (H. C. G. Moule, Colossian and Philemon Studies [Christian Literature Crusade], p. 84).
In approaching a text like Colossians 1:15-20, I wish I could preach like Charles Simeon. This passage is one of Paul’s most profound and powerful descriptions of the person of Jesus Christ. One of the most important early church controversies over the person of Christ centered on these verses. Arius, an early church heretic, used “the firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15) to argue that Jesus was the highest created being, but not equal with God. The modern followers of Arius, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, do the same. It’s ironic that the enemy would take the very passage Paul wrote to extol the preeminence of Jesus Christ and use it to pull Him down.
As I stated in the first message on Colossians, we can’t be sure about the exact nature of the false teaching that had infiltrated the Colossian church, but it seemed to denigrate the person and work of Jesus Christ. They may have been teaching that He is not fully God, but rather is the highest of a series of emanations between God and man. They taught that He wasn’t supreme and sufficient for the Christian life. In one of the greatest Christological texts in the New Testament, Paul forcefully shows that…
Christ is preeminent over all that is.
In verses 15-17, he shows that Christ is preeminent over His natural creation, the universe. In verses 18-20, he extols Christ as preeminent over His spiritual creation, the church. To put Jesus as the first created being, higher than any other created being, is to undermine our salvation. As Bishop Moule also stated (preface to Robert Anderson, The Lord from Heaven), “A Savior not quite God is a bridge broken at the farther end.” The only proper place to put Jesus Christ is that of supreme preeminence over all, because He is the eternal Son of God who took on human flesh for our salvation.
While Paul is arguing against weak theology, he is doing much more. As Moule also wrote (ibid., p. 73), Paul “is not only discoursing, still less discussing; he is worshipping.” For Paul, theology was not an interesting philosophic topic to debate. Theology always led Paul into worship as he contemplated the excellency and glory of Jesus Christ.
If we miss this sense of wonder and adoration, we’ve missed the heart of the passage. Part of the wonder, as Bishop Moule again reminds us (p. 79), is that the person of whom Paul spoke had so recently lived in a Galilean town and suffered a violent death outside the walls of Jerusalem. The apostles, who had spent time with Jesus when He was upon the earth, wrote of His earthly life and teachings. “Yet,” as Moule says, “in the same breath, and without the slightest apparent strain or effort, they speak of Him, they deal with Him, as the Lord of heaven and earth, nay, in this passage, as the infinite Cause and adequate End of all finite existence” (ibid.).
It’s crucial that we think properly of Jesus Christ. If we don’t view Him as the absolute and sovereign Lord of the universe, we will be inclined to disobey or disregard Him to our ultimate ruin. Martin Luther saw this when he wrote,
If anyone stands firm and right on this point, that Jesus Christ is true God and true man, who died and rose again for us, all the other articles of the Christian faith will fall in place for him and firmly sustain him.
So very true is Paul’s saying that Christ is the Chief Treasure, the Basis, the Foundation, and the Sum Total of all things, in whom and under whom all are gathered together. In Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
On the other hand, I have noted that all errors, heresies, idolatries, offenses, abuses, and ungodliness in the church have originally arisen because this article or part of the Christian faith concerning Jesus Christ has been despised or lost.
Clearly and rightly considered, all heresies militate against the precious article of Jesus Christ. (Cited in “Timeless Insights,” Walk Thru the Bible Ministries, May, 1986, p. 32.)
Paul shows us first that…
Paul means that Jesus Christ makes the unseen God visible. The Greek word, “eikon,” was used of the image of Caesar on a coin. The average person couldn’t see Caesar, but by looking at a coin, they could see what he looked like. Though the word itself does not necessarily imply a perfect image, both the context and many other Scriptures demand that meaning here. God who is spirit (John 4:24) is not visible to the human eye (1 Tim. 1:17; Heb. 11:27), but as F. F. Bruce put it (The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians [Eerdmans], p. 57), “In him [Christ] the nature and being of God have been perfectly revealed.”
The Apostle John expressed it, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.... No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him” (John 1:1, 14, 18). Jesus told His disciples, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Hebrews 1:3 says of Christ, “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”
This means that there is no other way to know God than through the person of Jesus Christ. As Jesus said (John 14:6), “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.” There are not many ways to God. There is only one way—Jesus Christ. Any teaching that makes Jesus less than God in human flesh is not the teaching of Jesus Himself or of Paul and the other apostles. Christ alone is preeminent over all the universe because He alone is the image of the invisible God.
Col. 1:15b: “He is the firstborn of all creation.” As I said, Arius and the Jehovah’s Witnesses interpret that to mean that Jesus is the first of all created beings. In Arius’ words, “There was a time when he was not.” But they are wrong for several reasons. First, Paul immediately explains what he means by the term (Col. 1:16): “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.” “By Him” should probably be translated “in Him,” meaning, that Christ is the sphere in whom all things were created. “God’s creation … takes place ‘in Christ’ and not apart from him” (Bruce, ibid., p. 62). “Through Him” means that He is the agent of creation. “For Him” points to Christ as the supreme reason all things were created, namely, for His pleasure and glory.
The Jehovah’s Witness New World Translation [Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York], rev. 1970 ed.) inserts “other” before “all things” at both the beginning and end of that verse (plus twice in vs. 17 and once in vs. 20), even though it is not in any Greek manuscripts. They inserted that word there because it’s obvious that if Christ created all things visible and invisible, then He Himself is not created. As John 1:3 puts it, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” The fact that Christ created all the invisible powers also shows that the Colossian heretics who advocated angel worship (Col. 2:18) were in error. They should worship the Creator of angels, not the angels He created.
So in the immediate context, Paul means that Jesus Christ has absolute priority over all creation because He existed before it. He states this plainly at the beginning of verse 17: “He is before all things.” This means priority in time. The present tense is similar to when Jesus told the Jews (John 8:58), “Before Abraham was born, I am.” The Jews got the message, as seen by the fact that they picked up stones to stone Him.
Another reason that “firstborn” does not mean that Jesus was the first created being is the broader context of the New Testament. In John 5:18, the Jews were seeking to kill Jesus “because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” If they had misunderstood Jesus’ claims, as a good Jew He surely would have replied, “God forbid! I would never claim to be equal with God!” But instead, He goes on for many verses making claim after claim that only God could make. For example, He said (John 5:22-23), “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” No creature could utter such bold words!
On another occasion (John 10:33), the Jews said that they intended to stone Jesus “because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” Again, Jesus didn’t deny their charge, but rather defended His claim. On yet another occasion, when Jesus forgave the paralytic’s sins, the Pharisees reasoned (Luke 5:21), “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” Precisely! Jesus went on to back up His authority to forgive sins by healing the man. And at the climax of John’s Gospel, when Thomas saw the risen Savior, he exclaimed (John 20:28), “My Lord and my God!” Jesus did not rebuke him for blasphemy, but rather commended his faith. So the wider context of the New Testament shows that “firstborn” cannot mean, the first creature.
Beyond that, “firstborn” in the Old Testament referred to the heir and ruler over his brethren. It refers to being first in rank. The firstborn was preeminent over his brothers and sisters. In Psalm 89:27, God says of the Davidic King, the Messiah, “I also shall make him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.” Thus Jesus is supreme over not only all the kings who have ever reigned, but also over all creation, because He created it.
Not only did Jesus create all that exists, He also sustains it (Col. 1:17): “In Him all things hold together.” This is similar to Hebrews 1:3, which asserts that Jesus “upholds all things by the word of His power.” It means that if Jesus decided to “let go,” the entire universe would disintegrate! Douglas Moo (The Letters to the Colossians and Philemon [Eerdmans/Apollos], pp. 125-126) explains,
What holds the universe together is not an idea or a virtue [as in Platonic and Stoic philosophy], but a person: the resurrected Christ. Without him, electrons would not continue to circle nuclei, gravity would cease to work, the planets would not stay in their orbits.
He goes on to explain that the Colossian heretics were probably telling people that they needed to find coherence by pursuing their teaching. But, says Moo, “Paul wants them to understand that things make sense only when Christ is kept at the center.” Thus Paul’s first point is that Christ is preeminent over His natural creation, the universe.
Before we look at Paul’s second main point, I need to point out that the theory of evolution, including so-called “theistic” evolution, robs the Lord Jesus Christ of His rightful preeminence as the Creator and Sustainer of all that exists. We should look at God’s marvelous creation, from the smallest level to the enormity of the universe, and worship Him for His greatness! Paul described evolutionists to a T when he wrote (Rom. 1:22), “Professing to be wise, they became fools.” Any rational person should be able to look at something as obviously designed as a gnat, let alone the human body, let alone the entire earth, let alone the universe, and conclude that it did not happen by sheer chance over time!
Yet I have read of evolutionists who seriously say that elephants grew trunks because as they grew bigger and were further from the ground, they needed a tool for browsing for food. “So the trunk was born—probably emerging from the upper lip and the nose …” (Reader’s Digest [4/05], p. 168). Seriously? And evolutionists tell us that 17-year cicadas appear only every 17 years because they developed a sophisticated strategy for survival! Really? Did they get together and vote on it? If they did, how did they actually pull it off? Evolution isn’t science—it’s just absurd! It’s an attempt to dodge the Creator.
Paul makes three points here:
Col. 1:18a: “He is also head of the body, the church.” Scholars debate the source of Paul’s conception of the church as the body of Christ, who is the head, but it may well have been Paul’s first encounter with the risen Savior on the Damascus Road when He heard the Lord say (Acts 9:4), “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Saul thought that he was persecuting the church, but Jesus said that he was persecuting Him (see F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free [Eerdmans], p. 421). To combat the Colossian heresy, Paul asserts that Christ is the head of His body, the church, to set forth His supreme authority over it (Eph. 1:22-23). The members of the body must submit to the head as sovereign.
The analogy has many other ramifications, of course. Just as the head and the body are inextricably joined, so we are united with Christ. Just as the body has many members with different functions and yet is one body, so also the body of Christ. Just as the body is dead if separated from the head, so the body of Christ must draw its life from Christ as it depends on Him.
Col. 1:18b: “And He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.” Christ as “the beginning” means that He originated the church. It wasn’t the brilliant idea of the apostles. Rather, it was the creation of Christ Himself. Just as Christ created the first man, Adam, in His image, so He created the new man, the church, in His image (Col. 3:10). It is a corporate man, consisting of the redeemed from various races, but where “Christ is all, and in all” (Col. 3:11).
Christ as “the firstborn from the dead” points to His resurrection as the first of its kind, supreme over all other resurrections. Although other resurrections from the dead are reported in Scripture, all of these people died again. Jesus alone has been raised with an indestructible resurrection body that is a type of the bodies that we will receive at His second coming. Our new bodies will not be subject to disease, aging, or death (1 Cor. 15:42-44; Rev. 21:4).
The result of Christ’s being “the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,” is “so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.” Because Jesus died for our sins and God raised Him from the dead (Phil. 2:9-11), “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Col. 1:19-20: “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”
Note three things:
Douglas Moo (ibid., p. 132) paraphrases this, “God in all his fullness has chosen to dwell in Christ.” God’s “good pleasure” points to His eternal decree. Bishop Lightfoot has a scholarly, 16-page excursus on the word “fullness.” He concludes (Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon [Zondervan], p. 159, 265) that both to Paul and to the Colossian heretics, the term conveyed the idea of “the totality of the divine powers and attributes.” The heretics claimed to offer “fullness” to the Colossians that Epaphras’ message had lacked. Paul counters by saying that you can’t get any fuller than Christ, because all the fullness of God dwells in Him. As he later states (Col. 2:9): “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.”
Some erroneously teach that this means that all people and even all demonic forces will someday be saved. But that contradicts many other Scriptures (e.g., 2 Thess. 1:6-10; Matt. 25:41, 46; Rev. 20:10-15). Rather, by “the blood of His cross” Christ made peace with His former enemies whom the Father had given Him (Eph. 2:11-22; John 6:37). And through His death and resurrection, Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities, triumphing over them (Col. 2:15). Someday every knee will bow, some willingly, some forcibly, to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil. 2:10).
Some explain this by saying that there is a sense in which even the holy angels need reconciliation. But rather, Paul here is probably referring to the new heavens and new earth which will be restored to the glory that the first creation had before the fall of Satan and the demons and the fall of man. Because of sin, the creation was subjected to the curse and to futility (Gen. 3:17-19; Rom. 8:18-23). But Christ’s victory on the cross was the decisive turning point of history. It guarantees that Satan and his forces are defeated (John 12:31). When Christ returns in His final victory over Satan and all sinners, He will restore both the earth and the heavens to their original glory.
Paul wants every Christian and every person to know that Jesus Christ is preeminent. He is preeminent over His natural creation, the universe. He is preeminent over His spiritual creation, the church. God’s settled purpose is “that He Himself will come to have first place in everything” (Col. 1:18b). But, does He have first place in your life? Does He have first place over your thought life? Does He have first place over your words? Does He have first place over how you use your time? Does He have first place over your finances? Does He have first place over your entertainment choices? Does He have first place in everything in your life? As Charles Simeon so forcefully put it, “He must have it! He will have it! He shall have it!”
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2015, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
December 6, 2015
One of life’s unpleasant experiences is to be at odds with someone. It may be a falling out with someone in your family. Perhaps it’s a neighbor or someone at work. But whoever it is, it’s never pleasant. Conflicts always cause stress and anxiety.
On the other hand, one of life’s most pleasant experiences is to make peace with a former enemy. When the barrier that caused the hostility is removed, there’s a sense of joy and release. It’s wonderful when a former enemy becomes a friend.
Although many people don’t realize it, they’re at odds with the worst enemy imaginable: the living God! Our sin means that outside of Christ, we are enemies of God (Rom. 5:10). If we’re not reconciled to Him, we will face eternal judgment when we die. Alienation from God should cause far more anxiety than any human conflict! God’s enemies desperately need to be reconciled to Him.
That’s what Paul describes in our text. We were formerly God’s enemies, alienated from Him, engaged in hostile deeds against Him. But God, because of His great love, sacrificed His own Son on our behalf to change us from enemies to friends, from alienation to reconciliation. Being reconciled, we now have the responsibility to continue in the faith and to serve Him.
The Colossian church was in danger of being wrongly influenced by some false teachers. Paul’s corrective was to extol the person and work of Jesus Christ. As we saw in Colossians 1:15-20, Paul lifted up Jesus as the sovereign Creator of the universe, the head of His body the church, worthy of preeminence in everything. In verse 20 he says that Christ’s blood on the cross is the means by which God will reconcile all creation to Himself. This doesn’t mean that everyone will be saved, but rather that God will remove the curse on creation that was imposed because of man’s fall into sin.
Now Paul applies this reconciliation to the Colossians, reminding them of their former alienation from God (Col. 1:21) and of the great price which Christ paid to reconcile us to God (Col. 1:22). He adds that they are responsible to continue in the faith, not moved away by the false teachers (Col. 1:23). And he mentions himself as a servant of the gospel. He’s saying:
We who enjoy the blessings of reconciliation are responsible to continue in the faith of the true gospel.
If you think that you’re immune from the danger of being deceived by any of the false teachings of our day, you may not adequately appreciate either the craftiness of the enemy or your own weakness. As Paul says (1 Cor. 10:12), “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.” I’ve seen pastors and missionaries get swept away with different errors, such as the “new perspective on Paul,” which undermines justification by faith alone; open theism, which denies God’s sovereignty and omniscience; the Insider Movement, which compromises the gospel in the course of trying to relate it to those in other religions; and, other errors. Many evangelicals have an unbiblical view of trials, as seen in the “health and wealth” heresy, resulting in their inability to persevere when suffering hits. Paul’s instruction here is given to help us stay faithful when confronted with such false teaching.
First, Paul reminds us of where we were when God intervened in our lives:
Colossians 1:21: “… you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds.” You may be thinking, “Now wait a minute! Paul is talking to these pagan Colossians. They may have been like that. But I’ve never been hostile toward God. I was raised in a Christian home. I accepted Christ as a child. I never was alienated from Him.” Or, perhaps you came to Christ when you were older, but you still would say that you were never hostile toward God. You’ve never been an atheist. You’d say that words like “alienated,” “hostile,” and “evil deeds” don’t describe your past!
But in faithfulness to the Scriptures, I must say that if you feel that those words are too harsh, you haven’t yet come to know your own heart in the sight of God. I was only three years old when I “asked Jesus to come into my heart.” I attended church and Sunday school virtually every Sunday of my childhood. But the longer I’m a Christian, the more I’m appalled by the depths of my own sinfulness. Part of that sinfulness is the pride which inclines me to say, “I’ve got my faults, but I’m not a bad sinner!”
Our alienation from God was due to two things. On God’s part, He is completely holy and has a settled wrath against all sin. On my part, I have within me an inborn selfishness and pride which causes me to ignore the God who created me and to pursue my own ways. Thus there is alienation because God in His holiness cannot have fellowship with me in my sin. He cannot compromise His holiness and I cannot eradicate my sin.
Also, note that sin begins in the mind and works its way outward. We were “hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds.” The NIV translation is inaccurate because it makes it sound as if our evil deeds are the cause of our hostile minds. But the reverse is true. We are hostile toward God in our thinking which results in disobedient actions. Jesus taught that all sin begins within, in our hearts (Mark 7:20-23).
Thus dealing with my sin is not just a matter of cleaning up my behavior, but of changing my heart. In Romans 8:7-8, Paul writes that “the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” In our natural state we are incapable of pleasing God. We may be able to clean up the outside, but we are not able to clean up our hearts. You can put a tuxedo on a pig, but its pig nature makes it still want to wallow in the mud. And the most difficult heart problem to eradicate is the pride that says, “I’m a basically good person. God will accept me because of my good deeds.”
But the good news is that every New Testament passage dealing with this great doctrine of reconciliation emphasizes that God took the initiative in reconciling sinful people to Himself. It’s not dependent on our efforts to get right with God, but on His action centered on the sacrifice of His Son.
Note that God takes the initiative (Col. 1:22): “Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death.” In Romans 5:10-11, Paul puts it: “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”
At this point, someone may be thinking, “What’s the big deal about sin separating us from God? Even humans are able to forgive others who wrong them. Why can’t God just let bygones be bygones? Why did Christ need to die for our sins? Besides, my sins aren’t that bad. I’ve never killed anybody. I’m faithful to my wife. I work to support my family. I’m not a bad person. And I don’t have anything against God. Why does God require the radical solution that Christ had to die for my sins?”
If you can relate to those thoughts, then you don’t sufficiently understand who God is or how great your sin is in His sight. Perhaps you’ve been wrongly influenced by our tolerant culture. We live in a time when tolerance of everyone, including their gross sins, is seen as a great virtue. We pull God down by making Him a benign, tolerant grandfather; and we lift ourselves up by thinking, “Compared to those awful terrorists, I’m a pretty good person!” Even as Christians, we’re somewhat embarrassed by the idea of God’s wrath against sin. Over 100 years ago, R. W. Dale (The Atonement [Congregational Union], pp. 338-339) observed, “It is partly because sin does not provoke our own wrath, that we do not believe that sin provokes the wrath of God.”
But if God were tolerant of sin He would not be God. If He denied His absolute holiness by winking at sin, He would be compromising His justice, which rightly demands that the penalty for sin be paid. For example, if a man murdered your mother and the judge came off the bench and gave him a hug and said, “I love you, man! Try not to do that again,” you’d rightly be outraged because justice was not served. While God is love, His love never compromises His holiness and justice.
So the question is, “How can God be both holy and loving?” How can He uphold perfect justice and yet extend reconciling mercy to sinners? The answer is, through the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on the cross. God sent His eternal Son into the world to take on human flesh and to live a sinless life so that He could pay the just penalty that we deserved for our sins.
Paul here is probably combatting the Colossian error, which taught that Jesus was not truly human. He uses the somewhat redundant phrase, “the body of His flesh through death” to show that Jesus’ death was a real, physical death. Hebrews 9:22 states that “without shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness” of sins. Being God in human flesh, Jesus’ death satisfied God’s just wrath by paying the penalty for all who have faith in Jesus. As Paul states in another great passage on reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:21), “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” God took our sin and put it on Christ who was without sin. Then He took Christ’s perfect righteousness and put it on us. Thus He is both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). So the basis of reconciliation is judicial: Jesus paid the just penalty of God’s wrath against our sin.
But reconciliation also is a relational word. It points to healing in personal relationships. As Paul states in the context of a great passage on reconciliation (Rom. 5:8), “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Through reconciliation, we now enjoy God’s love.
Perhaps one of the most beautiful pictures of reconciliation in the Bible is Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). The young man rudely demands his portion of the inheritance before his father has even died. He goes off to a far country and squanders it all on loose living. But when he comes to his senses and returns home in the hopes that he can just serve as one of his father’s hired hands, his father sees him coming (he was looking for him!), feels compassion for him, runs to him, embraces him, kisses him, and welcomes him home with a party.
That’s the heavenly Father’s great love for every sinner who repents! Have you experienced it? In that same story, Jesus also illustrates the alienation from the father that self-righteousness causes. The older brother, who saw himself as loyal and obedient to his father, was angry because of his father’s mercy toward his rebellious brother. The truth is, the self-righteous son needed to be reconciled to his father just as much as his prodigal brother did, but his self-righteousness blinded him to his true need.
Back in the 18th century, Lady Huntingdon was a godly British noblewoman. She invited a number of her upper class friends to come hear the great evangelist, George Whitefield. She got this reply from the proud Duchess of Buckingham (Arnold Dallimore, George Whitefield [Cornerstone Books], 1:132):
It is monstrous to be told, that you have a heart as sinful as the common wretches that crawl on the earth. This is highly offensive and insulting; and I cannot but wonder that your Ladyship should relish any sentiments so much at variance with high rank and good breeding.
To be reconciled to God, you’ve first got to see that you’re alienated from Him, hostile in mind, and engaged in evil deeds. Even if outwardly you’re a relatively good person, your heart is just “as sinful as the common wretches that crawl on the earth”! And you’ve got to see that God provides everything necessary for your being reconciled to Him through the death of Jesus for your sins. But why does God reconcile us to Himself through Christ’s death?
Colossians 1:22b: “… in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” God’s aim is that on judgment day you will stand before Him perfectly righteous. As Jude 24 states, He is able “to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.” It’s a rare thing to know someone whom you would describe as blameless and beyond reproach. But you’re only seeing part of their outward behavior. But to stand in the presence of the holy God who knows every hidden thought and motive we’ve ever had, and yet to be declared holy, blameless, and beyond reproach, sounds impossible! How can this be true?
It’s true because Paul and Jude are looking at the final result of our sanctification. There are three aspects of sanctification: First is positional sanctification. When we are reconciled to God through Christ’s death, He sets us apart to Himself. We are clothed with Christ’s perfect righteousness and seated with Him in heavenly places. Second is progressive sanctification. As we walk with Christ daily, putting to death the deeds of the flesh and growing in obedience, we become increasingly holy, blameless, and above reproach. This is never perfect in this life, but there will be progress. Finally, when we die or Christ returns (whichever happens first), our sin nature will be completely eradicated. This is perfect sanctification, because we will be like Jesus (1 John 3:2). That’s God’s ultimate aim in reconciling us to Himself through Christ.
So, does the fact that we will be perfectly sanctified mean that we can kick back and not worry about our sin? No! Paul shows …
Colossians 1:23: “If indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.” Paul mentions three aspects of our responsibility as reconciled people:
When Paul says, “If indeed you continue in the faith,” it could mean, “your personal faith,” but in light of the Colossian heresy, I think he means “the faith.” By saying “if you continue,” he is not expressing doubt, but he is giving a warning. Paul was confident that these new believers would not be carried away by these false teachers and that they would go on with Christ. As he wrote (Phil. 1:6), “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” And yet at the same time, the test of genuine faith is that it perseveres by holding to the gospel. And so there is an implicit warning in “if” that says, “It’s your responsibility to remain in the faith.”
Often the Bible puts God’s sovereignty and our responsibility in the same verse or context. God’s sovereignty gives us comfort that since He saved us, He will keep us. But that’s never an invitation to kick back and cruise. We can trust that God will finally bring us to glory, but He does that through our obedient perseverance in the faith. Both are true and we’re out of balance if we let go of either one.
Here, our responsibility is to be “firmly established and steadfast, not moved away from the hope of the gospel.” As you know, if you’re going to build anything of lasting substance, the foundation is critical. You can throw up a chicken coop without much of a foundation, but to build a house or an office building, you’ve got to lay a solid foundation. The foundation for the Christian faith is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Are you clear on the gospel? If I asked you to turn to your neighbor and explain it in 60 seconds, could you do it? Can you support it with specific Scriptures?
Beyond that, you’ve got to lay the foundation of a basic understanding of the Bible and its core teachings. The enemy always has attacked the basic truths about the trinity, the person and work of Christ, the inerrancy of Scripture, salvation by grace through faith alone, the hope of Christ’s second coming, the need for holiness, and other key truths. Legalism is a constant threat (Col. 2:20-23). If you’re not grounded and steadily growing in biblical truth, you’ll get blown around by every wind of false doctrine that comes along (Eph. 4:11-16). If you’ve never done it, get an ESV Study Bible and set up a plan to read through it in the New Year.
Probably the most prevalent topic in the New Testament is warnings against false teaching. And almost all false teaching attacks the essentials of the gospel. That’s why you need to be grounded in basic Bible doctrine. The Bible is clear that genuine faith in Christ perseveres and does not fall away (Matt. 13:19-23). Jesus warned (Matt. 24:11-12) that in the end times, many false prophets would arise and lead many astray and that most people’s love would grow cold. Then He added (Matt. 24:13), “But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.” Perseverance in the gospel is the test of genuine faith (see, also, 1 John 2:19).
Paul adds concerning the gospel (Col. 1:23b), “which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.” Paul is probably exaggerating to make his point, which is, “The one true gospel is spreading everywhere and it’s the same gospel that Epaphras preached to you and that I preach everywhere I go.” The one true gospel has universal appeal. Although we need to be sensitive and wise in how we communicate the gospel to different cultures, we don’t have to modify it or tone it down. The message of the cross will always be foolishness to some and offensive to others, but to those who believe, it is the power of God for salvation (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:18).
“Minister” is not a stained glass word referring to a special class of ordained clergy. It simply means “servant.” If you have believed in the gospel, you’re a servant of the gospel. Obedience is not optional for servants (1 Cor. 9:16-23). If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you are His ambassador to this lost world (2 Cor. 5:20). See the world around you as your mission field and pray for wisdom to take advantage of every opportunity (Col. 4:5).
There are different ways to apply this message, depending on your situation. If you’ve never been reconciled to God by trusting in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, that is your urgent need! Don’t delay, because as Thomas Fuller said, “You cannot repent too soon, because you do not know how soon it may be too late” (cited by C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David [Baker], 4:328).
If you’re not grounded in the faith, your assignment is to lay out a plan and get started. Read through the Bible this year. Work through the church doctrinal statement, looking up all the verses. Get John Piper’s Baptist Catechism, read it through, and study it. If you can’t explain the gospel, get some training, pray for opportunities, and do it! We who enjoy the blessings of reconciliation are responsible to continue in the faith of the true gospel.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2015, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
December 13, 2015
Since Paul is talking in our text about his ministry, I thought about titling this message, “How to be a Good Minister.” But I was afraid that if you saw that title in advance, you might think that it was a good week to skip church! Being a good minister may be interesting for seminary students or a group of pastors or missionaries, but what relevance does being a good minister have for those who are not in “full time” ministry?
The answer is, “It is extremely relevant for every Christian!” If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you are just as much a minister of Christ as I am. The word translated “minister” (Col. 1:23, 25) means “servant.” Every Christian is a servant of Jesus Christ. Every Christian has been given spiritual gifts to use in serving the Master. “Church benchwarmer” is not one of the gifts! Every member of the body has a ministry to fulfill.
But maybe you’re thinking, “Okay, but I’ve never been to seminary and I’m not a full time Christian worker as you are. I can’t devote the time to serving the Lord that you do.” True, but the apostle Paul never went to seminary. And he made tents to support his ministry. But he saw his ministry as a stewardship given to him by God. He knew that he would give an account to God for the ministry that God had entrusted to him. And so he worked hard to be a good minister. He wanted to serve Christ well.
So should you. Perhaps you’ve never thought about it before, but the question, “How can I be a good minister (servant) of Jesus Christ?” should be on your mind often. One day soon you will stand before the Lord for judgment of what you have done with what He entrusted to you (Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10). How did you use your time? How did you manage the money He allowed you to make? How did you use your spiritual gifts?
But perhaps you’re still thinking, “But my gifts are pretty insignificant. I never could prepare and preach a sermon, as you do every week. I’m not gifted as an evangelist. I don’t have millions of dollars to give to the Lord’s work. So I don’t have an important role in the Lord’s work.”
If that describes you, then you must be especially careful! In Jesus’ parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30), the master gave five talents (a “talent” was a large sum of money) to one servant, two to another, and one to the third. The man with five invested them and made five more. The man with two made two more. But the man with one hid it and gave it back to the master. The master called him a wicked, lazy, worthless slave and threw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The clear warning of that parable is that the servant with one talent is in the greatest danger of not using it for the master’s purpose. Not serving Christ at all is a sign that you don’t belong to Him. So even “one-talent Christians” should be vitally interested in the question, “How can I be a good minister or servant of Jesus Christ?” How can I serve Christ well? Paul’s answer here is:
We serve Christ well by exalting Him in every way.
Paul was writing against the backdrop of the false teachers who were infecting the Colossian church. They diminished the person and work of Christ, so Paul has exalted Christ as preeminent over everything that is. The false teachers no doubt knew that Paul had trained Epaphras who had brought the gospel to them. But to build themselves up, they probably tore Paul down. Perhaps they were saying, “If Christ is the Sovereign Lord of the universe and if Paul is His servant, then why is Paul in jail? Don’t follow a jailbird; follow us!”
So in verse 23, Paul mentions that he was made (or became) a minister of the gospel. In Colossians 1:24-29, he expands on that topic, showing how he exalted Christ in his ministry. In so doing, he shows us how we can serve Christ well in whatever He has given us to do for Him. I can only work through verse 27 in this message. Paul shows us how we can exalt Christ in trials (Col. 1:24); in our service (Col. 1:25); and in our message (Col. 1:26-27).
Colossians 1:24: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.” This is a difficult verse for two reasons: It’s difficult to explain and it’s difficult to apply.
When you come to a difficult verse, the principle for interpretation is, always interpret the difficult verse in light of the clear. The difficult verse will never contradict the clear verses. And it is clear both in Paul’s writings and in the entire New Testament that Christ’s suffering on the cross was complete and sufficient for the salvation of all who trust in Him.
Jesus Himself proclaimed just before He died (John 19:30), “It is finished.” The atonement that He procured for sinners was complete. In Colossians 1:12-14, Paul makes it clear that in Christ we have an inheritance, we have been rescued from Satan’s domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of Christ, and we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. In Colossians 2:10, Paul says, “In Him you have been made complete.” He goes on to show that the death and resurrection of Christ resulted in all our sins being forgiven and in Christ’s complete victory over the powers of darkness. Many other verses in Paul’s writings and in the Book of Hebrews could be piled up to show that in terms of salvation, nothing was lacking in Christ’s sufferings. So this verse does not mean that somehow Christ’s suffering on the cross was insufficient for our salvation so that Paul or anyone else needed to complete it.
Paul isn’t talking here about salvation, but rather about service. The word translated “afflictions” is not used elsewhere in the New Testament of Christ’s sacrificial sufferings for our salvation (J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon [Zondervan], p. 166). So Paul does not mean and the New Testament never teaches that in some way we by our suffering must add merit to Christ’s sacrificial death that paid for our sins.
Then what does Paul mean by this statement? Many views have been suggested, but I think that two offer the best explanation. First, Jesus taught that His followers must suffer because of their identification with Him. He told the disciples (John 15:20-21),
“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.”
In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus prophesied that before He returned, there would be a time of unprecedented suffering for His followers (Matt. 24:9, 21-22). In Revelation 6:9-11, the apostle John saw the martyrs in heaven, who were crying out, asking God how long would it be until their blood was avenged. The Lord told them (Rev. 6:11) to rest for a little while longer, “until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.” So there is a sense in which Christ’s sufferings must be filled up or completed by His body, the church, before He returns. Because the church is His body, when any member suffers for His name, Jesus also suffers. As Paul learned on the Damascus Road, when he persecuted the church, he persecuted Jesus Himself (Acts 9:4).
But also, Christ’s sufferings do not need completion in terms of propitiation, but rather in terms of propagation. Christ’s death provided perfect atonement for all who believe, but people can’t believe unless Christ’s followers go everywhere proclaiming the good news. As Paul put it (Rom. 10:14), “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” (John Piper develops this explanation in Desiring God [Multnomah Books], 1996 ed., pp. 223-238).
William Barclay offers a helpful illustration (Flesh and Spirit [Baker], pp. 80-81). He affirms that the work of Christ is done and completed. No one can add to it. But he supposes a great scientist or surgeon who has spent his life and ruined his health to find some cure for a disease. That discovery remains useless unless it is taken out of the laboratory and made available for people all over the world. Those who take it to others may have to sweat and toil and risk their lives to do it. They aren’t adding to the scientist’s work. But it may be rightly said that they are completing the sufferings of the scientist by taking his discovery to the far corners of the earth. The thing lacking in Christ’s afflictions is not the full salvation He secured on the cross, but the price that His followers must pay in the struggle against the powers of darkness to take the salvation Christ offers to every person.
But if that is Paul’s meaning, it is still difficult to apply to us American Christians because very few of us know what it means to suffer for the gospel of Christ. Our brothers and sisters around the world know it very well, as you are aware if you read “Voice of the Martyrs” magazine. The way things are going in this country, we may soon get our turn. But in addition to praying for and helping those in other countries who are suffering for Christ’s sake, how can we apply this here and now?
First, note that Paul is not only talking about suffering for Christ’s sake, but suffering joyfully. He was in prison and he tells the Colossians (1:24), “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.” Paul rejoiced that his sufferings for Christ would help the new Colossian church to stand firm when they suffered. Our Lord also told us (Matt. 5:11-12):
“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
His words give us a hint for how we can apply this short of being imprisoned or beaten or dying for our faith. If it comes to that, I trust that the Holy Spirit will give us the power to rejoice. But in the meantime, we should rejoice when people insult us and falsely say all kinds of evil against us because of Christ. Perhaps you’re teaching Sunday school or you’re on a worship team or you’re working behind the scenes to serve, and someone criticizes you or they even lie about you. They gossip to others, maligning your motives. What do you do?
I’ve seen wounded Christians quit serving the Lord. Some have even dropped out of church and in a few cases, stopped following Christ. I’ve seen pastors leave the ministry because of criticism. But what should you do? You may need to talk to the critic to try to get things cleared up and to be reconciled in your relationship. But first, you need to rejoice! Count it a privilege that you have been considered worthy to suffer shame for Jesus’ name (Acts 5:41). In some small way, you are filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions! When you endure trials joyfully for Christ’s sake and for His church’s sake, you exalt Him.
Colossians 1:25: “Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, …” Twice (Col. 1:23, 25) Paul says that he was made or became a minister. How did this happen? Did Paul take an aptitude test where the results indicated, “You’d be good as a minister”? No! In Galatians 1:15, Paul says that God had set him apart from his mother’s womb.
In Acts 9 we read how it happened. As Paul approached Damascus where he planned to persecute and imprison Christians, a light from heaven flashed around him, he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying (Acts 9:4), “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Saul asked (Acts 9:5), “Who are You, Lord?” The Lord answered (Acts 9:5b-6), “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.” Then the Lord told Ananias to go and lay hands on Paul so that he might regain his sight. When Ananias expressed concerns about doing that for a known terrorist, the Lord replied (Acts 9:15-16),
“Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
That’s how Paul became a minister of the gospel: he was not a volunteer for Jesus; he was a conscript! It wasn’t Paul’s chosen career path. Rather, the crucified and risen Lord laid His hand on Paul and said, like the old Army posters, “I want you to serve Me!” Paul didn’t join God’s army; he was drafted!
Maybe you’re thinking, “Wow, I’m glad that the Lord hasn’t called me into the ministry!” But as I said, if you know Christ, He has called you into the ministry. He has called you to serve Him with whatever spiritual gifts, time, and resources He has entrusted to you. It may not be a calling to preach God’s Word, as Paul’s calling was. But whatever your gifts and calling, you can learn something from Paul’s statement that he “might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God” (literally, “make full the word of God”). In Romans 15:18-19, Paul refers to what Christ had accomplished through him in the power of the Spirit and then adds, “so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached [or, ‘fulfilled’] the gospel of Christ.” In 2 Timothy 4:17, he tells how the Lord strengthened him “so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished.”
So the idea is, however God has gifted you, you will only fulfill your calling if you rely on the power of the Spirit and trust the Lord to accomplish His work through you. As Jesus said (John 15:4-5), it is only when we abide in Him as branches in the vine that we can bear much fruit. So view yourself as a steward appointed by Christ to do whatever He’s given you to do. Then do it joyfully in reliance on His Spirit, seeking to glorify the Lord who bought you and rescued you from the domain of darkness. Your ministry is not about fulfilling you, but about exalting the Lord.
So we serve Christ well by exalting Him in every way. We exalt Him in our trials by enduring them joyfully for His and His church’s sake. We exalt Him in our service by doing it in the power of His Spirit as His stewards because He appointed us.
Colossians 1:26-27: “that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Paul calls his message “the mystery.” Probably he was playing upon a term which the false teachers used. They taught that you had to be initiated into their inner circle to understand the mysteries or secret truths which they would reveal to you. Paul says that the gospel message, especially that the Gentiles could be full partners along with the Jews, is a mystery; not in the sense that it is known only by a select few, but in the sense that it was formerly unknown, but now God has revealed it. The Old Testament predicted salvation for the Gentiles. But God had to reveal the previously unknown truth that the Gentiles would be fellow-heirs with the Jews, one body in Christ with them.
When Paul says, “Christ in you” (Col. 1:27), he means, in this context, “Christ in you Gentiles.” For Paul, this was a glorious truth, but I fear that we don’t appreciate it as much as we should. Before the cross of Christ which opened the gospel to both Jews and Gentiles on equal standing, Gentiles were at best second-class citizens in the kingdom. Gentiles could become proselytes to Judaism, but they could only enter into the court of the women and Gentiles in the Temple. They could not go into the inner court where the Jewish men went. There was a waist-high wall of partition which separated them. Before his conversion Paul was at the forefront of perpetuating this discrimination.
But once he was saved, God revealed to him that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs of the gospel with the Jews. The wall of partition is removed in Christ (Eph. 2:14). As he writes in Colossians 3:11, “there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.” Christ is in every believer and every believer is in Christ! And the church should be the place where those cultural walls of prejudice are torn down as a demonstration of the power of the gospel. We exalt Christ in our message when we proclaim that the glorious riches of the indwelling Christ are for every person from every race. Racial prejudice has no place in the church.
Paul says that the riches of the glory of the gospel is, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” I know that you all know that if you have believed in Jesus Christ, He dwells in you and you’re going to heaven. I know it, too. But do we really know it?
If we really knew that the living Christ was in us this past week and that we will soon be with Him in glory, would things have gone any differently? Would we have been impatient, frustrated, angry, grumbling, or depressed if we had stopped to consider that Christ is living in us and we’re destined to share His glory? Would we have spent our time as we spent it if we had been aware of His holy presence in our hearts and thought about being with Him in glory? Would we have grown cold in our devotion to Him and lacked the motivation to read His Word and to pray if we had felt the reality of Christ dwelling in our hearts and had our hope set on the glory ahead? Christianity is not primarily rules or religious ideas; it’s a personal relationship with the living, indwelling Christ, who has called us to share His glory. We exalt Him when we experience and proclaim that message.
Ever since my college days (many decades ago), I’ve had a recurring dream where it’s the end of the semester and I realize that I haven’t been going to a class or doing the assignments and it’s time for the final exam. I panic! It’s a nightmare!
If you know Christ, you’re enrolled in the course called “ministry.” There are assignments and there will be a final exam! Maybe before this message, you didn’t even know you were enrolled in the course. But now you know. Your grade will be based on, “Did you serve Christ well by exalting Him in every way?” Did you exalt Him in your trials by enduring them joyfully for His sake? Did you exalt Him in your service by doing it in the power of His Spirit as a steward appointed by Him? Did you exalt Him in your message by proclaiming that Christ indwells you and will indwell every person who trusts in Him and that He promises glory for every believer? Remember, you’re in the ministry now!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2015, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
December 27, 2015
In First Things First ([Simon & Schuster], p. 56) Stephen Covey and Roger and Rebecca Merrill make an obvious, yet provocative, statement: “The problems in life come when we’re sowing one thing and expecting to reap something entirely different.”
As we face a New Year, it’s a good time to ask yourself, “What kind of crop does God want me to reap?” And, then, “What do I need to sow to reap that crop?” As believers in Jesus Christ we want to be good stewards of the time, talents, and treasure that He has entrusted to us. We want to be fruitful, so that when we meet the Lord we will hear (Matt. 25:21, 23), “Well done, good and faithful slave!” If I want to reap a fruitful life before God in light of eternity, then what do I need to be sowing this year?
In our text, Paul shares the purpose for which he worked hard, namely, to present every person “complete” in Christ (NASB). Complete is translated as “mature” (ESV), or “perfect” (NIV, NKJV). Douglas Moo (The Letters to the Colossians and Philemon [Eerdmans/Apollos], p. 161) argues that “perfect” is too strong, but “mature” is too relative, because we tend to think we’re “mature” as long as we’re doing better than some other Christians we know. But since Paul elsewhere (1 Cor. 14:20) contrasts this word with being infants or children, I think that “mature” is an adequate translation as long as we keep Dr. Moo’s caution in mind. We all should aim at becoming mature in Christ (as defined by the Bible). And we should help others grow to spiritual maturity also. How do we do that? Paul’s answer is:
To present every person mature in Christ, proclaim Him and work hard according to His power.
The goal is maturity in Christ. The means to that goal is proclaiming Christ and working hard as we depend on His power.
In verse 25, Paul talked about “fulfilling the word of God.” Verse 28 elaborates on how he did this: “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.” “To present” pictures a father giving away his bride (2 Cor. 11:2). Paul wanted to present the church as holy and blameless and beyond reproach to Christ as His bride at His second coming (Col. 1:22). What does this entail?
My seminary professor, Dr. Howard Hendricks, used to say, “You cannot impart what you do not possess!” If you’re not making a concerted effort to grow in Christ, then you can’t help someone else in that process. But the Lord wants all of His disciples to help in the cause of making other disciples. That’s at the heart of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19), “… make disciples of all the nations.” It’s implicit in Paul’s command to Timothy (2 Tim. 2:2): “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” Paul exhorted the churches where he ministered (1 Cor. 11:1), “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” (See, also, 1 Cor. 4:16; Phil. 3:17; 1 Thess. 1:6; 2 Thess. 3:9.)
You may be thinking, “That’s kind of intimidating! I don’t feel adequate to help others grow in Christ. I don’t think I’ll ever be at the point where I could tell others to be imitators of me as I am of Christ.” Well, I’ve got news for you: If you’ve got kids, they are learning from your example! You may be a good example to them of someone who is growing in Christ, or you may be a poor example. But you are an example!
Also, if you’ve only been a Christian for a month, you can impart the gospel that changed your life to someone who doesn’t yet know the Savior. If you’ve been walking with the Lord for five years, you’ve got five years of experience with the Lord that a newer believer doesn’t have. So wherever you’re at in the process, God can use you to help others grow to maturity in Christ. But to do that you’ve got to be growing to maturity in Christ yourself. You’ve got to be walking with the Lord each day. You cannot impart what you do not possess!
But, what does maturity in Christ look like?
To describe this, we could go through the entire Bible cataloging all the character traits and behaviors that are commanded and exemplified in the lives of godly saints. But the supreme example is Jesus Christ. He said that the two greatest commandments are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Mark. 12:29-31). These are relational commands. You can measure how mature in Christ you are by assessing your relationships with God and with others.
Love for God is more than just a warm, fuzzy feeling that you may get when you sit in a church service or listen to Christian music. Love for God, like love for any person, begins at a point in time when you enter a personal relationship with Him. But there’s a problem, namely, our sin. God is holy and cannot fellowship with any who are in their sins. That’s why He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the death penalty that we deserve for our sins. The good news is that if you will turn from your sins and trust in Christ’s sacrifice for you on the cross, God will forgive all your sins and give you eternal life as a free gift. Romans 6:23 states, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” At the point you put your trust in Christ, you begin a relationship with God.
But like all relationships, you have to spend time together if you want to grow in that relationship. As you spend time in God’s Word, you get to know Him more deeply. As you spend time in prayer, you draw near to Him and open your heart to Him. As you learn and obey His commandments, Jesus promises that He and His Father will come to you and make their home with you (John 14:23; see, also, Eph. 3:17). The little booklet (available online) by Robert Munger, “My Heart, Christ’s Home,” pictures this truth very well.
Through God’s Word and through His indwelling Holy Spirit, He transforms your mind to conform to His will. As Paul instructs (Rom. 12:2), “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Christlikeness at its core involves the transformation and renewing of your mind in conformity to God’s Word. Since all sin begins in the mind, we have to defeat it on that level. As Psalm 119:11 states, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.”
The root sin of just about every other sin that you’ve got to battle on the thought level is pride. “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5). Selfishness, anger, jealousy, greed, lust, and many other sins stem from exalting self above God and others (contrary to the two Great Commandments). I recommend that you read Stuart Scott’s “From Pride to Humility” (a chapter from his book, The Exemplary Husband [Focus Publishing]) and C. J. Mahaney’s Humility [Multnomah]. If you want to be like Jesus, He described Himself as “gentle and humble in heart” (Matt. 11:29).
God also grows Christlike character and conduct in us by refining us through trials. As James 1:2-4 commands, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (“Perfect” is the same word translated “complete” or “mature” in our text.) Psalm 119:67 puts it, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.”
Another helpful summary of Christlike character and conduct is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23): “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” I recommend that you commit those verses to memory. If they aren’t in your mind, you’re not likely to work on expressing them in your behavior. Each of those nine qualities has a relational dimension. If you violate them, you will damage your relationships with others.
The New Testament is filled with other lists of godly character qualities. For example, Ephesians 4:25-32 tells us to put aside lying and speak truth; not to sin with anger; to stop stealing and start working; to use our tongues to build up, not to tear down; to clean out all bitterness, wrath, anger, yelling, and slander, along with all malice; and, (Eph. 4:32), “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”
So as you begin to put God’s Word into your heart or mind and learn to obey it, you will steadily be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. You will grow toward maturity in Him. While you’ll never arrive until you see Jesus (“perfect” doesn’t happen in this life), you should be making progress. To help others grow in Christ, you don’t have to be perfect, but you do need to be walking in the Spirit, growing to maturity in Him. Assuming that’s true, how do you help others grow to maturity in Christ?
Some of you may be thinking, “That word proclaim sounds like preacher stuff, and I’m not a preacher!” But, note:
There is a place for trained men who devote themselves to preach God’s Word (1 Tim. 5:17). But it’s also true that every believer is a priest with a ministry to fulfill, and Christ should be at the center of all ministry because He is what every person needs.
“Proclaim” means “to announce as a herald or messenger.” In the days before mass communication, if the king wanted to get a message to his people, he sent out heralds who would proclaim, “Thus says the king!” The herald was not free to make up his own message, but had to speak faithfully the word of the king.
As such, there is a note of authority when we as God’s heralds or messengers proclaim Christ. While we should listen to people’s point of view and dialogue with them about spiritual matters, we don’t ever want to present Jesus as just one option to consider. He is the only way, the only truth, and the only source of eternal life. He is the sum and substance of the Christian life. So He must be at the center both in evangelism and discipleship.
Kent Hughes (Preaching the Word: Colossians & Philemon [Crossway], p. 50) relates the story of a 70-year-old, blind, uneducated African woman who got saved. Filled with gratitude to the Savior, she wanted to do something for Christ. So she went to the missionary with her French Bible and asked him to underline John 3:16 in red. The missionary wondered what she was doing, but he watched as she took her Bible and sat in front of a boys’ school in the afternoon. When school dismissed, she would call a boy or two and ask them if they knew French. When they proudly said that they did, she would say, “Please read the passage underlined in red.” When they did, she would ask, “Do you know what this means?” And she would “proclaim Christ” to them. Over the years, 24 young men became pastors due to her work.
So the first thing to understand is that proclaiming Christ is a job for all of God’s people. You’ll have opportunities to proclaim Him to people who would never come to hear me preach.
Our message centers on the person and work of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Old and New Testaments. We should not veer from this message, supplement it, or mix it up with worldly wisdom. I emphasize this because the enemy subtly undermines the message of the cross that confronts sinners with their guilt with a more user-friendly message that doesn’t offend.
Sam Storms writes (samstorms.com), “If one were to look closely at many churches today and assess the shape and form of ministry, v. 28 would likely need to be rewritten as follows: ‘Him we mention only in passing, lest we offend seekers or sound excessively religious. [Rather than warning and teaching . . .] We seek to please and entertain everyone so that they might feel good about themselves and be reassured that all is well in the world.’”
In the mid-1950’s Norman Vincent Peale became popular by blending the message about Christ with the “power of positive thinking.” But in so doing, he did not truly proclaim Christ, because he did not mention sin and judgment, but only the “positive” aspects of the gospel. Robert Schuller was influenced by Peale, and promoted “possibility thinking” and self-esteem. But he denied the gospel because he did not proclaim Christ crucified as the only answer for our sin problem.
Worldly psychology has infiltrated the church in many ways, blending “insights” from godless men with Bible verses taken out of context or misinterpreted. For example, they tell us that to love God and others, we need first to learn to love ourselves. As a result, Christ and Him crucified is not proclaimed. (See my article, “Christians & Psychology: Some Common Questions Answered,” on fcfonline.org, for more on this point.) In short, Christ and worldly wisdom don’t mix.
Paul contrasted human wisdom with God’s wisdom in Christ (1 Cor. 1:21-24),
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
The sole source of God’s wisdom is His Word, which reveals Jesus Christ to us. In Christ, we have all that we need for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3-4). God’s Word is adequate to equip us for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17). When we walk in dependence on the indwelling Holy Spirit, He produces the fruit of the Spirit in us. Those qualities describe a psychologically whole or healthy person. To the extent that we lack these qualities, we’re not applying God’s wisdom as centered on the person and work of Christ. But as we learn to trust Christ to overcome our problems, He is exalted and gets the glory. Every believer needs to learn to trust Christ for every need and then to help others do the same.
Paul emphasizes “every man’ (or, “person”) three times. Probably he was countering the false teachers, who emphasized the exclusivity of their teaching for the elite insiders only. Paul is saying, “Every person and every type of person matters to Christ, and so we need to help every person apply the person and work of Christ to his or her unique situation.” Babies need milk, but the more mature can handle solid food (1 Cor. 3:1-2; Heb. 5:12-14).
“Admonishing” has the nuance of warning or correcting someone who is in sin or in error. Paul urges (1 Thess. 5:14), “We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” “Unruly” refers to those who are out of step or undisciplined. To apply that verse, we need to discern whether the other person is unruly, fainthearted, or just weak. Not everyone needs admonishing, but some do! It’s the work of every member to admonish in love when you see a brother or sister straying from the Lord (Rom. 15:14).
“Teaching” is the positive side of imparting truth. While only some are gifted to teach publicly, every believer has a teaching role in some capacity. Parents must teach their children (Eph. 6:4; 2 Tim. 1:5). Older women are to teach younger women (Titus 2:3-5). More mature believers are to teach younger believers (Acts 18:24-26; Titus 1:9). Paul brings together both “admonishing” and “teaching” in Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” To be able to admonish and teach others, you must be growing in your knowledge of God’s Word as you let it admonish you.
Thus, our goal is to present every person mature in Christ. To do that, we must proclaim Him by helping every person see the all-sufficiency of the person and work of Christ for life and godliness. But there’s one more thing:
Colossians 1:29: “For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.” Note the paradox and balance of that verse: Paul labors and strives, but he does it according to God’s power, which works mightily in him.
People tend to go to either extreme. Some kick back, and say, “Let go and let God.” They don’t get too worked up about reaching others for Christ or discipling younger believers in the faith. They won’t commit to teach Sunday school or work with our youth or call on church visitors or plug into a small group. To put it nicely, they’re “laid back.” To be more blunt, they’re just lazy when it comes to working for the Lord.
On the other hand, you have people who burn out because they’re laboring and striving, but not according to God’s power working in and through them. It’s almost a badge of honor to be able to say, “I suffered from burnout!” But often these people work so hard because they’re trying to earn God’s favor, rather than working hard through His grace and power (1 Cor. 15:10). I think that burning out means that I was laboring in my power, not in God’s mighty power, or I was out of balance.
“Labor” and “striving” describe hard work. “Striving” was used of athletes exerting all their strength to defeat their opponents. There’s no excuse for being lazy in the Lord’s work. But at the same time, we must do that work in His strength. As Paul said (Phil. 4:13), “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Paul did it, but he did it through Christ’s power (see Phil. 2:12-13).
Working hard in the Lord’s work does not mean that it’s wrong to take time off. Even God rested after the six days of creation. I don’t believe we’re under the Sabbath laws, but I do think there’s an important principle there that we neglect to our harm. Work hard for the Lord, but take time also to rest.
In the early 19th century Charles Simeon encouraged young men he discipled to go into missions. Henry Martyn went to India and then to Persia, where he died of tuberculosis at age 31. This was in the days before photography, but someone painted a portrait of Martyn before he died and it was sent back to Simeon. He was shocked at Martyn’s gaunt appearance. Simeon hung that portrait over the mantle in his study. He said that when he looked at it, it said to him, “Be in earnest! Don’t trifle!” Simeon added, “And I will not trifle!”
Could it be that you’re trifling (or “messing around”) in your walk with Christ or in His work? Make it your aim in the New Year to grow in Christ and to help someone else grow in Him. It’s hard work, but it’s never in vain in the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58).
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2015, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
January 3, 2016
We live in a time of unprecedented widespread deception. The past year saw 750 documented data breaches, stealing the private information of 178 million Americans. When identity thieves get your credit card numbers they can print up phony cards and take out cash or run up bills in your name. When they steal your Social Security number, they can file a tax form and steal your tax refund.
Telephone scammers prey on everyone, but especially on the elderly. The biggest scam is fraudsters who pose as agents of the IRS, telling people that they will be arrested or their property seized for back taxes if they do not pay up immediately. Another popular scam consists of people posing as employees of tech companies who tell you that your computer has a virus. They need remote access to your computer and your passwords so that they can “fix” the problems. And, for a fee, they will provide a year’s worth of “tech support.” (These statistics and examples are from an AARP email, 12/23/15.)
While these schemes can cost people financially, spiritual deception can result in a person’s eternal ruin. Satan has been employing his deceptive lies since the Garden. Warning the Corinthians about not receiving a false Jesus or a different gospel, the apostle Paul wrote (2 Cor. 11:3), “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”
Satan has used the false teaching of the cults to lure many away from the true gospel that the apostles preached. Invariably, these groups prey on unsuspecting, untaught people in evangelical churches. They use the Bible and claim to believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord. But they deny the trinity, including Jesus’ deity. They deny the gospel of Christ’s substitutionary atonement and salvation by grace through faith alone. Tragically, they lead their followers into eternal damnation.
As we’ve seen, false teachers were threatening the new Colossian church. They probably had not yet gained many followers—at this point Paul was still “rejoicing to see [their] good discipline and the stability of [their] faith in Christ” (Col. 2:5). But these wolves were mingling among the flock, so Paul was concerned. In our text, he gives them a dose of preventative medicine. He wrote these things “so that no one would delude [them] with persuasive argument” (Col. 2:4). To be forewarned was to be forearmed. Since the eternal destiny of precious souls is at stake, we need to heed his counsel on how to avoid spiritual deception. To sum up:
We avoid spiritual deception by being committed to a loving, Christ-centered church.
Before we explore Paul’s counsel, I mention that these verses could be expounded in a different direction. Paul is continuing to talk about his ministry (Col. 1:24-29). In Colossians 1:29, he said that he was striving according to God’s mighty power. In Colossians 2:1, he uses the same Greek word to tell his readers that he had a great struggle on their behalf, which he goes on to describe. So we could develop these verses along the lines of some vital principles for ministry:
(1) Heartfelt love and concern for the spiritual well-being of the church (including these people whom he had never met); (2) prayer (“struggle”) undergirding everything; (3) a strong emphasis on teaching the truth along with loving relationships; (4) being Christ-centered and Christ-exalting in such teaching; (5) warning newer believers about the danger of being carried away by false teachers who like to prey on the flock; (6) encouraging others to be disciplined and stand firm in Christ.
But you’ll have to work on those points on your own. I want to pursue the theme of avoiding spiritual deception, because it is no less a threat in our day than it was in Paul’s.
Over 40 years ago, Marla and I were mugged at gunpoint as we walked from our car to our apartment in Dallas, Texas. After that traumatic event, I never made that short walk without looking around for potential danger. I often saw women standing near where we were mugged, chatting together without a thought that they may be in a dangerous place. But after we were attacked, I was always alert and on guard. Even to this day, if I venture outside in a public place after dark, I keep my eyes open for possible attackers. If you’re unaware of potential danger, you’re more likely to fall prey to it.
The problem with spiritual deception is that it’s always more subtle and conniving than an armed, frontal attack. Paul warned that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light and his servants as servants of righteousness (2 Cor. 11:14-15). Satan doesn’t come in a red suit with horns and a pitchfork, laughing wickedly as he promises to take you with him to hell. He comes offering greater “light” on difficult issues. His servants are not outwardly, obviously evil. They pose as servants of righteousness, promising freedom, while inwardly they are enslaved by various lusts (2 Pet. 2:18-19). Jesus warned about wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matt. 7:15). Their disguise enabled them to mix among the flock, but their aim was to destroy for their own gain.
In our text (Col. 2:4), Paul warns about those who would “delude you with persuasive argument.” They were promising “deeper knowledge of mysteries” and “secret wisdom” that would help you in your Christian life. But they were promoting a message that appealed to the flesh. They claimed to have a deeper philosophy than the simple gospel of faith in Christ. They claimed to be holier than the apostles because of their self-abasement, rules, and severe treatment of the body (Col. 2:23). But they were promoting a religion that feeds pride, not the message of the cross.
It’s amazing how many different false teachings and teachers continue to prey on the Lord’s flock in our day. I recently saw an article on a “Bible study” group in Colorado where everyone smokes pot (which is legal there and coming here soon!). The members testified that studying the Bible in traditional churches had always been boring to them, but when they smoke pot, they see new insights and the Bible is much more interesting. And a local pastor is helping them study the Bible without confronting their drug use!
Beyond that, the cults are as active as ever, going door-to-door in our neighborhoods and recruiting people by appealing to their “strong family emphasis.” Among professing evangelicals, there are “churches” that gather in bars and sip cocktails while they discuss the Bible and current topics of interest. Seeker sensitive churches avoid mentioning anything negative, such as sin or judgment, which might make seekers feel uncomfortable. Rather than explain and apply the Bible, they show movie clips and give self-help messages about how you can succeed in your marriage or career. They picture God as our Good Buddy on the journey, a “life-coach” who is there rooting for us, even when we sin. If we’re oblivious to these and many other deceptive schemes of the devil, we’re more likely to fall prey to them.
Let me be quick to add that “loving” isn’t the only criterion! The cults draw people in by showing them “love.” Perhaps the most egregious example was the Children of God cult, where the women used sex to lure unsuspecting men into the group. But other less flagrant examples abound, where the cults offer lonely people a sense of belonging and fellowship. So love is not the only necessary quality to look for.
But it is an essential quality. Paul’s heartfelt love and concern for these believers whom he had not even met is evident. Although not directly stated here, his concern for them is similar to his concern for the new Thessalonian believers, where he compares himself to a gentle, nursing mother and to a loving, concerned father (1 Thess. 2:7, 11). In Colossians 2:2, he expresses his desire or prayer for these dear people, along with the believers in Laodicea, “that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself ….” That reminds me of Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians (3:16-19):
… that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
In both prayers, Paul connects spiritual apprehension of God’s blessings in Christ with being a part of a loving fellowship of believers. F. F. Bruce observed (The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians [Eerdmans], p. 95), “Paul emphasizes that the revelation of God cannot be properly known apart from the cultivation of brotherly love within the community.” N. T. Wright (Colossians and Philemon [IVP/Eerdmans], pp. 94-95) explains, “Living in a loving and forgiving community will assist growth in understanding, and vice versa, as truth is confirmed in practice and practice enables truth to be seen in action and so to be fully grasped.” Our text implies three qualities of a loving church:
Although it’s not directly stated, most commentators think that Paul’s great “struggle” for these believers whom he had not met was his struggle in prayer. He uses the verb related to that noun when he refers (Col. 4:12) to Epaphras, who is “always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers.” We get our word “agonizing” from this Greek word. It was used of wrestlers, straining every fiber in their bodies as they struggled to defeat their opponents. In Colossians 4:2-3, Paul specifically calls this church to prayer: “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well ….”
There are two things to take away from this. First, if you love people, you will pray for them. If they’re on your heart, you take them often before God’s throne of grace, asking Him to keep them from the many snares of this world and to help them to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. I encourage you to pray through our church directory. Even if you don’t know these people (Paul didn’t know the Colossians or Laodiceans personally), it puts them on your heart. When you meet them, there is an instant bond of fellowship if you’ve been praying for them.
Second, the word “struggle” implies that praying for others is not easy. If you find praying for others to be difficult, welcome to the process! As Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, we are doing battle against “the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
Paul’s heart of concern for these new believers oozes through this text, and he wants their hearts to be encouraged or strengthened as they are knit together in love. True Christianity is a matter of the heart or inward person. It’s not about outward conformity or appearance, but about love for God and one another from the heart. It’s not about keeping up an image or veneer of righteousness by rules, but rather about how we think and live when others aren’t looking.
As we saw in Colossians 1:28, Paul’s aim was to present every person complete or mature in Christ. Love seeks the highest good of others, which is, that the person knows Christ in a saving way and that he or she is growing in Christ. Since sin always destroys people, love means that if you see a brother or sister in sin or straying from the Lord, you go to them in a humble, gentle spirit and seek to restore them to the Lord (Gal. 6:1). If you hear a fellow Christian saying things that are contrary to sound doctrine, you talk with him and try to reason from Scripture to show him his error.
So to avoid spiritual deception, be aware of the danger. Be committed to a loving church. There is safety when you’re in the fold with the other sheep. If you venture out on your own, the wolves are waiting!
In chapter 1, Paul has shown that as the creator of the universe and the head of the church, Christ is supreme over all things. He said that the riches of the glory of the mystery that God has now revealed is, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). In Colossians 2:2b-3, probably countering the false teachers who emphasized their secret knowledge of the mysteries of God, Paul comes back to that theme and says that he wants these believers to attain “to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” He also (Col. 2:5) commends their “good discipline and the stability of [their] faith in Christ.” Clearly, Christ and the gospel must be the center of a solid church. Note five things:
The Bible is our only source of divine revelation about the person and work of Jesus Christ and the Bible is Christ-centered. The Old Testament points ahead to Jesus. As Alec Motyer asserts (A Christian’s Pocket Guide to Loving the Old Testament [Christian Focus], p. 19, 25), “Without the Old Testament, we could not know Jesus properly…. Without the Old Testament we would not understand our New Testament properly.” The Gospels tell us how God took on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. The rest of the New Testament interprets and applies the person, teaching, and work of Christ. The final book of the New Testament, the Revelation, points to His second coming in power and glory.
So if a church is not centered on the Bible, it is not centered on Jesus Christ. If a church does not teach the Bible on a consistent basis, you will not be equipped to withstand the deceptive schemes of the devil. In a genuinely loving church, you will receive sound teaching, both from the pulpit and from mature believers. Sometimes, sound teaching will confront where your life is not in line with God’s revealed will. Don’t dodge that! It’s easy to find churches that tell you what you want to hear to make you feel good. You need a church that, like a good doctor, tells you what you need to hear for spiritual health and growth (2 Tim. 4:1-5).
Discernment is a scarce commodity in modern evangelical circles. If you advocate discernment, you’ll be accused of being judgmental or intolerant. When I first came here 23 years ago, one of the elders told me that I was arrogant because I had titled one of my sermons, “What the Bible Says About Abortion.” When I asked him to explain, he said, “You can’t be dogmatic. You can’t say what the Bible says about anything. You can only state your opinion, but be open to other views.”
I agree that there are some secondary matters where we must not be dogmatic and I agree that we must be kind and gracious when we defend the truth (2 Tim. 2:24-26). But I disagree strongly that we must be tolerant and accepting of diverse views on clear biblical doctrines and moral issues. Without sound doctrine and biblically-based discernment, God’s people will be “carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming” (Eph. 4:14).
Paul says that full assurance comes from understanding and knowing God’s mystery, which is Christ (the best manuscripts omit, “of the Father”). When Paul says that Christ is God’s “mystery,” and that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are “hidden” in Him, he does not mean that these things are reserved for an elite, insider few. Rather, he is countering the false teachers, who appealed to people with their inside secrets. By “mystery,” Paul means truth that formerly was concealed, but now is plainly revealed for all to see. The Old Testament promised the coming Redeemer and King, but the specifics were blurry until Jesus came on the scene, much like we’re fuzzy on the details about end time prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled.
By saying that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are “hidden” in Christ, Paul is reflecting Proverbs 2:4-5, which says of wisdom, understanding, and discernment:
If you seek her as silver
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
Then you will discern the fear of the Lord
And discover the knowledge of God.
It takes some effort and diligence to mine out the riches that are in Christ. But the point is, He is our all-sufficient treasure for our every need. As W. H. Griffith Thomas states (Studies in Colossians and Philemon [Kregel], p. 78), “The only safeguard against error for the Christian is a full knowledge of Christ.”
“Knit together” sometimes means “instructed.” But it also means “knit or held together” (see Col. 2:19), which is probably the meaning here. But note that the unity is not divorced from understanding and true knowledge of Christ. As Paul states in Ephesians 4:13, 15, we are to attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God as we speak the truth in love.
There are core biblical truths that we must understand clearly and be willing to fight for and, if necessary, divide over or even die for. To compromise these truths would be to deny the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are other areas of doctrine and practice where godly people differ. While some of these areas are important for how we live, they do not jeopardize the gospel. We may debate these issues vigorously, but we must always regard the other person as a brother or sister in Christ and treat him or her with love.
“Good discipline” and “stability” picture a military unit that is disciplined in its fighting order, that has closed ranks so that the false teachers cannot break through. Sam Storms (samstorms.com) writes:
The word translated “good order” points to the well-ordered behavior of the Colossians. He has in mind lives that are aligned with biblical revelation, daily habits of life that reflect the values of Jesus, unwavering obedience to the will of God, no matter how unpopular or “unsuccessful” that may prove to be.
“Stability” is the opposite of trendy, flashy, or sensational. Stable churches don’t chase after the latest fad or church growth techniques. They don’t keep people hyped up with speculations about how close we may be to the rapture (because we can’t know exactly when Jesus will return). They don’t promote the latest self-help insights on how you can have a successful life, marriage, or career. Stable churches, frankly, are kind of boring! But we are to be stable in our faith in Christ. The biblical gospel is a sure foundation to guard us against spiritual deception.
In The Truth War [Thomas Nelson, 2007], John MacArthur argues that faithfulness to Christ demands that we fight for the truth of the gospel. But the modern evangelical church, swayed by the worldly emphasis on tolerance and “love,” has become apathetic to the whole concept of truth. In the introduction, he states (p. xvii), “Church leaders are obsessed with style and methodology, losing interest in the glory of God and becoming grossly apathetic about truth and sound doctrine.” He adds (p. xviii, brackets in original), “What we desperately need today are ‘shepherds according to [God’s] heart, who will feed [believers] with knowledge and understanding’ (Jeremiah 3:15; Acts 20:28-31).”
That’s what Paul was arguing for in our text. The enemy has many servants who are trying to delude you with their persuasive arguments to water down the truth about Christ. But you can avoid spiritual deception by being committed to a loving, Christ-centered church.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
January 24, 2015
On January 5, 1974, I went to a dinner party where I met a young woman named Marla. My friends had told me that she was my type, but I had heard that and had been disappointed so many times that I was skeptical, at best. But as I entered the apartment and met Marla, something inside of me said, “Yeah, she does seem like my type! Maybe she could be the one!”
I was very lonely at the time and didn’t want to wait a whole week to see her again, so I asked her out for the next evening. We spent almost that entire first week together and by the end of the week, we were talking with some certainty about marriage. After three weeks, I screwed up my courage to ask her father for her hand in marriage. He took a drag on his cigarette, blew out the smoke, looked at her, shrugged, and said, “It’s your life!” I took that for his blessing! We got married on March 23, 1974, less than three months after we had met. Later, when we had children, I was afraid that they might do something similar!
We all like to hear stories of how people fell in love. But, honestly, falling in love is fairly easy. But the question is, how do you sustain that love so that it grows deeper and stronger over a lifetime? I’ve performed a lot of weddings and without exception, the couples were deeply in love with each other. But sadly, I’ve also often had couples in my office who are so angry and bitter towards each other that I wonder how, just a few years before, they ever were in love. They started out madly in love, but they failed to sustain and deepen that love.
Becoming a Christian is a lot like falling in love. When you meet Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, you feel like the lame man at the temple, whom the Lord healed through Peter and John: you walk and leap and praise the Lord (Acts 3:8). Your guilt is gone. You’re at peace with God. He gives you His joy and the hope of eternal life. You’re a brand new creation in Christ and it feels wonderful, kind of like falling in love.
But those wonderful feelings will not automatically last. Trials and disappointments will come. You may suffer health problems. You pray for something, but God doesn’t answer. Doubts will creep in. Old friends cut you off and ridicule your faith. If you’re married, your spouse may be threatened by your changed life and become hostile and abusive. Your kids may not turn out as you had hoped and prayed. How do you go on with Christ over the long haul and sustain that first love for Him?
Sadly, some don’t go on. They grow bitter at God because of their trials. Some fall prey to false teachers, who offer them health and prosperity if they just have enough faith. Some get sucked in by the cults. Others settle in for routine Christianity, like a routine marriage, where they go through the motions, but they don’t enjoy the love of Jesus. They fill the void by collecting more things that promise to make them happy. Some succumb to temptation, thinking that an affair will bring happiness and fulfillment.
So the question is, “How do you go on with Christ? How do you keep that first love fresh and vital over the long haul?” In Colossians 2:6-7, Paul gives us a simple, but not simplistic, answer:
We go on with Christ in the same way we received Him.
Colossians 2:6: “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” In the context, Paul is not focusing so much on the means of how you received Christ (by grace through faith), but rather on the Christ whom you received. The false teachers were trying to set aside or minimize Jesus Christ with their clever philosophies. They probably weren’t overtly denying Christ, but they were saying that to be fulfilled, you had to learn their secrets. You had to follow their manmade rules. You had to worship the angels and understand the visions that they had seen (Col. 2:18, 20-23). Christ alone was not enough.
So in chapter 1, Paul exalts Jesus Christ as all-sufficient and supreme over all. In Christ, we have “redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:14). He is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15), which as Paul immediately explains, means that He created all things that exist. He also is the head of His body, the church. God’s intention is that Jesus Christ will come to have first place in everything, because He shares the fullness of God (Col. 1:16-19). Even though we were alienated from God and hostile to Him, Christ reconciled us to God through His death (Col. 1:21-22).
It was that Christ whom Paul proclaimed and in whom the Colossians had believed through Epaphras’ preaching. It was that Christ who dwelled in the Colossians, whom Paul proclaimed so that he might present every person mature in Christ (Col. 1:27-28). If they wanted to avoid the errors of the false teachers, then they needed to go on walking with this same Christ Jesus the Lord whom they had received. If we want to go on with Christ without succumbing to the many false teachers in our day, or without falling into sin, or drifting into spiritual apathy, then we must go on with this exalted, all-sufficient, Christ in the same way we received Him. Who, then, is this Christ and how did we receive Him?
The order of the name, Christ Jesus the Lord is significant (the exact Greek sequence of names and articles is unique here in the New Testament; cf. Douglas Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and Philemon [Eerdmans/Apollos], p. 178).
The One we received is first of all the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One (“Christ” is the Greek and “Messiah” is the Hebrew for “Anointed One”). He is the one prophesied of in the Hebrew Scriptures, written centuries before He was born. He is God’s anointed King, Prophet, and Priest.
As God’s anointed King, Jesus is appointed to reign as the sovereign of the universe. God has put His Son on the throne at His right hand and will give Him the nations as His inheritance and the very ends of the earth as His possession (Ps. 2:6-8; Ps. 110:1). One day every enemy will bow before Him as King of kings and Lord of lords (Phil. 2:9-11; Rev. 19:16). He will throw the devil and all who follow him into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10-15). No power in heaven or earth can stand against Him (Eph. 1:20-22). He is God’s anointed King!
As God’s anointed Prophet, Jesus speaks for God as the prophet, par excellence. Being one with the Father from all eternity and sent by the Father to do His will, Jesus is uniquely qualified to reveal the Father to us (John 10:30; 1:18; 8:38; 14:9). He spoke with authority about heaven and hell, about eternal life and about every aspect of this life. Being God in human flesh (John 1:14), He is omniscient and without sin, so that all that He speaks is both true and authoritative. He is God’s anointed Prophet.
As God’s anointed Priest, Jesus mediates between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5). He offers the blood sacrifice which the holiness of God demands as the means of approaching Him. But unlike the Old Testament priests, who offered the blood of animals and who had to offer sacrifices for their own sins, Jesus offered His own blood for the sins of the world (John 1:29; Heb. 7:26-28). As a priest after the order of Melchizedek, Jesus’ priesthood replaces and supersedes the Levitical priests. They offered repeated sacrifices year after year, which could never make perfect those who draw near. But Jesus offered Himself once for all, providing complete forgiveness for all who trust in Him (Heb. 10:1-18).
This Christ, the anointed King, Prophet, and Priest, as revealed in the Scriptures, is the one whom the Colossians had received. Paul is arguing that they must not—we must not—turn aside to any other so-called “Christ” or human philosophy. Christ provides a full and complete salvation for all who believe in Him.
Jesus is His human name. When the angel announced to Joseph Mary’s conception by the Holy Spirit, he said (Matt. 1:21), “You shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.” Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew “Joshua,” which means, “Yahweh saves.” Jesus said (Luke 19:10), “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
As I’ve often said, although we toss around the word “salvation” as a common term, we need to remember that it is a radical word. Good people who just need a little advice or guidance do not need salvation. People who are functioning pretty well on their own do not need to be saved. Self-righteousness blinds us to our need for Jesus to save us from our sins. But sinners who are lost and alienated from the holy God, unable to do anything to be reconciled to Him, know that they need to be rescued or saved from God’s righteous wrath against their sin.
The Bible says that while God is a personal God, at the same time He “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see” (1 Tim. 6:16). “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). He is so holy that when the godly prophet Isaiah saw Him on His throne, he cried out (Isa. 6:5),
“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
So the question is, how can we know and be close to such a holy God? The good news is that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross” (1 Pet. 2:24). If you know that you’re a sinner, cry out to Jesus to save you from God’s judgment. The Bible promises (Rom. 10:13), “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Christ Jesus is the only Savior God has provided for helplessly lost sinners.
The Colossians received Him as Christ Jesus, but also as “the Lord.” “Lord” refers to His deity. In the Old Testament it is the personal covenant name of God. It focuses on His absolute sovereignty as the Creator of the universe, the ruler over all that exists. It means that what He commands we must obey. He made us and knows everything about us. His commands are not burdensome, to plague us. Rather, they are perfect, right, and for our good (Ps. 19:7-11; Rom. 7:12; 1 John 5:3).
If you think that you can receive Jesus as your Savior and wait until later to consider the option of receiving Him as Lord, you may not have received Him at all. To receive Him as Savior means receiving Him for who He is; and He is the rightful Lord of all. All history revolves around Him and will be consummated in Him for His glory (Eph. 1:10-11; Col. 1:16-20). When He comes again in power and glory, He will conquer all His enemies and bring salvation for His saints (Rev. 19:1-21).
The Colossians (and we) have received Christ Jesus the Lord. Paul is saying that they (and we) must not trade this sovereign Lord for a false substitute, a “Christ” of man’s vain philosophizing. We received Christ Jesus the Lord. We must continue with Him alone, as He is revealed in His Word.
The word “received” means “to receive as transmitted” from their teachers. Paul received the gospel directly from Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:12). He passed it on to others, such as Epaphras, who took it to the Colossians. They received the testimony of Epaphras by trusting in Christ Jesus the Lord, whom he proclaimed. The point is, the gospel is not a human philosophy, based on the speculations of religious wise men. Rather, it was transmitted to us from Jesus Christ through His chosen apostles, recorded in the New Testament. It is the testimony about a unique person, Jesus Christ the Lord. When we believe the gospel, we don’t just believe a body of doctrines, although that is true. We receive Christ Jesus the Lord personally. We recognize who He is and we welcome Him into our lives as our Savior from sin and as our rightful Lord.
Of course, the Christian life is a process of growing deeper in the knowledge of who Jesus is and how we can live in a way that is pleasing to Him (Col. 1:10). But as imperfect as our initial understanding may be, we must receive Jesus Christ as Lord. Saving faith is more than just intellectual assent, where you add Him into your life as a nice accessory to have on hand when you need a little help. No, you must receive Christ Jesus the Lord, in all that that means. He owns you because He bought you with His blood (1 Cor. 6:19-20). He is the one you must go on with as a Christian. But how?
Colossians 2:6: “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him ….” “Walk” is in the present tense, indicating an ongoing process. It’s a frequent word for describing the Christian life (Eph. 4:1, 17; 5:2, 8, 15). Walking isn’t as impressive or quick as running, galloping, or flying. But if you keep walking in a deliberate direction, eventually you’ll get there. It implies a daily, steady, step-by-step effort and progress toward a goal. We are to walk “in Him,” that is, in all that Jesus is for us as we are in Him.
In verse 7, Paul uses four participles to elaborate on what this walk in Christ looks like: “…having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.” The first participle is in the perfect tense, indicating a past action with continuing results: you were and still are rooted in Him. The other three participles are present tense, indicating an ongoing process: you are being built up in Him; you are being established in the faith; and you are overflowing with gratitude. The first three participles are in the passive voice, emphasizing that God is working these things in us. The final participle is active, pointing to our responsibility to be thankful. Or, it may look at thankfulness as the result of the first three actions.
Note that Paul uses a variety of metaphors: walking on a path; being rooted like a tree; being built up like a building under construction; and overflowing like a flooding river. There isn’t a logical connection. Rather, Paul is showing us from different angles what it means to go on walking with Christ Jesus the Lord in the same way we received Him. Let’s look briefly at each of them:
This pictures a tree, firmly rooted so that it gets the water and nutrients from the soil to grow and be healthy. It can withstand the storms that blow against it and endure times of drought because of its roots. The roots are hidden from view, but they are absolutely essential. Without those deep roots, the tree will fall over in a storm or die during a drought.
When we genuinely trust in Christ, God roots us in Him, but we need to continually sink down more roots into Him. This is the hidden part of your walk with Christ that others don’t see. It refers to your heart before God and your time alone with Him. Some go to church and act like Christians. Outwardly, it seems that they are Christians. But in the hidden person of their heart, they have never truly trusted in Jesus as their Savior and Lord. They never spend time alone with Him, seeking Him in His Word and in prayer. Then a storm comes up and they crash. They weren’t rooted in Christ. Are you sinking down roots in Him?
This pictures a building under construction. The present participle indicates steady progress toward completion. If you’ve watched a building under construction, sometimes the progress is evident: the frame goes up or the roof goes on. At other times, you wonder, “What did they do there this week?” They were inside working on things you couldn’t see, like the wiring or plumbing. But they are essential for the finished building to function properly.
When you walk with the Lord, sometimes there are obvious changes that others can easily see. More often, the Lord is steadily at work on areas that aren’t as dramatic, but are just as necessary. We learn to trust and obey Him on little, daily matters. We judge our grumbling spirit. We put to death the lusts of the flesh. We speak kindly to others, even when they are mean towards us. We’re gradually being built up in Him.
“In the faith” could be translated “in your faith,” but in light of the context of false teachers and the next phrase, “just as you were instructed,” I think Paul means being established in the Christian faith, that is, in sound doctrine. The word “establish” was sometimes used as a legal term meaning, “to confirm, guarantee, or make irrevocable.” Here, Paul may be looking at the growing assurance that we gain as we grow to understand the irrevocable truths of God’s Word. You learn the guaranteed promises that God has given to us in Christ. Your growing knowledge of sound doctrine protects you against the many winds of false teaching that blow others off course. To go on with Christ, you must make a deliberate effort to be established in the faith.
The picture here is a river overflowing its banks. There is just too much water to stay in the normal flow, so it floods out over the surrounding land. Our gratitude to God for all that He’s done for us in Christ should flood out onto those around us.
Over the years, I’ve had to fight constantly against grumbling. I think I’ve made progress, but I’m still prone to grumble when things don’t go as I want them to go. Like the Israelites in the wilderness, instead of thanking God for delivering me from bondage to sin and providing me with all the blessings of His salvation, I complain about the little things. But as I think about my salvation and all that God has done for me, I should be overflowing with gratitude to Him for His abundant grace.
In Colossians, Paul repeatedly emphasizes thankfulness. As we saw (Col. 1:12), we should be “giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saint in Light.” (See, also, Col. 1:3; 3:15, 16; 4:2.) The application is that grumblers will be more susceptible to the lure of false teaching. In my marriage, if I’m thankful for Marla and delight in her, I’m less susceptible to the temptations of another woman. With the Lord, a grateful heart that is satisfied daily with His abundant blessings won’t be attracted by false teaching.
This March, Marla and I will celebrate 42 years of marriage. What began so wonderfully all those years ago has continued and gotten even better. How has that happened? Well, we’ve gone on in the same way we started: I’m hopelessly infatuated with her and she tolerates me!
Are you going on with Christ Jesus the Lord in the same way you received Him? Don’t lose your first love for the wonderful, exalted Savior who loves you and gave Himself for you! If your love for Him has cooled and you’re just in routine Christianity, take the time to sit again at His feet. Think about how it was when you first received Him. Meditate on His beauty and grace. Ask Him to make this a year of unprecedented growth in Him! And, if you’ve never received Christ Jesus the Lord, why not do that right now?
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
January 31, 2016
When a counterfeiter wants to pass off fake money, he doesn’t use Monopoly money. Rather, he tries to make the bills look as genuine as possible. But reality sets in when the victim takes that counterfeit bill to the bank. The teller holds it up to the light, doesn’t see the authenticating mark, and says, “Your $100 bill is worthless!” You’ve been deceived by a counterfeiter!
Even more serious is when someone is deceived by a counterfeit Christ. The victim doesn’t just lose a hundred dollars—he loses eternal life! Satan is the master spiritual counterfeiter! He doesn’t try to pawn off religious Monopoly money. He makes his schemes look as much like the original as possible. He speaks about Jesus Christ. He uses the Bible and Christian terminology. Satan’s supposedly “Christian” religions promote good works and family values. They advocate “Christian” morality. But invariably, they present a human way of salvation that denies the deity and substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. The undiscerning think that this religion will get them into heaven, but it leads them to hell.
That’s the sort of thing Paul was combatting in Colossae. If the Colossian heresy had been totally non-Christian, it would not have been so difficult to detect and resist. But it was a blend of Christian terms with Judaic and Greek thought. Since the early church did not yet have the completed New Testament, it was very susceptible to these Christian-sounding ideas. In our text, Paul warns against being taken captive by these destructive heresies. Paul’s instruction here is needed just as badly today as it was when he wrote because the enemy is still in the counterfeit religion business. Paul is drawing a contrast between religion that claims to be “Christian” and the living Christ. He’s saying,
Union with the living Christ is far superior to empty religion.
I need to warn you that there are some difficult interpretive matters in these verses. But keep in mind that Paul wrote these things to formerly pagan people who had come to Christ no more than five years before. If the Holy Spirit who inspired Paul thought that these people were capable of understanding these truths and needed this to stand firm in Christ, then we also can grasp it as we depend on Him.
Colossians 2:8: “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” New Testament scholar J. B. Lightfoot paraphrases verse 8 (Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon [Zondervan], p. 177):
Be on your guard; do not suffer yourselves to fall a prey to certain persons who would lead you captive by a hollow and deceitful system, which they call philosophy. They substitute the traditions of men for the truth of God. They enforce an elementary discipline of mundane ordinances fit only for children. Theirs is not the Gospel of Christ.
Verse 8 is the only occurrence of the word “philosophy” in the New Testament. Paul was probably taking the false teachers’ term for their teaching and saying, “It sounds impressive and it promises a lot; but it’s a deceptive empty shell. If you’re not careful, they’ll carry you away as captives to it.”
I majored in philosophy in college, mainly because I was from a sheltered Christian background and I wanted to see if secular philosophers had any answers to the hard questions that we all have to wrestle with. I appreciated the logic courses, which helped me to think through arguments and to spot fallacious reasoning. But I learned that while philosophers could ask a lot of difficult questions, they didn’t have any viable answers. But in spite of not having any helpful answers, most of my professors had a smug arrogance about their own intellect. They delighted in shooting down the arguments for the existence of God and in pointing out what they thought were contradictions in the Bible. The arrogant professor in the movie, “God’s Not Dead,” accurately portrayed many of my college professors.
A prime example of this sort of philosophical religious arrogance is “The Jesus Seminar.” It was founded in 1985 “to review each of the sayings and deeds attributed to Jesus in the gospels and determine which of them could be considered authentic” (www.westarinstitute.org/projects/the-jesus-seminar). A group of “biblical scholars” get together and vote on which sayings and deeds reported in the gospels are truly “the historical Jesus,” and which were made up. They report (ibid.): “Among the findings is that, in the judgment of the Jesus Seminar Fellows, about 18 percent of the sayings and 16 percent of the deeds attributed to Jesus in the gospels are authentic.”
The founder of The Jesus Seminar, Robert Funk, wrote (cited by Mark Roberts, www.patheos.com/blogs/markdroberts/series/ unmasking-the-jesus-seminar):
We should give Jesus a demotion. It is no longer credible to think of Jesus as divine. Jesus’ divinity goes together with the old theistic way of thinking about God.
The plot early Christians invented for a divine redeemer figure is as archaic as the mythology in which it is framed. A Jesus who drops down out of heaven, performs some magical act that frees human beings from the power of sin, rises from the dead, and returns to heaven is simply no longer credible. The notion that he will return at the end of time and sit in cosmic judgment is equally incredible. We must find a new plot for a more credible Jesus.
At least Funk was honest about his agenda! False teachers are usually more careful to hide their true views. But all such false teachers replace the authority of God’s revealed truth with proud human reason. That’s what Paul means when he calls it, “the tradition of men.” It originates with man, not with God. It draws people in, as Satan deceived Eve, by questioning what God has said and by appealing to the proud thought that we’re smart enough to determine what is spiritually true or false! We can sit in judgment on God’s Word. It does not sit in judgment over us.
Paul also describes this false, human, religious philosophy as being “according to the elementary principles of the world.” This is a highly debated phrase! Paul uses the same word in verse 20, as well as in Galatians 4:3 & 9. The NASB translates it literally, “the elementary principles of the world.” The Greek word meant to put things in a row and was used of the A-B-C’s. Most commentators, however, think that in light of Paul’s mention of the false teachers’ worship of angels (Col. 2:18), and his references to Christ’s dominance over all heavenly rule and authority (Col. 1:16, 20; 2:10, 15; Gal. 4:8-9 also refers to false gods), Paul is referring to elemental spirits (as the ESV, RSV, and TNIV interpret, not translate it).
I’m going against the majority here (although I’m following Bishop Lightfoot). Based on the context (both here and in Galatians 4) I believe that by “elementary principles” Paul is referring to an approach to God by keeping certain rules. By referring to it as the A-B-C’s, Paul is using sarcasm to put down the false teachers, who were puffed up with their knowledge or philosophy. As Lightfoot said, it is “an elementary discipline of mundane ordinances fit only for children.” Paul is saying that their so-called “philosophy” is like going back to spiritual kindergarten. I grant that demonic powers are often behind such human-based philosophies. But rather than primarily referring to evil spirits, I think Paul is referring to religion that seeks to approach God through keeping rules.
In Galatia, the false teachers emphasized the ritual of circumcision, along with other Jewish ceremonial laws, such as observing days, months, seasons, and years (Gal. 4:10), as necessary for salvation. In Colossae, the false teachers also may have emphasized circumcision (Col. 2:11; some scholars doubt this). They also emphasized certain food and drink, along with keeping religious festivals and Sabbath days (Col. 2:16, 21). But it all detracted from the person and work of Christ and it provided a basis for people who kept these manmade rules to glory in the flesh. As Paul goes on to say (Col. 2:23), such rules-based approaches may appear to be the right way to live, but they fail because they cannot deal with sin in the human heart. Only Christ and the new birth can change the heart.
In our day the rules may have changed but the enemy still uses this legalistic, flesh-exalting, approach to lure people away from the gospel. It usually elevates minor points of doctrine into major issues, or it emphasizes manmade rules as more important than the two great commandments, loving God and loving one another. In every case, it appeals to human pride by saying that by believing certain non-essential things or by keeping certain manmade commandments you can be acceptable to God. Such religious approaches to God are counterfeits.
How then can we know true Christianity? Paul sums it up with the phrase (Col. 2:8), “according to Christ.” Jesus Christ is at the center of true Christianity. Paul goes on to show that …
Paul makes three assertions about the sufficiency of Jesus Christ, setting off each with the phrase, “in Him.” The first (Col. 2:9) talks of the sufficiency of Christ Himself; the second (Col. 2:10) and third (Col. 2:11) talk about the sufficiency we enjoy by virtue of our union with Him. Keep in mind that Paul was taking a swipe at the false teachers. We’re only hearing one end of the conversation and must piece together by inference what these men were teaching. But much of Paul’s vocabulary was aimed directly at the words used by these subtle enemies of the gospel.
“For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Col. 2:9) is one of the most direct and clear statements of the deity of Jesus Christ in all Scripture. It’s hard to conceive how it could be stated any more plainly. The false teachers emphasized a concept of fullness. They also may have viewed the flesh as evil, thus denying the true humanity of Jesus. Against those errors, Paul asserts both the full deity and complete humanity of Jesus Christ.
The word “Deity” is used only here in the New Testament. A different word (which, in Greek, varies by only one letter) is used in Romans 1:20, where Paul states that God's “divine nature” is clearly seen in His creation. There Paul is saying that if you look at God’s creation, you can learn something of what He is like. Rays of His divine attributes shine forth from what He has made. But that in no way implies that the things He made are deity.
But the word used in Colossians 2:9 means that Jesus Christ “was, and is, absolute and perfect God” (R. C. Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament [Eerdmans], p. 8). Not just part of the divine nature or “divine quality” (as the Jehovah’s Witness New World Translation mistranslates it), but the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Jesus Christ. “Fullness” refers to “the totality of the Divine powers and attributes” (Lightfoot, p. 159). The present tense (“dwells”) shows that Jesus is and always has been God. As He claimed (John 8:58), “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”
But also Paul asserts that Jesus is truly human: God’s fullness dwells in Jesus bodily. This refers to His incarnation, when the eternal Word took on human flesh through the virgin birth. Jesus possessed a sinless human body. As I mentioned recently, Bishop Handley Moule once said (preface to Robert Anderson, The Lord from Heaven), “A Savior not quite God is a bridge broken at the farther end.” But we also could say, “A Savior not quite man is a bridge broken at this end.” If Jesus is not fully human, then He could not bear human sins. He could not sympathize with our human weaknesses, to be our faithful high priest (Heb. 2:17; 4:15).
So Paul’s point is that if Jesus Christ is the eternal God in human flesh, what more could we need? A philosophy of manmade rules cannot compare to the perfect Savior we have in Christ. He alone can atone for our sins. He alone lives to make intercession for us. Religion is empty, but a relationship with the eternal God in human flesh is all we need.
The Greek text reads literally, “And you are in Him having been fulfilled, who is the head of all rule and authority.” “Complete” is related to the Greek word used for the “fullness” of Deity in Christ (Col. 2:9). Paul is saying, “Christ has the fullness of Deity dwelling in Him; you are in Him; thus, you have been made full in His fullness. You don’t need anything else.” The Living Bible paraphrases, “So you have everything when you have Christ, and you are filled with God through your union with Christ.”
When you’re born into this world, you’re born complete. You don’t grow arms and legs later, like a tadpole. You’ve got everything you’ll ever need. You can’t use it all until you grow in age and strength, but you’ve got the whole package right from the start. It’s the same spiritually. You get everything in Christ the instant you’re born again. You’re joined to Him in such an intimate way that Paul often refers to it as being “in Him.” As Peter puts it (2 Pet. 1:3), “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.” We may not understand it all or be able to use it all until we grow in the Lord. But we have it all!
Paul adds (Col. 2:10) that Christ “is the head over all rule and authority.” The false teachers were promoting worship of the angels (Col. 2:18). Paul is saying that not only did Christ create all angelic beings (Col. 1:16); also, He rules them. Why worship the creature rather than the Almighty Creator?
Perhaps you’re thinking, “Okay, but how does all this help me practically? I live in a real world where I struggle against sin and I often lose. How does all this stuff about being complete in Christ relate to where I live?”
Colossians 2:11-12: “and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” The theme of “in Him” or “with Him” runs through verse 13, which repeats the idea of us being raised up with Christ when He was raised from the dead.
As I said, some scholars doubt that the Colossian heretics were emphasizing circumcision, but I think it may have been a component of their teaching. As you know, God ordained the removal of the male foreskin as the sign of His covenant with Abraham (Genesis 17:9-14). The Jews held tenaciously and proudly to circumcision as putting them a notch above the uncircumcised Gentiles. The issue of whether the Gentiles needed to be circumcised to be saved was resolved at the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15), but the Judaizers who promoted that view continued to spread that pernicious teaching.
One of the main symbolic meanings of circumcision was the removal of the flesh so that a man would be pure before God. The Old Testament talks about being circumcised in heart (Deut. 10:16; 30:6), which points to the inward reality behind the outward ritual. That’s what Paul means by “a circumcision made without hands.” When we were joined to Christ, He cut off our sinful nature so that we can live in holiness before Him. Some understand “the circumcision of Christ” to refer to His death, but I think it means the spiritual circumcision that Christ performs on believers, which is now pictured by baptism, not by circumcision (Col. 2:12). When a believer is immersed in the water (even those who believe in other modes of baptism admit that immersion is pictured here), it symbolizes his burial with Christ, being identified completely with His death. When we come out of the water, it pictures being raised up with Christ, whom God raised bodily through His power. All of this takes place at the moment a person puts his “faith in the working of God,” but it is subsequently symbolized in baptism, which the apostles associated closely with the new birth (Rom. 6:3-7).
This raises two practical (and controversial!) questions: First, has baptism now replaced circumcision as the sign of the covenant and thus should it be administered to infants, as circumcision was? I ask my friends who hold to infant baptism to consider the following. (I deal with this more thoroughly in my sermon [9/8/96], “Why We Do Not Baptize Infants.”)
While there are obviously some spiritual parallels between circumcision and baptism, there are also many differences. Jesus made it clear that the sign of the New Covenant is the Lord’s Supper, not baptism (1 Cor. 11:25). While there is a specific command to circumcise the male physical descendants of Abraham, there is no command or example in the New Testament to baptize the physical descendants of Christians. Even if you grant that baptism is the fulfillment of circumcision, then just as circumcision was administered to the physical descendants of Abraham in the age of type, so baptism ought to be administered to the spiritual descendants of Abraham in the age of fulfillment, namely, to believers (Gal. 3:7). Baptism pictures conversion, which infants have not experienced. Paul specifically links baptism here (Col. 2:13) with faith, as does every reference to baptism in the Book of Acts (see my sermon [6/28/09], “Why Baptism Matters”). Infants can’t yet believe!
The second practical question is, “If my sinful nature has been cut off by Christ, why does it seem to be alive and well?” Good question! Let’s try to answer it by letting Paul speak for himself. In Colossians 3:3 Paul says, “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Yet two verses later he says (literally), “Therefore put to death the members of your earthly body with regard to immorality,” etc. If I’m dead, why do I need to put my flesh to death?
Paul wouldn’t contradict himself within the span of two verses. Rather, the tension is between our position in Christ and our practice of that position as we walk in this sinful world. We need to understand and act upon our new identity in Christ. What is true of Christ is true of us. When He died, we died with Him. When He was raised from the dead, we were raised in Him. Now, as He is seated at God’s right hand, we are seated there in Him (Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1). All these things are true of us by virtue of our union with Him, through faith in Him. As we set our minds on these truths (Col. 3:2), they will govern our behavior (Col. 3:5-10).
Thus when Paul says that Christ has removed the body of our flesh (our sinful nature) through spiritual circumcision, he does not mean that the old nature has been eradicated. Any honest Christian can tell you that it’s alive and kicking! Rather, we are to adopt a new attitude toward that old nature which used to dominate our lives. Its power has been broken so that we no longer need to be slaves to sin (Rom. 6:6). We are to view ourselves as completely identified with Jesus Christ in His victory over sin so that we can then act that way by putting to death the deeds of the flesh in our ongoing struggle against sin.
So Paul is saying that because God has raised Christ from the dead, victorious over the devil, we can have victory over sin and the devil because we’re in Christ through faith. We don’t depend on manmade rules or outward rituals, such as baptism or communion, but rather on the spiritual reality behind those rituals. Christ is all we need because union with Him in His death and resurrection gives us power over sin. Religion with its rules and rituals is a spiritual counterfeit. Being united with the living Christ links us to His power over sin when we are tempted. So make sure that you aren’t into religion, but rather that you are in union with Jesus Christ.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
February 7, 2016
If I told you that I was going to go over to the cemetery and preach to the dead bodies there, you’d rightly think, “Steve has lost it!” And yet really, that’s what we’re doing whenever we speak to lost people about the Savior. Outside of Christ, people aren’t just spiritually misguided or weak or ignorant. They’re dead! They don’t just need to be persuaded to believe in Jesus. They need the Holy Spirit to convict them of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8-11) and they need God to make them alive from the dead.
So, as someone has said, before we get people saved, we need to get them lost. If they do not see that they are hopelessly dead in their sins, they will not see their need for new life. If they think that they’re doing okay spiritually, they may welcome a little guidance or assistance with their problems. But they won’t see their desperate need for new life.
So although lost people do not realize it, they have three crucial needs: (1) They are spiritually dead, alienated from God, so they need new life. (2) They are under God’s just condemnation because of their sin, so they need forgiveness. (3) They are living under Satan’s power, in his domain of darkness, so they need deliverance and victory over the forces of evil. In our text, Paul reminds the Colossians of these three great needs that God met for them in Christ. Paul is continuing to show the superiority of Christ over everything else, including the rules-keeping religion of the false teachers. Empty religion has no saving power, but Christ crucified and risen from the dead is all-powerful. Paul is showing that…
Because Christ died and is risen, in Him we have new life, forgiveness of all our sins, and victory over the forces of evil.
Verses 13-15 rest on the truth that Paul has just mentioned in verse 12: Baptism pictures our salvation, when we died with Christ and God raised us up with Him, when He raised Him from the dead. Through God’s grace in saving us, we are identified with Jesus in His death and resurrection.
Colossians 2:12-13a: “…having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, …” There are three truths to grasp here:
Paul could have used less severe language than this if he had wanted to. He could have said, “When you were apart from Christ, He brought you near.” That’s certainly true! He could have said, “When you were alienated from Christ, He reconciled you to Himself.” That’s also true. But here (also, Eph. 2:1) Paul uses the word “dead” to describe our condition before we met Christ.
Before Adam and Eve sinned, God told them that if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would die (Gen. 2:17). Death in the Bible always means separation, not cessation. So when Adam and Eve sinned, they were instantly separated from God. Their bodies became subject to the process of illness and aging that ultimately resulted in physical death. When a person dies physically, his soul is separated from his body. To be spiritually dead means to be separated from the living God, the author and giver of all life. If we die physically while we are still spiritually dead, we will be eternally separated from God, under His wrath, which would be the most horrible existence imaginable.
Death is an ugly thing and we should not minimize the horror of that word. A dead body is foul and corrupt. If the Jews touched a dead body, they were ceremonially defiled (Lev. 21:1-4). We embalm dead bodies and try to make them look as lifelike as possible, but the truth is, there is nothing pleasant about a dead body.
Paul says here that we were spiritually dead, because of two causes (or in two spheres): transgressions, which refers to sins we have committed; and the uncircumcision of our flesh, which refers to the sinful nature that we inherited from Adam. When Adam sinned, his sin was imputed to the entire human race (Rom. 5:12-21). That second phrase especially reminded the Gentile Colossians that before they met Christ, they “were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12).
So apart from Christ, we had two serious problems: we were spiritually dead because of our sins, and because of our sin nature which we got at birth. We aren’t sinners because we sin; we sin because by nature we are sinners. Sometimes people say, “It’s unfair of God to impute Adam’s sin to the entire human race.” My reply is, first, a word of caution: It’s never right to accuse the Almighty of unfairness! Second, do you think you would have done better than Adam in obeying God? If so, you have too high an estimate of your own moral ability!
These two aspects of sin, our actual sins that stem from our sin nature, mean that we had a very serious problem. Adding good deeds to our sinful nature cannot solve that problem. You can put a tuxedo on a pig, but that pig will go right back to wallowing in the mud because it has a pig nature. You can dress a sinner in good deeds, but unless you change his heart, he will still go back to sinning. Also, all the good deeds in the world cannot eradicate the charges against us in God’s holy courtroom. And they do not raise the dead sinner to spiritual life. He needs resurrection.
In Colossians 2:12, Paul states that “you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” But even our faith does not originate with us; it is God’s gift (Eph. 2:8-9; Phil. 1:29). So in verse 13, Paul attributes our new life totally to God: “He made you alive together with Him.” The Puritan Thomas Goodwin used to say, “There are but two men standing before God: Adam and Christ. And these two men have all other men hanging at their girdles.” (Source unknown. By “girdles,” he meant “belts.”) Either you’re spiritually dead in Adam; or, because God made you alive, you’re in Christ. There are no other categories. If you’re in Christ, it’s God’s doing, since …
“He made you alive together with Him” (Col. 2:13). Becoming a Christian isn’t a matter of deciding to turn over a new leaf. It isn’t a self-improvement project or a resolution to try harder. No amount of persuasion can talk a spiritual corpse into spiritual life, because dead sinners cannot understand God’s truth (1 Cor. 2:14; John 8:43). They do not have spiritual ears to hear. No amount of efforts on the part of the corpse will bring about his own resurrection, because corpses aren’t able to do anything. God must impart new life to a dead sinner by His power.
There is an obvious difference between something lifeless and someone who is living. I learned this in what was the most fun job I’ve ever had—yes, even more fun than this job! The summer of 1970, I worked as “Charlie Chaplin” at the Movieland Wax Museum near Knott’s Berry Farm in Southern California. Each day I would make myself up to look like Charlie Chaplin and then spend my day entertaining the guests. I would walk like Charlie, twirl my cane, and have my picture taken with everyone.
But the most fun of the job was when I would stand in a frozen pose to look like one of the wax figures. People would touch my hand, thinking that they were touching a lifeless wax statue. But I would grab the person’s finger and as he frantically tried to pull away, I would suddenly talk to him. At that moment, he discovered the difference between what he had thought was a lifeless wax figure and a living one! One rather large woman was so stunned that she couldn’t scream. She just walked backwards away from me and plopped her 200+ pounds on top of a baby in a stroller behind her. When I reached out to try to help her off the screaming baby, the woman went hysterical! I had to make a fast exit and leave the poor mother to try to pry this woman off her squashed baby.
There’s a huge difference between death and life. Spiritually, there’s a huge difference between dead religion and new life in the risen Savior. Do you have new life in Christ? Has God made you alive from the dead, so that you responded by saying, “Yes, Lord, I believe in You; I receive You as my Savior and Lord”? (See John 1:12-13.) If not, you may be just a good, religious person who is a walking spiritual corpse. You need life from God!
You may ask, “How can I know if I have spiritual life?” Well, how do you know if you’re alive physically this morning? I’m not sure about some of you, but most of you seem to have some signs of life! Your heart is beating, you’re breathing, you’re warm to the touch, you have an appetite. Spiritually, there are some vital signs. You have a heart for the things of God which used to bore you. You love Jesus because He died for your sins. You have a hunger for God’s Word. You struggle against sins that didn’t used to concern you. You’re growing in the things of God. And, you experience the forgiveness of your sins.
Colossians 2:13b-14: “… having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” J. B. Phillips paraphrases this, “He has forgiven you all your sins: Christ has utterly wiped out the damning evidence of broken laws and commandments which always hung over our heads, and has completely annulled it by nailing it over his own head on the cross.”
Perhaps you’re thinking, “Wait a minute. In Colossians 1:14, Paul already said that in Christ we have the forgiveness of our sins. So why is he repeating it here?” The answer is, because it’s so wonderful that we need to hear it over and over again! Don’t ever get over the amazing truth that in Christ, you have forgiveness of all your transgressions! Note two things:
God couldn’t just sweep our sins under the rug. The penalty had to be paid. If God did not demand the full penalty for our sins, He would not be righteous and just. If He were not righteous and just, He would not be God. If a robber killed your mother to get a few bucks to support his drug habit and the judge said to the murderer, “I love you, man! Try not to do it again,” you’d rightly be outraged. That judge would be unrighteous and unjust. Justice requires that lawbreakers pay the penalty for their crimes.
The Bible says that we all have sinned (Rom. 3:23) and that the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). Thus we all deserve eternal separation from God. We all have what Paul here calls “the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which is hostile to us.” We come before the bench of God’s judgment as lawbreakers with thousands of counts against us! God cannot justly forgive us without the penalty being paid.
But perhaps you’re thinking: “But I’m a good person. I’m not a terrorist or rapist or child molester! I’ve never been arrested. I go to church and live a moral life. I don’t deserve death for my sins!” But if you’re thinking along those lines, you’re falling into the error that I mentioned earlier: You have too high a view of your own goodness and too low a view of God’s holiness.
When Paul mentions “the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us,” he’s referring to the commandments of God’s law. That law is against us and hostile to us because it justly condemns us because we’ve broken it repeatedly. The first commandment is (Exod. 20:3), “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Can you honestly say that you’ve always obeyed that commandment? Right now, does God rightly have priority over everything in your life?
What about the second commandment? Have you ever served an idol instead of God? You say, “Of course not! I’m not a primitive pagan!” Oh! But let me ask, how many hours a week do you spend watching godless TV shows or movies? Could your possessions or your career be ruling your life? (Luke 18:18-23)? Some even make an idol out of Jesus. They set Him on the shelf and consult Him when they want something, but neglect Him the rest of the time. Do you have any idols?
The third commandment is that we should not take the Lord’s name in vain. You say, “That’s one that I haven’t broken!” Really? Even many Christians exclaim, “O, Geez,” which is short for “Jesus,” or, “O my God!” Very few of us honestly can say that we’ve never taken the Lord’s name in vain.
The fourth commandment is to keep the Sabbath holy. You say, “Christians aren’t under that commandment, are we?” My understanding is that we are not under the Jewish Sabbath laws. But there is a New Testament command about not forsaking assembling with the Lord’s people (Heb. 10:25). And, Sunday is “the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10), which implies that it’s not my day. I read recently that most Christians now think that if they go to church twice a month, they’re committed. That strikes me as being half-committed! The fifth commandment is to honor our parents. Can anyone claim that you made it through childhood obeying that commandment? And it applies to us as adult children, too.
The sixth commandment is that we should not murder. Most of us could claim that we’ve kept that one, until we read the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus says that if we’ve ever been wrongfully angry with someone, we’ve murdered him in God’s sight. The same applies to commandment seven, not to commit adultery. If you’ve ever lusted, you’re guilty according to Jesus.
Number eight commands us not to steal. That applies to cheating on your taxes! Moving right along, number nine is against bearing false witness. Have you always been truthful? And number ten is directed at our hearts, telling us not to covet anything not belonging to us.
Jesus summed up both tables of the law by saying that we are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (commands 1-4) and to love our neighbor as ourselves (commands 5-10). We all stand guilty of breaking every command many times over. That’s why we have a huge IOU against us. God’s law is hostile to us, because it condemns us all as guilty. So, how can we possibly escape the just condemnation of God’s holy law?
Paul piles up terms to reinforce this wonderful truth. First, he says that God has “forgiven us all our transgressions.” “Forgiven” comes from the Greek word for “grace.” It means that God grants forgiveness as a free gift, not as payment to those who earn it. You can’t get forgiveness by doing penance or promising to try harder. It’s a free gift that you can only receive.
Note also that God forgave all our transgressions. While we need to ask His forgiveness when we sin to restore fellowship with Him, once we have trusted in Christ we never need to ask forgiveness to restore our salvation. That transaction was taken care of once for all when we trusted in Jesus Christ as our sin-bearer. Paul adds that God has canceled out or erased our IOU or certificate of debt. It’s gone!
But how can God do that and still be just and righteous? The answer is, “He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Col. 2:14). On the cross, Jesus paid the penalty for every sinner who trusts in Him. As Paul put it (2 Cor. 5:21), “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” By Jesus paying the penalty, God can be both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). So the crucial question is, “Have you put your trust in Jesus Christ and His death on the cross as the payment for all your sins?” If so, then your debt has been paid in full.
But maybe you’re thinking, “I have trusted in Christ, but I still feel guilty sometimes. When I sin, even if I confess it and turn from it, it keeps coming back to haunt me. Is that guilt from God?” If you’ve truly trusted in Christ and repented of your sin, the answer is, no. Your guilt is from Satan, the accuser of the saints (Rev. 12:10; Zech. 3:1-5). Thus you need to know …
Col. 2:15: “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” “Through Him” could be translated, “through it,” that is, the cross. But either way, it refers to Christ crucified. God took what looked like Satan’s greatest moment of triumph, the death of the sinless Lord of glory, and turned it into Satan’s greatest defeat. On the cross, Jesus accomplished perfect redemption for all of His people. We were captives in Satan’s domain of darkness, but through Jesus’ death, God rescued us (Col. 1:13).
When Paul speaks of God disarming the rulers and authorities, the picture is of a Roman general’s triumphal parade. The conquered foes were stripped of their armor and paraded in shame through the streets in chains. When Christ willingly gave His life on the cross to pay for our sins, Satan and his evil forces were stripped of their power over us. They can no longer rightfully accuse us, because Christ has paid the debt of our sin. They can no longer hold us captive through the fear of death, because Christ won the victory over Satan and over death on the cross. His victory was confirmed when God raised Him from the dead. And we who believe are raised with Him, seated in heaven with Him (Eph. 2:6).
So when the enemy accuses you, tell him to take it up with Jesus and His shed blood. James 4:7 says, “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Satan has no power over us because Jesus died and was raised on our behalf.
For the godly British pastor, William Sangster, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ filled him with hope, even as he faced his own death from a slow, degenerative muscular paralysis just shy of his sixtieth birthday. He devoted his fading energy to the cause of Christ, organizing prayer groups and writing articles and books as long as he could. Finally, his vocal cords were paralyzed and he could only move two of his fingers to scratch out written messages.
On his final Easter morning just a few weeks before he died, he could not speak. But he wrote a letter to his daughter in which he said, “It is terrible to wake up on Easter morning and have no voice with which to shout, ‘He is risen!’ But it would be still more terrible to have a voice and not want to shout.”
Dead religion cannot give new life. It can’t forgive your sins. It can’t defeat the devil. The crucified and risen Savior can. Trust in Him and enjoy life, forgiveness, and victory!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
February 14, 2016
Christians probably have tolerated no sin more than the sin of legalism. In fact, many Christians would probably be surprised to hear legalism labeled as sin. Legalists are viewed as being a bit overzealous or perhaps as super-spiritual. But they aren’t thought of as sinning in the same sense as adulterers, thieves, and the like. To the contrary, legalism seems to promote holiness, a valid Christian concern.
Yet the Apostle Paul taught that legalism is an aggressive evil that those who have been saved by grace must strongly oppose. Most of his Epistle to the Galatians is an attack on legalism. Many of his other letters contain strong warnings about the dangers of legalism. In 1 Timothy 4:1-3, he states that certain men who forbade marriage and advocated abstaining from foods were promoting the doctrines of demons. Clearly, legalism was no minor sin in Paul’s mind!
In Colossians 2:16-23, Paul tells his readers that they must strongly resist the legalistic approach of the false teachers. There are two commands in verses 16-19: “Let no one act as your judge” in regard to certain matters (vs. 16); and, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize” (vs. 18), which might better be translated, “Let no one set themselves up as umpire to pass judgment against you.” Both commands are saying the same thing: We must strongly reject legalism as a way of Christian living.
When we discuss legalism, we need to be careful to define our terms. Some think that legalism means having any rules or commandments. I’ve been accused of being legalistic because I preach that we should obey the commandments of Scripture. But the New Testament is full of rules and commandments. Jesus said that if we love Him, we will obey His commandments (John 14:15). Some would counter that it’s manmade rules or commandments which constitute legalism. Yet a moment’s reflection will show that this is inadequate, since there are many areas not specifically mentioned in the Bible where we need some rules in order to function as a Christian family or church.
So what is legalism? The heart of legalism is an attitude of pride. The legalist prides himself for keeping certain standards and judges others who do not keep those standards. The legalist thinks that he is made acceptable to God, either for salvation or spirituality, by his conformity to certain rules that he picks and chooses. Invariably, those rules are not things like loving the Lord with all your heart or loving your neighbor as yourself. Rather, the legalist picks rules that he is able to keep and conveniently neglects or ignores the things he is not able to keep. The legalist often focuses on external conformity while neglecting the heart righteousness God requires (Matt. 23:23-28). Dr. Charles Ryrie (Balancing the Christian Life [Moody Press], p. 159) defines legalism as “a fleshly attitude which conforms to a code for the purpose of exalting self.”
“Therefore” connects our text to the previous paragraph. Paul is telling these new believers, under attack from these false teachers, “The law was merely the shadow which pointed toward the reality, which is Christ. He fulfilled the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament. We don’t grow as Christians by keeping those laws, but by holding fast to Christ.”
We grow as Christians by rejecting legalism, and by holding fast to Christ as the head of His body, the church.
External religion leads to pride; holding fast to Christ as the head leads to the growth of the body.
I use the word “reject” because we need to see legalism for what it is: an aggressive evil which must be resisted. Legalists are not content to live as they see fit and leave others alone. They are recruiters who seek to bring everyone under their system of bondage (Matt. 23:15). Legalism is a subtle tool of Satan, because on the surface it seems to promote holiness. But it’s based on the flesh; it leads people away from vital dependence on Christ into a system of pride and judging others which destroys the church.
I want to make three observations stemming from our text to help you understand legalism:
Both verse 16 and verse 18 indicate that these false teachers had set themselves up as judges to proclaim that anyone who didn’t follow their rules was not spiritual. These rules apparently included some of the Old Testament dietary regulations as well as certain Jewish festivals. But probably these false teachers went beyond the injunctions of the law, perhaps making the Nazarite vow of avoiding all wine applicable to everyone. “Festival” refers to the annual Jewish feasts, such as Passover. “New moon” refers to monthly celebrations. “Sabbath day” refers to the weekly observance of the seventh day (1 Chron. 23:31; 2 Chron. 2:4; 31:3).
God ordained these special occasions to point forward to Jesus Christ (Luke 24:44; 1 Cor. 5:7). Paul calls them a “shadow of what is to come,” but then adds, “but the substance belongs to Christ” (Col. 2:17). He came to fulfill the Law (Matt. 5:17). Thus we are no longer obligated to keep these Jewish observances.
As you probably know, some Christians argue that Sunday (a few argue for Saturday) is now the Christian Sabbath, which we must keep in some manner. Some argue that we sin if we think or speak about anything secular or worldly on Sunday. Thus if you’re chatting with someone at church and mention last Sunday’s game, you’ve sinned! And you sinned even more if you watched the game on the Sabbath! Advocates of the Christian Sabbath usually go further than that, adding many prohibited activities which they say violate the Sabbath: You can’t stop by the grocery store on the way home from church to pick up a gallon of milk. You can’t eat out in a restaurant on Sunday, because it requires others to work. On and on it goes!
If we are required to observe Sunday as a Christian Sabbath, then Paul certainly was confusing these mostly Gentile new believers by not clarifying that in our text. (See, also, Romans 14:5.) The New Testament commands us not to forsake assembling with other believers (Heb. 10:25). It indicates that the early church gathered on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2). And it implies that Sunday is “the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10). Hebrews 4 teaches that by believing in Jesus we enter God’s Sabbath rest. I think that we also can extrapolate a principle from God resting on the seventh day and from the Jewish Sabbath, namely, that it’s for our good to cease from our normal activities once a week so that we can join with the Lord’s people for worship and instruction (see my sermon, “God’s Day of Rest,” from Gen. 2:1-3). But beyond that, there are no direct Sabbath commands for us who are in Christ.
But legalists like to set up extra-biblical rules by which they can judge those who do not keep them. It’s an emphasis on the external, not on the heart before God. So a man secretly may be enslaved to pornography or greed, but if he keeps the rules that everyone can see, he’s viewed as spiritual. Jesus indicted the Pharisees for this type of thing. They honored God with their lips and their rules, but their hearts were far from Him (Matt. 15:1-9).
These false teachers in Colossae were concerned about food and drink and certain Jewish festivals. They had commandments about what you could and could not handle, taste, and touch (Col. 2:21). But they were filled with pride and apparently were indulging in the deeds of the flesh (Col. 2:23; 3:5).
Jesus pointed out the same problem in His scorching denunciation of the Pharisees (Matt. 23:23): “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.” They prided themselves on keeping the law of tithing, and made sure everyone saw how they tithed! But they neglected the more important parts of the law.
In many churches, legalists judge others because they smoke or drink or have tattoos or don’t wear a suit to church or whatever. Some churches judge women for wearing makeup. When I was in seminary, a guy who sat next to me in chapel told me (after we had become friends) that at first he didn’t think that I was a Christian because I had a mustache! I would have had a beard, but the seminary didn’t allow that back then because (the seminary president told me) they would lose at least $50,000 in support if they did. When my dad went to a well-known Bible Institute, a senior was not allowed to graduate because a supporter of the school complained when she saw him riding in the back of the school’s bus with his arm around his fiancée! So legalists judge others over matters that they choose, but they don’t judge themselves for their own sins of pride, gossip, racial prejudice, and many other things.
Paul says (Col. 2:18), “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind.” Some commentators say that verse 18 is the most difficult verse in Colossians to interpret.
The first difficulty is what Paul meant by, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize.” He was probably using an athletic metaphor, saying that these false teachers set themselves up as judges, making up their own rules. If you didn’t play by their rules, they disqualified you from the contest (Douglas Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and Philemon [Eerdmans/Apollos], p. 224). They may have said that you were not saved, or at the very least, you lost your rewards in heaven.
The second problem is the phrase, “delighting in self-abasement.” “Self-abasement” is the word often used in a good sense for “humility” (Col. 3:12). But here Paul probably is being sarcastic, saying that these false teachers take pride in their humility! He may be referring to their ascetic practices of denying themselves certain things which the Bible does not forbid. They took pride in keeping their dietary rules and in their observance of these religious special days, and they judged others who did not comply.
The main interpretive difficulty is, what was their practice of worshiping angels? Without going into all the views, perhaps the most plausible view is that they were calling on angels as a means of warding off evil spirits to the extent that they were virtually worshiping them (Moo, pp. 227-229, endorsing the view of Clinton Arnold). Also, they may have used their false humility to say, “We are not spiritual enough to go into God’s presence, so we approach Him through the angels.” But in so doing, they set aside Christ’s sufficiency as our mediator.
Paul adds that these false teachers (the singular pronoun, his, may refer to a main teacher, but more likely is a generic way of referring to them all) were “taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind.” Perhaps they based their worship of the angels on visions that they claimed to have seen. And they were inflated with pride over their visions. But Paul says that they were just boasting in the flesh.
When Paul was caught up to heaven, he didn’t tell anyone about it for 14 years, and then only in sketchy terms (2 Cor. 12:1-10). He didn’t write a book about it and go on the talk show circuit, regaling everyone with his vision! Instead, God gave him a thorn in the flesh to keep him humble!
The point is, legalists don’t seek to exalt God; they exalt themselves. Legalists operate in the flesh, not the Spirit. Thus they take pride in external conformity which can be judged outwardly. The legalist is even proud about his own humility! By way of contrast, godly people become increasingly aware of their own propensity to sin. Thus they become more dependent on Christ, which is the mark of true humility. So Paul is saying, “Reject legalism as a way of Christian living.” But there’s another implication:
I’m stating positively what Paul expresses negatively about the false teachers (Col. 2:19): “and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.” Throughout Colossians, Paul has shown the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. He has already stated (Col. 1:18), “He is also head of the body, the church.” Holding fast to Christ as the head is the key to “growth which is from God.” It implies four things:
These false teachers were caught up with the shadow, but they were ignoring the reality! They were into all sorts of rules, but they weren’t into Christ. It would be like admiring some famous person, but when you met him, instead of looking at him, you fell down on the sidewalk and said, “Oh, look at this shadow!” That’s what these false teachers were doing. They were so caught up with the ceremonial aspects of the law that they missed the One to whom those ceremonies and laws pointed! They were hugging His shadow, but missing Christ Himself!
But before we laugh at them, we need to recognize how easy it is to do the same thing. Our number one priority should be to worship God. And yet it’s easy to slip into being worship-centered rather than God-centered. We hug the shadow of various styles of worship and forget that we’re supposed to be exalting the Head of the church, who gave Himself for us on the cross. Or, I’ve seen Christians who get caught up with Bible knowledge, which is a good thing if used properly. But they get puffed up with pride over being right or understanding truths that others don’t get. So they use the Scriptures to exalt themselves, but they’ve forgotten that the Scriptures exalt Jesus (John 5:39; Luke 24:27, 44). They’re hugging the shadow, but not holding fast to the head!
To grow as a Christian, hold fast in love to the Lord Jesus! Study the Scriptures, but not so that you can boast in your knowledge, but so that you grow in your love for the Savior. God didn’t give us the Bible to fill our heads with information; He gave it so that we would come to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ and to eagerly wait for His coming as our Bridegroom. Don’t get enamored with things other than Christ!
The members of the body are joined to the head in a living way. You can’t tape on an arm to a person who is missing one and expect it to function. There must be that living, organic union or that limb will be useless. Becoming a Christian is more than attending church, going through the outward motions of Christianity, and keeping some religious rules. It means being joined to Jesus Christ in a living way, so that you’re “in Him.” You don’t just join a church; you are joined to Christ Himself as a member of His body.
But the implication here is that to continue with Christ requires some responsible action on our part: We must hold fast to Him. The Bible compares our relationship to Christ to marriage (Eph. 5:22-33). On my wedding day, I was legally married to Marla and, as Scripture puts it, we became one flesh. But the exclusive relationship that we began that day has to be maintained. It doesn’t grow on autopilot. Getting to know her more deeply requires time spent together. I have to learn what pleases her. I have to reject temptations to go after other women. I have to hold fast to her in love. The same is true in my relationship with Jesus Christ.
This is implied in the idea of the head. The head controls the body. If your body isn’t responsive to the direction of your head, you’ve got big problems. The fact that Jesus is the head of His body, the church, means that He is the Lord of the church. He gives the orders; we must submit to Him.
There is a crazy idea in the evangelical church today that you can receive Jesus as your Savior, so that He becomes your fire insurance policy, protecting you from hell. But, submitting to Him as your Lord is optional for later on. So if you just want to be a nominal, occasional Sunday Christian who isn’t subject to Jesus as Lord, don’t worry! That decision that you made as a child in Sunday school or at church camp to invite Jesus into your heart cinched it up. You’ll still go to heaven, even if you don’t obey Jesus as Lord.
But as we saw in Colossians 1:23, the evidence of truly being reconciled to Christ is that “you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel ….” Elsewhere (1 Cor. 6:9) Paul clearly warns us not to be deceived, because, “the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God” (see, also, Matt. 7:21-23; Mark 8:34-38; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-12; 2 Pet. 2:4-22). We’re not holding fast to Christ as head if we live consistently in disobedience to Him.
So, holding fast to Christ as head means not being enamored with things other than Christ; beginning and then maintaining a living union with Him; and, submitting to Him as Lord. Finally,
Verse 19 makes it clear that being a Christian is not an individual matter. Being a Christian means being a functioning member of Christ’s body, and that body only grows when every member lives in dependence on the head and in interdependence with the other members.
Our American culture militates against the biblical truth that as members of Christ’s body, we are interdependent. We have a very independent view of life in general and of the Christian life. It’s God and me, but not me and my brothers and sisters in the church. This is reflected in the attitude that you “attend church,” much as you would attend a movie, but you aren’t closely involved with the other attenders. You come, you greet a few people casually, watch the show, and then leave. But you aren’t involved with any believers until you attend the next Sunday. But that’s not New Testament Christianity! For the church to grow with a growth from God, we must hold fast to the head. But, also, we must be closely joined to other members of the body, just as the joints and ligaments hold our physical bodies together.
It’s no accident that Paul mentions the body in the context of these false teachers, because Satan usually preys on weak Christians who are not closely involved with other believers. Growing with a growth from God means being a functioning part of the body God has designed spiritual growth to take place in.
So, down with legalism, but up with Jesus Christ and His body, the church! If you sense that you’re not growing as a Christian, it may be that either you’re not rejecting legalism as a way of Christian living, or else you’re not holding fast to Christ as the head of His body, the church. Two concluding applications:
(1) Don’t mistake liberty for license! Rejecting legalism doesn’t mean hang-loose, undisciplined living. Being free in Christ doesn’t mean freedom to sin, but freedom from sin. It is not legalism to obey the Lord Jesus Christ. Self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
(2) Don’t replace reality with rules. Some advocate living the Christian life by vows and rules. They say you need to read your Bible and pray for so many minutes each day. While I highly recommend reading your Bible and praying every day, it’s easy to follow all the rules and lose the reality of a love relationship with the Savior who died for you.
So please repeat after me: Reject legalism! Hold fast to Christ! Amen!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
February 21, 2016
Ever since Adam and Eve sinned, the problem of controlling sinful desires has plagued the human race. Whether you call it the flesh, the old nature, or indwelling sin, we all wrestle with strong internal temptations to do wrong. So a very practical question is, “How can we keep the flesh in check?”
One answer, which is not limited to Christians, has been to treat the body harshly in an attempt to gain mastery over it. When we were in Nepal, we saw two Hindu “holy men” at the temple who looked really weird, presumably in an attempt to control the flesh. (They also made money from foreigners like us who had to pay to take their picture!) Another Hindu, the Indian leader, Gandhi, stopped having sexual relations with his wife. Then, to prove his control over fleshly urges, he slept in the same bed with naked, beautiful young women, but never touched them. The Christian mystic, Origen, took literally the words of Jesus about becoming eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom and castrated himself. Christian monks have slept on boards, worn hair shirts, exposed themselves to extremes of heat and cold, lived on top of pillars, gone without bathing, fasted, and remained celibate in their attempts to deal with the flesh.
Even these Christian attempts to be holy probably strike us as really weird. We live in a culture where the motto is, “If it feels good, do it!” I haven’t seen any best-sellers lately on “self-denial,” unless it’s a diet to help you look good so that you can snag the hunk or beauty queen that you’re after!
But even in our libertarian society, the idea of monasticism still appeals to some. Back in 1988, Christianity Today [8/12/1988, pp. 20-21] published an editorial calling for a return to monasticism in the church. Granted, they weren’t calling for hair shirts, sleeping on hard beds, or living on top of pillars. But they did call for vows of celibacy and poverty. The editorial cited John Stott, the late respected Anglican pastor, who said that if he were beginning his Christian discipleship over, he would establish an evangelical monastic order where men would take a vow of celibacy, poverty, and peaceable living.
While I admire much about John Stott’s ministry, I think that the idea of a new Christian monastic order is perfectly horrible! The fact that the modern church has become infected with worldliness should not lead us to solve the problem by a rules-based, withdraw from the world, approach to holiness. While the church desperately needs self-discipline for the purpose of godliness, we must avoid asceticism, which invariably lies behind monasticism.
In Colossians 2:20-23, Paul shows that asceticism is how not to become godly. The false teachers in Colossae had a system of rules which they imposed on their followers. They said, “If you keep these rules, you will have victory over fleshly desires.” They took some of the Old Testament regulations concerning ceremonial cleanliness and diet and added to them, much as the Pharisees had done. Paul admits (Col. 2:23) that these rules had “the appearance of wisdom,” but, he adds, they “are of no value against fleshly indulgence.” Rather, Paul argues that …
Godliness is not achieved through asceticism but through our identification with Christ.
When Paul writes (Col. 2:20), “If you have died with Christ,” the Greek construction implies certainty, not doubt. But, as Douglas Moo (The Letters to the Colossians and Philemon [Eerdmans/Apollos], p. 233) states, by using “if,” Paul “is inviting us to consider whether, indeed, we have died with Christ and thus ponder its implications.” The same is true in Colossians 3:1, where Paul considers the corresponding truth, “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ ….” Both terms focus on the truth that as believers, we are identified with Christ in His death and resurrection. So Paul is asking the rhetorical question, “If you truly died with Christ and were raised up with Him, why are you going back, not just to the Old Testament law, but even worse, to manmade rules added to that law?”
What is asceticism? Webster (merriam-webster.com) defines it as “relating to or having a strict and simple way of living that avoids physical pleasure.” The Oxford American Dictionary (oxforddictionaries.com) defines it: “Characterized by severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons.”
But if asceticism is self-denial, then isn’t it taught in the Bible? Paul said that he disciplined his body and made it his slave (1 Cor. 9:27). He instructed Timothy to endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 2:3) and to discipline himself for the purpose of godliness (1 Tim. 4:7). Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:23). Jesus said that self-denial is an essential requirement for following Him (Matt. 16:24). So what’s the difference between the asceticism that Paul attacks in our text and biblical self-denial or self-discipline? Here are a number of contrasts to consider:
These false teachers probably taught that matter is evil, but spirit is good. Thus we must treat our bodies harshly. But the Bible teaches that as Christians, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Thus we need to take care of our bodies and to glorify God with them (1 Cor. 6:19-20). To do this, we need to exercise control over what we eat and drink, over harmful substances such as tobacco and drugs, over sexual impulses, etc. But there is a basic difference in outlook toward the body between asceticism and biblical self-discipline.
The ascetic operates on will power. His goal is to bring his body under the control of his mind or spirit, as in Gandhi’s ludicrous experiment. But Christian self-denial has a higher aim, namely, to glorify Jesus Christ by bringing my whole being into submission to Him. It is to renounce my control of my life and to give that control willingly to Christ.
Ascetics cannot enjoy material possessions. While as Christians, we must be generous and ready to share, and not fix our hope on material things, Paul taught that God “richly supplies us with all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17). Countering those who forbade marriage and advocated abstaining from certain foods, Paul said (1 Tim. 4:4), “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude.” Christians can rightly enjoy all of life under the lordship of Christ, including a good meal, the beauty of God’s creation, and the sexual relationship within marriage. Ascetics teach that such pleasurable enjoyment is wrong.
Ascetics are as H. L. Mencken erroneously, but humorously, described a Puritan: “Someone with the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” But, as I said, Christians can legitimately enjoy God and all of His gracious gifts and blessings (Ps. 16:10). He wants our joy to be full (John 15:11; Ps. 5:11).
Asceticism emphasizes all the things you cannot do: “Don’t handle this; don’t taste that; don’t touch that!” It leads to a restrictive, repressive kind of life. But self-discipline is the key to liberty. The disciplined athlete is free to do things that I cannot do. The skillful musician has disciplined himself over hours of practice so that he is free to play a Beethoven symphony that I could never play. And the disciplined Christian has freedom in the Lord to obey Him and not to sin, which is always for our good.
Paul says that these false teachers were promoting the commandments and teachings of men. He probably had in mind Jesus’ words when He denounced the Pharisees (Mark 7:7, citing Isa. 29:13), “But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.” Jesus went on to tell them (Mark 7:9), “You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.” Ascetics add things to the Bible in an attempt to be spiritual. In the Ten Commandments, God said to keep the Sabbath holy; the Pharisees came up with over 600 detailed commands to specify what they thought that meant. As you know, Jesus frequently attacked the Pharisees for their ridiculous Sabbath rules. Biblical self-discipline distinguishes between what God commands and what men add to God’s commands.
The Colossian heretics were “inflated without cause by [their] fleshly mind” (Col. 2:18). While it is difficult to translate Colossians 2:23 (Moo, pp. 238-239), it probably means (as most modern translations agree) that while the rules of the false teachers may seem to promote godliness, in actuality, they are “of no value against fleshly indulgence.” Many people erroneously think that legalism is on one end of the scale and licentiousness on the other end, with grace being the balance point in the middle. But actually, legalism and licentiousness are two sides of the same coin, because both operate in the flesh. Thus Jesus accused the legalistic Pharisees of being full of self-indulgence, all uncleanness, and lawlessness (Matt. 23:25, 27, 28). Their manmade rules and outward restrictions could not deal with the flesh. Only the Holy Spirit living in us can make us holy by producing His fruit of self-control (Gal. 5:23).
The ascetic is often trying to make himself acceptable to God through harsh treatment of the body. By this he thinks he can atone for his sins or show enough contrition to merit God’s favor. But Christian self-discipline operates from the platform of knowing that God has accepted us in Jesus Christ on the basis of His grace. The motive behind self-discipline is not to gain His favor, but to be pleasing to the Lord because He loved me and died for me.
With that as a backdrop, let’s look more carefully at Paul’s argument in our text: When he says that we have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, I think the best explanation is his argument in Romans 7. There he argues that in Christ, we have died to the law, which could never produce godliness, so that we might be married to Christ. He says that the law of God is holy, righteous, and good. But the problem is, I am of the flesh, sold into bondage to sin. So when my sinful nature comes into contact with God’s holy law, the result is not godliness, but an arousal of my sinful desires, leading to more sin. However, Paul says, in Christ, who fulfilled the righteous demands of the law, we died to the law so that we are released from its jurisdiction, not to live unto sin, but rather to Christ, our new bridegroom (see also, Gal. 2:19).
In Colossians 2:20, when Paul says that we have died with Christ to (literally, “from,” since death means separation) “the elementary principles of the world,” he is referring to a rules-based approach to God (he uses the term this way in Gal. 4:3, 9). (Most modern scholars and some translations interpret “elementary principles” as “elemental spirits,” but I think it refers to an approach to God through keeping certain rules.) The cross ended that rules-keeping approach to God. We no longer have to “observe days and months and seasons and years” (Gal. 4:10) in order to come before God. Christ fulfilled all of that. He is “the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4).
Then, arguing from the greater to the lesser, Paul shows that since Christians have died to God’s law, which couldn’t produce righteousness, they should have nothing to do with manmade, ascetic rules, which are of no value against the flesh. He makes three points about these ascetic rules:
Colossians 2:21: “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” Paul is probably citing the false teachers’ own words to mock them. The Greek words for the first and third terms mean virtually the same thing (Moo, p. 235). If there is any nuance of difference, he may be indicating that if you follow their rules, pretty soon you can’t even touch their forbidden foods, let alone eat them. But his main point is that these sorts of rules cannot deal with the problem that we all wrestle against, namely, sinful desires in our hearts. You can keep all the rules, but your heart is still far from God. After Jesus confronted the Pharisees for their external religion, while their hearts were far from Him (Mark 7:6-7), He went on to point out that all sin begins in our hearts. He said (Mark 7:20-23):
“That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”
So if we want a solution to our sin problem, it has to change our hearts. Being identified with Christ in His death and resurrection, through the new birth, enables us to become “obedient from the heart” to God’s righteous commandments (Rom. 6:17).
Paul emphasizes this twice: First he calls these rules the commandments and teachings of men; then he calls it, “self-made religion.” It’s a type of worship which people make up for themselves, apart from what God has revealed. It’s a religion that takes some of God’s commands, but sets aside others. And it adds to what God has said by taking it farther than God intended.
For example, I’ve known Christians who take God’s Word regarding divorce and remarriage more strictly than the Bible stipulates. I was at a conference where the speaker taught that if you have ever been divorced for any reason, even if it was before you were a Christian, you could not remarry. So a young man who was divorced and then met Christ had to live in celibacy for the rest of his life. But God’s Word doesn’t say that!
And, he said, if you were divorced and remarried, even if it happened before you were saved, you could never be a pastor. Faithful pastors were going to the stage and saying that they were going to go home and resign from their ministries, because years before they met the Lord, they had gone through a divorce. I was appalled! To no avail, I argued with the speaker that he was laying on these men a standard that was stricter than God’s Word. Asceticism takes God’s Word and adds to it in an attempt to keep people from sinning. But it doesn’t work.
Paul grants (Col. 2:23) that these rules have “the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but,” he adds, “are of no value against fleshly indulgence.” This sort of rules-keeping approach to the Christian life only serves to feed the flesh, because it does not deal with our pride. Pretty soon, those who keep the rules begin to look down on those who don’t keep the rules. If we fall into this trap, pretty soon we’ll start thinking like the Pharisee in Jesus’ story who prayed (Luke 18:11-12), “God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.”
That story shows that we can take even good things and become proud of ourselves for doing them: It’s right not to be a swindler or unjust or an adulterer. It’s right to fast (for the right reasons) and to be faithful in stewardship. It’s right to study God’s Word, to spend time in prayer, and to be faithful in gathering with God’s people to worship. But when you begin boasting, even to yourself, about your performance, you’re acting in the flesh, not in the Spirit. And the flesh never produces true godliness.
“Well,” you ask, “if asceticism isn’t the way to godliness, what is?” Our text for next week gives a more complete answer. But Paul hints at it in the opening phrase of verse 20:
The key phrase in Colossians 2:20 is, “If you have died with Christ ….” In Colossians 3:1-4, Paul talks about the corresponding truth of being raised up with Christ so that our life is now hidden with Christ in God. But for now, let’s briefly consider what it means to be identified with Christ in His death.
If you know Christ as Savior, you were there in Him when He died on the cross. The law of God had put a curse on the human race, because we all have violated it repeatedly. We stand condemned under its penalty of death. But Jesus, born under the law, perfectly fulfilled it. His death met the just requirement of the law. Because we are in Him, we also died to the law. It no longer has power or jurisdiction over us who are in Christ.
You may not feel or experience this truth. But it’s a legal fact in God’s sight. When you act upon it as true, it frees you from the cycle of sin and death under the law and enables you, through God’s Spirit, to live a life of holiness (see Rom. 8:1-4). Remember, in the Bible death always means separation, not cessation. The Greek preposition used in verse 20 means that we died from the law: we are separated from the law’s jurisdiction so that it no longer condemns us.
To illustrate, consider a man from a foreign country where the law imposed a 6 p.m. curfew. The man moves to our country and becomes a U.S. citizen. He has thus been legally separated from his country and its laws and become identified with our country. One evening he is out walking far from his home. Suddenly he realizes that it’s almost 6 p.m. He stops a man on the street and says, “Please, help me! I’m not allowed to be on the streets after 6 p.m.” The American would say to him, “Sir, I don’t know who told you such a thing. But let me assure you that in the United States, there is no such law.” That man’s freedom was a fact; but he wasn’t enjoying his freedom because he wasn’t acting on the basis of the truth that he was dead to (separated from) the laws of his old country and alive to the freedom of his new country.
That’s what Paul means when he says (Rom. 7:6), “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.” Or, again (Gal. 2:19-20): “For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.” Godliness comes through our identification with Christ in His death, not through the rules-keeping of asceticism.
I doubt if there’s much danger of any of you running off to join a monastery or a convent. If you’re thinking about it, talk to me first! It won’t kill the flesh! But, because of your sincere desire to live for Christ, some of you may be trying to live by all sorts of manmade rules. But the rules approach doesn’t work. The way toward a godly life and victory over sin is to trust in Christ as your Savior and then to understand who you are in Christ and to live in light of your identification with Him.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
February 28, 2016
Years ago, I saw a classic cartoon by Mary Chambers, where two couples are studying the Bible. One of the women says, “Well, I haven’t actually died to sin, but I did feel kind of faint once.” (http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2004/april-online-only/i-havent-actually-died-to-sin.html) Whenever I read that we have died with Christ I think about that cartoon and chuckle. I know that the Bible says that I’m dead to sin, but I don’t feel dead to it. Once in a while I may feel kind of faint, but I never feel dead to it. So what does it mean and how is it practical in my battle against sin?
Last week we saw that keeping a bunch of manmade rules and denying yourself things that the Bible does not forbid is not the way to godliness. So the question is, how do I win against sin? Paul answers that question in Colossians 3:1-4. He mentions again that we died with Christ, and he adds the corresponding truth that we have been raised up with Him. He also gives what sounds like very impractical advice (Col. 3:1b-2): “Keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things on earth.” We’ve all known people who are “so heavenly minded that they’re no earthly good.” But Paul is saying, “To be of more good on earth, you need to be more heavenly minded!”
To understand our text, we need to view it in the context. In the previous context (Col. 2:23), Paul attacks the rules-based, asceticism of the false teachers, which he says, is “of no value against fleshly indulgence.” In the verses immediately following our text (Col. 3:5-9), he tells us to put to death the members of our body with regard to a list of sins that characterized our old way of life. He then (Col. 3:12-17) talks about the qualities that those who have been chosen by God should practice. He applies these qualities to how Christian wives and husbands, children and parents, and workers and bosses should relate to one another (Col. 3:18-4:1). Finally, he exhorts the church to prayer and wise witness (Col. 4:2-6), before concluding the letter with a lengthy personal section (Col. 4:7-18). So our text is the key both to avoiding the sins of the flesh and to practicing godly relationships in the church, the home, the workplace, and the world. He’s saying:
To win against sin, live in light of your new identity in the risen Christ.
Occasionally you’ll meet a dear saint who claims that he lives above all temptation and sin. He’s learned the secret of victory, where he “abides in Christ” and sin is never a problem. To disprove his claim, talk to those who live and work with him! You’ll no doubt hear a different story!
I hope we all admit that we fight a daily battle against the sins of the flesh. These sins are mainly what Paul has in mind when he directs us (Col. 3:2) not to think “on the things that are on earth.” That phrase is repeated verbatim (in the Greek text) in verse 5, where Paul tells us (literally) to put to death our members “that are on earth.” He goes on (Col. 3:5, 8-9) to list many sins that we all struggle against: “immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed,” along with “anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech,” and lying. Paul wouldn’t tell us not to have our minds characterized by these sins and to put them to death if they were no longer a problem for us. While through the new birth, we are radically different than we were before, our old nature (or “flesh”) was not eradicated. As Christians, we have to fight against these sins. How?
These verses are Christ-centered. Paul mentions “Christ” four times in four verses. There are two sides to our identity in Him:
In Colossians 2:12, Paul states that we were “buried with [Christ] in baptism.” In verse 20, he says that we “died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world,” which I believe refers to a rules-based approach to God. Now, again (Col. 3:3), he explains, “For you have died ….” So he wants us to understand that when we trusted in Jesus Christ, we became identified with Him in His death. (See, also, Rom. 6:3-11; 7:4, 6; Gal. 2:19-20; 6:14.)
The problem with this truth (as that cartoon showed) is, I don’t feel dead toward sin or the world. In fact, to be honest, when I am tempted to sin (which is often), my old nature feels very much alive and well! There is a strong inner desire to indulge in sin. So what does it mean that I am dead to sin in Christ? How can this help me to overcome sin?
It seems to me that the answer is to remember that death, in the Bible, never means cessation of existence, but rather, separation. When you die physically, your soul is separated from your body. To be identified with Christ in His death means that I am separated from the power of the flesh and from this evil world. I am now a citizen of a new “country,” of heaven, so that I do not have to obey the laws of the old country, this sinful world.
Last week I used the illustration of a man who was a citizen of a country that imposed a 6 p.m. curfew. But when he moves to the United States and becomes a citizen here, he is no longer under that old law. Because he lived under it so long, he still may feel like he’s under that law. But the truth is, he’s not. He “died” to that old law and its power so that he now can live under the new laws of freedom that characterize his new country.
To use a different analogy, if you’ve ever seen a car with the wheels off the ground, you can step on the gas pedal and the wheels spin like crazy, but the car doesn’t go anywhere, because the wheels are separated from the ground. When you’re tempted to sin, your old nature may get all revved up and make a lot of noise, but you can say, “My old nature died with Christ. I’m now separated from its power. It has been rendered inoperative, so that it doesn’t have to go anywhere.” As Paul says in Romans 6:11, “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
So it’s not a matter of feeling dead to sin, but rather a legal fact. If we’re joined to Christ by faith, we’re one with Him in His death. We’re divorced from the old life, which was a tyrant, keeping us in sin. Now, we’re married to a new husband who gives us new life and freedom from sin. The flip side is:
Paul mentions this in Colossians 2:12-13:
… having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.
Now, again (Col. 3:1): “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” As I said last week, “if” does not (in the Greek text) imply uncertainty. It’s true, but Paul wants us to consider the implications of it. Like being united with Christ in His death, being raised up with Him is not a matter of feeling, but one of fact. When Jesus was raised from the dead, if by faith we’re in Him, we also were raised.
Being raised up with Christ teaches us that salvation is not a matter of human decision or will power, but rather of God’s mighty power imparting life to us when we were dead in our sins. Salvation is not making a resolution to kick our bad habits or to clean up our lives. Rather, it involves the life-giving power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. It means, as the Puritan, Henry Scougal, put it, “the life of God in the soul of man.” It means that we are so united with Christ that He is our life (Col. 3:4). Just as the branch draws its life from the vine (John 15:1-6), so we must live in dependence upon the supernatural power of the risen Christ, not in human strength with a little help from God tacked on now and then when we think we need it. It means living in union with the risen person of Jesus Christ.
Being raised up with Christ also means that all that is true of Christ is now true of us, because we’re “in Him.” If I put a piece of paper in my Bible, then whatever happens to my Bible happens to that piece of paper. If I take my Bible home, the piece of paper goes home. If I drop my Bible, the paper drops. The paper is in the Bible. And the believer is in Jesus Christ. We are totally identified with Him.
In Him “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). While it takes a lifetime to discover and mine out those treasures, they’re ours in Christ. In Christ we have the surpassing riches of God’s grace in kindness toward us (Eph. 2:7). In Christ, we have been made complete, so that He is now our “all in all” (Col. 2:10; 3:11). If we’re “in Christ,” we have everything we need for life and godliness through His precious and magnificent promises (2 Pet. 1:3-4).
Paul states here (Col. 3:1) the mind-boggling truth (which he also states in Eph. 2:6) that we have been raised up with Christ, who is now seated at the right hand of God. So we’re seated there in Him! When you look up all the places in the New Testament that refer to Christ’s being seated at the right hand of God (the phrase comes from Ps. 110:1), they generally fall into three categories:
First, it refers to Christ’s supreme power. In Ephesians 1:20-21, Paul prays that we might know …
… what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
You can’t get any greater power than that! He is not yet fully exercising that power, but is awaiting the time when His enemies will be made a footstool for His feet (Ps. 110:1; Heb. 1:13; 10:13). But He is now “seated at the right hand of the power of God” (Luke 22:69). And we are there in Him! Paul’s application of this in relation to our battle against sin is (Rom. 6:12-13):
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Second, being seated at God’s right hand refers to Christ’s sufficient pardon. Hebrews 1:3 states,
And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
The fact that Jesus Christ is now sitting at the right hand of the Father means that He obtained complete pardon for all our sins. Hebrews 10:12-14 states,
But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
If we’re in Him at the Father’s right hand, we can be assured that He has forgiven all our sins. The enemy has no basis to accuse us (Rev. 12:10). We’re accepted in Christ (Rom. 15:7).
Third, the fact that Jesus Christ is now sitting at the right hand of the Father means that we are the objects of Christ’s sympathetic prayers. In the context of our sufferings, Romans 8:33-34 assures us,
Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
When you get discouraged and lose hope, it’s encouraging to know that your mother or father or a faithful friend is praying for you. But family and friends are only human; they can’t pray for you constantly. But the fullness of Deity dwells in the Lord Jesus Christ (Col. 2:9), and He is at the Father’s right hand interceding for you in your weakness (Heb. 7:25; 8:1). So when you battle temptation or you wrestle with discouragement, remember that you’re in Christ. You shared in His death and resurrection. You’re seated with Him at the right hand of God, where He has all power, you have all pardon, and you have His prayers. You win against sin by living in light of your identity in the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
But, you still may wonder, how does this work? How do we implement it practically?
Here we need to understand three things:
Colossians 3:3b: “Your life is hidden with Christ in God.” What does Paul mean by this? First, he may be taking a swipe at the false teachers, who emphasized secret or hidden truths for those who would be initiated into their so-called “philosophy.” He’s saying that we Christians are the ones with real hidden truths that the world cannot know. Outwardly, we look like everyone else in the world. But our real life—eternal life—is hidden with Christ in God. The world can’t understand it, but it’s true.
This phrase may also point to the security of our new life in Christ. In Psalm 31:20 David says of those who take refuge in God, “You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man; You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues.” (See, also, Ps. 27:5.) If our life is hidden with Christ in God, we’re safe there.
A third implication of the truth that our life is hidden with Christ in God is that it needs to be mined out as a buried treasure. These truths that God declares about us in Christ may not be immediately obvious, but if we’ll take the time and effort to dig them out of God’s Word, they will be like gold and silver to us (Ps. 19:7-11; Matt. 13:44-45). But, how do we find these treasures?
There are two commands in our text: “Keep seeking the things above”; and, “Set your mind on the things above.” Both are present imperatives, suggesting a continual process. To keep seeking these things means to make the truths of Christ as revealed in God’s Word our constant pursuit, our focus, our aim. Just as worldly people get up early and are focused day after day on pursuing material things, so Christians should be devoted to pursuing the things of Christ.
This doesn’t mean that we should drop out of life and spend all our time meditating on spiritual truth. The Lord expects us to work and live in this world. But it does mean, as Jesus put it, that instead of working for the food which perishes, we should work for the food which endures to eternal life (John 6:27). We should seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness (Matt. 6:33). We should begin each day thinking about God’s perspective: We’re separate from this evil world, dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ. We think about Christ as our life, who lives in and through us. Throughout the day, we keep bringing our thoughts back, again and again, to those things which are true of us in Christ.
To “set your mind on the things above” shows that this continual pursuit of the things above involves our thinking. The Greek word means, “Have your whole attitude characterized by those things.” The present tense implies that we must make repeated choices to focus our thoughts not on the flesh, but on the things which are true of us in Christ so that our whole outlook is determined by these truths. We will view ourselves, not as citizens of this world, but as having died and now being raised up with Christ, so completely identified with Him that He is our very life.
The truest thing about you is what God says is true, not what you may feel. How you think about yourself determines how you act. Your thought life also determines, to a large extent, your emotions. Here Paul is saying that we must constantly, by deliberate choice, focus our thoughts on the risen Christ and on the truth that we are totally identified with Him. In Christ, we have been separated from this evil world and from our old nature which seeks to pull us back into sin. Now, we should repeatedly think, “I am now in Christ.” As that truth shapes your identity, it becomes the key to a holy life! That’s how you win against sin. One final thought:
Colossians 3:4: “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” What an amazing truth! When Christ, who right now is our life, returns, we will discover the full truth about ourselves in Him. We will be revealed with Him in glory! Then we will know fully, just as we have been fully known (1 Cor. 13:12). As 1 John 3:2-3 states,
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Knowing that one day we will be revealed with Christ in glory motivates us to godly living right now. Seeing ourselves in Christ is the key to winning the battle against sin.
Years ago, a plastic surgeon noticed some interesting things about the people whose faces he operated on. For some, the operation resulted in immediate and lasting changes in their personalities. People who had been embarrassed about some disfigurement became confident and outgoing after the problem was fixed.
But in spite of successful surgeries, there were others who insisted that the surgery made no difference at all. The doctor would show them before and after photographs, but the people still insisted, sometimes angrily, that their faces were no different. They refused to believe the truth and went on living just as they had before, dominated by their previous disfigurement, which no longer existed (These stories are in Maxwell Maltz, Psycho-cybernetics [Prentice-Hall, 1960]. I do not recommend the book, which is full of spiritual falsehood.) Their lives were not changed because they didn’t believe the truth about the change that had taken place.
As Christians, we’ve been given much more than a face lift. We have died to our old lives and have been raised up to new life in Christ. All that is true of the risen Christ is now true of us. Now we must continually keep seeking and setting our minds on the things above, where our true life is hidden with Christ in God. As we live in light of our new identity in Christ, we will win the battle against sin.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
March 6, 2016
I recently got an email from a woman who had read one of my sermons online. She asked for my counsel regarding a friend who is a part of “a very anointed church where the rich word of God is preached and the rich presence of God descends and the Lord is adding numbers and the church is growing in glory and fame.” But she went on to say that the pastor there “has a weakness,” where he engages in immoral relationships with the inner circle of women disciples.
He invited her friend to be in that circle and then made advances toward her, which she resisted. She excused herself from this team and broke off all contact with this pastor. But her friend was wondering whether it was scriptural to cut off all contact with him, since, in her words, “He is a very, very anointed man whom God is using mightily.” She added that her friend is planning to continue in the same church, as there are not many churches in that part of the world (which, I learned, is India).
I replied that in spite of outward appearances, this man is not in any way anointed by the Holy Spirit. Rather, he is like the false teachers described in 2 Peter 2 and in Jude. I told her that her friend should leave that church immediately and take as many of her friends with her as she can.
But sadly, that same story could be told in just about every country where the church is found, including the United States. We regularly see scandals in the news involving well-known pastors and church leaders. In his recent book, Strange Fire [Thomas Nelson, 2013], John MacArthur documents numerous moral scandals involving various Pentecostal and Charismatic leaders. One such was Lonnie Frisbee, who was instrumental in the early development of both Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard. It finally became public that he had been a practicing homosexual, a fact that had been well-known to his friends and fellow charismatic ministers. He died of AIDS in 1993 (ibid., pp. 60-61, 287, note 8).
Back in 1988, Leadership Journal [Winter, 1988, pp. 12-13, 24] reported that almost one fourth of pastors admitted to doing something “sexually inappropriate” with someone other than their spouse since entering the ministry. Twelve percent specified that the inappropriate behavior was adultery. Twenty percent of pastors said that they looked at sexually oriented media at least monthly (before the Internet existed!). Among readers of Christianity Today (an evangelical magazine), 23 percent of those who are not pastors admitted to having committed adultery.
Since then, moral values in our culture have not improved. Recently, The Barna Group found that 56 percent of people under age 25 think that not recycling is wrong, but only 32 percent think that viewing porn is wrong! The same survey found that nearly half of young people actively seek out porn monthly or more often. In the church, 21 percent of youth pastors and 14 percent of pastors admit they currently struggle with using porn. In light of the 1988 survey that found 20 percent of pastors look at porn at least every month, I suspect that the more recent lower numbers are way underreported.
In addition to sexual sins, the sin of greed is a huge problem in the church. The so-called “prosperity gospel” is thriving not only in America, but all over the world. MacArthur (ibid., pp. 58-59) cites a source that over 90 percent of Pentecostals and Charismatics in Nigeria, South Africa, India, and the Philippines believe that “God will grant material prosperity to all believers who have enough faith.” MacArthur rightly states (p. 59),
The prosperity gospel is more morally reprehensible than a Las Vegas casino because it masquerades as religion and comes in the name of Christ. But like the casinos, it attracts its victims with glitzy showmanship and the allure of instant riches. After devouring their last cent, like a spiritual slot machine, it sends them home worse off than when they came.
In view of the immoral, greedy world that we live in, to which many professing Christians have succumbed, Paul’s words in our text dealing with sex, greed, and Christians become quite relevant:
As Christians we must radically separate ourselves from all sexual immorality and greed.
Paul begins this chapter with the sublime theme that we must seek and set our minds on the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, where our life is now hidden with Christ in God. But now he abruptly moves into the seamy subjects of sex and greed! He joins the two subjects with “therefore,” showing that there is a close connection between these two seemingly disjointed themes. He’s saying that the fact of our new identity with the risen Lord Jesus Christ is the basis for a godly life of separation from all sexual immorality and greed. In other words, we need to be in actual practice what God says we are in spiritual truth. If we are in fact raised up with Christ in heaven, we need live like it on earth.
We will look at Paul’s command; the subject of his command; the consequences if his command is disobeyed; and, the hope behind his command.
Usually I like the New American Standard Bible. But here the translators varied from their normal literal approach and took an interpretive approach, relegating the literal translation to the margin. Paul is not saying, “Consider your body dead to sin” (as he does in Rom. 6:11), but rather, “Put to death your members on earth.” The parallel text is not Romans 6:11, but rather Romans 8:13, “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.”
But what does Paul mean when he says, “Put to death the members which are on earth”? He is using the term, “members which are on earth” as a figure of speech (metonymy, “the use of one thing for another with which it is associated”) to refer to sins which stem from our old nature, but are associated with our bodies. In American English we have a saying, “Don’t give me any of your lip!” We’re using “lip” as a metonymy to represent the words which come forth from our lips. So when Paul says, “Put to death your members on earth,” he means, “Kill all sexual sins and all your greed, which come from your flesh.” Note three things:
Paul easily could have said, “Control your sexual impulses.” But instead, he uses shocking, radical language: “Kill your bodily parts when it comes to sexual immorality and greed!” John Owen put it (The Works of John Owen: Temptation and Sin [Banner of Truth], 6:9), “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” Curtis Vaughan (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. by Frank Gaebelein [Zondervan], 11:211) says:
The verb ... is very strong. It suggests that we are not simply to suppress or control evil acts and attitudes. We are to wipe them out, completely exterminate the old way of life. “Slay utterly” may express its force. The form of the verb ... makes clear that the action is to be undertaken decisively, with a sense of urgency. Both the meaning of the verb and the force of the tense suggest a vigorous, painful act of personal determination.
I’ve heard Bible teachers say that we already died with Christ, so we don’t need to put ourselves to death. We just need to consider ourselves dead to sin (Rom. 6:11). While that’s one side of the truth, it’s not the entire picture. Paul here is using this radical terminology to say, “Lay hold of your sinful nature, wrestle it down, and nail it to the cross! Nothing short of a violent death will do.” And as often as that old nature squirms off the cross and resurrects itself, nail it back again!
The Lord Jesus used similar radical terminology in the context of talking about the sin of mental lust, which He equated with adultery (Matt. 5:29-30):
If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.
Did Jesus and Paul mean for us to take this literally? No, because cutting off parts of your body doesn’t solve the problem. You could cut out both eyes, but as long as you have a functioning brain, you would still have a problem with lust. Rather, they meant:
Jesus taught that all sin begins on the thought level (Mark 7:20-23). No guy ever cheated on his wife without first thinking about it. If he had judged it when the temptation popped into his mind, it wouldn’t have gone any further. By tearing out my eye and cutting off my hand, Jesus meant that I must take radical action to kill my sin on the thought level.
Let’s be honest: It’s easy to play games here. You can look godly outwardly, but be entertaining lustful thoughts that no one else knows about. But that’s like tolerating cracks beneath the surface in a dam. Nobody sees those cracks, but sooner or later, the dam will burst and cause a lot of damage. Remember, nobody ever falls into the sin of sexual immorality without thinking about it for some time beforehand.
So putting to death my earthly members with regard to immorality means forsaking and confessing any lustful thoughts the moment they occur. I must immediately separate myself from those thoughts and acknowledge them to God as sin. It means guarding what I look at in magazines. I sometimes tear pages out of magazines because I want to read the rest of the magazine, but I don’t want to keep being tempted by pictures of seductive women. I would not subscribe to Sports Illustrated because of their yearly swimsuit issue, or if I really wanted to subscribe, I’d have my wife intercept that issue and shred it before I could look at it.
For the same reason, I don’t watch movies rated R for explicit sex or nudity. I don’t have time, but if I did I wouldn’t watch many of the shows now on evening TV. I see the ads for those shows while I watch the evening news as I work out, and seeing the short ads tells me, “Don’t watch those shows!” The sad fact is, I can remember sensual scenes from movies years later, but I can’t remember Bible verses that I worked on last week! So I need to get radical in dealing with my sin. Also,
Paul doesn’t say, “Let go and let God deliver you.” He doesn’t even say, “Pray for deliverance from this sin.” He says, “Put it to death!” It’s a command, directed to each Christian. As I stated earlier, the command is based on the truth about our identity in Christ (Col. 3:1-4). Because of who we are in Christ, we are to take this action. And, we are to do it by the Holy Spirit’s power, relying on Him. But then we must take whatever action is necessary, however radical it may be, to kill our sin. As Paul commands (1 Cor. 6:18), “Flee immorality!” It’s a war that you don’t win by standing and fighting; you win by running in the opposite direction! Even though it cost him his job and landed him in prison, Joseph had the right strategy when he left his coat in the hands of Potiphar’s seductive wife and ran away (Gen. 39:12).
God puts the responsibility for active obedience in sexual purity on me. It’s not an impossible command to obey, or God wouldn’t tell me to do it. It’s not opposed to God’s grace, because His grace instructs us “to deny ungodliness and worldly desires” (Titus 2:11-12). So the command is that I must take whatever radical action is needed to kill my sinful sexual impulses and greed.
Paul lists four sexual sins plus greed, which underlies all sexual sins, but is much broader, since it includes the desire for material possessions also (I plan to focus on it next week). “Immorality” translates the Greek word “porneia,” a broad term for any sexual activity outside of heterosexual marriage. This includes sex between unmarried partners, adultery, homosexuality, child molestation, and bestiality. Since all those sins begin in the mind, we must avoid any sort of media that tempts us toward those sins.
“Impurity” is similar to “porneia,” but it also includes impurity of thought as well as deed. It reminds us that sexual sin defiles us. If you’ll excuse a gross illustration, you can’t raise a family without, at times, needing to put your hand into a dirty toilet. We used cloth diapers that needed to be rinsed out. Or, sometimes, one of the kids would drop something into a toilet that already needed to be flushed. When you stick your hand into a dirty toilet, it is defiled. You wouldn’t think of then going about the day without washing it thoroughly with soap and hot water. In the same way, sexual sin defiles us and demands God’s immediate cleansing.
The third and fourth words, “passion,” and “evil desire,” are similar. They both focus on the strong inner emotional lure of sexual sin. Paul elsewhere described such feelings as “burning” (1 Cor. 7:9). These words show that these feelings are not easy to deal with—they are powerful and you’re not usually in a calm, rational state of mind when they burn within! But, if you don’t control them, they will enslave and consume you.
The final word in Paul’s list is “greed,” which he equates with idolatry. Other references mention greed in the same context as sexual sin (Rom. 1:24-32, esp. vs. 29; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Eph. 5:3), because greed is the desire for more so that I can fulfill myself without regard for God or for others. It’s idolatry because I am putting myself in the place of God. All sexual immorality has greed as its motive, because it’s based on personal gratification, not on permanent love and commitment to the other person’s good.
The only reason that the so-called “prosperity” preachers have become so popular worldwide is that neither they nor those who follow them have killed their greed. If we had the biblical view that greed is as serious a sin as sexual immorality, would we even tolerate as Christian some clown who waves his diamond rings at us and boasts of his expensive cars and homes and claims that prosperity is our divine right? Have you ever heard of an American Christian being disciplined by the church because of greed? Kent Hughes (Colossians and Philemon [Crossway], p. 97) cites a proverb that is sadly, often true: “If a man is drunk with wine, we kick him out of the church; if he is drunk with money, we make him a deacon!” Yet Paul says that greed is equal to idolatry. We must put our greed to death!
Paul goes on to show the seriousness of these sins by showing where they lead:
Colossians 3:6: “For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience” (some manuscripts lack the last phrase, “upon the sons of disobedience,” which a copyist may have added from the parallel Eph. 5:6). It means that those characterized by these sins will face God’s wrath.
We don’t like to focus on God’s wrath in our day. We’d rather focus on His love. But the Bible is full of references to God’s wrath and His judgment on sin. Jesus spoke frequently about hell and judgment, including the verses we looked at earlier about plucking out your eye and cutting off your hand as better alternatives than hell. He called it a place of outer darkness, of weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 25:30), a place of torment and agony (Luke 16:23-24), where “their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48). You cannot say that you follow Jesus and yet reject His teaching about hell.
The Bible often connects God’s judgment with sexual sin and greed. God judged Sodom because of sexual immorality and greed (Gen. 19; Ezek. 16:49). Paul wrote (1 Cor. 6:9-10), “Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” Hebrews 13:4 warns, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” Revelation 18 shows Babylon reveling in sexual immorality and greed just before God’s judgment falls.
Those verses should scare you! If they don’t, you may have a warped view of God’s grace. Fear of God’s judgment is a legitimate motivator. It ought to make us think twice before we go with the flow of our sensual, materialistic culture. God’s wrath means that He stands in fierce, settled opposition to such sin. The fact that He hasn’t judged it yet and that evildoers seem to be having a great time doesn’t mean that His judgment is not coming. God gives us such strong warnings because He loves us and doesn’t want us to come to such an awful end. But the warning is clear: those whose lives are characterized by sexual immorality and greed are not God’s people. They stand in danger of His awful wrath! “Do not be deceived” (1 Cor. 6:9)!
But, thankfully, because our text does so, I can end on a note of hope:
Colossians 3:7: “and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.” “Walked” and “living in them” show that these were not occasional sins, but rather the former way of life for many of these new believers. But the good news is, “walked” and “living” are past tense. As Paul wrote after warning the Corinthians about many sexual sins (including homosexuality) and greed (1 Cor. 6:11), “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
No matter how enslaved to sexual immorality, greed, or any other sin you may be, there is hope if you will come to the cross of Jesus Christ. God’s wrath and love met at the cross. Jesus bore the wrath of God’s judgment on the cross so that God could freely pour out His love on those who put their trust in Christ’s shed blood. As Paul testified (1 Tim. 1:15), “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.” No sinner is beyond the reach of God’s grace through the cross! Believe in Jesus and you can be assured of God’s complete forgiveness!
Alexander Maclaren, a 19th century British preacher, illustrated our text by describing a man who was working at a machine and got his fingers caught between the rollers. The machine begins to suck in his hand and in another minute his arm and then his whole body will be flattened to a shapeless, bloody mass. The man grabs an axe lying nearby and with his other arm, hacks off his own hand at the wrist. It’s not easy or pleasant, but it’s the only alternative to a horrible death. (Cited by Vaughan, p. 211.)
It’s a gruesome picture, but it illustrates the truth that we can’t play around with a little bit of sexual sin or greed. If you’re already involved in these sins or even if you’re just secretly entertaining them in your mind, God is telling you what you must do: Cut it off, put it to death, radically separate yourself from it—before it sucks you in to destruction! Do it in light of your new identity in Christ. Do it in the power of the Holy Spirit. But, do it!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
March 13, 2016
Preaching about greed is not easy. Almost everyone agrees that greed is bad. So they sit back and say, “Amen! We’re against it. Preach it, brother!” And, we’re all quick to judge greed in others: “Did you see that expensive new car so-and-so was driving? How can he justify that with all the needy refugees in the world?” But few of us admit, “I have a problem with greed.”
We tend to shrug off greed by comparing ourselves with those who are richer than we are and thinking that greed is their problem. “When I’m a multimillionaire, I’ll worry about it!” Yet we need to realize that Paul wrote Colossians to average Christians in an average small-town church. He told them that they must put to death their sinful nature with regard to “greed, which amounts to idolatry” (Col. 3:5). If greed was a problem for them in that culture, then surely we who live in this prosperous nation, must come to grips with greed.
But it’s not an easy subject to understand. Are we being greedy by living in nice, spacious homes furnished with all the conveniences of modern life, when there are millions around the world living in shacks with no indoor plumbing? Are we being greedy when we have nice cars in our driveways and expensive toys in our garages? Where should we draw the line? How can we keep greed from becoming our god?
Last week I developed the idea from Colossians 3:5-7 that Christians must radically separate themselves from all sexual immorality and greed. Since Paul uses four words for sexual immorality and only one for greed, I focused on moral purity. But now I want to focus on greed. Paul is saying that…
Christians must radically separate themselves from all greed.
As we saw last week, when Paul tells us to put to death our members on earth (the literal rendering of verse 5) with regard to sexual immorality and greed, he means, “Radically separate yourself from these sins, beginning on the thought level.” We are to do so in light of our new identity in Christ (Col. 3:1-4) and in the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:13). But, we are responsible to do it! Today I want to answer four questions: (1) What is greed? (2) How should Christians view greed and wealth? (3) How can I know if I’m greedy? (4) How can I deal with my greed?
What is greed?
That’s my own definition. Webster defines it as “excessive or reprehensible acquisitiveness.” It defines the synonym, “covetous,” as, “marked by inordinate desire for wealth or possessions or for another’s possessions.” The problem is, those terms are subjective. Most of us would say, “I don’t have excessive, reprehensible, inordinate desires! I would just like a little bit more” (and more, and more!).
The Bible uses several words for greed. One means, literally, the love of silver. Paul uses it when he states (1 Tim. 6:10), “the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil.” Another word, used to translate the tenth commandment, “You shall not covet” (Rom. 7:7), means “desire.” It often refers to “lust.” With regard to things, it means wanting what belongs to someone else. The main New Testament word for greed comes from two words meaning literally, “to have more.” It’s often used in the sense of taking advantage of another person. But the main sense is the desire to have more and more things in an attempt to satisfy myself.
In Mark 7:21-22, Jesus mentions a long list of sins, including “deeds of coveting,” which He says come from our hearts. So greed is not primarily concerned with amount, but rather with attitude and motives. The poor can be just as greedy as the rich.
Greed is the attitude that’s never quite satisfied, that says, “All I want is a little bit more.” We see this in the parable Jesus told in Luke 12:13-21. A man in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” Being fair, I would have expected Jesus to say, “Bring that scoundrel here!” And He would have confronted him about his greediness. But instead, Jesus tells the man with the complaint, “Who made Me a judge or arbiter over you?” Then He told the whole crowd (Luke 12:15), “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.”
Then Jesus told the story of the man who had too many crops for his already-full barns. So he planned to build bigger barns, while he congratulated himself that he had plenty stored up for years to come. But God said (Luke 12:20), “You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?” Jesus concluded (Luke 12:21), “So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” The man wasn’t content, even though he had plenty. He wanted more and more. And it’s clear that he intended to keep it all for himself. He wasn’t thinking about God’s kingdom or the needs of others. That’s greed.
There’s a story of a financier who was visited by an angel who told him he would grant him one wish. The businessman asked for a copy of the financial news one year in advance. As he was greedily scanning the stock prices, drooling over the killing he would make on his investments, his eye glanced across the page to the obituaries where he saw his own name. Suddenly his investments didn’t matter quite so much!
Greed puts a wrong value on temporal things. It treats temporal things as if they, and we, will endure on earth forever. But, in fact, we could die today or all our things could be taken from us instantly. There’s no such thing as financial security in this world. Greed also treats eternal things as if they aren’t real and never will happen. But when we’re in eternity, this speck of time we call life will seem like a blip on the radar screen. So we need to ask ourselves, “In light of eternity and the brevity and uncertainty of this life, am I managing what God has entrusted to me so as to be rich toward God?”
How should Christians view greed and wealth?
Paul says that greed is tantamount to idolatry and brings the wrath of God (Col. 3:5). Elsewhere (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Eph. 5:5) he warns that the greedy will not inherit the kingdom of God. He means that those whose lives are characterized by greed are not true believers and they will go to hell. Paul tells the Corinthians (1 Cor. 5:10-11) not to associate with anyone who claims to be a Christian but who is greedy—not even to eat with such a one. He warns (1 Tim. 6:9-10),
But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
In almost every catalog of sins where greed is mentioned, it’s coupled with sexual immorality. As I mentioned last Sunday, if Christians saw greed as equal to idolatry and as serious as sexual immorality, how could we have tolerated for even one second the flamboyant TV preachers who flaunt their extravagant wealth and brazenly tell everyone that financial prosperity is their divine right? Peter denounces such false teachers by comparing them to Balaam and saying that their hearts are “trained in greed” (2 Pet. 2:14-15). Greed is a serious sin to be avoided!
But does that mean, then, that we must take a vow of poverty and get rid of all our possessions? How should we view wealth?
The Bible views wealth as a serious responsibility to do good. All wealth comes from God as a gift entrusted to us to use properly for Him. We are free to enjoy without guilt the wealth God bestows, but we’re also stewards of it for Him. Paul’s counsel applies to us (1 Tim. 6:17-18): “Instruct those who are rich in this present world [we are rich in comparison to most] not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.”
While hard work is the normal means God uses to bestow wealth, we should never think that we are the cause of our own success or that God owes it to us as our due. Moses warned Israel before they went into Canaan (Deut. 8:18), “You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” That covenant was God’s promise to bless Israel so that they could bless others (Gen. 12:1-3).
The Bible views wealth as good, but dangerous. It’s like a loaded gun. If I’m in the woods and an angry bear is charging at me, a loaded gun is a good thing to have! But a loaded gun is always dangerous, especially if it’s in the hands of a five-year-old. If we’re careful to be good stewards of God’s gift of wealth, using it to promote His purposes, it’s good. But if we’re deceived by our wealth (Matt. 13:22), so that our trust shifts from the Lord to our riches, or we squander it on selfish living without regard for God’s purposes, we’re in danger of spiritual ruin.
Now for the convicting part of this message:
How can I know if I’m greedy?
Before we look at these signs, let me warn you that we need to be careful to judge ourselves and not others (Matt. 7:1-5). It’s easy to apply this to others and to justify myself, but I need to remove the log from my own eye. If you think that another Christian is being deceived by greed, your responsibility is gently to seek to restore him (Gal. 6:1). But we each have to stand before God someday. So we need to face these matters personally and honestly on the heart level before Him.
I assure you that I am a fellow-struggler with you on these hard questions and it’s a constant battle! Should we trade in our old car for a newer one? If so, how much should we spend? Should we enjoy a vacation in a nice hotel when we can camp? Do I need the latest gadget that the digital age is dangling in front of me? Should I set aside more for the time when I can’t work, or give it to the Lord’s work now?
The problem is, while biblical principles do apply, there are no hard and fast rules to guide in every situation. For example, Paul says that if I don’t provide for my own family, I’m worse than an unbeliever and have denied the faith (1 Tim. 5:8). Those are strong words! But also, I’m commanded not to store up treasures on earth, but rather to seek first God’s kingdom (Matt. 6:19, 33). How do I balance that tension? Here are some questions to help you take your spiritual pulse with regard to greed:
This is the basic stewardship question. While the Bible recognizes personal property rights (the commandments against stealing presume that I own some things and you own other things), there must be the fundamental sense that God owns all that I have. I manage it for Him, and at the judgment, I will give an account to Him (Matt. 25:14-30; Rom. 14:10, 12).
Would I buy this item? Would I give more to His cause? Would I spend what I spend on entertainment? At the end of the movie, “Schindler’s List,” the war is over and Mr. Schindler is leaving the many Jews whom he saved by employing them in his munitions factory. He has spent his entire personal fortune to bribe German officials in order to save these people from the death chambers. But as he looks at them, he breaks down weeping and laments, “I could have done more.” They try to console him, but he points to his nice car and says, “I could have sold it and saved a few more lives.” He pulls out an expensive fountain pen and a watch and says, “These could have been sold to save another life.”
Schindler was not a Christian and he was not saving souls for eternity. But, still, when we think of our Savior’s commission, to preach the gospel to every creature, we all need to ask ourselves, “In light of the brevity of life and eternity ahead, could I do more? Am I valuing souls above earthly things?” If I rejoice when I win a raffle or door prize, but I yawn when I hear about a soul being saved, I’ve lost the eternal perspective, which is a sign of greed.
This is a question about motives. Do I want more to provide more adequately for my family? That may be legitimate. But if I want more just to buy bigger and better stuff that I really don’t need, I may be drifting into greed.
This is the question Jesus raised in the parable of the man who wanted to build bigger barns. He was laying up treasure for himself on earth, but he wasn’t rich toward God. I realize that it takes a lot of time and energy to earn a living. And there’s nothing wrong with working hard to succeed in your career. But if my every waking moment is consumed with how to succeed financially and I seldom think about how I can succeed at seeking first God’s kingdom and righteousness, I’m probably tainted by greed.
Be careful with this one! We all know the “right” answer. But what if all my things, my bank accounts, everything was taken from me, as has happened to many of our brothers and sisters in the Middle East? Could I trust God if, like Job, I lost everything? The next question is related:
Or, if I’m considering buying something, how hard would it be for me to give this up later? My level of grief when I lose something is directly proportional to my emotional attachment to that thing. It’s normal to grieve when we lose something of value, whether a possession or money. But if we’re trusting the Lord and recognizing that all we have belongs to Him, we shouldn’t be devastated. If we are, we may be greedy.
Ask yourself, “Would I get as excited about taking advantage of a strategic opportunity to give to further the Lord’s work as I would with a great investment opportunity?”
Some things ought to count far more than making money: God’s reputation through my testimony as a Christian; my relationship with Jesus Christ; a clear conscience; my relationship with my wife, my children, and other people. If I sometimes cheat, lie, or steal to get ahead financially or to avoid loss, I’m being greedy. If I’m willing to shred relationships or to take advantage of another person for financial gain, I’m being greedy. If I care more about making money than about being a witness for Jesus Christ, I’m being greedy.
If I feel myself drawn to some easy, instant way to making a fortune, I probably need to deal with my greed. This includes gambling and playing the lottery. I admit that it can be tempting when the Powerball gets into hundreds of millions, but gambling is poor stewardship of the Lord’s resources. If you dream about winning the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes, you need to ask, “Why do I want to win?” Be honest: Is it really so that you can give away most of it to the Lord’s work around the world? If the real answer is, “So that I could be rich,” you may be into greed.
I realize that some are in debt because of being out of work or because of unavoidable hardship. I’m not talking about that. But most people who are in debt have a problem with overspending. They’re buying into the advertising pitch that you need more junk to be happy. That’s a sign of greed!
That’s the test. You could probably add more questions. If it uncovered some seeds of greed, then consider the final question:
How can I deal with my greed?
Putting myself to death with regard to greed means taking radical action to cut it out of my life, beginning on the thought level. You may say, “That sounds rather unpleasant! Why would I want to do that?” Paul’s answer (Col. 3:1-4) is, “Because you have died and have been raised up with Christ. Your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Because the “unfathomable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8) are more precious to you than all the riches that this world has to offer. He is the treasure in the field for which you sold everything to gain Him. He is the pearl of great price (Matt. 13:44-46).
In light of having Christ and finding joy and contentment in Him, you then acknowledge God to be the owner of all you have and view yourself as the manager who must give an account to Him. You adopt the Owner’s priorities: His kingdom purposes. Ask yourself, why do I need more stuff (even if it’s nifty stuff)? Resist sales pressure. Pray about major purchases before you buy them. Get rid of all the needless stuff you can and then to seek to live as simply as possible. You may need to create a budget and live within it. Learn to walk in the Spirit so that His fruit of self-control governs your impulses.
Also, to rid yourself of greed, make a faith commitment to give generously to the Lord’s work. Giving is the drain plug for greed. Trust God by giving off the top of your paycheck, not giving if there’s something left over at the end of the month. Give in a prayerful, planned way, rather than giving when you’re pressured. Give when it hurts a bit: there are other things you could do with the money, but you joyfully sacrifice so you can give it to the Lord’s work. For most of us, giving generously means giving far more than 10 percent. For most American Christians, tithing is a cop out from our responsibility as God’s stewards. With kingdom priorities and careful stewardship we can give far more.
If you say, “If I just made more, I’d give more,” you’re probably fooling yourself. Why not trust God and increase the percentage you give now? When you get an increase in income, ask God where He wants you to direct it, rather than automatically spending it on more stuff.
The best sermon I’ve ever read on greed was by a non-Christian! It’s John Steinbeck’s The Pearl. It’s the story of a happy, but poor, pearl diver who dreams of finding the perfect pearl. One day he finds it, but rather than bringing him the happiness he had hoped for, it brings him one problem after another, because everyone is after his pearl. He almost gets killed. His son is killed. He and his wife are at odds. His formerly tranquil life is totally upset because of his attempts to cling to this pearl. Finally, he stands at the shore and hurls the cursed pearl as far into the sea as he can. That’s what we must do with our greed! Radically separate yourself from it! Put it to death! “For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come!”
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
March 20, 2016
Chances are, almost everyone here was angry at least once this past week. It may have been minor frustration with another driver or being irritated with your kids for not putting away their toys. It could have been a situation at work. Some husbands and wives live with daily anger and hurt feelings. Some parents and their children are in a constant battle of outbursts of anger and abusive words. Many adults have hurts from childhood that keep bubbling to the surface. Every time they think about them, they seethe with anger.
If you’re thinking, “Who, me, angry? I’m a Christian. I don’t get angry,” then you probably have a more serious anger problem than those who readily admit, “Yes, I struggle with anger.” In California an elder’s face was red and the veins on his neck were bulging out as he angrily told me with a clenched jaw, “I’m not angry!” I thought to myself, “I’d hate to see you when you are angry!” In The Christian Counselor’s Manual ([Baker], p. 359), Jay Adams states, “Anger is a problem for every Christian; sinful anger is probably involved in 90 percent of all counseling problems.”
Think of what would happen if everyone learned to deal with their anger! Child abuse and divorce would be eradicated. Murder, terrorism, and war would stop. And many health problems would clear up. Doctors believe that anger can harm the heart as much as smoking and high blood pressure do. The number one predictor in cardiovascular disease—more important than cholesterol—is mismanaged anger (Los Angeles [3/88]). Besides high blood pressure and heart disease, anger can result in many other serious health problems. So our text is very practical. Paul says,
Christians must put aside all sinful anger and abusive speech.
Colossians 3:8: “But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.” If you’re honest, your reaction to this verse is probably, “I agree! But, really, how do you do it?” It’s easy to say, “Put all your anger and abusive speech aside.” But it’s another thing to do it!
Paul’s advice here reminds me of the hilarious Bob Newhart routine where he is a psychologist and a woman comes for counsel because she is afraid of being buried alive in a box. (Watch it on You Tube when you need a good laugh.) Newhart’s counsel for her phobia, plus several other problems, consists of two words: “Stop it!” He screams it at her over and over, “Just stop it!” She tries to bring up how her mother treated her as a child, but Newhart says, “No, we don’t go there. Just stop it!”
Well, here Paul seems to say, “You’re angry? Just stop it!” “But, Paul, when I was a child, my parents abused me. So now I seethe with anger.” “Put it all aside!”
“But, Paul, my wife nags me constantly until I explode with anger.” “Put it all aside!”
“But Paul, my husband is a workaholic who leaves all the housework and dealing with the kids to me. He’s so inconsiderate! I’m so angry with him!” “Put it all aside!”
“But, Paul, my kids sass me and don’t do what I say, no matter how many times I ask them to do it. The only way I can get them to obey is to yell at them!” “Put it all aside!”
“But, Paul, you don’t understand. My boss at work favors his daughter who works for the company and he treats me unfairly. I get so angry. I just hate him!” “Put it all aside!”
It’s as if Paul had taken lessons from Bob Newhart! He doesn’t say that it will take years of psychotherapy to work through your anger issues. He doesn’t tell these new believers to sign up for an anger management class. He simply tells them, “Put it all aside.”
I wonder if we’ve made things more complicated than they need to be. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul writes to people from pagan backgrounds who had been involved in some pretty serious sins which undoubtedly left them wounded and scarred (Col. 3:5-7). They didn’t have study Bibles and Christian books on how to deal with anger. There were no video series by famous Christian counselors. In fact, there were no Christian counselors! There were no magazines offering self-help articles on anger management. And all Paul says is, “Put it all aside.” That’s amazing! What can we learn from this verse in the context of this letter?
It is striking that in verse 6 Paul mentions the wrath of God, but then in verse 8 he tells us to put aside all anger and wrath (“anger” in v. 8 is the same Greek word as “wrath” in v. 6). But if God has wrath and He gets angry (Exod. 34:6; Ps. 7:6) and we are to be godly, then why do we need to put aside all wrath and anger?
In Colossians 4:16, Paul tells his readers to swap letters with the church in Laodicea. Many scholars think that Ephesians was a circular letter sent to all the churches in Asia Minor and that it’s the one he refers to as coming from Laodicea. If so, the Colossians also read it. In Ephesians 4:26 (quoting Psalm 4:4) Paul wrote, “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.” Then, a few verses later (Eph. 4:31), he told his readers to put aside all anger. These and other Scriptures show that anger can be either righteous or sinful. What’s the difference?
Righteous anger is the godly reaction to sin or injustice. God’s wrath is His settled opposition against sin. In fact, most biblical references to anger refer to God’s anger, not to human anger. Jesus was angry without sinning when He encountered unbelief and hypocrisy (Mark 3:5; John 2:14-17; Matt. 21:12-13; 23:13-33). If we become like Him, we, too, will be angry and feel hatred toward sin, hypocrisy, and injustice. In fact, when you hear of babies being slaughtered by abortion or of criminals going without proper punishment, if you’re not angry, you are ungodly!
So the first step in dealing with your anger is to stop and honestly analyze it: Is it righteous anger, sinful anger, or a mixture of both? Think about why you’re angry. God used this approach with Cain when He asked, “Why are you angry?” (Gen. 4:6). God never asks questions to gain information, but rather to help the person think about the situation from God’s perspective. Cain was angry because God had rejected his sacrifice and he was jealous of his brother, whose sacrifice God had accepted. God went on to exhort Cain to do well and to warn him that sin was crouching at the door, ready to devour him. But Cain ignored God’s counsel and murdered his brother.
The prophet Jonah was angry because he wanted God to judge his enemies, but instead God had brought a revival and forgiven them. God specifically asked Jonah more than once, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” (Jon. 4:4, 9) Jonah angrily insisted that he did have good reason to be angry, but it’s obvious that he did not.
So, be careful! The Scottish hymn writer, George Matheson, said, “There are times when I do well to be angry, but I have mistaken the times.” It’s easy to justify sinful anger by claiming that it was righteous. And even legitimately righteous anger is often tainted by sinful anger.
The embarrassing truth is that when I analyze my anger, almost always it is rooted in selfishness: I didn’t get my way and I want my way! I didn’t get my rights and I demand my rights! So the first step in overcoming anger is to analyze it honestly before God by looking at why you were angry. If selfishness had any part in your anger, it was sinful.
But, maybe you’re thinking, “How is that helpful? Admitting that my anger was sinful only makes me feel guilty!” But, the good news is that the Bible has the solution for victory over sin! Thus …
Christ died both to take away the guilt of our sins and to give us power through the indwelling Holy Spirit to overcome our sins. Paul’s simple command to put aside our anger implies that we can control it. He doesn’t make exceptions for those with short fuses or for those who have been victimized. He just says (Col. 3:8), “Put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.”
You may protest, “But the problem is, I can’t control it! I explode before I think about it. Telling me to stop being angry is like Bob Newhart telling that claustrophobic woman to stop it.” But that’s not true. I offer two proofs:
First, the Bible never commands us to do what we cannot do by the power of God’s indwelling Spirit. Besides Paul’s commands here and in Ephesians, there are many other direct commands in the Bible. The Book of Proverbs has well over a dozen verses about controlling anger (e.g., 12:18; 14:16, 17, 29; 15:1, 18; 16:32; 17:14; 19:11). God told Cain that he must master his sin (Gen. 4:7). While Cain probably did not have the Holy Spirit indwelling him, if he had cried out, “God, I can’t master my sin! Give me Your strength to obey You,” God graciously would have answered.
But all believers in Jesus Christ have the indwelling Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:13). In Galatians 5:19-21, Paul lists a number of deeds of the flesh, including “enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, and envying,” which all are related to sinful anger. He goes on (Gal. 5:22-23) to list the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control,” most of which are the opposite of sinful anger. The key to moving from the deeds of the flesh to the fruit of the Spirit is (Gal. 5:16): “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”
So while it may be humanly impossible to control your anger, if you’ll confess it as sin and learn to walk in the Spirit in obedience to God, you can control it or else God’s Word is not true. The word “fruit” implies that it is a growth process. These qualities require nurture and attention. But if, the second you feel anger welling up inside of you, you stop long enough to recognize it as sin, yield to the Holy Spirit, and rely on His strength, you will see increasing victories over your anger.
Second, your own experience proves that you can control your anger if you want to do so. Every one of us has controlled our anger—instantly turned it off—when we wanted to. For example, you’re having a heated argument with your spouse when the phone rings. You pick it up and hear my voice on the other end. “Oh, pastor! How nice of you to call!” What are you doing? Yes, you’re being a hypocrite! But, also, you’re controlling your anger! Or, your boss does something that makes your blood boil, but you know that if you explode at him, it will cost you your job. So you keep a lid on it. You’re controlling your anger. (I’m indebted to Adams, ibid., p. 352, note 8, for this basic idea.)
Even non-Christians can control their anger. Magazines like Reader’s Digest often feature self-help articles with tips on how to control your anger. Psychologists offer anger-management classes that must be somewhat effective or they would not continue to get students. Gandhi had a motto on his wall which read, “When you are in the right, you can afford to keep your temper; when you are in the wrong, you cannot afford to lose it.” So if the world without God can control anger, we who have the Holy Spirit living in us need to get rid of the excuse that we just can’t control our anger. That’s not true.
What is it we are to control? “Anger” and “wrath” are often used somewhat synonymously. If there is a difference, “anger” has the nuance of a settled, deep-seated animosity that grows into hatred. “Wrath” comes from the Greek word meaning, “to boil” and refers to outbursts of anger (Luke 4:28; Acts 19:28; Gal. 5:20). “Malice” is a general term for wickedness; here refers to, “Having it in for someone.”
“Slander” is the word used for blasphemy against God, which means to damage God’s honor or reputation. Here it means to speak against someone by tearing down their reputation. You make them look bad and yourself look good. “Abusive speech” means using insults, whether profanity or not, to put down another person. It’s the opposite of words that build up the other person and give him grace (Eph. 4:29). Our anger usually works its way out in angry words that tear into the other person. But Paul’s command shows that we don’t have to yell or use foul language that attacks the one we’re angry at. We can control our tongue, even when we’re angry, to bring grace and healing.
So the first step when you’re angry is to stop long enough to analyze it: Is it righteous, sinful, or mixed. Then, realize that you can control your sinful anger.
Before I can deal with my anger by putting these things aside, I’ve got to recognize that I am angry, that it’s sin, and that I’m responsible for it. If you’re really brave, ask your wife, “Am I an angry man?” But don’t get angry if she tells you the truth! So many Christians either deny being angry; or, they’ve bought into the psychological baloney that says, “Feelings aren’t right or wrong; feelings just are.” So rather than confessing their anger as sin and turning from it, they accept it as okay. I’ve known of Christian counselors who tell angry people that they have a right to be angry because of how they’ve been treated. Some even advise, “Tell God off! He can take it! Tell Him how angry you are with Him!” These are unbiblical, worldly strategies for dealing with anger.
God’s way is not for us to blame the person who wronged us or to justify our anger as right when it is sin. It’s never right to blame God for allowing some difficult situation that came into my life! Rather, when I’m angry I should acknowledge, “I have sinned” (2 Sam. 12:13; Ps. 51:4) Confessing it means accepting responsibility for it and taking appropriate action to turn from it. It means going to the one I was angry with and asking forgiveness. I must believe that God sovereignly out of His goodness allowed whatever happened to me for my good. So I must submit joyfully to His mighty hand (Gen. 50:20; Rom. 8:28; 1 Pet. 5:6-10), asking Him to teach me what I need to learn from this trial.
The command of verse 8 parallels that of verse 5, where Paul said to put these sins to death. “Put them aside,” was used of taking off a garment. In Colossians 3:12-14, Paul commands us to put on many godly behaviors, summarized by love. “Putting off” and “putting on” are decisive actions that we can and must do. The Holy Spirit produces His fruit of self-control in us, but we are responsible to walk in the Spirit so that we do not fulfill the deeds of the flesh, such as anger. A passive approach to anger doesn’t work. You’ve got to confront it head on; it won’t go away by itself.
To deal radically and decisively with anger, you’ve got to develop a biblical strategy. First (and foremost!), make sure that you’ve trusted in Jesus Christ to forgive your sins and give you eternal life. The minute you believe in Jesus, you receive the Holy Spirit who takes up permanent residence in your heart. Then you need to learn to walk in moment by moment dependence on the Spirit, yielding control of your life to Him.
Also, memorize key Scriptures that relate to anger. Proverbs 12:18 states, “There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” You can use your tongue like a sword to destroy or like a scalpel to heal. God has brought that verse to my mind many times just as I was ready to start swinging my “sword”! Another helpful verse is James 1:19-20, “But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” There are many other helpful verses that God can use, but only if you’ve committed them to memory. You won’t have a Bible and concordance available when you’re tempted to be angry!
If you have sinned by being angry, go to the person and humbly ask forgiveness for your wrong. If as husband and wife, you’ve argued angrily in the presence of your kids, call the family together. Men, take the initiative by telling your kids, “When I yelled at your mom, I sinned. I’ve asked God to forgive me and I asked your mother to forgive me. I want to learn how to please God by not getting angry in the future.” Ask your kids’ forgiveness when you get angry with them. Otherwise, they will smell hypocrisy: Dad claims to be a Christian and he puts on a good front at church, but he doesn’t act like a Christian at home!” Our homes should be permeated with the love of Christ, not with sinful anger.
Also, to conquer your anger, spend time daily meditating on God’s mercy to you at the cross. Paul goes on to say (Col. 3:12-13), “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.” How did He forgive us? Paul already told us (Col. 2:13): “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.” Now we are totally identified with Christ, who is our life (Col. 3:1-4)! Meditate on these wonderful truths daily!
Another way to deal decisively with anger is, pray for and with those you’re angry with. If a quarrel erupts in the family, husbands, take the initiative to say, “Hold on! Let’s stop and ask God for wisdom on how to resolve this His way.” Don’t preach at your mate or at your kids with your prayer: “Lord, please help my wife and kids not to be so angry!” Confess your own anger and ask the Lord to help you show His love to your family.
The point is, your anger won’t get better by itself if you don’t take radical, decisive action to put it aside. You’ve got to recognize that all sinful anger and abusive speech are not pleasing to the Lord. They’re old, dirty clothes, but they should be cast aside by the person who has died to the old life and has been raised up to new life with Christ. Don’t accept it or excuse it as normal. Anger can be controlled if you analyze it as to its source, recognize and confess it as sin, and deal decisively with it as you walk in the Spirit.
In the Sermon on the Mount, after speaking about how anger makes us guilty of murder in God's sight, deserving of hell, Jesus applied it by saying (Matt. 5:23-24), “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.” To paraphrase, “If you’re at church and you remember that you’re at odds with someone, God is more concerned about your being reconciled to that person than He is with your worship while you’re still at odds.”
Our relationships, especially in our families, are very important to the Lord! Don’t live in anger all week long and then put on a veneer of worshiping God on Sundays. He wants us to put aside the old, dirty clothes of sinful anger and abusive speech and to put on the new, clean clothes of love, kindness, and forgiveness in Christ. The Lord’s Supper is a frequent reminder of how He forgave us. Even so, we are to forgive and love one another.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
April 3, 2016
A minister noticed a group of boys standing around a small stray dog. “What are you doing, boys?” “Telling lies,” said one of the boys. “The one who tells the biggest lie gets the dog.”
The minister was shocked. “Why, when I was your age,” he said, “I never thought of telling a lie.” The boys looked at one another, a little crestfallen. Finally one of them shrugged and said, “I guess he wins the dog.”
The truth is, we all struggle with telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. In our text, Paul explains why we must be truthful:
As Christians, we must be truthful because we’re new creatures in Christ and we’re members of the same body.
Our text is parallel to, but shorter than Ephesians 4:22-25, where Paul uses the same analogy of putting off the old man and putting on the new. He follows that with (Eph. 4:25), “Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.” The concept of putting off the old man and putting on the new is not only an individual matter. It also includes a corporate sense in which we as members of Christ have put off what we were in Adam and have put on Christ, the new Adam. Since Christ is the head of His body, the church, putting on Christ means that we are now members of the same body. Thus, we must be truthful because we’re new creatures in Christ and are members of His body, the church.
Most of us would probably be offended if someone called us a liar or questioned our truthfulness. We’d say, “I know I have some problems, but lying is not one of them.” But, be careful or you’ll join that minister in lying about your truthfulness!
The truth is, we all struggle constantly to be truthful. If you’re not struggling, then you’re not truthful, because our human default mode is to bend the truth to our own advantage. Think of some of the ways that we easily can fall into lying. There’s the half-truth. You tell the truth as far as you go, but you just don’t tell the whole truth, so that you convey a false impression. Abraham did this when he said of Sarah, “She’s my sister.” True, she was his half-sister; but he concealed the relevant point that she was also his wife. Similar to the half-truth is the lie of omission, which tempts us all at tax season. You “forget” to report extra cash income you earned. Or, a cashier gives you too much change or leaves an item off your bill, but you don’t say anything to correct the situation.
Then there’s exaggeration—you stretch the truth a bit to make yourself look better or worse than you really are. Former Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago said (in “No Matter How Thin You Slice It, It’s Still Baloney” [Quill], ed. by Jean Arbeiter p. 93), “They have vilified me, they have crucified me, yes, they have even criticized me.”
There are so-called “white lies,” little untruths that supposedly don’t hurt anyone. You could work, but you have other things to do, so you use a mild headache as an excuse to call in sick. Or, you tell your doctor that you’ve obeyed his orders when you know you didn’t. There are lies to cover for someone else, perhaps your boss or an alcoholic family member. Writing letters of recommendation for a former employee can be difficult. You want to put the person in a good light and you don’t want to say anything for which you could get sued, but you must be truthful. One guy came up with a Lexicon of Intentionally Ambiguous Recommendations—LIAR for short (Reader’s Digest [12/87], p. 110). For example, to describe an unproductive candidate, you can say, “I can assure you that no person would be better for the job.”
As Christians, we easily fall into lies of hypocrisy, where we try to make others think that we are more spiritual than we really are. You say, “The other morning in my quiet time, …” making it sound as if you have a quiet time every day, when the truth is, it was the only quiet time you’ve had in weeks. Then there are silent lies, where someone says something complimentary about you that isn’t true, but you let it go by without correcting it. There are evasive lies, where you change the subject without answering the question, but you leave a false impression. There are polite lies, where you say something nice (but untrue) to avoid hurting the other person’s feelings. A pastor whose family couldn’t stand fruitcake told the lady who gave them one, “Fruitcake like that doesn’t last long around our house!”
And, as often comes out with government officials, there are cover-up lies, where the liar rationalizes that to tell the truth would hurt people or might compromise our government’s security. The entire Watergate scandal that brought down President Nixon was a web of cover-up lies. So was the attempt to blame the Benghazi attacks that killed our ambassador and three others on an anti-Islamic movie, when the President and Secretary of State knew full well that that was not the cause.
But the entire Bible, including our text, make it plain that we must be truthful. That doesn’t mean that we must share all of our thoughts or be brutally honest. We must speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet. 4:8), which implies that we should not broadcast everything we know about someone. And, the Bible acknowledges that there are rare ethical dilemmas, such as the Hebrew midwives lying to protect the Hebrew baby boys from Pharaoh’s murderous edict (Exod. 1:15-22), or Rahab lying to protect the Hebrew spies (Josh. 2:4-6). When the Lord told Samuel to anoint David as king, Samuel was afraid that King Saul would kill him. So the Lord told Samuel to tell David’s family that he had come to offer a sacrifice, which he did, although it wasn’t his real reason for coming (1 Sam. 16:1-5).
But those kinds of situations are infrequent. What Paul says hits us all: “Do not lie to one another.” We should not dodge the plain application of that! Our God is the God of truth; as His people, we must speak the truth in love, and be honest before God in all our behavior.
But, why must we be truthful? We must be truthful to be like our Savior, who is the truth. If we’re in Him, members of His body, then we must represent Him by being truthful.
In the parallel passage in Ephesians, Paul says that his readers were taught to put off the old man and to put on the new, whereas here he states that they have already put off the old and put on the new. F. F. Bruce (The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians [Eerdmans], p. 357) explains, “This tension between the indicative and the imperative, between the ‘already’ and the ‘not yet,’ is common in the Pauline letters; it is summed up in the admonition: ‘Be what you are!’—Be in practice what the calling of God has made you.” We’re now in Christ, so we should act like it.
The old man (NASB, ESV, NIV = “self”) is what we were by nature as fallen children of Adam, ruled by sin. God doesn’t improve that old man—Paul says (Eph. 4:22) that it is “being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit.” But its power was broken through the cross, so that we do not need to yield to its influence. The picture Paul uses is that we have laid aside this old man as you would take off dirty clothes, and we have put on the new man, which refers to all that we now are in Christ.
Because Paul says (Rom. 6:6) that the old man was crucified with Christ and (Col. 3:9) that we have in fact laid it aside, some contend that believers do not have two natures, an old and a new, but only the new. As Paul says (2 Cor. 5:17), “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature.”
But clearly, even in mature Christians, there is an inclination toward sin that remains (Rom. 7:14-25). You can call it “the flesh,” or “the old nature,” or “indwelling sin,” but saying that it no longer exists is contrary both to experience and to the Scriptures. While at the point of conversion we positionally put off the old man and put on the new man, in practice we must learn to put off the old and put on the new every time we are tempted to sin. In other words, we must be in practice what we are in God’s sight by virtue of our union with the risen Savior (Col. 3:3). As Paul puts it (Rom. 6:8-11), because we died with Christ, we must now reckon ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Paul says three things in our text about the new man:
The new man which we have put on “is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him” (Col. 3:10). Paul is referring to Genesis 1:27, where God created Adam and Eve in His own image. But that image was marred by their fall into sin. But Christ is the new Adam (1 Cor. 15:45), creating a new people through the new birth (John 1:12-13). As Jesus told Nicodemus (John 3:6-7), “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” The flesh has no ability to resurrect itself from spiritual death. The Spirit of God must cause us to be born again (1 Pet. 1:3).
So becoming a Christian and living as a Christian is not a moral improvement project, where you resolve to turn over a new leaf. It requires nothing less than God powerfully imparting new life to you. Without that new life, you are in the flesh (or the old man), and Paul says (Rom. 8:8), “Those in the flesh cannot please God.” So if you have never repented of your sins and trusted in Christ and His death on the cross to save you, you must begin there. To put it another way, a life of truthfulness is not the result of determining to become truthful; it is the fruit of the new man.
Paul says (Col. 3:10) that the new man “is being renewed ….” This points to the process of growth, similar to what takes place in physical life. The cells of our bodies are constantly being renewed as we grow from infancy to adulthood. Of course, due to death, stemming from the fall, our physical bodies eventually stop being renewed and start falling apart. (I resemble that remark!) But Paul says (2 Cor. 4:16) that even though our physical bodies are decaying, our inner man is being renewed day by day.
This process occurs by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23), which happens through God’s Word, which is the truth (John 17:17). His Word sanctifies and revives us (Ps. 19:7-14; Ps. 119:25, 50, 93, 107, 149, 154, 156). As a new creature in Christ, you should crave God’s Word like a newborn baby craves its mother’s milk, so that you will grow in respect to salvation (1 Pet. 2:2). But the point is, it doesn’t happen instantly. It takes time to grow the fruit of righteousness, which includes truthfulness. But it won’t happen if you’re not feeding on God’s Word.
Paul says (Col. 3:10) that this new man which we have put on “is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.” “Knowledge” refers to the knowledge of Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). This includes the academic knowledge of what the Bible teaches about God and Christ, which is also called “theology.” The fact is, you are a theologian! The only question is, “Is your theology biblically based or is it a conglomerate of the Bible combined with cultural ideas and personal preferences?” But beyond correct theology, you must grow to know God personally, just as you grow to know your mate or a good friend. You must grow to know His ways, as revealed in His Word.
God is the God of truth (Isa. 65:16). As the Creator, He is the measure of reality by which all else is measured. Jesus said that God’s word is truth (John 17:17). Titus 1:2 says that God cannot lie. Jesus claimed not merely to speak the truth and bear witness to the truth, but that He is the truth (John 8:45; 18:37; 14:6). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 5:7).
By way of contrast, Satan is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). When you lie, you are being satanic (scary thought)! Because of that, God hates a lying tongue and a false witness who utters lies (Prov. 6:16-19). “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord” (Prov. 12:22). So as new creatures in Christ, created by God, growing to be more like Him, we must put aside all lying and falsehood. We must be growing to become people marked by truth.
But this is more than an individual process. Paul shows that…
Paul says (Col. 3:11) that in this new man there is “no Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all and in all.” While Paul makes similar statements elsewhere (Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 12:13), he probably uses these categories here because they related to the situation in Colossae (J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon [Zondervan], pp. 216-219). The proud, national Judaism of the Colossian false teachers is countered by Paul’s assertion that there is “no Greek and Jew.” Their legalism is met with the words, no “circumcised and uncircumcised.” Their pride in knowledge is confronted with, no “barbarian, Scythian.” The barbarian was originally one who didn’t speak Greek, whose language sounded like “bar-bar.” It came to refer to an uneducated, uncultured foreigner. The Scythians were known as a savage, cruel people, the lowest type of barbarian. Paul probably included no “slave and freeman” because he was sending back the runaway slave, Onesimus, to his owner, Philemon, in Colossae.
Paul is saying that all such national, former religious, racial, and cultural distinctions are false for those in Christ. They are not in accordance with the truth of the one new man, which consists of Christ the head and His body, the church (see Eph. 2:15). Obviously, we can’t cease to be racially or ethnically what we are, but these differences should not matter in the church. Unless there’s a language barrier, there should not be separate ethnic churches in the same locale. In fact, the glory of the church is when people who would naturally be separated from one another in the world by race or culture come together as one body in Christ. The world can’t explain it, because it’s due to the new birth.
Sadly, this truth is being deliberately undermined by church growth advocates. They study growing churches and conclude that people like to go to churches made up of “their kind of people.” Older folks want to be with other older folks, so offer a “traditional” service that caters to their preferences. Millennials want to be around other young people in a church with loud, contemporary music. Cater to their world, speak their language, dress as they do, and you’ll see your church grow.
The problem is, while your church may grow if you market it to a certain cultural “niche,” it’s completely unbiblical because it undermines a key purpose for the church. It brings glory to Christ and is a vital part of our witness in the world when young and old and rich and poor representing every local race and culture worship and work together because of the gospel. It brings glory to Christ when an older couple comes alongside a younger couple and helps them understand how to have a Christlike marriage or to rear their children in the Lord. The younger people in the church need the older folks for their experience and wisdom, and the older folks need the young for their youthful zeal. That’s why I’ve refused to have separate “traditional” and “contemporary” services.
Paul caps it off with a brief phrase that sums up both the letter of Colossians and the entire Christian life and church: “Christ is all, and in all.” I’m going to devote the message next week to this profound statement, but for now note that Christ is the substance and the center of the Christian life: He is all. As Paul says (1 Cor. 1:30), Christ “… became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.” Understanding that our life “is hidden with Christ in God” and that He Himself is our life (Col. 3:3-4) is the basis for all the moral commands that Paul gives in Colossians. Christ is our all-sufficient Savior (2 Pet. 1:3)!
Also, Christ is “in all,” which is the basis for true Christian unity (Eph. 2:14; 4:3). While we must grow to attain the unity of the faith which comes from knowing Christ more deeply (Eph. 4:13), if someone else truly knows Christ as Savior and Lord, we are one because we’re both members of His body (1 Cor. 12:13). I may not agree with a brother or sister in Christ about some point of doctrine, and it’s legitimate to discuss or debate these differences in a spirit of love. But I’m not free to reject or attack a person who has Christ dwelling in him, even if he needs correction. (We’ll see how Christian relationships should function in Col. 3:12-4:1.)
All relationships depend on the truth. You can’t know God and be rightly related to Him if you ignore the truth about who He is or the truth about who you are, as revealed in His Word. He is holy and we all have sinned. But He offers forgiveness of all our sins when we believe in Christ (Col. 1:14; 2:13). When you come to know and believe the truth about God, you enter into a personal relationship with Him.
And your relationships with others depend on the truth. Getting to know another person more deeply involves getting to know the truth about him or her and revealing the truth about yourself. If there is deception or withholding of the truth, there will be a corresponding distance in that relationship. Not every relationship, of course, can be deeply intimate. We can only be very close with a few. But there must be truth in love so that we can properly relate to one another as God’s people, helping each other to become all that God wants us to be. Truth is at the heart of being rightly related to one another.
So I ask, “Are you walking truthfully before God?” He knows everything about you, of course. But you must walk in the light with Him, opening all of your life to Him. You have to open all your dirty closets to Him for cleaning! Hiding your sin from God is a sure way to drift away from Him.
And I ask, “Are you walking truthfully with your family and with the family of God?” It’s easier to be superficial and hide behind a mask. It’s easier not to clear up relational problems by going to the person and speaking the truth in love. But if we don’t make the effort to relate truthfully, we don’t reflect the new man which we’ve put on in Christ.
Someone observed, “The most striking contradiction of our civilization is the fundamental reverence for truth which we profess and the thoroughgoing disregard for it which we practice” (Vilhjalmur Stefansson, in Laurence J. Peter, Peter’s Quotations [Bantam Books], p. 500). May that not be true of us as Christians! I encourage you to be truthful in your relationship with God and in your relationships with God’s people, because we are new creatures in Christ and we’re members of the same body.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
April 10, 2016
In 1990, I was wrestling with a difficult matter that related to the current and future direction of my ministry. An associate pastor wanted to help believers with deep emotional problems by starting some programs based on The Twelve Steps for Christians [RPI Publishing], Henry Cloud’s When Your World Makes No Sense [Oliver Nelson], and some other materials on co-dependency that integrated psychology with the Christian faith. At first, I was open to this, since I myself had used and promoted books by James Dobson, Norm Wright, and other Christian psychologists. So I asked if I could look over the materials that he wanted to use.
The more I read, the more alarmed I became with the way that these books misused Scripture, if they even used it at all. It came to a head when I read Henry Cloud’s contention (pp. 16-17) that the “standard Christian answers,” including faith, obedience, and God’s Word, were, in his words, “worthless medicine”! He proceeds to present a “baptized” version of developmental psychology as the solution to difficult emotional problems such as depression, anxiety, panic, addictions, guilt, and other psychological maladies. I’m ashamed to admit that I was so influenced by “Christian psychology” at the time that my initial response to the book was favorable overall, although his comment about “worthless medicine” really troubled me!
Then early in 1991, I read J. C. Ryle’s classic, Holiness [James Clarke & Co.], with its profound final chapter, “Christ is All.” (I’m heavily indebted to that chapter for this message.) I followed that book with John MacArthur’s, Our Sufficiency in Christ [Word], which confronts the problems of psychology, pragmatism, and mysticism, which have infiltrated the church. He shows how Christ is all-sufficient for us as believers in dealing with life’s problems.
That same year, I read for the first time John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion [Westminster], which begins with the profound sentence (1.1.1), “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.” He elaborates (1:1.2), “Again, it is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God’s face, and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself.” He goes on to confront the pride that is “innate in us all.” After finishing that life-changing book, I wrote an article, “How John Calvin Led Me to Repent of Christian Psychology.”
The cumulative impact of those books was to convict me that by endorsing so-called “Christian psychology,” I had been directing people with problems to worldly “wisdom,” rather than to “the unfathomable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8). Although I caught a lot of flak then and since then because of my opposition to integrating psychology with the Christian faith, over the past 25 years I have grown more certain that my repenting was the right decision.
I also have realized how far short I myself am from knowing and enjoying the all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ for my every need. That realization was reinforced last year, when I read twice Tony Reinke’s wonderful, Newton on the Christian Life [Crossway], which points out (p. 51) that one of Newton’s favorite biblical phrases was that of our text: “Christ is all and in all.”
The great British preacher, C. H. Spurgeon, preached at least four sermons on this text. In one of them (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit [Pilgrim Publications], 17:460), he cites the advice of an aged tutor to a young student not to take too magnificent a text. Spurgeon says that he was sounding that warning in his own ears as he attempted to preach on these profound words. He adds that if he were to try to give all the meaning of this boundless text, it would take all time and eternity, and even then he would fall short. So my attempt here will be woefully inadequate. I encourage you to read some of the sources I have mentioned to dig deeper than I can take you! Paul is saying:
Since Christ is all and in all, we must be Christ-centered in our personal lives and in our church life.
Paul’s words are really a summary of the entire Bible, but I’m going to limit myself mainly to Colossians (and parallels in Ephesians) as we think through its implications.
Everything that God is doing in His eternal purpose centers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Before He created the world, Jesus shared the glory of the Father (John 17:5). Paul sums up Christ as the center of God’s eternal purpose in Ephesians 1:3-12:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.
Note six ways from Colossians in which Christ is all in God’s eternal purpose:
Paul states (Col. 1:19), “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.” He adds (Col. 2:9), “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.” This means that our only way to know the God who “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see” (1 Tim. 6:16), is to know Him through Jesus Christ. As Jesus told Philip when Philip asked Him to show them the Father (John 14:9), “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” To know God, you must come to Him through faith in Jesus Christ (John 14:6; 1 Tim. 2:5).
Paul states (Col. 1:15-16),
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
Although the Jehovah’s Witnesses blasphemously interpret “firstborn” to mean that Jesus was the first being whom God created, verse 16 refutes that. If “all things have been created through Him and for Him,” then clearly He Himself is not created. John 1:3 makes the same point: “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” As the creator, Christ is sovereign over all that exists. He is the only rightful Lord of your life and of all that you have.
Colossians 1:17: “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” “Before” refers to priority in time. As Jesus told the Jews who were attacking Him (John 8:58), “Before Abraham was, I am.” He did not say, “I was before Abraham,” but rather, “I am.” He was referring to Exodus 3:14, where God tells Moses, “I am who I am.” The Jews understood what Jesus meant, because they picked up stones to stone Him. “In Him all things hold together” means that Christ is the power that holds every atom together. If He were to “let go,” the entire universe would disintegrate! This shows that we are totally dependent on Him for our very existence and our every need.
Colossians 1:18: He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead ….” In the context, “the beginning” means that Christ originated the church. As Colossians 3:10 states, He created the new man, which refers to Christ the head and His body the church. By “firstborn from the dead,” Paul means that Jesus’ resurrection was the first of its kind. Although there are other resurrections in the Bible that precede Jesus’ resurrection, the others were temporary. Those people died a second time and now await their final resurrection. Jesus alone has been raised with an indestructible resurrection body that is a type of the bodies that believers will receive at His second coming. So He Himself is our hope that we will receive new bodies that will not be subject to disease, aging, or death.
Colossians 1:18: “He Himself will come to have first place in everything.” In Ephesians 1:10, Paul says that God will sum up “all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.” Because He was willing to humble Himself and go to the cross, Paul says (Phil. 1:9-11), “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” This means that we must seek daily to put Christ in first place and exalt Him in every aspect of our lives.
Colossians 1:20: “And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” By “all things,” Paul is probably referring to the new heavens and new earth, which will be restored to the glory that the first creation had before sin entered this world (Rom. 8:18-23). So in Christ, we can look forward to that glorious future! Christ is all in God’s eternal purpose and we are in Him!
As we saw (Eph. 1:3-4), God blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ and chose us in Him “before the foundation of the world.” In Colossians, Paul shows us that…
Colossians 1:14: “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 2:13: “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.” Christ is the answer to the problem of guilt! If Christ is all in the sense of forgiving us all our transgressions, then you can’t add anything of your own to what He supplies.
The Jews thought that they were superior to the Gentiles when it came to spiritual matters, but Paul says that there is “no Greek or Jew … but Christ is all, and in all.” The Jews also thought that they could be right with God by keeping the law, especially the ritual of circumcision. But Paul says that there is “no circumcised and uncircumcised … but Christ is all, and in all.” The Greeks thought that they were a superior race over the barbarians and Scythians, and the Jews thought that they were superior over the Gentiles. But Paul says that there is “no barbarian or Scythian … but Christ is all, and in all.” Those who were born free in the Roman world thought that clearly they were higher than slaves, who were viewed as property, not as humans. But Paul says that there is “no slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.”
The Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs put it (puritansermons.com/pdf/burrou1.pdf): “As far as God sees Christ in anyone He accepts them. If Christ is not there, no matter what they have, He does not regard them.” To be right with God, you can’t come through religion or rituals or race or moral improvement. You can only come through Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Make sure that you are in Him through faith in His shed blood!
Paul states (Col. 2:10), “In Him you have been made complete.” But in Colossians 1:28, he says that his aim is to “present every man complete in Christ.” This is the tension that we often see in Paul between what God has made us positionally and what we must strive to become practically as we walk with Him. We have all spiritual blessings in Christ (Eph. 1:3), but it takes all of life and all of eternity to discover what those blessings are (Eph. 2:7). But the point is, if we have Christ and are complete in Him, why do we need the world’s wisdom to deal with our problems?
Colossians 2:3: “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” “Hidden treasures” implies that we need to dig and seek out these riches. They aren’t all lying on the surface. “Knowledge” refers to the knowledge of God and of ourselves, as revealed in Scripture, as Calvin states in his opening sentence of The Institutes. “Wisdom” refers to the skill of applying God’s revealed truth to our daily lives. The Bible is all about wise living, especially as it pertains to our relationships. All the commandments are summed up by “love God” and “love your neighbor.” We learn how to do both from the Lord Jesus Christ.
That all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ means that He is all in God’s revealed Word of truth. All of the Old Testament speaks of Christ and points to Him (Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:46). All of the New Testament shows how He fulfilled all that the Old Testament prophesied of Him. As you read God’s Word over and over, ask the Spirit of Truth to reveal Christ and His treasures of wisdom to your soul.
Colossians 1:27: “to whom [the saints] God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 3:4: “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” If that is our eternal hope and destiny, then we must seek to make Christ our only hope in every trial and difficulty of this life. We can have His comfort in our trials, knowing that they are nothing compared to the “eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17) that awaits us with Him throughout the ages.
Thus, since Christ is all in God’s eternal purpose and all in God’s plan of salvation …
Practically, this begins when you trust Him as your Savior and Lord. If you haven’t done that, you can’t go any farther. But then, it’s a lifelong walk of “seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1). It’s the daily discipline of setting “your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2). It requires “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). It means daily casting off the dirty clothes of the old life and putting on the clean clothes of new life in Christ (Col. 3:9-10). It’s a lifelong process that happens as you look daily to Christ as your all. As Paul states (2 Cor. 3:18): “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (See, also, Heb. 12:1-2.)
Far more could be said, but I want to consider briefly:
When Paul says that there is no Greek or Jew, barbarian, Scythian, slave or freeman, he does not mean that God obliterates our personalities or ethnicity or culture when He saves us. But he does mean that these things must no longer be a source of pride for us. Before salvation, we all took pride in things like race or background or education or in various cultural advantages. But now, none of that should matter. As Paul told the arrogant Corinthians (1 Cor. 4:7), “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” God has freely given us everything, including salvation. The external things that divide worldly people should be set aside. Christ must be our unifying center.
As Paul has shown us (Col. 1:18), Christ is the head of His body the church. We are only members of His body because God chose us in Christ (Col. 3:12), “rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col. 1:13). If He had not done that by His grace, we’d all still be alienated from Him and His people, “having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12).
Thus being a member of His body, the church, is a tremendous privilege! We’re now members of His family. We all serve a common Lord, under His headship. We all hope for His coming. We’re all seeking to grow to know Him better. And thus, we all need to work at Christ-centered relationships. Paul spells out what this means (Col. 3:12-14):
So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
He goes on to show how to make Christ our all in our church, our homes, and our work relationships (Col. 3:15-4:1). The fact that he exhorts us to patience, forgiveness, and bearing with one another shows that harmonious relationships are not automatic! We have to work at loving one another, making Christ central in our relationships because He dwells in all who truly know Him.
Some of you who are struggling with serious problems may listen to this message and think, “Steve has his head in the clouds! He doesn’t understand the deep problems that I’m wrestling with!” Like the Christian psychologist I mentioned, you may think that I’m doling out “worthless medicine.” But I hope not!
Paul said that our heads should be in the clouds: We should “keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1). We should set our minds “on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2). Problems, difficulties, and trials should cause us to seek Christ as our all-sufficient Savior even more than we do. When we’re depressed, we should seek Him as our joy. When we’re anxious, we seek Him as our peace. When we’re empty and emotionally drained, we seek Him as our fullness. When we lack wisdom, we seek Him and His Word for the insight we need. Whatever you lack, go to Christ!
The Puritan Thomas Watson wrote (gracegems.org/Watson /christ_all_in_all) “If a man has sunshine, he does not complain that he lacks the light of a candle. Has he not enough, who has ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ?’” When you face problems, lean on Him, trust in Him, and know more of Him, than you ever have before. Make sure, above all else, that you have Christ and seek Christ, because when you have Him, you have all!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
April 17, 2016
What do you want most out of life? Most of us would rank healthy relationships high on the list. Except for knowing Christ and having eternal life, healthy relationships make life enjoyable perhaps more than anything else. Even if your health isn’t the best, if you have loving relationships, you can enjoy life. You can make a pile of money, but if your relationships are broken or shallow, your life will be empty. A poor man with a loving family and good friends is far richer than a rich man who is poor relationally.
The Bible ranks healthy relationships as the most important thing in life. A Jewish religious expert asked Jesus (Matt. 22:36), “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied (Matt. 22:37-40):
“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
A loving relationship with God is of first importance; but loving relationships with others is second. The Bible is all about these two important relationships.
Because the Bible emphasizes healthy relationships so highly, it’s sad that there are so many believers who have hurting or broken relationships. Many Christian homes have been shattered by divorce. Some who stay married are unhappy. Their homes are a tense battle ground, not a loving refuge. Many Christian parents are at odds with their kids and the kids with their parents. On the church level, some bounce from church to church, leaving a trail of damaged relationships behind. I know of Christians who won’t speak to other Christians because of misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and wrongs that have taken place. Sadly, the loving families, genuine friendships, and healthy relationships that we want most out of life often elude us.
In our text, Paul gives the prescription for healthy relationships. If you’ll consistently practice these qualities, you’ll have healthy relationships. But maybe you’re thinking, “But healthy relationships also depend on others, don’t they? It’s virtually impossible to have a good relationship with some people!” True. Paul acknowledged this when he wrote (Rom. 12:18), “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” Sometimes, no matter what you do, some people are hard to get along with. But often if you treat a difficult person with the qualities that Paul enumerates in our text, he will change for the better in how he relates to you. But even if some relationships never improve, if you relate to others as Paul describes here, most of your relationships will be healthy.
But this isn’t easy medicine to take, because to develop these qualities, you’ve got to kill all immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (Col. 3:5). You’ve got to put aside all anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech, and lying (Col. 3:8-9). And, you’ve got to put on “a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other” (Col. 3:12b-13). The reason you should do this is because God has graciously chosen and loved you. Paul is saying,
God’s gracious, loving treatment of us is the basis for our treatment of others.
Paul first gives the basis for the commands which follow, namely, how God has treated us:
Colossians 3:12a: “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved….” “So” (or, “therefore”) shows that verse 12 follows from what came before. The flow of thought is: Because we have laid aside the old man (what we were in Adam) and have put on the new man (what we now are in Christ, both individually and corporately), and because in this new corporate man old differences no longer matter, but Christ is all and in all, therefore, we should put on the qualities listed here.
Paul begins by stating that God has graciously chosen us. This means that if you’re a Christian it’s not because you first chose God, but because He chose you before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4-5). That truth should be a great comfort for every believer, but I realize that it causes problems for many. They don’t like it because it seems to deny our “free will.” It seems unfair of God to choose some, but not others. It seems to go against God’s love for the world (John 3:16) and His desire for all to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4). So, these Christians explain election as God’s choosing those whom he foreknew would believe in Him.
But if that were true, then our salvation would not be based on God’s grace alone, but on something good (our faith) that God saw in us. It also presumes that sinners have the ability to believe in Christ, which contradicts many Scriptures. For example, Jesus said (John 6:44), “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” (See, also, Luke 10:21-22; John 6:65; 8:43; Rom. 8:7-8; 9:16-18; 1 Cor. 2:14; 2 Cor. 4:4). Saving faith is a gift from God, not something that any sinner can do on his own (Eph. 2:8-9; Phil. 1:29). If God chose us based on foreseen faith, then it means that He made up His eternal plan based on what sinful people decided to do, rather than on His will (Eph. 1:11). It makes us sovereign, with God subservient to our will—a horrible thought!
There are solid biblical answers to the objections raised against the truth of election, which I don’t have time to present here. The main thing is to let God be God and submit to the truth and the balance of His Word. The truth is, if you believe in Christ, it’s because God appointed you to eternal life (Acts 13:48). He chose you for salvation (1 Cor. 1:27-31). The balance is, God’s sovereignty never negates the human responsibility to repent and believe (see my sermon, “God’s Sovereignty, Our Responsibility,” on Gen. 17:1-27, 9/15/96). They’re both true.
When I quit fighting what God’s Word clearly teaches and submitted to it, the doctrine of election became a source of great comfort for me. It’s a comfort because God’s sovereign purpose to save those whom He has chosen cannot fail (see, Rom. 8:28-39). It assures me, as Paul said (Phil. 1:6), “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
“Holy and beloved” further describe what it means to be chosen by God. To be holy means to be set apart unto God, separate from the world. Beloved means that we’re the special objects of God’s love, just as a wife is to her husband. We often think of holiness negatively, as telling us what we can’t do. But it’s a positive concept. Picture a wife who is set apart from others for her husband who loves her. She delights to keep herself from others and to give herself exclusively to him because of his love. So we too should keep ourselves pure from this evil world and be exclusively devoted to Christ, who loved us and chose us as His bride.
But why does Paul mention that we are chosen by God, holy and beloved, in the context of talking about healthy relationships? For at least two reasons. First, it’s not easy to kill my selfishness and anger and to practice these Christlike qualities toward others, especially toward difficult people. But it’s easier when I remember how God loved me and chose me when I was not very lovely.
Second, seeing myself as the object of God’s gracious, sovereign love, set apart unto Him, frees me to love even those who are difficult to love. If I’m dependent on the other person’s response for my sense of security, I won’t risk loving someone who might reject me. But if I’m secure in God’s love for me, I’m free to love those who may not return my love. If someone insults me, I’ll feel hurt, but I don’t need to retaliate. I can give a blessing instead (1 Pet. 3:9), because I’m secure in God’s love for me.
That’s what Paul is saying here: God’s treatment of us is the basis for our treatment of others. God has chosen us in love to be set apart to Himself when we weren’t worthy of His love. Secure in His gracious, unfathomable love, we’re able to treat one another with the qualities listed here.
Actually, there are five nouns: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, which are probably set in contrast to the five sins in verse 5 and the five other sins in verse 8. “Bearing with one another and forgiving each other” describe the way in which those five virtues are put into practice. But I’m going to treat forbearance and forgiveness as two additional qualities that help our relationships be healthy.
Before we look at these qualities, I have two observations. First, every Christian should have these character qualities, but there is freedom for different personality types. In other words, all mature Christians aren’t going to have the same generic personality. These qualities will take one form with a Barnabas, another with a Paul, and another with a Peter. Part of the glory of God’s creation is the variety of personalities which He has given us and that He has a special purpose for each one. While He knocks the rough edges off each type of personality, He doesn’t erase the differences. Whether you’re hard-driving or laid back, extrovert or introvert, people-oriented or task-oriented, God wants you to have these character qualities.
Second, all these character qualities are modeled in Jesus Christ. He was compassionate and kind (Matt. 9:36; 14:14), humble and gentle (Matt. 11:29), patient, forbearing, and forgiving (1 Pet. 2:23; Luke 23:34). He is our great example of how to relate to others. As we learn to put on these qualities, we’re really putting on the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14) and becoming more like Him.
The King James Version translates this, “bowels of mercy.” The closest English equivalent is what we mean when we say “heart.” So, “a heart of compassion” captures the idea. The main thing to grasp is that this is an emotional term. Being moved to compassion involves the feelings, not just the head. It means being touched by the needs of people so that we respond with appropriate action to help them.
Jesus used this word to describe the good Samaritan, who felt compassion for the wounded traveler and was moved to help him (Luke 10:33). He used it of the father of the prodigal son, who saw his wayward son returning, felt compassion for him, ran to him, embraced him and kissed him (Luke 15:20). He was stirred emotionally when he saw his son coming home.
Jesus felt compassion for the widow of Nain who had lost her only son (Luke 7:13). When Jesus saw the multitudes, He felt compassion for them (Matt. 9:36). On another occasion, Jesus and His disciples withdrew to a lonely place for some much needed rest. When they arrived by boat, they discovered that the crowd had arrived by land before them. Jesus saw them, felt compassion for them and healed their sick. The disciples saw them and said (as I would have said!), “Send them away!” (Matt. 14:14-15).
If you lack compassion, you’re too focused on yourself and not enough on others’ needs. Jesus saw the multitude and felt compassion because He saw that they were like sheep without a shepherd (Mark 8:34). The disciples saw the same multitude and didn’t feel compassion because they were focused on their own need to get away and rest. It all depends on your focus.
When you encounter a difficult person and you’re inclined to be irritated rather than to have compassion for him, ask him to share his story. Often, when you find out what the person has gone through, it helps you to overlook his irritating behavior and show the Lord’s compassion to him.
To be kind means to be free from all which is harsh, rough, and bitter. This word was used to describe wine that had mellowed (Luke 5:39). It didn’t bite or leave a bitter taste. A kind person is not demanding and pushy. He gives others room to be imperfect without crawling all over them.
Joseph is a great example of kindness. His brothers had hated him and sold him into slavery. After being falsely accused of impropriety with Potiphar’s wife and imprisoned for several years, he finally rose to the top as prime minister of Egypt. He easily could have taken vengeance on his brothers, but instead, he forgave them and was generous with them. After their father, Jacob, died, the brothers became afraid because they thought that perhaps Joseph would now pay them back for what they had done to him. But when Joseph heard it, he wept and spoke kindly to his brothers, assuring them of his continuing love and care for them and their children (Gen. 50:15-21).
Jesus said that God Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men (Luke 6:35). Paul said that the kindness of God leads us to repentance (Rom. 2:4) Peter said that tasting God’s kindness should motivate us to long for the sincere milk of the word, that we may grow in respect to salvation (1 Pet. 2:1-3). If we’ll show kindness to those who are not kind to us, it will often motivate them to repentance and growth.
It’s often said that if you think you’re humble, you’re not. But I find that neither helpful nor correct. It’s not helpful because how can I obey the command to be humble if I can’t know when I am humble? And it’s not correct because Moses, Jesus, and Paul all claimed to be humble (Num. 13: 3; Matt. 11:29; Acts 20:19). So I think that we can know when we’re being humble so that we can obey this command.
Humility does not mean that when someone pays you a compliment, you look down and say, “It really wasn’t much!” Humility is not to dump on yourself. But then what does it mean? Literally, the Greek word means “lowliness of mind.” The Greeks did not see it as a virtue, but as a weakness. Biblically, there are three sides to it:
First, a humble person is Christ-sufficient, not self-sufficient. A humble person consciously relies on the Lord and recognizes that God has given him all that he has (1 Pet. 5:5-7; 1 Cor. 4:7). He knows that he is weak in himself, but he is strong when he trusts in God’s strength (2 Cor. 12:9-10; Phil. 4:13).
Second, a humble person has a proper evaluation of himself. Paul said (Rom. 12:3), “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” He goes on to talk about using the gifts that God has given us to serve one another. A humble person doesn’t think that he’s indispensable in God’s program, nor does he think so lowly of himself that he neglects the gifts God has given him to use (Matt. 25:14-30; 2 Tim. 1:6-8).
Third, a humble person esteems others more highly than himself. As Paul said (Phil. 2:3-4), “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” He goes on to cite the example of Jesus, who laid aside His glory in heaven to take on the form of a servant and go to the cross for our salvation. He esteemed us more highly than himself.
The King James Version translates it “meekness.” There is no good single English word to translate the concept of the Greek word. It does not mean to be a mild-mannered, compliant milquetoast. The main idea is, “strength under submission.” It was used in classical Greek of trained animals, such as a horse which was strong and powerful in battle, but totally submissive to the warrior who rode him. The gentle person is not self-willed, but surrendered to do God’s will. Plato used the word of a gentle doctor who used only enough force (as in setting a broken bone) to bring healing. So the gentle person will sometimes be strong to confront sin, but only strong enough to bring healing (Gal. 6:1; 2 Tim. 2:25).
Kindness, gentleness, and patience are listed in the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). The Greek word for patience literally means, “long-tempered.” It’s the opposite of having a short fuse. It means being tolerant of imperfections, differences and faults in others. The patient person gives others time to change and room to make mistakes in the process. It’s a virtue that’s especially difficult for those of us who are perfectionists!
This means putting up with someone’s faults and idiosyncrasies. We need to recognize that being different doesn’t necessarily mean being wrong. Let’s face it, a lot of areas aren’t black and white. Just because I’ve always done something a certain way doesn’t mean that everyone else has to do it my way. We must never be forbearing when it comes to biblical moral absolutes. But we must bear with others when it comes to things the Bible doesn’t clearly command.
Rather than holding a grudge or harboring bitterness and resentment, we must forgive those who wrong us. Did you notice that many of these qualities are needed only when you have a complaint against someone? So you can’t excuse yourself by saying, “I’d treat him right if he would treat me better.” You wouldn’t need patience, forbearance, or forgiveness if everyone treated you well!
We are to forgive “just as the Lord forgave you.” That’s a lot, isn’t it! The Greek word used here for “forgiveness” has the nuance of undeserved favor. We didn’t deserve God’s forgiveness, but He provided for it and granted it freely in Christ at great cost to Himself. God didn’t say, “Don’t worry about it; it’s no big deal.” He paid the price, but He doesn’t make us pay. God’s forgiveness means that He will never bring up our sins as evidence to condemn us. He never hauls out our past as leverage against us. Even though He legitimately could, the Lord doesn’t make us feel put down because He was so magnanimous as to forgive us. His forgiveness means total acceptance and restored fellowship with us.
While compassion involves our feelings, forgiveness is primarily a decision. You choose to absorb the wrong and not allow it to be a barrier between you and the other person. The feelings may follow. If you struggle with feeling forgiving after you’ve granted it, do something kind for the one who wronged you. While God never extends forgiveness until there is repentance, He showers those who have wronged Him with repeated kindnesses until they come to repentance. We must do the same, hard as it is to do.
So, because God graciously chose us in love to be set apart to Himself, we should treat others with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and forgiveness. His gracious, loving treatment of us is the basis for our treatment of others.
Maybe you’re wondering, “Where do I start?” You may need to begin by focusing on your relationship with God. Have you trusted in Christ as your Savior so that you’ve truly experienced His forgiveness, mercy, and love? You can’t love others as you should until you’re rightly related to God.
Then, write these verses on a card and read them over every day. Take stock of which quality you most need to work on and put it on your prayer list: “Lord, make me a patient man.” That’s a dangerous prayer, because the Lord will give you some difficult people to practice being patient with! Act obediently, not on feelings. When you blow it, confess it to the Lord and ask the forgiveness of those you’ve wronged. You may need to begin by going to those you’ve already wronged to make things right. Make a habit of putting on these “new clothes” and you’ll enjoy the blessing, not of perfect relationships, but of substantially healthy relationships.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
May 1, 2016
A little girl stayed for dinner at the home of her first grade friend. The vegetable was buttered broccoli and the mother asked if she liked it. The child politely replied, “Oh, yes, I love it!” But when the broccoli was passed she declined to take any. The hostess said, “I thought you said you loved broccoli.” The girl replied sweetly, “Oh, yes ma’am, I do, but not enough to eat it.”
Do you love your fellow Christians in this church? “Oh, yes,” you say, “the Lord commanded us to love one another. I love the Lord’s people!” Well, then, why are you and that brother not on speaking terms? “Him? He ripped me off in a business deal. And he calls himself a Christian!” I see.
Why are there hard feelings between you and that sister over there? “Her? She’s a gossip. Do you know what she said about me behind my back? The Lord knows that I’ve tried to be nice to her, but there has to be a limit on how much you do for someone like her.” Okay.
Yes, we love broccoli, but not enough to eat it. We love the brethren, but not enough to work out our differences. Like Linus, we love humanity; it’s people we can’t stand!
Have you ever thought about what it would have been like to have been a part of the first century church? We often glamorize it, thinking how wonderful it must have been. But remember, there was only one church per city. If you lived in Colossae and became a Christian, you were a member of the church in Colossae. In Colossae, there wasn’t a church for Jewish Baptists and another for Gentile Presbyterians and another for Scythian charismatics. If you didn’t like the church or had a falling out with someone in that church, you were stuck. You couldn’t jump in your chariot and commute to another church down the road that you liked better. You either had to work out your problems or stop being a Christian. Those were the only options.
Today, Christians who get their feelings hurt just move on to another church. Why go through the effort, the bother, and the pain of working through relational problems? Just go to another church where the people are more loving. And when you get hurt there, don’t worry—there are dozens more churches in town. You can go for years without ever needing to work through hurt feelings and damaged relationships. All the while you can smile politely and say, “I love broccoli, but not enough to eat it.”
But if that’s the way you choose to deal with relational problems, you’ll never learn the reality of practical Christian love. The truth is, we’re a lot like porcupines. As long as we keep our distance, everything is fine. But when we start getting close to one another, someone’s going to get stuck! If every time you get stuck you move on, you’ll never know the joy of true Christian love and the testimony of the Lord’s church will suffer.
In Colossae, false teachers were promoting their philosophy and knowledge. They emphasized certain legalistic rules as the way to spiritual growth. But such things always lead to pride, strife, and division. So Paul is showing the church that true Christianity means being identified with Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection. We have put off the old man with its immorality, anger, and lying. We’ve put on the new man, Christ and His church, in which the old distinctions that divided us no longer matter, but Christ is all and in all. And, in this new man, as those chosen of God, holy and beloved, we also must “put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience; bearing with one another and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you” (Col. 3:12-13).
And as the uniting bond of maturity, we are to put on love—not in word only, but the kind of love that eats the broccoli—love that shows itself in peaceful relationships in the church. The practical implication of putting on the new man in Christ is that we work out our relational problems in the body of Christ.
Practical love shown in peaceful relationships must be our priority in the body of Christ.
Here’s an expanded paraphrase that gives the sense of these two verses:
Around all of these character qualities (compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and forgiveness), wrap love, the ligament that links mature members of the body together. And let the peace which Christ secured at the cross, which broke down the barrier and made all you different people into one new man, be the deciding factor in your hearts in any conflict. And be grateful, both toward God and toward one another, thankful that God chose you and called you to be members of Christ’s one body.
Colossians 3:14: “Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” Note four things:
Sometimes we idealize the church, thinking that it’s all one big, loving family where there are no conflicts or hurt feelings. Everyone just gets along and you can feel the love the minute you walk in the door of the church. But I don’t know of any happy families where there are never any conflicts or misunderstandings. If there is love in a family or in a church, it’s the result of deliberate effort to work through disagreements and hurt feelings.
We wouldn’t need to be kind and patient, bearing with one another and forgiving each other (Col. 3:12-13) if we all got along all the time. Paul assumes that in the church, there will be complaints against one another (Col. 3:13). So the command to put on love above all of these other virtues assumes that life in the church will be less than perfect. We will need to work at maintaining and restoring loving relationships with one another. We can’t just move on to the church down the street.
There are at least 55 direct commandments in the New Testament telling us to love one another, plus many other exhortations to practice loving qualities (like compassion, kindness, and patience). We can’t look at them all, but I want to read a few so that you see the strong emphasis God’s Word puts on love.
Matthew 5:44: “Love your enemies.”
Matthew 22:39: After stating that the greatest commandment is to love God with your entire being, Jesus added, “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
John 13:34-35: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 15:12, 17: “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you…. This I command you, that you love one another.”
Romans 13:8, 10: “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law…. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
1 Corinthians 13:13-14:1: “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. Pursue love ….” Moffatt translates, “Make love your aim.”
1 Corinthians 16:14: “Let all that you do be done in love.”
Galatians 5:6: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.”
Galatians 5:13b-14: “Through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Galatians 5:22: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love ….”
Ephesians 5:1-2: “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”
Philippians 1:9: “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment ….”
1 Thessalonians 3:12: “may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you.”
These are just a few of the references. Love is a major theme throughout 1 John, where it is a test of true Christianity. So love is not optional or minor. It’s absolutely essential for all Christians!
If you think that love is a warm, fuzzy feeling or that it means always being nice, you’re missing the heart of biblical love. It involves the emotions, but it isn’t primarily a feeling. If it were, it couldn’t be commanded. You can’t work up warm, fuzzy feelings for someone at will. But you can love others. To see love personified, look at Jesus. Sometimes He spoke harshly to His disciples: “Get behind Me, Satan” (Matt. 16:23). He blasted the Pharisees as hypocrites and a brood of vipers (Matt. 23:33). He deliberately provoked them by healing people on the Sabbath, when He could have been “nice” and waited until the next day. Yet, Jesus always acted in love.
Here’s my definition, which I derived from several texts, such as Ephesians 5:2 & 25): Love is a self-sacrificing, caring commitment which shows itself in seeking the highest good of the one loved.
The core of love is not emotion, but commitment. It’s not a commitment to make the other person immediately happy, but rather to seek the person’s highest good. Glorifying God is the highest good for every person. Thus, sometimes love has to gently confront the other person, seeking to help him or her grow to be more like Christ.
Biblical love is also self-sacrificing. Christ loved us by sacrificing Himself on the cross. To love another person means that you lay aside your rights and your comfort by doing unto him what you would want done for you if you were in his situation. Convenient “love” is not love at all.
Biblical love is also caring. This is the emotional side of love. If you must confront the person, you do it with genuine concern for his well-being. You don’t blast him, but rather speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). “Love is kind” (1 Cor. 13:4).
That biblical love shows itself means that it’s not empty talk. It takes action. It’s not enough, husbands, to say with kindness and sympathy, “I’m sorry, honey, that you’ve got to do all those dishes, get the kids bathed and into bed, and finish doing the laundry. I’ll pray for you!” Rather, you get up and help! The goal of love is always to present every person mature in Christ (Col. 1:28), so that God may be glorified through each person.
Some commentators think that when Paul calls love “the perfect bond of unity,” he means that love binds or ties into one all of the virtues mentioned in verses 12 & 13, much as a belt or sash in that day held together all the other pieces of clothing.
But others say that Paul means that love is the quality that binds the various members of the body of Christ together in perfect or mature unity. (“Perfect” means “mature”; see Heb. 6:1). “Bond” is the same word translated “ligaments” in Colossians 2:19. The ligaments hold different body parts together. Since Paul’s concern here is not so much the unity of the various virtues, but rather the unity of the Greeks and Jews, barbarians, Scythians, slaves and freemen in the one body (Col. 3:11), I understand him to mean that biblical love is what binds us together as we grow to maturity in Christ (Eph. 4:13-16).
While we must hold to the fundamental doctrines of the faith, we need to remember that love is a fundamental practice of the faith. To hold to fundamental doctrines in an arrogant or unloving manner is to violate this supreme virtue, which is the basis for mature Christian unity. Paul goes on to show how biblical love works in the church:
Colossians 3:15: “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.” Note four things:
The peace with God that comes from trusting in Christ as your Savior and Lord is the basis for peace with other believers. As Paul says (Eph. 2:14), “He Himself is our peace, who made both groups [Jew & Gentile] into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.” Outside of Christ, the Jews and the Gentiles despised each other. There was mutual contempt. So to have peace between these culturally diverse groups, not just a tense cease-fire, but peace on the heart level, these very different groups had to have hearts that had been changed by Jesus Christ. In other words, true conversion that brings peace with God is the basis for peaceful relationships on the heart level with others, even with others who are very different than you are. Outward “peace” is only superficial if your heart is not right with God.
“Calling” refers to God’s effectual call to salvation, based on His choosing you (Col. 3:12; 1 Cor. 1:26-31; Rom. 8:30). The Spirit baptizes all who are called into the one body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). Just as you don’t have the choice of picking your natural brothers and sisters, so you don’t have the choice of picking your spiritual brothers and sisters. The Lord picks them and you’ve got to get along with them.
The fact that God called you and placed you in the one body of Christ means that being a Christian means being committed to a local church. Just attending church occasionally but not getting to know others in the body and not serving in some capacity is increasingly common in American Christianity. But that is foreign to New Testament Christianity. If God called you to Himself in salvation, He called you into the one body of Christ.
Colossians 3:15 is one of the most misused verses in the Bible. I’ve heard some respected Bible teachers pull this verse totally out of context and say that it’s teaching that an inner feeling of peace is a major factor in how you determine God’s will for your life. While that may be a factor (2 Cor. 2:12-13), that’s not even close to what Paul is talking about here.
The context of verse 15 is corporate—he’s talking about love and peaceful relationships in the one body of Christ (that phrase even occurs in the verse). There is nothing in the context about how an individual determines God’s will. The peace he’s talking about isn’t primarily inner subjective peace, but rather the objective peace which Christ secured at the cross. He broke down the barrier between hostile groups of people, such as Jews and Gentiles, “so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace” (Eph. 2:15; cf. Eph. 2:14-18; Col. 3:11).
The word translated “rule” means “to act as umpire.” It focuses on making a decision in a given situation. So Paul is saying, “When you’re faced with a potential or real conflict, decide how you act or what you say based on the peace Christ secured on the cross between you and the other person, no matter how different the two of you may be. You are now one body in Christ. Let preserving that unity be the deciding factor in how you act.” He makes a similar point in Romans 14:19: “Let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.”
You put love into shoe leather by seeking peace in difficult situations, realizing that we were not called to be individual Christians; we were called to be one body. If, in a fit of anger, you cut yourself off from another Christian, whether in the church or in your own family, it’s like amputating part of your body. So your words, your attitudes, your nonverbal communication, your actions—whatever you do—must be aimed at peace and biblical unity with the other person.
Paul was not stupid; he knew human nature. He knew that we all would be inclined to skate around his command by giving a grudging “peace.” We’re all wired to look out for our own interests by saying, “I’ll meet him in the middle, but I’m not going to go all the way. I’ll grant him peace, but he’s got to do his part.” So Paul pulls the plug on that kind of attitude by adding, “And be thankful.” Grant the peace that you give with a heart of overflowing gratitude to God who has forgiven all your sins and made you a part of the body of Christ even though you didn’t deserve it.
So, when you’re wronged by a fellow Christian, don’t focus on your rights that were violated. Don’t gossip to others about what that person did to you, trying to line up people on your side. Don’t throw a pity party and adopt a martyr complex. Rather, seek and extend Christ’s peace between you and the one who offended you with a thankful heart as you realize how gracious God was to call you to salvation and to place you in the body of Christ. Thankfulness focuses on God and His blessings, not on me and my offended rights.
And such gratitude toward God never stops there. It always slops over onto my brother as I remember that God graciously has saved him, too. God is at work in his life, in spite of how he may have wronged me. So I can extend grace to him and use our common bond in Christ as the basis for working on reconciliation over whatever has divided us. Your desire should be for him and you to grow through this conflict, so that his life and yours would bring more glory to our Savior, who loved us and gave Himself for us. Practical love demonstrated in peaceful relationships must be our priority in the body of Christ.
Jerome, the fourth century Bible scholar, says that when the apostle John was in his extreme old age, he was so weak that he had to be carried into the church meetings. This was the man who, with his brother, was so hotheaded that Jesus nicknamed them, “the sons of thunder.” But as he grew in Christ, he became known as “the apostle of love.”
At the end of the church meetings, the old apostle would be helped to his feet to give a word of exhortation to the church. He would always say, “Little children, love one another.” After many weeks of this same message given over and over, the church grew weary of hearing it. It was as if the old man’s brain had stuck on this one thing. So they asked him why he constantly repeated the same message. The wise apostle said, “Because it is the commandment of the Lord and the observation of it alone is sufficient.” (Cited in Clarke’s Commentary [Abingdon-Cokesbury Press], 1:628.)
Do you love broccoli—enough to eat it? Do you love your brothers and sisters in Christ—enough to work through relational hurts so that the peace of Christ in His one body will shine through to a lost world that is marked by broken relationships? Practical love shown in peaceful relationships is of prime importance for everyone who calls Jesus Lord.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
May 8, 2016
That profound thinker, Charlie Brown, asks his friend, Linus, “Do you ever think much about the future?” Linus replies, “Oh, yes, all the time.” “What do you think you’d like to be when you grow up?” Charlie asks. Linus thinks a moment and replies, “Outrageously happy!” (You’re a Winner, Charlie Brown, Charles Schulz [Fawcett Crest Books])
There are basically two ways to try to gain happiness. The first is to try to arrange your circumstances so that you will be content. You try to get a fulfilling job, a satisfying marriage and family life, and enough money to be comfortable. The problem is, none of these things are secure. You can lose your job, there isn’t a trouble-free marriage or family on earth, and the good things in life can be changed instantly by uncontrollable factors, such as war, fire, natural disasters, disease, or death.
The other way to seek happiness is to seek it in the Lord. If you’re happy in God you’ve got lasting happiness. You may go through tremendous trials and be deprived even of life itself. But through it all you’ve got abiding joy in the Lord. The apostles knew that kind of happiness in God. When they were warned not to preach any more in the name of Jesus and then were flogged, they went on their way, “rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41). Paul and Silas had the same joy. When they were unjustly beaten without a trial and thrown into jail, at midnight they were praying and singing hymns of praise to God (Acts 16:25). Paul would later write to the church in Philippi, where that incident happened, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, rejoice!” (Phil. 4:4).
George Muller, who by faith and prayer supported thousands of orphans, experienced the same solid joy in the Lord. Roger Steer subtitled his biography of him, “Delighted in God” (George Muller: Delighted in God [Shaw]). Muller practiced and taught that the first business of every day is to seek to be truly at rest and happy in God (A. T. Pierson, George Muller of Bristol [Revell], p. 257).
Are you happy in God? I’m sure that we all can use some pointers in how to grow in that area! In Colossians 3:16-17, Paul describes a life that is happy in God. It’s a life of thankful worship:
The Lord’s people should be marked by thankful worship engaging the whole person in all of life.
Verse 16 describes the church gathering, where we are to teach and admonish one another through the Word and singing, thankfully praising God. Verse 17 extends it to all of life: Everything we do should be done thankfully in the name of the Lord Jesus. Thankful worship should be the aroma that surrounds every Christian, so that, as was said of Mary’s anointing of Jesus, “the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume” (John 12:3).
What do we mean by worship? William Temple’s well-known definition (widely cited on the Internet) is probably the most eloquent: “For to worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, and to devote the will to the purpose of God.” John MacArthur, in his excellent study of worship, The Ultimate Priority ([Moody Press], p. 127), defines worship as “our innermost being responding with praise for all that God is, through our attitudes, actions, thoughts, and words, based on the truth of God as He has revealed Himself.” Or more succinctly he says (p. 147), “Worship is all that we are, reacting rightly to all that He is.”
Whenever people in the Bible encountered God or His ways, worship was their spontaneous response. They immediately sensed His majesty and at the same time realized their own frailty and sinfulness. Worship was the result. So the key to worship is not to focus on worship, but to focus on God. When my mind, emotions, and will are properly related to God, I will be thankfully worshiping Him for His majesty, glory, and abundant goodness. Our text reveals four things about thankful worship:
“Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you ….” “The word of Christ” refers to Christ’s teaching and the teaching about Him, which means, the whole Bible. All of Scripture points toward Him (Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:39, 46). The phrase, “the word of Christ,” occurs only here in the Bible. Paul uses it because he is emphasizing the supremacy of Jesus Christ to a church plagued with false teachers who denied Christ His rightful place. The Scriptures are the word of Christ in that they speak to us about Christ and they direct us to Christ as Savior and Lord.
Paul says that we should let the word of Christ richly dwell within us. Richly implies the fullness and completeness of God’s Word for all of life. When you come to the Bible, you come to an inexhaustible treasure. It’s like the universe—the further astronomers peer into space, the more they are overwhelmed with the fact that they cannot get to the end of it. There are billions of galaxies each containing billions of stars. The more you dig into the Bible, the more you discover how little of it you understand and how much of it there is to understand.
To let the word of Christ richly dwell in us also implies that we need an abundant supply of God’s Word. Gorge yourself on the Word! In modern slang, “Pig out on the Word!” While eating too much rich food will damage your health, the more spiritually rich food you eat, the healthier you become. If our physical weight were determined by how much of God’s Word we fed on each week, would we be a skinny church or a fat church?
Dwell implies living in the Scriptures so that the Scriptures live in you. I may visit your home and you give me a tour through all the rooms. But I don’t live there. To live there means that it’s the place I keep coming back to each day. I’m comfortable there. I’m familiar with my home. It’s where I go for refuge and rest. All that’s implied in the concept of dwelling in a home should be true of my dwelling in the word of Christ and the Word dwelling in me.
“In you” means that Paul isn’t talking here only about each of us having personal Bible study. He’s talking about the word of Christ dwelling richly in the church (“you” is plural). We are to teach and admonish one another. To do this, our individual intake of the Word should spill over so that whether on Sundays or during the week, the word of Christ permeates the life of the church.
Scholars debate how to punctuate verse 16 (the original text did not have punctuation). You can punctuate it so that the sense is that we use the word of Christ to teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, making the rest of the sentence, “singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” (NIV, ESV). Or, the sense may be that as the word of Christ richly dwells in us, we teach and admonish one another through our singing (NASB). Grammatically it’s difficult to decide, but practically, there is truth in each view.
We teach and admonish one another both through the Word and through doctrinally sound songs. That’s one reason I think we should sing some of the great hymns of the faith. They teach solid biblical truth. “Teach” refers to communicating doctrine or biblical precepts; “admonish” means to give correction or warning. “Wisdom” refers to skill in applying God’s truth in specific situations. So whether it’s from the pulpit, in a home fellowship, a small group Bible study, or in a private conversation, whether through speaking or through singing, the word of Christ must be at home in us so that we are wisely applying it, both personally and with others.
This means that biblical truth is essential for worship. The goal of theology should be doxology, or worship. Jesus told the woman at the well that God is seeking those who worship Him “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). You cannot worship God in truth unless you know who He is as revealed in His Word. If you worship a god who is loving, but he overlooks sin, you’re not worshiping the true God, but rather an idol you made up, because the God of the Bible is loving and holy. True worship rests on knowing God truly as revealed in His Word. Without God’s revealed truth, all the emotion in the world is misdirected and futile. Thankful worship begins by engaging our minds with the word of Christ.
“With songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Obviously I view preaching the Word as important or I wouldn’t spend as many hours each week preparing the sermon as I do! But singing is not the filler that allows late-comers to arrive before we get down to the main reason for coming—the sermon. I hope that my sermons lead you to worship as you realize more deeply who God is and all the blessings He has freely given to us. But singing also ought to focus our minds and hearts on God and His gracious salvation, so that we respond with love, devotion, gratitude, and reverence.
While the word of Christ enables us to worship God in truth, singing allows us to worship Him in spirit. While to worship rightly we must know God as revealed in His Word of truth, if that truth doesn’t move our hearts, something is wrong. Singing is one way to express our love for God and gratitude for what He’s done for us in Christ. It’s no accident that the longest book in the Bible is a song book and God called its main author a man after His heart. Throughout history, whenever the hearts of God’s people have been right before Him, there has been joyful singing and the writing of new songs of praise.
Singing is to be done “with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” “With thankfulness” is literally, “in the grace” (or “in His grace”; the Greek definite article may mean “His”). So it may mean that the songs we sing should make us mindful of God’s grace to us in Christ. Of course, when we think of God’s abundant grace, it causes us to be thankful.
Also, singing is to be done “in your hearts.” God always looks on our hearts, not on our outward performance. Clearly, our hearts are not right before God if we half-heartedly mumble through a song while we think about other things. When we sing, we should put aside distractions, think about the words, and offer up our songs exuberantly in praise to our God.
While I’m not a charismatic and I think that our charismatic brethren sometimes err on the side of being too heavy on emotions and too light on doctrine, I will say that when I’ve worshiped with them, I’ve always appreciated the fact that they are not apathetic about worship. I grew up in a traditional Bible church where everyone read their bulletins and looked out the window while we mumbled through a couple of hymns before the sermon. The song leader often would try to pump up everyone to sing louder. Visitors never would have gotten the impression that we were serious about praising God.
But the first time I went to a charismatic church, I was impressed with the fact that these brothers and sisters weren’t messing around with worship! They were really into it! Everyone was engaged. Some had their eyes closed and their hands lifted up in praise to God. I got the feeling that we were meeting with God and offering praises to Him. The worship leaders weren’t performing. They were bringing us into the presence of the Lord.
Second Samuel 6 tells the story of King David bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. He was dancing before the Lord with all his might. But his wife Michal looked out the window, saw David’s exuberant worship, and was embarrassed. She thought that his enthusiasm was undignified for a king and she rebuked him when he came into the house. But David defended his actions, which he described as celebrating before the Lord (2 Sam. 6:14, 21). Significantly, the Lord sided with David, not with Michal, and caused her to be barren for the rest of her life. God wants our worship to be with thankfulness from the heart.
But also, as with David, our worship should be to God. We aren’t to be worship-centered; we’re to be God-centered. He’s our audience in worship. We sing to Him. Even if the focus of a song is to teach and admonish one another, the best way to do it is to remember that we’re not just singing to one another—God is present! When we sing, we sing to Him. Do you do that? Do you sing thankfully from your heart to God? If your heart is cold, confess it and turn your focus to the Lord through the words of the songs.
What kinds of songs should we sing? The terms Paul uses are difficult to distinguish. “Psalms” probably refers to the psalms of the Hebrew Scriptures set to accompaniment. “Hymns” are hymns of praise to God. “Spiritual songs” is a generic term referring to any type of song, but qualified by the word “spiritual.” The different terms imply that we are free to sing a wide variety of songs according to the mood and subject.
As you know, many churches are divided by “worship wars.” Many offer contemporary services for those who prefer the newer songs and styles, and “traditional” services for those who prefer the old hymns sung to piano or organ accompaniment. I believe that we need some of both and that we should not divide the congregation along those lines.
There are many great newer songs, such as “In Christ Alone,” and “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us.” Also some of the older hymns are being set to modern tunes or arrangements. In my opinion, we shouldn’t repeat the same words over and over to build up emotions. If we’re thinking about the words, a few repetitions should be enough to drive home the truth. I don’t need to repeat that our God is an awesome God ten times to get the point!
But we also need some of the older great hymns of the faith which not only teach us about the greatness of God and of our salvation; they also connect us to our Christian heritage. Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” reminds us both of solid truth and of the Reformation that recovered that truth. During the revival of the 18th century, the Wesley’s taught theology to illiterate blue collar laborers through their hymns. Think on the truth in hymns like, “And Can it Be?” I love the final stanza,
No condemnation now I dread: Jesus and all in Him is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness divine;
Bold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Amazing love! How can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me!
If you don’t own one, buy a good hymnal and learn some of the great hymns of the faith (you can listen to many of the tunes online). Sing in your private times of worship and then join in with all your heart when you gather with the Lord’s people. Thankful worship engages the mind with the word of Christ and the emotions in joyful song to Christ.
The idea of submission to the lordship of Christ permeates these verses, but it is explicit in two places: “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus”; and, “giving thanks.”
“The name of the Lord Jesus” refers primarily to His supreme authority. His name “is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11). To do something in the name of the Lord Jesus is to do it under His sovereign authority. Implicit in a life of thankful worship is that we do everything in submission to His rightful lordship.
Sometimes Christians ask, “Can I do such-and-such an activity?” Verse 17 is your answer. It’s a succinct summary of Christian living. It applies across the board to every thought, word, and deed. Ask yourself, “Can I do this in submission to Jesus Christ?” If you’re not sure or if it would dishonor Him, then don’t do it. If you’re sure that you can do it in submission to the Lord in line with His Word, then do it joyfully and thankfully!
The second place where the idea of submission to Christ is explicit is in the words, “giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” To thank God, especially when difficult things happen, means that I must submit to His sovereign dealings with me. I’m acknowledging that all my circumstances are under His control and in harmony with His love. Like Job, I can worship Him even though I may not understand what He’s doing if I submit my heart to say, “Thank you, Lord! I trust Your sovereign, loving dealings with me.”
The opposite of thankfulness is grumbling. Israel in the wilderness grumbled repeatedly and because of it, God kept a whole generation out of the promised land. Grumbling impugns the character of God. It implies either, “God isn’t good,” or, “He isn’t sovereign over my problem.” I confess, I’m prone to grumbling. But one thing that has helped me fight it is to read a Psalm each morning, to meditate on it, and make it my prayer. For example, Psalm 5:11-12 exhorts,
But let all who take refuge in You be glad,
Let them ever sing for joy;
And may You shelter them,
That those who love Your name may exult in You.
For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O Lord,
You surround him with favor as with a shield.
You just can’t read those verses very many times without shouting, “Thank You, Lord!” Finally,
“Whatever you do in word or deed ….” This extends thankful worship beyond Sunday to every day of the week. There’s no sacred-secular division for Christians. All of life is to be a sacred experience of living gratefully under the lordship of Jesus Christ. That’s not to say that we do not need to gather on the Lord’s Day for worship and teaching. We do. But it is to say that in every aspect of life we can reflect the joy of salvation as we speak and act in the name of Christ.
This means having the word of Christ percolating through your mind and having songs and hymns of praise bubbling to the surface as you go about your day. It means living thankfully under the lordship of Christ while you’re at work or playing with your kids or unstopping a clogged toilet or fixing dinner.
Dr. John Hannah, one of my seminary church history professors, told a story I’ve never forgotten. He and his wife were moving to Dallas to begin his first year of seminary. They had stuffed all their earthly belongings into an old Volkswagen. As they drove along a deserted highway, something malfunctioned and the car caught on fire. They pulled to the side of the road, jumped out, watched helplessly as everything they owned, except for the clothes on their backs, went up in smoke.
What would you do at a time like that? It would be easy to get angry with God. “Lord, I’m going to seminary to prepare for serving You! It’s not like we were heading for Las Vegas to sin or something! And it wasn’t as if we were living in luxury. We only had these few things and no extra cash to replace them. Why did You allow this to happen?” That would be a normal reaction.
What John and his wife, Carolyn, did was to kneel down on that highway next to that gutted car—and sing the doxology! They were happy in God. You can be happy in God if you’ll learn to thankfully worship Him with your whole being in all of life.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
May 15, 2016
I know of no verse in the Bible that is as concise and obvious in its meaning and yet so controversial and difficult to apply practically as Colossians 3:18. On the surface, it’s pretty simple:
Wives must submit to their husbands as is fitting in the Lord.
If there are no questions, we can all go home now! But the obvious simplicity becomes incredibly complex as you begin to sort it out. For one thing, there are probably thousands of subjective opinions about what a submissive wife is like. Many think of the Archie and Edith Bunker model, where the husband rules the roost by barking orders at his half-witted slave of a wife. A husband once complained to me that his wife wasn’t submissive. I asked him what he thought that meant. He snapped, “When I say, ‘Paint the house black,’ she picks up a brush and starts painting!”
In a similar vein, some think that submission means the total passivity of the wife. The husband makes all the decisions without consulting her or taking her needs and desires into account. He controls the money, determines where the family will live, whether he will take a new job, whether they buy a new car, etc. She passively goes along. I heard of a seminary graduate who came home and without discussing it, announced to his wife that they would be moving across the country where she had no family or friends. He couldn’t understand why she wasn’t excited about this great ministry opportunity for him!
Others think that submission means that the wife should take care of all the household chores—cooking, cleaning, shopping, and dealing with the kids, while the husband works, brings home the paycheck, and watches sports on TV.
On the opposite side, many Christians now embrace “egalitarianism.” They claim that there are no distinctive roles for men and women in marriage or in the church. There should be “mutual submission,” with no one exercising final authority. They argue that the biblical commands for wives to be subject to their husbands were culturally determined. Paul told wives to be subject to their husbands in that male-dominated culture so that the truth of the equality of the sexes would not interfere with the gospel. But now that we live in a more egalitarian age, we should cast off all gender-based role distinctions.
As if the subject were not difficult enough to sort out, we also have widespread wife abuse, which is often blamed on teaching wives to be submissive. One in three women have been the object of some form of physical violence from an intimate partner. One in five women have been victims of severe physical violence by an intimate partner. About one in five instances of domestic violence involves a weapon (these statistics from ncadv.org).
If you think that such abuse is rare in the church, you’re not in touch with reality. The late Chuck Colson told this story on his “Breakpoint” radio program (10/20/09):
A woman I’ll call “Marleen” went to her pastor for help. “My husband is abusing me,” she told him. “Last week he knocked me down and kicked me. He broke one of my ribs.”
Marleen’s pastor was sympathetic. He prayed with Marleen—and then he sent her home. “Try to be more submissive,” he advised. “After all, your husband is your spiritual head.”
Two weeks later, Marleen was dead—killed by an abusive husband. Her church could not believe it. Marleen’s husband was a Sunday school teacher and a deacon. How could he have done such a thing?
Tragically, studies reveal that spousal abuse is just as common within the evangelical churches as anywhere else. This means that about 25 percent of Christian homes witness abuse of some kind.
And the statistics on physical abuse don’t include verbal and emotional abuse. So in light of all these confusing factors, how should we deal with Paul’s admonition to wives to submit to their husbands? First, we need to answer the question:
The Greek word Paul uses here is a military term meaning to put oneself in rank under another. God has ordained the principle of authority and submission in a number of different spheres: Citizens are to be subject to civil authorities (Rom. 13:1; Titus 3:1); slaves to their masters (Col. 3:22; Titus 2:9); church members to their leaders (1 Cor. 16:16; Titus 2:15; Heb. 13:17); children to their parents (Col. 3:20); and wives to their husbands (Eph. 5:22, 24; Col. 3:18; Titus 2:5; 1 Pet. 3:1). Every time the New Testament speaks to the role of wives, the command is the same: “Be subject to your husband.”
We don’t like the idea of submission to authority. But before you react against this command, consider some mitigating factors. First, whenever God grants authority, it is always for the blessing and protection of those under authority and never for the advantage of the ones in authority. God loves people and in His wisdom He has ordained proper authority for the benefit of the human race. If those in government authority use their position to further their own interests at the expense of those under them, they are corrupt and will answer to God, who delegated authority to them. Likewise, any husband who uses his authority in the home to lord it over his family for his own advantage is liable before God for abusing his authority. To be in authority does not mean greater perks, but rather greater responsibility and accountability before God.
Second, it’s important to recognize that husbands are never commanded, “Exercise authority over your wife!” The headship of the husband is stated as a fact, but the commands to submit are always given to the wife. The husband is commanded to love his wife sacrificially. Almost always when couples come for marriage counseling, they are pointing the finger at each other. The wife complains that the husband is unloving and insensitive. He complains that she isn’t submissive and doesn’t meet his needs. But Paul tells husbands (Eph. 5:25), “Love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” He tells wives (Eph. 5:22), “Be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord.” When husbands and wives each focus on their God-ordained responsibilities toward each other, there will be harmony, not abuse.
Third, to be in authority does not in any way imply the superiority of the husband or the inferiority of the wife. A wife may in fact be superior in intellect and spiritual maturity to her husband. Paul affirms elsewhere (Gal. 3:28) that she is just as much a member of Christ as her husband is. Peter calls the wife a “fellow-heir of the grace of life” (1 Pet. 3:7). She is in every way equal as a person to her husband. But God has ordained the principle of authority for the orderly functioning of government, the church, and the home. To resist it is to resist God who ordained it (Rom. 13:1-2).
To put oneself under the authority of another does not imply passivity. A submissive wife is not one who meekly goes along with her husband, while keeping her thoughts and feelings to herself. Close relationships are built on truthfulness and openness in a context of love. If a wife withholds her viewpoint or feelings under the guise of submissiveness, she is creating distance in her relationship with her husband.
Also, a submissive wife should properly confront her husband’s sin. When 1 Peter 3:1 says that a wife should win a disobedient husband “without a word” by her godly behavior, it is not prohibiting her from speaking. Peter means that the main emphasis of the wife’s way of changing her husband should be her behavior, not sermons. A disobedient husband will not be won over by a preaching, nagging wife. But that does not mean that in the context of living a godly life, a wife cannot lovingly speak to her husband about his disobedience and how it is damaging their relationship. If a wife does not speak the truth in love, she is not fulfilling her responsibility in the marriage.
True submission is communicated both by attitudes and actions. A wife can be strong and even outspoken and yet be submissive in spirit if she respects her husband and backs his leadership even when she disagrees. Or she can be outwardly submissive but inwardly defiant, using deception and manipulation to get her own way. God doesn’t want grudging compliance, where a wife says, “I’ll submit; but I know you’re wrong and I’ll never let you forget it when it doesn’t work out.” True submission means that after an open sharing of thinking and feelings, with prayer, if there is still a disagreement, a wife yields to her husband’s authority and seeks to help him in his responsibility to lead under God. In our over 42 years of marriage, Marla and I would be hard pressed to come up with a single instance where we haven’t come to mutual agreement.
But perhaps you’re wondering, “Couldn’t the submission of wives just have been a cultural concession on Paul’s part, as in the case of slavery? Since the submission of women runs counter to our culture (rather than with it, as in the first century), are we not free to develop egalitarian marriages based on mutuality apart from any hierarchy of submission and authority?” In other words,
In God’s original creation, the man and woman together were to reflect God’s image which, in part, involves the voluntary submission of the Son to the Father in order to carry out the divine plan of salvation. Though the Son is co-eternal and co-equal with the Father, Jesus submitted Himself to the cross so that Satan’s dominion would be broken. The husband and wife are to relate to one another as the Father and Son relate to each other. The wife, though equal with her husband, submits to him to reflect God’s image and to fulfill His purpose of dominion over Satan.
Paul develops this theme in Ephesians 5 where he states that Christian marriage is a picture of Christ and the church. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so wives ought to be to their husbands (Eph. 5:24). Why? Because through Christ and the church, which Paul calls the new man, created in God’s image (Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10), God is recovering what was lost in the fall of the first creation. Christian marriage, as the unit of the church, is to reflect God’s image through the sacrificial love of the husband for his wife and the voluntary submission of the wife to her husband in a context of equality as they exercise dominion over God’s enemy.
One way that an enemy can defeat its foe is to instill discontent and insurrection among the ranks. If you can get the enlisted men complaining about their lot, fighting against the officers, and trying to grab authority, you’ve just about won the war. That’s why Satan first approached Eve, not Adam, and got her to usurp his authority. Today his strategy is the same: to promise greater happiness to wives if they will get out from under their husbands’ authority. Many Christian wives do not realize that we are engaged in combat against the unseen forces of darkness in heavenly places and that Christian marriage is to reflect the relationship between Christ and the church. So they cast off the idea of authority in marriage—and play right into Satan’s hand!
So the principle of the headship of the husband and the submission of the wife is not cultural. In creation God’s order was to create the man first and then to create Eve as his helper. At the fall, the authority of the husband, which the wife had usurped, was specifically decreed (Gen. 3:16). Paul’s analogy of Christ and the church is the basis of his appeal for the proper order in marriage. Thus it is fitting in the Lord for the wife to submit herself to her husband to uphold God’s purpose for creating human beings, namely, to reflect His image and to crush Satan’s dominion. It’s not up for grabs if a culture believes differently.
Beyond the theological reasons, I believe there are other reasons to follow the biblically ordained roles for husbands and wives. God has made us as male and female with distinctive strengths, weaknesses, and needs. When each partner dies to his or her pursuit for self-fulfillment and lives in obedience to God to fulfill the needs of his or her mate, both partners are fulfilled. A godly, loving husband provides protection and support, both financially and emotionally, for his wife, which she lacks if she is independent of him. But, more specifically …
It’s interesting that while Titus 2:4 mentions a wife’s loving her husband in the context of submission, neither Ephesians nor 1 Peter (nor Colossians) mention a wife’s love. Instead Ephesians (5:33) and 1 Peter (3:2, 6) both mention respect in connection with submission. Respect is a crucial element of biblical submission.
But what often happens is that a couple starts marriage with high expectations. They’re in love and they think that love will conquer all their problems. But not too far into the marriage, the honeymoon wears off and there are disappointments as expectations are not met. Often this takes place unconsciously, since many of the expectations are not consciously identified. The husband, who may not be as relationally tuned in as his wife, deals with his marital disappointments by burying himself in his job.
The disappointed wife tries to remodel her husband by nagging him about his shortcomings and about not meeting her emotional needs. He’s clueless about how to meet her needs, but he’s pretty confident in his job, so he pours himself into work. When he makes feeble attempts to lead spiritually or relationally at home, she resists his efforts, because she doesn’t respect his relational skills or his spiritual leadership. The end result is emotional distance, relational hurts, and sometimes the disintegration of the marriage.
If, instead of that downward cycle, a wife will work at showing her husband respect, acceptance, and appreciation for anything she can possibly affirm, and she responds to his attempts at leadership, it will lead to greater unity and intimacy in the marriage. Wives, make note of this: Men react to nagging either by flight or by fight. A nice husband will run for cover; a more belligerent husband will fight back. But neither leads to greater marital intimacy. But 1 Peter 3:1-4 says that even a disobedient husband may be won by a wife’s gentle and quiet spirit.
Part of submitting to your husband involves looking for things that please him and doing them. But some of you may be thinking, “If I do that, how will my needs be met?” Or, “I’d meet more of his desires and needs if he weren’t so selfish and would meet more of my needs!” But marriage is not a 50-50 deal. Each partner needs to give 100 percent in the way God has ordained and leave their partner’s response up to the Lord. When that happens, God often changes the partner and the needs of the one who stepped out first in obedience to God are met.
Many years ago a wife on the verge of divorce came to me, along with two of our elders’ wives, who were counseling her to leave him. Her husband, who professed to be a Christian, left early each morning for a long commute to work and returned late in the evening, after stopping off to have a couple of beers at a bar. He would eat dinner, watch some TV, and hit the sack. Except for providing for them, he was completely disengaged from the family. She had to do it all and she was extremely frustrated and constantly let him know about it.
I explained 1 Peter 3 and advised that rather than criticizing and nagging her husband for his lack of involvement, she thank him for his hard work and for anything else that she honestly could affirm. I told her to make her home a refuge for him so that there was nowhere else that he would rather be. She took my advice and stopped nagging him. Instead, she cheerfully greeted him when he got home, telling him how much she appreciated his hard work. She focused on meeting his needs. He started coming home earlier, eating dinner with the family, and even leading them in family devotions. When I left that church, with tears streaming down her cheeks she thanked me for holding to God’s Word that day. She said, “I wouldn’t have my family together today if you had compromised what God’s Word says.”
So the practice of submission involves an attitude of respect and a response to the husband’s leadership. But what about a wife who has an abusive husband or a husband who is disobedient to the Lord?
We must consider 1 Peter 3:1-2: “In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior.” “Disobedient to the word” primarily refers to an unbelieving husband, but it may include a professing believer who is difficult, cantankerous, or disobedient.
What should the wife do? First, she should to make sure that her behavior, attitude, and words, are “chaste and respectful,” and that she has a “gentle and quiet spirit” (1 Pet. 3:4). “Chaste” means, “pure, undefiled.” She should never retaliate to abusive speech with abusive speech or punish her husband with the silent, angry treatment, but rather, give a blessing instead (1 Pet. 3:9). If she is angry and bitter, she needs to repent and show him God’s love (Matt. 5:44-46; Luke 6:27-28, 32-33). “Gentle” means “strength under control.” “Quiet” means not being contentious or argumentative.
A wife should never join her husband in sinful behavior. If he makes a profession of faith or is a church member, but insists that she join him in sinful behavior, after appealing to him, if he persists she should go to the elders of the church to seek godly counsel. They need to confront his sin. If he is not a believer, she should gently explain the reason that she cannot join him in disobedience to the Lord (1 Pet. 3:13-16).
If the disobedient husband is being verbally but not physically abusive, the wife needs to make sure that she does not provoke him by her words or behavior (unless he is provoked by her godly behavior!). She should gently explain that she would like to be close to him, but his abusive speech is creating distance. If he threatens violence or is violent against her or the children, she should flee to a place of safety. If he has been physically violent or he’s using illegal drugs in the home, she should report him to the police. God ordained the government to punish evildoers and protect law-abiding citizens. No man should be allowed to bully his family and cause them to live in constant fear because of his violent temper.
But, coming back to 1 Peter 3, winning the disobedient husband without a word means being a godly example in the face of his ungodly behavior (1 Pet. 3:8-17 goes on to explain this). Sometimes (but not always) God will use a wife’s godly behavior to bring her disobedient husband to repentance and faith. But whatever his response, she will know that she is pleasing the Lord.
If you’re in a difficult situation, I encourage you to seek godly counsel. Find a mature woman of God to confide in and pray with. The command for a wife to submit is never license for a husband to be abusive. An abusive husband needs to repent. A wife’s submissive, gentle, and quiet spirit is God’s way to win a disobedient husband to repentant faith in Christ (1 Pet. 3:1-4). It follows the example of the Lord Jesus, who, while being reviled, “did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Pet. 2:23). Submission to God-ordained authority is not easy, especially when the authority is not godly. But it is “fitting in the Lord.”
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
May 29, 2016
A church bulletin read, “At the Ladies’ Aid Society Meeting, many interesting articles were raffled off. Every member brought something she no longer needed. Many members brought their husbands.” There are probably many wives who wouldn’t mind making a little profit by raffling off their husbands! Some might even pay to have you take him off their hands!
Of course, no marriage starts there. They all begin with high expectations. But somewhere not too far along, there is a fork in the road. From there on, marriages seem to grow either better or bitter. Either a husband and wife are growing closer in a deepening love for each other, or they are growing more distant as resentment and anger build a wall, brick by brick.
Beginning at Colossians 3:12, Paul shows how a relationship with God should impact our relationships with one another in the church and in the home. Those who have been chosen of God should be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, patient, forbearing, and forgiving toward one another. Love and the peace of Christ should bind us together in the one body of Christ.
Then Paul applies these qualities specifically to wives and husbands, to children and parents, and to slaves and masters. You can fake being a Christian at church or before the world. But you can’t fake it at home. So in Colossians 3:19, Paul shows how husbands are to live out their faith toward their wives. (Paul is probably brief here because he expected the Colossians also to read his letter to the Ephesians.) Here Paul says:
Husbands must love their wives and not be embittered toward them.
There are two sides to Paul’s terse command: The positive (“love”) and the negative (“don’t be embittered”). No matter how mature you are as a Christian, you’ve got room to grow in obedience to this command. It’s not the sort of thing where you can check this off your list and move on to something else! I want to focus on how to apply this command to your marriage so that it will grow better, not bitter.
After Paul’s command to wives to submit to their husbands, you would have expected him to write, “Husbands, rule over your wives, as Christ rules over the church.” Many husbands read it that way. If you were to ask them their number one responsibility toward their wives, they would say, “To be the head of the home.” But Paul says that our primary responsibility is to love our wives. If you are a husband, you should think often about how you can better love your wife as Christ loves the church.
To apply this verse properly, we need to understand what Paul meant by love. If love is a strong feeling over which you have no control and the feelings are gone, then there’s not much you can do, is there? I’ve had Christian couples tell me, “We’re no longer in love, so it would be best if we just divorced and moved on.” Usually these couples are so angry and bitter that they don’t want to work at rekindling their love.
But as you should know (since I’ve used this definition twice in recent messages), biblical love is not primarily a feeling. Rather, it’s a self-sacrificing, caring commitment which shows itself in seeking the highest good of the one loved. While such love results in deep feelings, the core of it is not feelings but commitment. Romantic love focuses on how the other person makes me feel, but biblical love focuses on what I must do for the other person. It can be willed, it is seen more in actions than in feelings, and its aim is totally different than the selfish aims of romantic love. So to obey this command, I need to understand that the main way I love my wife is by being committed to sacrifice myself to seek her highest good. There are three parts to this:
You can’t command a feeling, but you can command a commitment to act in certain ways. In our day, we fall in love and marry our lovers. But in Paul’s day, most marriages were arranged by the parents. So Paul is not saying that love is the basis for marriage (as we practice it), but rather that marriage is the basis for love. He’s saying, “Love the wife you’re married to.” It applies to every Christian husband.
There’s good news and bad news in this command. The good news is that even if the feelings of love have died in your marriage, they can be rekindled! The excuse, “I just don’t love her anymore,” is not valid. Paul doesn’t say, “Love your wife if the two of you are compatible and are romantically attracted to one another.” He says, “Learn what love is and do it.” If you obey, the feelings will follow. So there’s hope even for the most hopeless situations.
The bad news (or, at least, difficult news) is, loving your wife becomes a matter of obedience to God for which you’re responsible. If there’s no love in your marriage, then husband, it’s your fault! “But if you knew how this woman treats me!” “Love your wife!” “But if you had to live with her every day!” “Love your wife!” “But I’ve done so much for her and she never does anything for me!” “Love your wife!” “But ...!” “Love your wife!” Paul yanks the rug out from under all our excuses. Love for my wife is a command which I am responsible to obey. If I blame my wife for the problems in my marriage, Christ puts it back on me. He says, “My church hasn’t always been the most beautiful bride, but I still love her with a committed love. That’s how you must love your wife.”
When he was in his late fifties, Dr. Robertson McQuilken’s wife, Muriel, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He was the President of Columbia Bible College and Seminary, where he had served for 22 years. For several years, he tried to juggle his duties at the school with caring for his wife. But as her condition worsened, he could no longer do both. Many of his friends encouraged him to put her in a care facility, but he couldn’t bear the thought of her being in such a place. He shared his thoughts about leaving his thriving ministry to care for her (Christianity Today, “Living by Vows,” Feb. 1, 2004):
When the time came, the decision was firm. It took no great calculation. It was a matter of integrity. Had I not promised, 42 years before, “in sickness and in health … till death do us part”? …
This was no grim duty to which I stoically resigned, however. It was only fair. She had, after all, cared for me for almost four decades with marvelous devotion; now it was my turn. And such a partner she was! If I took care of her for 40 years, I would never be out of her debt….
I have been startled by the response to the announcement of my resignation. Husbands and wives renew marriage vows, pastors tell the story to their congregations. It was a mystery to me, until a distinguished oncologist, who lives constantly with dying people, told me, “Almost all women stand by their men; very few men stand by their women.” Perhaps people sensed this contemporary tragedy and somehow were helped by a simple choice I considered the only option.
It is all more than keeping promises and being fair, however. As I watch her brave descent into oblivion, Muriel is the joy of my life. Daily I discern new manifestations of the kind of person she is, the wife I always loved. I also see fresh manifestations of God’s love—the God I long to love more fully.
The main component in love is commitment to your wife as long as you both shall live, no matter how difficult that may be.
In Ephesians 5:25, Paul says, “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” Biblical love means sacrificing yourself for your wife. It means dying to yourself and living for her highest good, even as Jesus Christ died on the cross so that we may have eternal life.
Probably, you’ll never literally need to lay down your life for your wife. But almost daily you have opportunities to die to yourself by putting aside something that you want to do at the moment and serving your wife. Many years ago, I was going to preach on this text one Sunday. One night that week, I was all comfy in bed with a good book. Marla was getting into the shower and said, “When the dryer goes off, if I’m still in the shower would you mind getting the clothes out?” I said, “Sure! I need a good sermon illustration about sacrificial love for my wife!”
But seriously, maybe it’s listening to your wife share some concern when you wanted to read the paper or watch something on TV. Maybe she needs help with the kids or cleaning up the kitchen, but she doesn’t want to ask. So you see the need and get up and do it without being asked. Perhaps she would be encouraged if you stopped what you’re doing and prayed with her about a difficulty that she is facing. She always needs you to take the time to understand her needs and verbally assure her of your love.
I read (Reader’s Digest [6/86], p. 159) of a wife who had been married to a coach for 34 years and had learned that a ball game always has top priority. But one particularly frustrating day she burst out, “Frank, you’d miss my funeral to go to a ball game!” He calmly replied, “Roberta, whatever made you think I’d schedule your funeral on the day of a game?”
Obviously, that guy could have used some pointers on self-sacrificing love! Don’t be like that! Remember Jesus’ words (Luke 9:23), “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” And the motivation for such self-sacrificial love is the Savior’s great love for us, demonstrated when He gave His life for us on the cross.
The main component in love is commitment; the main action is self-sacrifice.
Love seeks the highest good of the one loved, namely, that the person would become like Jesus Christ. A husband who loves his wife as Christ loved the church has as his main desire for her that she would be growing into a woman of God.
You say, “Yeah, I’m always telling her she needs to be more godly!” But you don’t accomplish this goal by lecturing your wife. There is only one way to pull it off—by your own godly example. As your wife sees you walking with the Lord, dealing with sin in your own life, and growing in gentleness, patience and kindness as you spend time in the Word and in prayer, she will want the same thing for herself. Of course there are times when you must give a gentle word of correction. But the primary way to nurture godliness in your wife is not by lecture; it’s by your life. You cannot impart to your wife (and kids) what you do not practice.
Which leads me to ask: Are you setting the spiritual example in your home? Do you lead your family in reading the Bible and praying together? Do you pray for your wife and with her about the things she faces each day? Do you establish commitment to the church as a family priority, or does your wife have to nudge you toward church? Seeking your wife’s highest good means seeking her spiritual good. The way you do it is through setting the example of godliness in everyday living.
That’s the positive side of Paul’s command: Loving your wife by being committed to sacrifice yourself to seek her highest good. But he also adds a negative command:
In classical Greek, this word “regularly denotes the bitterness associated with disappointment, hate and anger” (G. T. D. Angel, in The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, ed. by Colin Brown [Zondervan], 1:202). It takes root when you focus on the sins or shortcomings of your wife. Behind it is the disappointment of unmet expectations. It expresses itself by embittered anger, vindictiveness, or being cross or harsh. Obviously, Paul’s command assumes that wives will do things that may embitter their husbands. There are three implications of this negative command:
Bitterness is the response of a leader who feels threatened and tries to lead by force and coercion. When his will is resisted, he turns up the pressure. After telling the wives to submit to their husbands, Paul knew that many men would try to help their wives obey that command by asserting their authority as husbands. But he’s saying, “Harsh authority is wrong for Christian husbands. You lead in the home by loving your wife and being gentle and considerate with her. Being the leader does not give you the right to be harsh and authoritarian and to trample on her feelings.”
I think that there are times when a Christian husband, after thoroughly talking and praying things through with his wife, must say, “I have to answer to God for the direction this family goes. And so I must disagree with you and say, ‘Our family is not going to do that or live that way; we’re going this way.’” In other words, there are times when you must go against the wishes of those under your charge and assert your authority as a leader. But even then you can do it gently and by setting the example of obedience yourself. Unless you have a rebellious wife, those times of asserting authority ought to be very rare.
Bitterness is settled anger which comes from disappointed expectations that are not properly dealt with. When someone you love hurts or disappoints you—and it is inevitable in the close relationship of marriage—if you don’t deal with it, you begin to build up a reservoir of unsettled anger and hurt feelings. The more that reservoir grows, the more you blame your partner for your unhappiness in the marriage. Both partners become increasingly angry with each other. They snap at each other and fight over trivial things. But the real problem is the reservoir of bitterness stemming from disappointed expectations that they’ve never dealt with.
Maybe you wanted a wife who would be a certain way and when you were dating the woman who is now your wife, you thought she was that way. But after you got married, you discovered that she really is not that way. The more you see how she really is and the more you see other women who seem to be the way you wanted her to be, the angrier you get. You’re embittered against your wife because she disappointed your expectations.
The key to overcoming bitterness is to recognize that your wife is not perfect—and neither are you! She probably has a list of disappointed expectations that you didn’t fulfill! So you have to accept and love the wife you have, not the wife you idealistically wish you had. Focus on her positive qualities and thank God for the wife He gave you. Accept her as you want her to accept you (Rom. 15:7).
As a couple, you may need to talk honestly about unfulfilled expectations that you both are dealing with. Some of these may be valid shortcomings that each of you can work on, but some may be personality differences that aren’t going to change even with spiritual growth. That’s where mutual acceptance comes into play. If you don’t face these disappointed expectations and deal with them God’s way, then can turn into angry demands that will drive you apart. All such anger stems from selfishness, which you’ve got to recognize and confess as sin. Then you can talk through hurt feelings and misunderstandings in a climate of love, not accusation.
What often happens is that a wife does something that hurts her husband (it works both ways, but I’m looking at it from how the hurt husband needs to deal with it). Since men often aren’t too good at talking about their feelings and since it wouldn’t be macho to admit how he feels, he lashes out in anger and blames her for what she’s done. They have a nasty argument and she goes off crying while he buries himself in front of the TV. After a while, a calm of sorts returns to the household, and he doesn’t want to disturb it, so he never talks about his hurt feelings.
It’s always easier to let it go and not talk it through. But that’s like not cleaning out a dirty wound because it hurts too much. A scab forms over it, so you let it go. But then it gets infected and then it’s messy and painful to clean it out. The best thing is to clean it out right away, in spite of the pain. Then it can heal properly.
I’m not suggesting that you need to deal with every little slight in your marriage. Often we ought to absorb our hurts and give our disappointments to the Lord without mentioning it to our spouse. But if it’s causing distance, I need to deal with it by confessing my own sin and controlling my anger as I talk it through with my wife. I always need to view my wife as my own body, so that my goal is to nourish and cherish her, not to wound her (Eph. 5:28-29). But I need to take the initiative to deal with emotional hurts.
So not being embittered implies leading by love, not by harsh authority. And it implies controlling your anger and dealing with hurts in a godly way.
Bitterness describes an emotion. Emotions are at the heart of relationships. Intimacy is a feeling of closeness. Bitterness results in a feeling of distance and alienation. If a husband allows himself to be moody and depressed and lets bitterness toward his wife fester, he’s setting a negative emotional climate in his home. A lot of husbands poison their families by being grumpy and depressed and then they get angry when the family reflects it back to them.
But as the spiritual leaders in the home, we need to set a positive climate of faith in the Lord, of thankfulness for His goodness, of joy for His blessings, and of peace because we have His peace in our hearts. Men, if you’re often grumpy, critical, pessimistic and negative, how do you expect your wife and kids to be what they need to be in the Lord? I’ve had to tell myself, “I don’t have the luxury to sulk and be depressed. I’m the spiritual leader in my family, and if I want my wife and kids to be full of joy in the Lord, I’ve got to lead the way by my example.”
This means that when you walk in the door after work, you’re on! Rather than expecting to be served, view your home as your ministry and go in prepared to love and serve your family as their spiritual leader. Determine to set a warm, loving climate of joy in the Lord so that every family member feels like home is the greatest place on earth to be. Men, the responsibility for whether your marriage is growing better or bitter lies with you!
A young man, recently married, came to the well-known Bible teacher, Harry Ironside, and said, “Brother Ironside, I want your help. I’m in an awful state. I’m drifting into idolatry.”
“What’s the trouble?” Dr. Ironside asked.
“Well, I’m afraid that I’m putting my wife on too high a plane; I love her too much and I’m displeasing the Lord.”
Dr. Ironside asked, “Are you indeed? Do you love her more than Christ loved the church?”
“I don’t think I do.”
“Well, that is the limit,” Ironside replied, “for we read, ‘Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.’” (H. A. Ironside, In the Heavenlies [Ephesians] [Loizeaux Brothers], p. 281)
Men, until we reach that limit, we’ve got work to do! Love your wife and don’t be embittered toward her!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
June 5, 2016
As you know, many endangered species around the world face extinction unless there are concerted efforts to save them. In our own area, the California condor and the Mexican gray wolf are the focus of such rescue efforts.
But perhaps the most endangered species on the planet is the Christian home. Homes where the dad and mom are committed to each other in biblical love, where they are rearing their children to know and follow the Lord, are increasingly rare. But rather than a campaign to save this endangered species, the modern world seems bent on making it extinct. Movies, TV, and other media portray the family as any group of people, male or female, who live together. Shows like “Leave it to Beaver” and “Ozzie and Harriet,” which were common when I grew up, are now viewed as quaint museum pieces from the past. Traditional Christian families are an increasingly rare breed!
In our text, Paul shows how to preserve this vital but endangered species. His commands build on the two commands given to wives and husbands just before. The relationship between parents and children is built on a healthy, godly relationship between a husband and wife. If children see modeled before them a husband who sacrificially loves his wife and a wife who submissively respects her husband, they have the proper environment to live out the apostle’s command to them. Paul shows us that …
A Christian home should have obedient children and sensitive, encouraging parents.
The species is so rare that some of you may chuckle as you hear it described: Obedient children? Our culture never emphasizes that! The Duke of Windsor once remarked (cited by Warren Wiersbe, Listening to the Giants Baker], p. 253), “The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children.” The idea of obedient children sounds so abnormal we may question whether it’s healthy! We aim at assertive, confident, expressive children with healthy self-esteem. But obedient children? Won’t that stifle their personality development? But Paul says,
The Greek word for “children” can refer to almost any age group. But by addressing children directly, Paul assumes that they are old enough to understand what he’s saying and that they’re still living at home. As a child matures, there should be increasing freedom to discuss things with the parents in the right spirit. But if there is still disagreement, in obedience to the Lord a child needs to obey his parents. Once a young person is old enough to support himself and be on his own, he is not under his parents’ authority, but he still should respect and honor them. Implicit in the command is that parents are responsible to teach their children from an early age to obey.
But what if the parents are not believers? What if as Christians they are wrong in what they command?
Paul says, “in all things.” He assumes a Christian home, so he doesn’t mention any exceptions. Children need to be careful about claiming an exception, because human nature is such that we’re all prone to disobey and claim that we were obeying the Lord above our parents. But in Christian homes, such exceptions will be rare.
Young people, please note, if you live in obedience to your parents, you’re going to have to be willing to be different than most other kids. Our culture encourages challenging all authority. Parents are portrayed on TV and in movies as dummies who rarely know what’s right for their kids. Other kids will taunt you if you say, “My parents won’t let me do that.” You need to commit to obedience up front, because it’s not always easy to obey the Lord on this matter. But God promises a blessing to all children who obey their parents (Eph. 6:1-3).
By God’s design, parents are always older and more experienced than their children. Mark Twain once said that when he was 17 he was amazed at how stupid his father was, but that when he was 21, he was surprised at how much the old man had learned in four years.
But what if your parents are insensitive and unreasonable? What if you’re a teenager and they treat you like you’re five? What if they’re harsh and overly strict? If so, you’ve got a more difficult situation in which to obey God than if your parents are loving and sensitive. But their shortcomings as parents do not give you the right to disobey them, unless they command something where to obey them would be to disobey God. Even Jesus, the perfect Son of God, submitted to His imperfect earthly parents when He was a child (Luke 2:51).
But here I must talk about an extremely unpleasant subject. But since it occurs even in Christian homes, I must discuss the sin of parents sexually abusing their children. Statistics vary and may not be completely accurate, but I’ve read that as many as one-fourth of girls and one-fifth of boys are sexually abused before age 16, often by a family member. When the abuser is a parent (most often it’s a father with his daughter), the child usually submits and keeps silent out of fear.
Over 30 years ago Christianity Today (2/15/85, pp. 32-34) ran an article that mentioned a woman who had been sexually abused by her father an average of two times a week from the time she was three until she was 13, when her mother found out and the family disintegrated. Her dad was a Boy Scout leader and a choir member, active in a fundamentalist church.
This woman asked all 247 female students at a Christian liberal arts college to respond to a survey. Of the 96 who responded, more than half said they had been abused as children. Even if none of the ones who did not respond were abused, that’s about 20 percent! Almost all of these students had been reared in Christian homes. Of her own experience, this woman says, “I did not like what he was doing. I felt it was wrong, but I feared him. I was taught to honor, trust, and obey my parents….” Her father told her to trust him and assured her that what he was doing was okay.
Let me say emphatically: It is never okay! If you’re a child and an adult is doing things to you that you know are wrong, then God does not want you to keep silent and obey the adult. Tell an adult you trust, such as one of the pastors or youth leaders, and we will get you the help you need. If a parent is doing something to you that displeases God, then you need to do what God wants, not what your parent wants. It’s not okay. It needs to stop immediately and you need to get help for yourself. Obeying your parents “in all things” does not include submitting to immoral, abusive behavior. But with that exception, or if your parents tell you in some other way to disobey God, you should obey them. Why?
Paul says that such obedience is “pleasing in [lit.] the Lord.” This means that if you believe in Jesus as your Savior and Lord, even if it’s hard to obey your parents, you can do it for the Lord and know that He is pleased with you. Even if your parents don’t ever seem pleased with you, the Lord is pleased if you obey them in obedience to Him. This means obeying cheerfully, not grudgingly. It means looking for opportunities to serve your parents by being helpful around the home. It means telling your parents that you’re thankful for them and you appreciate all that they do for you. Yes, this is radically countercultural! But it is pleasing in the Lord.
There’s a common myth, even in Christian circles, that teenage rebellion is normal and even healthy. I’ve had Christian parents tell me, “Yeah, my teenager is rebellious, disrespectful, and disobedient, but they all have to go through that phase.” I disagree! I never rebelled against my parents. I did some stupid, sinful things that I should not have done, but I never did these things in rebellion against them. They loved me, treated me with respect, and gave me a lot of freedom. I remember thinking, “If I come home drunk or if I get a girl pregnant, it would devastate my parents.” I didn’t want to hurt them because I knew that they loved me. At that point, I wasn’t so much focused on pleasing the Lord as I was on not hurting my parents. But the greater motivation should be, “I don’t want to do anything to dishonor or displease the Lord, who gave Himself for me on the cross!”
But Paul doesn’t just address the children. He also speaks directly to the parents, especially to fathers (the Greek word can refer to both parents, but here it’s probably weighted toward fathers, who are responsible to God for the family). In that culture, where fathers had absolute authority and could legally kill their children, you would think that Paul would have said, “Fathers, make sure that your children obey you at all times.” But instead he says …
If you only had one sentence to tell a bunch of new Christians from a pagan culture how to relate to their children, what would you say? Paul says (Col. 3:21), “Fathers, do not exasperate your children, that they may not lose heart.” Maybe he knew that dads tend to be overly harsh and strict, especially Christian dads who want their kids to turn out right.
The word translated “exasperate” means to provoke (ESV, NKJV) or stir up, often to anger or to a fight. The only other time it’s used in the New Testament, Paul uses it positively to tell the Corinthians how their zeal to give had stirred up other Christians to follow their example (2 Cor. 9:2). So it has the idea of motivating someone to action, either positively to good deeds or negatively to anger or discouragement. Fathers can provoke their children to anger, rebellion, or discouragement in many ways:
These are some common ways that parents exasperate or provoke their children so that they become discouraged or disobedient. If any of these errors describe your parenting, ask your children’s forgiveness and make an effort to change. If you glance at the list again, you’ll note that none of these behaviors describe the heavenly Father’s dealings with His children. So I can state in one sentence how you should aim to raise your children:
That sentence sums up everything you will ever need to know about being a godly parent. If we had time, we could work back through the ways you can provoke your children to discouragement and look at their opposites. But I want to explore just four aspects of relating to your children as God relates to you:
To put it another way, God is not a passive father towards us. He takes the initiative to establish and provide for a relationship with us. He has entrusted our children to us for a brief period of time. Especially as fathers, we’re accountable to love them as God loves us and train them in His ways, both by example and precept.
The difficult thing is that for most men, the time when your kids need you the most is the same time that your career is making the greatest demands on your time. To succeed in your career, the company wants you to travel or put in long days at the office. You rationalize by thinking, “I’ll give my kids quality time.” But there’s no such thing as quality time apart from quantity time! Kids interpret an absent father as rejection, even if from your perspective you’re working hard to provide for them.
One of the saddest books you can ever read is, Days of Glory, Seasons of Night [Zondervan], by Marilee Pierce Dunker, the daughter of Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision. He was so dedicated to helping the needy overseas that he virtually abandoned his family. For fifteen years, he was gone on average about ten months out of the year (p. 79). Tragically, he said (p. 103), “I’ve made an agreement with God that I’ll take care of His helpless little lambs overseas if He’ll take care of mine at home.” But one daughter committed suicide. He and his wife eventually divorced. And the daughter who wrote the book went through agonizing emotional struggles before she came to a place of peace in the Lord.
I contend that no matter how impressive your ministry or how successful your career may be, if God gave you children, then it’s your job to spend time being a father to them.
In my opinion, many Christians are out of balance here. Most books on childrearing emphasize discipline. Certainly our kids need consistent discipline. But discipline is only effective if it’s wrapped in love that is felt. My dad used to tell me, “You don’t have the right to discipline your kids if you don’t play with them.” You’ll never spoil a child by giving him too much love, as long as it’s biblical love, which seeks the child’s highest good. This allows for correction when needed. But our main emphasis should not be disciplining our children, but showing them God’s grace and love.
God relates to us primarily with grace and love. When Moses asked God to reveal Himself, the Lord proclaimed (Exod. 34:6), “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.” That description of God is repeated many times throughout the Old Testament. It should be descriptive of every Christian father.
Before you discipline your children, you need to discern whether they’re being defiant or just immature. If a child is defiant, he needs strong enough correction to learn that his defiance will not be tolerated. He should never be allowed to hit you or his mother or to throw a temper tantrum to get his way. But if a three-year-old is just acting immaturely, you try to help him grow up. Three-year-olds don’t act like ten-year-olds. So you give correction in a spirit of love and grace.
Love is primarily a commitment; but liking is primarily a feeling. “Not provoking,” and “not losing heart,” are emotional terms. A sensitive, encouraging father needs to be in tune with his kids’ feelings. They need to feel accepted, to know that they don’t have to earn my approval. With children, especially with young children, feelings are even more important in influencing them than giving them solid biblical content. If a child feels good about his family, there’s a better chance he will follow the Lord when he’s older than if he got excellent instruction from cold, stern parents. I always wanted my kids to know that I liked them and I liked being with them. When they came into my presence, I wanted them to feel that I was glad to see them.
There are many ways to communicate this, but here are three important ways: First, show them that you like them by warm eye contact. If you glare at them, you’re saying, “You’re a bother! I’ve got more important things to do!” But if your eyes say, “It’s good to see you,” they will feel your love.
Second, give them appropriate touch: a hug or a pat on the knee. Wrestle with them playfully on the floor. Tuck them into bed when they’re young with prayer and a kiss.
Third, as I’ve already said, spend time with them. Take them to the store. Do fun things as a family on a day off. Take an annual family vacation together. One thing I did a few times near each child’s birthday was to take that child alone with me on an overnight campout or a special all-day outing. When my middle daughter, Joy, turned 16, she said to me, “Dad, do you remember how you used to take us on a special outing for our birthdays?” I said, “Yes, Joy.” She said, “Do you think that for my birthday we could go down to Sedona, do a short hike, and look at some of the art galleries?” I said, “I’d love to do that!” So we had a memorable father-daughter day together.
The Greek word translated “lose heart” is the opposite of “take courage, be eager.” Each child comes factory-equipped with his own motivational patterns. What gets one excited turns another one off. As a dad, your job is to know each child well enough to motivate him to be all that God wants him to be. One thing is sure to demotivate your child: Make him feel as if he can’t ever please you. He brings home all A’s and one B, and you say, “Try to bring up that B next time.” If you criticize him every time he makes a mistake and withhold praise when he does well, you’re sure to discourage, not motivate him.
The goal toward which I want to motivate my kids is to become all that God wants them to be, not all that I may want them to be. Don’t impose your dreams on your kids, unless your dream is that they follow the Lord all their days. If they follow the Lord, it doesn’t matter what they do for a career.
Of course, we aren’t guaranteed that our children will follow the Lord even if we do everything right. But even if they stray from the Lord, it is our constant love and discipline, reflecting God’s love and discipline, that will bring them back.
The late Joe Bayly was a compassionate, loving servant of God. During the radical days of the 1970’s, one of his sons rebelled against the Lord, quit going to church, and was causing disruption in their home. Painfully, but in love, Bayly had to ask him to leave their home.
Late one night, Bayly got a malicious but untrue call, saying that their son had been picked up by the police. Bayly went to every police station he knew of, trying to find his son. Finally, about 3 a.m. he thought about going by where his son was living to see if he was there. The door was always unlocked. Bayly went in and found his son asleep. He woke him up, told him why he was there, kissed him, told him that he loved him, and left.
That son has been a faithful pastor now for many years. He says that what turned him around was his father’s love, seen both in his tenderness and in the painful decision to discipline his son by asking him to leave their home. In a recent book (Tim Bayly, Daddy Tried, excerpt in a personal email), he wrote, “To this day, Dad’s discipline and love stick in my mind as I carry my responsibilities as a husband, father, and pastor.”
Children, obey your parents. Parents, relate to your children as God relates to you, with sensitivity and encouragement. You’ll help to preserve a vital endangered species—the Christian home.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
June 12, 2016
A master of ceremonies said to the guest of honor at a retirement dinner: “As a token of our appreciation, we have created this special gold watch to serve as a reminder of your many years with us. It needs a lot of winding up, it’s always late, and every day at a quarter to five, it stops working” (Reader’s Digest [6/83]).
Good help is hard to find, isn’t it! Have you ever wondered how a slogan like that ever got started? It must be because good help is hard to find!
Of course, good jobs are hard to find, too. Imagine an ad reading: “Help Wanted: Menial job; no pay except for board and room; no chance for advancement; no benefits; no days off; no vacation; on call 24 hours a day. Once accepted for employment, the management has the legal right to beat or even kill you as it sees fit.” Any takers?
Some of you may be thinking, “I already work there!” But that job description fits the situation of many of those in the church in Colossae to whom Paul wrote. They were slaves, owned by their masters, regarded in the Roman world as a piece of property, not as human beings. They had no rights. In our text Paul shows how Christian slaves and masters should relate to one another.
Interestingly, Paul devotes more space to this topic than he does to the relationships between husbands and wives or parents and children. He probably did this because, along with this letter, he was sending the runaway slave, Onesimus, whom Paul had led to Christ in Rome, back to his master, Philemon. No doubt there were many other slaves in the Colossian church as well. Slaves were considered part of the household, so Paul deals with them in the context of family relationships. He wanted to make sure that no Christian slave mistook Onesimus’ conversion to mean that he could rebel against his master; and, that no Christian master abuse his authority over his slave.
But why didn’t Paul attack the institution of slavery as being evil? Why didn’t he encourage slaves to resist evil masters? Why didn’t he denounce those who called themselves Christians and yet owned slaves?
I can only answer briefly. We need to be careful to approach the issue from the perspective of the first century and not read our own time back into that scene. Slavery was a widespread institution in the Roman world, woven into the very fabric of society. It is estimated that about half of the population in the Roman Empire were slaves. As J. B. Lightfoot observes (Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon [Zondervan], p. 323; I am indebted to his treatment of this subject, pp. 319-329), “To prohibit slavery was to tear society into shreds.” It would have resulted in a bloody slave war, with much loss of human life and a dubious outcome.
At this point in history, Christianity was not a powerful public force. It was an almost unheard of splinter sect off Judaism. If Paul and other early Christian leaders had associated the faith with an antislavery movement, and had that movement been defeated in a bloody slave rebellion, it would have been the death knell for Christianity. Even if such a rebellion had won, it may have created mass social chaos, where suddenly emancipated slaves may not have been able to find work to support themselves.
Paul’s approach was to lay down universal principles which undermined the evils of slavery and eventually led to its demise. Roman slave owners had come to view work as low and degrading. Paul elevates all work, whether manual labor or management, by saying that whatever we do, we should do it heartily as unto the Lord, not for men. He taught the radical principle that in Christ there is “no slave and freeman, but Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:11), thus establishing the personhood and equality of the slave with his master. The slave in Christ is a brother to his master (Philemon 16). Paul didn’t stop by telling slaves to do their work well, but went on to giving masters the countercultural command to treat their slaves with fairness, reminding them that they have a Master in heaven to whom they are accountable.
History has proven Paul’s approach to be wise; these Christian principles have toppled the evil of slavery. Based on his Christian faith, William Wilberforce waged a decades-long battle against slavery until it was officially outlawed in England in the early 19th century. It took our Civil War to get it outlawed in the United States in 1865. But although it is outlawed around the world today, sadly there still are many slaves, such as women and children in the sex industry, even in America. Hopefully through Christian efforts, this evil will be exposed and eradicated, too.
While Paul’s commands are to Christian slaves and masters, they also apply to Christian employees and employers. He’s showing how Christ’s lordship affects relationships in the workplace:
When Christ is Lord of the workplace, employees will work heartily and employers will be just and fair.
Christianity is not just a nice Sunday theory; it applies directly to our work. Whether you’re an employee or an employer, if you will practice what Paul spells out here, you will have many opportunities to bear witness of our Savior.
Paul underscores this point by repeating the word “Lord” five times: “fearing the Lord” (v. 22); “do your work heartily, as for the Lord” (v. 23); “from the Lord you will receive the reward” (v. 24); “it is the Lord Christ whom you serve” (v. 24); “you too have a Master [same Greek word, “Lord”] in heaven” (Col. 4:1).
Clearly, Christ is the Lord of the workplace. Our relationship with Him should transform the way we act on the job, whether as employees or employers. Consider four implications:
Paul tells these slaves, who were often regarded as a piece of property or a disposable tool, “It is the Lord Christ whom you serve” (Col. 3:24). When and where did they serve Him? They probably put in 80-100 hours a week serving their masters. They had no free time as we know it today. They were probably restricted in attending church, much less in serving. So when did they serve “the Lord Christ”? Answer: They served Christ while they were fulfilling their duties on the job as slaves. By their distinctive work habits, and perhaps occasionally by verbal witness, they were Christ’s representatives. Their workplace was their mission field.
Do you remember the story of Naaman, the Syrian general who had leprosy (probably not the same disease as modern leprosy, but a serious skin disorder; 2 Kings 5:1-14)? He had a young Hebrew girl as his slave. She suggested to Naaman’s wife that Elisha the prophet in Israel could cure him. He went to Elisha and, after initial resistance, submitted to the prophet’s simple direction to dip seven times in the Jordan River. He was instantly cured. So even a little slave girl was a missionary for the God of Israel in this influential Syrian household.
Chuck Swindoll (You and Your Child [Thomas Nelson], p. 85) tells about speaking at a family camp where he emphasized the importance of God’s hand in every calling or profession. He encouraged each Christian to realize that his or her vocation is their ministry. At the end of the week, a man came up to share how much the week had meant to him and his family. The director of the camp asked the man what he did for a living. He replied, “What’s my work? I’m an ordained plumber!” Swindoll points out that before Jesus was a teacher of God’s truth, He was an ordained carpenter.
Wherever you work, you have opportunities to be a witness to people that no pastor or missionary has contact with. Many of your co-workers never read the Bible, but they read you every day. Even if they don’t yet know that you’re a Christian, they should be able to see that there’s something different about you. You don’t laugh at the dirty jokes. You don’t join the guys in commenting on the finer points of a woman employee’s anatomy. You don’t join the gripe sessions. You don’t run others down behind their backs. You’re honest and trustworthy. It’s because you view yourself as a missionary and your job as your mission field. Pray for opportunities, whether through your work habits or your verbal witness (not on company time!), to tell your fellow workers about the Savior.
Paul instructs these slaves (Col. 3:22) to do their work “not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.” For emphasis, he repeats (Col. 3:23), “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.” They were not just to put on a good show when the master was around, while grumbling with the other slaves the rest of the time about how insensitive he was. They were not to impress their masters while they were looking, and then goof off when the masters were out of sight. Rather, they should enthrone Christ as the Lord of their hearts. That reality would manifest itself in their work.
True Christianity is a matter of our hearts before God. It’s not pasting Christian virtues on an unchanged heart. Rather, it’s practicing Christian virtues because God has changed your heart. As Paul instructs Titus (2:9-10) regarding Christian slaves: “Urge bondslaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.” If God is truly our Savior, our behavior on the job will change from the heart.
Christ is the “big boss” over every earthly boss. So while your earthly boss is your immediate supervisor, even if he owns the company, he isn’t the ultimate supervisor. Christ is.
One of my seminary professors, Dr. Howard Hendricks, told of being on a flight where an obnoxious man was raising a stink about every minor grievance he could think of. Even though most people would have told the guy where the exit door was, each time the stewardess responded with kindness and grace. After watching this for some time, Hendricks called her over and complimented her on her good attitude with this difficult man. He asked for her name so that he could commend her to the president of the airline. He was taken aback when the stewardess responded, “Thank you, sir, but I don’t work for American Airlines.” She looked like she worked for American Airlines. She had on their uniform and nametag. “You don’t?” Hendricks sputtered. “No,” she explained, “I work for Jesus Christ. American Airlines just pays the freight.” Wherever you work, if you see that you work primarily for Jesus Christ, the job takes on new dignity and meaning as you see yourself serving Him.
Paul says (Col. 3:24), “… knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance.” He’s referring to the rewards which the Lord is storing up in heaven for those who are faithful to Him (1 Cor. 3:14; 2 Cor. 5:10; 2 Tim. 4:8). For a society where slaves had no legal or property rights, this was a radical concept! Even though they were disenfranchised on earth, they could know that the Lord would reward them richly in eternity.
Scholars debate about the application of verse 25: “For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.” Is he warning the slaves, the masters, or both? There may be a warning for both sides here. But in the context, Paul is encouraging slaves who were mistreated to do what was right in spite of it. It seems more natural to take this verse in the sense of, “Don’t worry about those who mistreat you and seem to escape any consequences. The Lord will repay them someday, and He won’t be partial just because they’re important in the eyes of men.” He’s saying that we need to focus primarily on the eternal perspective, not on this world.
Some critics would dismiss this as “pie in the sky when you die.” They would say, “How cruel! Tell slaves, ‘Endure harsh, unfair treatment now, and someday you’ll be rewarded!’” But the Bible clearly teaches that we may suffer for the sake of righteousness in this world, but God will right all wrongs in heaven. We’ve got to “put all our eggs in the heaven basket”! Otherwise the suffering of the martyrs and their families makes no sense at all.
Years ago, I was preaching through 1 Corinthians when I was hit by 15:19, where Paul says, “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.” I thought, “That’s not true in my experience or in the experience of most American Christians.” We’re into having our best life now. We want to know how being a Christian can give us happy homes, successful careers, and help with all our problems now. Heaven? That will probably be a nice bonus, but it’s not central.
Why don’t we emphasize heaven? Because we’re not being persecuted for the sake of the gospel. If like some of our brothers in Syria, Muslim extremists had taken my daughters as sex slaves, killed my son, and confiscated my property and all my belongings, heaven would not just be nice; it would be absolutely necessary in order to make sense out of this life.
Are you in a dead end job? Is your boss unfair? Does he mistreat you? There’s nothing wrong with trying to better your situation by getting a better job (1 Cor. 7:21). But in the meanwhile, be the best employee that you can be as a witness to your boss and to your fellow workers. Your reward awaits you in heaven. Thus …
What does it mean to “work heartily” (lit., “from the soul”)?
You may be thinking, “Obeying? But I’m not a slave! Do I have to obey my boss?” I read about a company that has lunchtime seminars for employees on different topics. A memo promoting the next session read, “Lunch and Learn Seminar: Who’s controlling your life? (Get your manager’s approval before attending.)” (Reader’s Digest [9/98], p. 24.)
Of course, Paul does not mean that you should obey your boss if he asks you to lie for him or to falsify records to cover up an illegal operation. If he does that, you should tactfully explain why as a Christian you can’t be dishonest. You may lose your job, but you will keep a good conscience. But apart from doing things that displease the Lord, you should obey your employer.
Paul says that our work should not be with “eye-service” (lit.), “as those who merely please men.” In other words, a Christian employee should not just work to impress the boss or work when the boss is looking. God is always looking, so do your best, even if it never shows to men.
A cartoon showed a perfectly straight Tower of Pisa. The builder, standing in front of it, remarks to a friend, “I skimped a little on the foundation, but no one will ever know it.” (Reader’s Digest [4/85])
“Sincerity of heart” means singleness of purpose, undivided service. It refers to a worker who concentrates on his work because his heart is in it. As I said, the word “heartily” means “from the soul,” and points to inner motivation. It would have been easy for slaves to gripe about their working conditions and about the unfair treatment they received from their masters. But if they did their work “heartily, as for the Lord, rather than for men,” they would have a positive, cheerful spirit that would radiate the difference Christ makes in a life.
In Philippians 2:14-15, Paul says, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.” Having a positive attitude on the job, free from grumbling or complaining, will make you stand out as a light in this dark world.
Before I leave the subject of Christian workers, I would urge you to think through biblically whether or not as a Christian you can belong to a trade union. It’s a controversial topic, but one you need to grapple with. There are sincere Christians on both sides, so I think we should not judge those who may disagree, but rather let each person have his own conviction before God (Rom. 14:22). I offer some questions to help you wrestle with this practical matter:
By joining the union, can I maintain a cooperative relationship with the management? Unions, by their very nature, tend to be adversarial towards management. Can you join the union and still obey your employer and have a good working relationship with him?
Can I join the union and still maintain my accountability toward God? Am I being wrongfully yoked with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14)? Are the union’s values so out of sync with godly values that I compromise by joining it? For example, what if part of your union dues goes toward supporting groups that promote abortion or the LBGT agenda?
Is the motivation for collective bargaining greed or basic fair treatment? It is legitimate to lobby an employer for safe working conditions and fair pay. But it would be wrong to go on strike if your wages, benefits, and working conditions are fair and reasonable.
You can probably come up with more questions. But it’s an issue you need to wrestle with as a conscientious Christian employee. But Paul doesn’t just address the slaves. He also says,
Colossians 4:1, “Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven.” Justice gives what is legally due; fairness doesn't necessarily abide by some written law, but it grants what reasonable minds would agree upon as proper treatment. The Golden Rule is fair—employers should treat their employees as they would want to be treated if they were in their place.
The Christian employer should remember that he too is a person under authority. He must stand before God and give an account of how he handled the responsibility given to him as the boss of others on the job. Was he arrogant or humble? Did he abuse his authority for his own advancement or was he careful only to use it to give good leadership to the company? Did he listen compassionately to the needs of his employees or did he put the goal of making money ruthlessly above people? Did he set an example of integrity or did he compromise and then try to cover up? Has he been honest with customers and employees, or is he deceptive? Every Christian employer or manager needs to remember that he has a Lord in heaven to whom he must give account.
Whether you’re a Christian employee or employer, making Christ the Lord of your workplace is at the heart of your witness for Christ. In Robert Bolt’s play, A Man for All Seasons, Sir Thomas More, who eventually was executed because he would not consent to King Henry VIII’s divorce, urges a restless underling to become a fine teacher. “If I was, who would know it?” asks the ambitious young man. More replies, “You; your pupils; your friends; God. Not a bad public, that.” (In Reader’s Digest [12/83])
Who will know if you are a conscientious, hard-working employee or a sensitive, fair employer? You, those you work with, those you live with, God. Not a bad audience, that! Take Christ to work with you. He deserves to be the Lord of your workplace.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
June 19, 2016
If you saw the title of today’s message in advance and showed up anyway, I commend you for your courage, because our text deals with two subjects that probably cause more guilt among believers than any other, namely, prayer and witnessing. If you feel like a failure in your prayer life and in personal evangelism, welcome to the club! I think I’m the club president!
But my aim today is not to add to your guilt. While God used my guilt over my failure at witnessing to motivate me to get some training on how to do it better (see my message, “Wise Witnessing,” 5/30/10), generally I find guilt to be a lousy motivator. My aim today is to give some practical help from our text on how to pray more faithfully and to bear witness more effectively. The connection between these two areas is that a private life of prayer is the foundation for a public life of effective witness.
In private, devote yourself to prayer; in public, be a godly witness for Jesus Christ.
In private, we are to be persistent in watchful, thankful prayer. In public, we are to be wise in our conduct and winsome in our words so that we might be effective witnesses of Christ.
Col. 4:2-4: “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.” First, Paul tells us how to pray; then he tells us what to pray for.
The Greek verb that is translated “Devote yourselves” is often used in connection with prayer. Acts 1:14 says of the early disciples before Pentecost, “These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer….” After the Day of Pentecost, we read of the early church (Acts 2:42), “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Later, rather than getting distracted by waiting on tables, the apostles declared (Acts 6:4), “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” In Romans 12:12, Paul says that we should be, “rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, [and] devoted to prayer.” And in Ephesians 6:18, Paul uses the noun when he commands us to pray “with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.”
Paul cites his own example of persistent prayer in Colossians 1:3, where he says that we are “praying always for you.” He adds (Col. 1:9), “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Referring to his prayers for them, he adds (Col. 2:1), “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf ….” And he mentions (Col. 4:12) that Epaphras was “always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers.” In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Paul gives the brief command, “Pray without ceasing.” “Without ceasing” does not mean praying nonstop every minute of the day, which would be impossible. Rather, it means coming back to prayer again and again. It was used of a nagging cough, which a person does over and over again (James Moulton & George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament [Eerdmans], p. 9).
Jesus taught persistent prayer in two humorous parables. In the first (Luke 11:5-8), a guy and his family are in bed at midnight when his friend starts banging on the door, asking to borrow some bread for a visiting guest. The guy in bed tells him to go away, but the guy won’t quit knocking. So finally, he gets up and gives him what he’s asking for. In the second parable (Luke 18:1-8), a widow bugs an unwilling judge to give her legal protection from her opponents. At first he resists, but finally, because of her perseverance, he relents and grants her request. The point of both parables is not that God is unwilling or unconcerned about our needs, but rather that we should persist in asking until He grants our requests.
With regard to prayer for family or friends who are lost, is there a point where we should quit praying? Well, probably not until the person is dead. George Muller began to pray daily for the salvation of five individuals in November, 1844. After 18 months, the first man was converted. After five more years, the second man got saved. After six more years, the third man came to saving faith. At the time Muller mentioned this in a sermon, he had been praying daily for the salvation of the other two men for 36 years! Just before Muller died in 1897, 53 years after he had started praying, one of the last two men got saved. The fifth man was saved a few years after Muller’s death (see Roger Steer, George Muller: Delighted in God [Harold Shaw Publishers], p. 267). While I don’t come near to Muller’s faithfulness in prayer, he is an encouragement to persist.
“Keeping alert” may also be translated, “staying watchful.” It’s often used in the context of mentioning our adversary, the devil. After urging us to cast all our anxieties on the Lord, because He cares for us, Peter exhorts (1 Pet. 5:8): “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Jesus tells us to be on the alert regarding His second coming (Matt. 24:42; 25:13). In the Garden, just before His arrest, He told the disciples (Matt. 26:41), “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
If we knew that a dangerous lion had escaped in our city Sunday morning and the authorities had last seen it near South Beaver Street, we’d all be very watchful as we left church to head toward our cars! Well, a dangerous lion is on the loose in Flagstaff, not just on Sunday mornings, but all the time! Prayer is how we stay on the alert against this unseen, but frightening enemy (Eph. 6:10-18).
To pray thankfully is to pray in faith, especially when our circumstances often do not seem to be in our favor. Perhaps you’ve lost your job and have a pile of bills due. Maybe your teenager is rebelling and running with the wrong crowd. Your doctor has just diagnosed you with a serious illness. Whatever the overwhelming trial, it takes faith to pray, “Lord, thank you for this trial, because I know that it’s not too difficult for You. I know that You are for me and You intend to work it together for my good. You will use it to strengthen my faith. So I ask You to answer for Your glory and Your name’s sake.” So we’re to pray persistently, watchfully, and thankfully.
Paul goes on to ask for prayer for himself. If you were in prison unjustly for the sake of the gospel and sent out a prayer letter, it would probably include first, “Pray that I’ll get out of here soon!” But Paul, in effect, prays, “Your kingdom come….” He says (Col. 4:3-4), “praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.”
John Piper points out that one of our major problems with prayer is that we have made it a domestic intercom to call for refreshments from the butler rather than a wartime walkie-talkie to call in support for the troops (“Walk in Wisdom Toward Those Outside,” on desiringGod.org). He puts it like this:
Here’s one way to picture what is going on here. Paul and Timothy (1:1) and Aristarchus (4:10) and Epaphras (4:12) are a unique team of storm troopers in the spiritual battle to recapture the hearts of men for God. They have made a strike at the enemy lines and met a tremendous counterforce. Paul and Aristarchus are prisoners of war. And it looks as though the enemy has a tactical victory in his pocket.
But Paul manages to smuggle a letter out of the prison camp to some fellow soldiers stationed to the rear—that’s the Colossians. In the letter he asks them to get on their walkie-talkie, call command headquarters, and ask headquarters to fire a missile that will blast open a door in the prison wall and in the enemy’s front line so that Paul and his squad can get on with their mission to release people from the power of Satan and bring them to God.
Praying for God’s kingdom to expand involves praying for the workers, for open doors, and for gospel clarity.
This includes those on the front lines, who are engaged full time in spreading the gospel. But it also includes all believers, that we all would keep our focus on lost souls and not get distracted with all of the worldly stuff that clouds our eternal perspective. Get a church directory and pray for each person to be effective as a witness in his circle of friends If you’re not on our church email prayer list, ask to be added to it. Whether it’s a need with our brothers and sisters in Nepal or those here in Flagstaff, you can stop and pray when you get those emails.
Even someone as gifted as Paul could not open his own doors for the gospel. He didn’t rely on clever methods or salesmanship techniques to get an opening. Rather, he relied on God to open the doors (Acts 14:27; 16:14; 1 Cor. 16:9; 2 Cor. 2:12). God must open the door for witness (Rev. 3:8), but then we need to walk through it. When God opens the door and we share the gospel, it is powerful to save souls and transform hearts (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 2:1-5; Col. 1:6; 1 Thess. 2:13). So pray for yourself and for others in this church that God would open doors for the gospel.
This is Paul, the apostle who wrote 13 New Testament letters, including Romans, asking for prayer that he would be clear in presenting the gospel! He refers to it as “the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned.” He does not mean that the gospel is mysterious or difficult to understand. Rather, “mystery” refers to a truth that was previously unknown, but now has been revealed. It can’t be known by human wisdom, but only by God’s Spirit. It especially referred to the truth that salvation, which had previously been revealed only to the Jews, was now available to the Gentiles, who now can enjoy right standing and equal access to God through faith in Christ (Col. 1:26-27; Eph. 2:11-3:7).
The gospel (good news) starts with bad news: Our sins have alienated us from God. Because He is holy and just, God cannot just brush away our sins. The penalty must be paid. God has declared that the penalty for our sins is death, eternal separation from Him. No amount of good works can pay that penalty. But what we cannot do, God did. In love, He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully man. He lived in perfect obedience to the Father. His death on the cross was substitutionary. He paid the debt that sinners deserve. God raised Jesus from the dead and now offers a full pardon and eternal life to every sinner who will turn from his sins and trust in the risen Christ alone to save him (Rom. 3:23; 6:23; Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 4:4-5; John 3:16).
Praying for God’s kingdom to expand through the gospel does not mean that we cannot pray for personal needs. Jesus instructed us to pray for our daily bread, for forgiveness of our sins, and for personal holiness (Matt. 6:11-13). But before we bring these needs to God in prayer, we should pray (Matt. 6:10), “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
I encourage you to pray persistently, watchfully, and thankfully for Christian workers, for open doors for the gospel, and for clarity in presenting the gospel. Private prayer is the foundation for public witness. To put it another way, talk to God about people before you talk to people about God. But then, talk to people!
There are two parts to this: your walk and your words.
Col. 4:5: “Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.” “Conduct yourselves” is literally, “Walk,” a favorite metaphor of Paul. In Colossians 1:9-10 he prayed, “…that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” In Colossians 2:6, he commanded, “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” (See, also, Eph. 2:2, 10; 4:1, 17; 5:2, 8, 15.)
To walk with wisdom towards outsiders means to base your daily life on the wisdom found in God’s Word. In the Old Testament, “wisdom” comes from the word for “skill.” Just as a carpenter has the skill to take rough materials and craft a beautiful piece of furniture, spiritual wisdom is the skill to build a beautiful, godly life. Proverbs 9:10 states, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” In Col. 2:3, Paul says that in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” He also has exhorted (Col. 3:16), “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” So wisdom comes from fearing the Lord, knowing Christ, and letting His word richly dwell within you.
To walk with wisdom toward outsiders means that we are to live in line with God’s Word so that those who are not Christians will see the beauty of Christ in our lives and relationships. That gives us a platform to tell them the good news that changed our lives. A godly walk is the foundation for effective witness.
Also, part of your godly walk is “making the most of the opportunity.” When God opens the door, walk through it. The Greek word means to buy up or grab the opportunity. Some of you ladies have gone to a sale. You know what you’re looking for. When you see it on the sale table and it’s a steal, you grab it. Or, a businessman is looking for a good investment opportunity. The minute he sees it, he takes it before it’s gone.
In John 4, there is a contrast between Jesus and the disciples with regard to the woman at the well. Jesus saw her as a lost soul who needed the living water that He alone could give her. And He had a harvest mindset: He saw the fields as white unto spiritual harvest (John 4:35). But the disciples were focused on getting Jesus to eat His lunch so that they could get on with their journey (John 4:31, 33). So Jesus made the most of the opportunity which the disciples totally missed.
The foundation for buying up opportunities for witness is prayer for God to open doors for the word. Pray for God to give you gospel opportunities with people you have frequent contact with. The second He opens the door, you’re ready to go through it.
Col. 4:6: “Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.” Here Paul tells us, “Be gracious; be interesting; and, be sensitive.”
In light of Paul’s repeated emphasis on grace (Col. 1:2, 6; 3:16 [“thankfulness” = “grace” in Greek]; 4:18), this probably means that our presentation of the gospel should be permeated with God’s grace, the message that He gives salvation as a free gift to sinners who deserve His judgment. Since most people think that we earn salvation by our good works, it’s really important to make sure that they understand that salvation is by grace alone apart from any works (Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 4:4-5).
But, also, letting your speech always be with grace includes speaking graciously to others. As a sinner who has received grace, you don’t speak in a condescending or condemning manner to another sinner. You are kind and humble, letting the other person know that we’re all sinners who would be on the way to hell, were it not for God’s grace. Sharing the gospel is like one beggar telling another beggar where to get free bread.
When Paul says to let your speech be “seasoned with salt,” he doesn’t mean to use “salty” language, as sailors use, of course! Salt had two main uses in Paul’s day. It was used as a preservative from spoilage, which implies that our speech should be pure and free from corruption. It should show those whose lives are spoiled due to sin how they can be restored through the gospel. But, also, salt was used as a spice, to make food tastier. Our presentation of the gospel should stimulate people’s taste to want more. Learn some helpful illustrations to help explain the gospel. To explain what it means to believe in Jesus, you can talk about the difference between believing that a plane will fly and actually getting on board. To believe the gospel is to entrust your eternal destiny completely to Jesus and His death on the cross for your sins. He doesn’t need your help “flying the plane.” You just need to get on board!
Paul says that you must “know how you should respond to each person.” This is where you must be careful about using a memorized presentation of the gospel. Such presentations are helpful to give you a general plan, but you need to tailor it to each person. One person may need to understand sin and judgment, but the next person may need to hear about God’s abundant grace for sinners who repent. Study Jesus’ witnessing encounters in the gospels. He never used the same approach twice. He dealt with each person individually. He confronted the proud Pharisees, but was gentle (although He still dealt with sin) with those who knew they were guilty. Pray for wisdom as you speak, so that you will know how to respond to this person’s unique needs.
Years ago, the China Inland Mission discovered that the number and spiritual strength of the converts at one station far exceeded anyone’s expectations and could not be accounted for by anything exceptional about the missionary personnel there. The mystery remained unsolved until Hudson Taylor visited England. There, at the close of Taylor’s message, a man from the audience stepped forward to greet him. In the ensuing conversation, Taylor learned that the man had detailed knowledge of this station.
“How is it,” asked Taylor, “that you are so conversant with the conditions of that work?” “Oh,” he replied, “for four years I have corresponded with my missionary friend there. He has sent me the names of inquirers and converts, and I have daily taken these names to God in prayer.” Taylor realized the answer to the puzzle: the daily, specific, prevailing prayer of this man had brought eternal fruit for God’s glory.
God wants us to prevail in prayer with Him concerning His plan of salvation for all people, both here and abroad. In private, devote yourself to prayer. Pray persistently, watchfully, and thankfully. Pray for the workers, for open doors for the gospel, and for clarity in presenting the gospel. In public, your godly walk is the basis for your effective witness. Winsome words that are gracious, interesting, and sensitive are the means for effective witness. I hope you’re encouraged to pray for revival and to be a part of it through godly witness.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
June 26, 2016
A major source of frustration for pastors is what is called the 80-20 rule: Twenty percent of people in the church do 80 percent of the work, while the 80 percent attend church, enjoy the service, and leave without ever getting involved.
Can you imagine what it would be like if 80 percent of your body were paralyzed? Quadriplegics can function and have productive and meaningful lives, but they’re limited in what they can do. Churches can limp along with only 20 percent of the body functioning, but they could do much more if every member was fully engaged in serving the Lord in line with his or her spiritual gifts.
Our text is one that you tend to skim over in your Bible reading. It’s a bunch of names of people who don’t mean much to us. You may wonder why God inspired these verses to be in His Word. But, actually, there is so much here that I couldn’t fit it all into a single message! The main idea is:
Christians are on a team devoted to serve Christ.
Even though the apostle Paul was one of the most gifted men in the history of the church, he was not a one-man-show. Surrounding him was a team of faithful people devoted to serving Jesus Christ. In Colossians 4:7-18, we see the team and learn a lot about how God wants His church to function. It’s striking that in this short letter, where Paul devotes only one verse to lust and greed, one to anger, one to wives, one to husbands, and one to fathers, he spends the final 12 verses mentioning various people with him and in Colossae. Clearly, Paul wasn’t the only guy doing ministry! He was part of a team. We learn seven things about this team and its ministry (but I can only cover six in this message).
While Paul may have been like a player-coach, he wasn’t the only player on the team. Let’s look at the team roster:
Tychicus: Paul calls him (Col. 4:7) “our beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow bond-servant.” He was a Gentile from Asia Minor (Acts 20:4) who had traveled with Paul at the close of his third missionary journey. He was obviously trustworthy, since Paul sent the letters of Ephesians, Colossians, and probably Philemon back to Asia with him. He may have been sent to relieve Titus in Crete so that Titus could join Paul for a while (Titus 3:12). Later, as Paul faced the end of his life in prison in Rome, he sent Tychicus to Ephesus again, where he took over Timothy’s pastoral duties so that Timothy could leave to join Paul (2 Tim. 4:12, 21).
Onesimus: He accompanied Tychicus on this trip. He was a runaway slave whom Paul led to Christ during his house arrest in Rome. Paul was now sending him back to his master, Philemon. But he doesn’t mention that fact in this public letter to the church. If it hadn’t been for the private correspondence to Philemon, which later became public, we wouldn’t know that Onesimus was a slave, let alone a runaway. Paul calls him (Col. 4:9), “our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of your number.”
Aristarchus: Paul calls him (Col. 4:10), “my fellow prisoner.” In Philemon (23, 24, written about the same time), Paul calls him a fellow worker and calls Epaphras (Col. 4:12) his fellow prisoner. It may be that the two men traded off living in the same quarters with Paul. Or, perhaps they were arrested for their own preaching activities. He had been grabbed by the angry mob in Ephesus and dragged into the arena during the riot there (Acts 19:29).
Aristarchus was a Jewish believer (Col. 4:11) from Thessalonica who traveled with Paul when he took the financial gift to the needy saints in Jerusalem (Acts 20:4). He at least began the journey with Paul from Caesarea to Rome (Acts 27:2), so he may have gone through the shipwreck with Paul. Tradition says that he was martyred under Nero in Rome (D. E. Hiebert, The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible [Zondervan], ed. by Merrill C. Tenney, 1:302).
Mark: We learn here (Col. 4:10) that he was a cousin of Barnabas. It’s surprising, but encouraging, to see him on Paul’s team. You’ll recall that Mark had deserted Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:13). When Barnabas insisted on giving Mark another chance on the second journey, it led to a split between him and Paul, who was sharply opposed to taking a deserter with them (Acts 15:36-41). But here, twelve years later, Paul tells the Colossians to welcome Mark without reservation.
Jesus, called Justus: Colossians 4:11 is all we know about him. He was a Jew whom Paul calls, “a fellow worker for the kingdom of God.” Along with the other two Jews, Mark and Aristarchus, Paul says that Jesus Justus had been an encouragement to him.
Epaphras: We’ve already met him (Col. 1:7-8). He was probably converted and discipled during Paul’s extended stay in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-10). He then returned to his home town of Colossae and planted the church there, as well as in the neighboring Laodicea and Hierapolis. When problems with false teachers arose, Epaphras went to Rome to get counsel from Paul, who calls him (Col. 4:12), “a bondslave of Jesus Christ,” and commends him for his prayers and concern for these three churches.
Luke: “The beloved physician”: it is only here that we learn that Luke was a doctor. We can deduce that he was a Gentile, since Aristarchus, Mark, and Jesus Justus were the only team members “from the circumcision” (although some scholars argue that the phrase is not identical with “Jewish”). Luke was the only Gentile author in the New Testament, writing almost one-fourth of it (Douglas Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and Philemon [Eerdmans/Apollos], p. 347). He accompanied Paul on some of his missionary journeys, including his shipwreck on the way to Rome. He was the only worker with Paul near the end of his second imprisonment as he faced execution (2 Tim. 4:11).
Demas: It is striking that Paul says nothing to commend him, in contrast with the others. In Philemon (24), written just before Colossians, Paul calls him a fellow worker. Here he says nothing. In 2 Timothy 4:10, he reports sadly, “Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” Perhaps Paul sensed the seeds of Demas’s disloyalty already. So Demas warns us of the possibility of defection, while Mark encourages us with the hope of restoration for those who have failed.
In addition to the team with Paul in Rome, there are the teams in Colossae and Laodicea. There is Nympha (probably feminine [Moo, p. 349]; some manuscripts have the masculine), who hosted the church in her home. Archippus was probably the son of Philemon (2). He may have been pastoring the church in Colossae during Epaphras’ absence. Paul gently exhorts him to do his ministry.
Looking at this roster, it’s certain that Paul wasn’t the only worker. It was a team effort! That’s the way that it must be. God has gifted every member of the body of Christ and expects us to use our gifts to serve Him (Rom. 12:3; 1 Cor. 12:7; Eph. 4:7; 1 Pet. 4:10). Benchwarmer is not one of the gifts! So figure out how God wants you to serve Him and get on the playing field!
In our text, Paul mentions three men, Aristarchus, Mark, and Jesus Justus, who were his only fellow workers “from the circumcision,” obviously, Jews. Presumably, the rest that he names were Gentiles. The racial divide between these groups in the first century was radical, but in Christ, it was erased. He mentions men from opposite ends of the professional spectrum: Luke, the physician, and Onesimus, the slave. Paul instructs the church to have his letter read to the entire congregation (Col. 4:16). Probably some in Colossae were not able to read, but they were on the team. So it was a diverse team that included Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, and educated and uneducated.
We saw this in Colossians 3:11, where Paul says that in the one new man (the church), “there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.” Part of the glory of the church is that it is made up of these different types of people, who in the world would often would be opposed to one another. But because of the gospel, we’re all one in Christ.
In The Compelling Community [Crossway], Mark Dever and Jamie Dunlop argue that churches often create impediments to displaying our gospel-centered diversity by grouping people based on natural similarities. We organize age-graded Sunday school classes, small groups based on shared stages in life (singles, young marrieds, mothers of young children, seniors, etc.), men’s and women’s groups, etc. We design services for those who prefer traditional music and those who like contemporary music. But the danger of this approach, they argue, is “that it obscures the supernatural diversity that the gospel produces” (p. 79). They’re not saying that all such groups are wrong. Rather, they’re arguing that there should be relationships “where you’re only friends because you’re Christians, without any worldly explanation” (ibid.).
I encourage you to befriend people who come to this church toward whom you would not naturally gravitate. Have them over for dinner. Share your stories of how you came to know Christ. On Sundays, deliberately look for people who are “not your type,” and welcome them. In heaven, you will be with people (Rev. 7:9) “from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues.” You may as well get to know them now! We’re all on the same team!
Paul the once-zealous Jew calls the Gentile Tychicus, “our beloved brother” (Col. 4:7). He calls the converted slave, Onesimus (Col. 4:9), a “beloved brother.” In verse 15, he asks the Colossian believers to “greet the brethren who are in Laodicea.” These terms show us that the church is the family of God. This is reinforced in the New Testament by the truth that we who believe in Christ are born again by the Spirit of God (John 3:5; 1 Pet. 1:3). The Bible also says that we are adopted into God’s family (Rom. 8:15). So we are brothers and sisters to one another in the Lord.
Today, we tend to think of the church as a building: “I go to church at 123 S. Beaver Street.” Or you’ll hear, “Kids, don’t run in the church! This is God’s house!” But no building is God’s house. The people who meet in the building are His temple. He doesn’t dwell in buildings, but in His people. The early church met in homes, not in church buildings. Paul refers (Col. 4:15) to “Nympha and the church that is in her house.” Philemon also hosted a church in his house in Colossae (Philemon 2; cf., also, Rom. 16:5, 23; 1 Cor. 16:19). Churches did not own buildings to meet in until the middle of the third century (Peter O’Brien, Word Biblical Commentary: Colossians-Philemon [Zondervan], p. 256).
This is not to argue that we should go back to meeting exclusively in homes, which has both pros and cons. But it is to say that we need to view the church as people and the people in a local church as our brothers and sisters. While we should take care of the facilities that God has given us to meet in, the buildings aren’t the church. Born again people are the church family.
Paul refers to Tychicus (Col. 4:7) as a “faithful servant and fellow bond-servant in the Lord.” “Bond-servant” would better be translated “bond-slave.” Aristarchus, Mark, and Jesus Justus are (Col. 4:11), “fellow workers for the kingdom of God.” Epaphras was (Col. 4:12), “a bondslave of Jesus Christ.” Archippus (Col. 4:17) did not choose the ministry as a career. Rather, he received his ministry in the Lord. He was drafted!
None of these workers were serving Paul. They, along with him, were all servants and slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. What Paul wrote to the Colossian slaves is true of every person who knows Christ and serves Him (Col. 3:24): “It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.” That sounds basic, and yet it’s overlooked by so many! If you serve in any capacity in this church, you shouldn’t be doing it to serve me or anyone on staff. You shouldn’t do it to serve this church. You should do it to serve Christ! You should receive your ministry from Him and render your service as unto Him. He bought you with His blood, so you serve Him as your Master.
“Servant” and “slave” are both used to describe believers (Col. 4:7). In his book, Slave [Thomas Nelson], John MacArthur argues (pp. 15-16) that most Bible translations have mistranslated the Greek word for “slave,” softening it to “servant.” But there’s a difference. Servants were hired hands. They had some freedom to choose who they worked for. But slaves were owned. They didn’t choose their masters; their masters chose them. They had no rights. They couldn’t quit and find other work if they didn’t like the working conditions. MacArthur sums up (p. 22, italics his): “… to be a Christian is to be Christ’s slave.” He owns us; we work for Him.
So, the team is not a one-man-show, but a group effort. It consists of men and women from different racial and socio-economic backgrounds. The team is the family of God. And every member of the team is a servant/slave of Jesus Christ.
Paul mentions (Col. 4:12) how Epaphras was “always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.” “Perfect” means “mature” or “complete.” It’s the same word Paul used in Colossians 1:28, where he says that he proclaimed Christ so that he might “present every man complete in Christ.” “The will of God” (Col. 4:12) does not refer to discovering divine direction, such as, “What career should I pursue?” Rather, it refers to how God wants us to live as revealed in His Word. Paul prayed the same thing (Col. 1:9), “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” God’s will for us is revealed in His Word.
Paul proclaimed Christ by preaching and teaching God’s Word, our only source for knowing Christ (John 5:39; Luke 24:27, 44). He also emphasized the Word in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another ….” The importance of God’s Word is also implied when Paul tells the Colossians to read this letter among them and have it also read in the church of Laodicea, as well as to read his letter that was coming from Laodicea. Paul viewed his own letters as divinely inspired Scripture (1 Cor. 7:12, 40; cf. 2 Pet. 3:15-16).
The letter to Laodicea could have been Ephesians, which some scholars think was a circular letter to several churches in that area (J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon [Zondervan], pp. 244, 274-300). Or, it may have been a letter now lost, which the Holy Spirit did not choose to include in the New Testament canon. There is at least one other lost letter, which Paul wrote to the Corinthians before he wrote 1 Corinthians (1 Cor. 5:9). But the point is, whatever ministry we do for the Lord must be focused on His Word. It is our only source for knowing Him and knowing how to please Him.
Coupled with God’s Word is the importance of prayer. Paul prayed often for the Colossians (1:3, 9), but here (Col. 4:12-13) he commends Epaphras for his prayers. Although the English text doesn’t reveal it, the Greek words Paul uses to describe Epaphras’ prayer life are military terms. “Laboring earnestly” is the verb agonidzo, (we get “agony” from it), which meant to wrestle in hand-to-hand combat. The word translated “deep concern” was used for the pain of struggling in battle. It emphasizes the effort involved. Both words show that serving the Lord is not a Sunday school picnic. We’re engaged in combat with the unseen forces of darkness who are intent on destroying the Lord’s work and His people (Eph. 6:10-20; 1 Pet. 5:8).
What does Epaphras’ prayer mean, that the Colossians would stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God? What does Christian maturity look like? Maturity includes being wise and discerning. Mature people are spiritually and emotionally stable, marked by the fruit of the Spirit. But there is especially one aspect of the fruit of the Spirit which runs as a thread through these verses: faithfulness. A mature Christian is a faithful servant of Jesus Christ. Paul mentions it specifically of Tychicus and Onesimus (Col. 4:7, 9). It is implied of Aristarchus, Mark, Jesus Justus, Epaphras, and Luke. The Lord wants us to be faithful servants.
As a pastor, I especially need to remind myself of this. We live in a day when success is defined in terms of fame and numbers. I constantly hear about superstar pastors who speak all over the world, telling how they built their church from zero to 10,000 members. Attend their seminar or buy their latest book and I, too, can succeed! It’s easy to start feeling that I’m not a success because I don’t pastor a large church and I haven’t written a pile of best-selling books.
But the test of success with the Lord is faithfulness to the ministry He has entrusted to you. The key question is not, “How many attend my church?” but “Are the ones I’m entrusted to serve becoming mature in Christ?” Jesus never said, “Well done, good and famous servant.” Faithfulness is what counts with Him. My desire is to see each of you being faithful to the Lord in your walk with Him and in the sphere of service He has given you.
There is a sober dose of reality in Paul’s final greetings. There is encouragement with Mark, who started by failing but ended faithfully. At first, he bailed out on Paul, but now, he’s at Paul’s side in Rome. During Paul’s final imprisonment, he wrote to Timothy (2 Tim. 4:11), “Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service.”
But then there’s Demas, a fellow-worker alongside Mark, Aristarchus, and Luke (Philemon 24). But later, he deserted Paul because he loved this present world (2 Tim. 4:10). Also, if Paul could look into the future, he would have known that the church of Laodicea, which seemed to be healthy in his day, just thirty years later would be so self-sufficient and lukewarm that the Lord threatened to spew them out of His mouth (Rev. 3:14-22).
If you’re serving the Lord, don’t be surprised if some of your teammates disappoint you. Judas betrayed Jesus, and the other eleven deserted Him when He was arrested. Paul was disappointed with Demas and with others. You will have disappointments with fellow workers. I’ve seen some who get hurt when others are unfaithful or betray their trust. Rather than dealing with it as Paul did by looking to the Lord, they end up dropping out of ministry or even out of the church. Don’t let that happen to you! People will disappoint you, but God never will.
A young reporter once asked Bud Wilkinson, coach of the powerful Oklahoma Sooner football team, “Coach, how has the game of football contributed to the health and fitness of America?”
To the reporter’s shock, Wilkinson responded, “It has not contributed at all!”
“What do you mean?” stammered the reporter.
Wilkinson said, “I define football as 22 men on the field, desperately needing rest, and 22,000 fans in the stadium, desperately needing exercise!”
That should not describe the church! The local church is a team where every member should be devoted to serve Christ. If you’ve trusted in Him, you’re on the team, and you’re not a benchwarmer. Christianity is not a spectator sport! He wants you on the playing field! Use your gifts to serve the Lord. As you do, this church will grow to maturity in Christ.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
July 3, 2016
Stored in a safe place at the Library of Congress is a small blue box. The label reads: “Contents of the President’s pockets on the night of April 14, 1865,” the terrible night when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.
The box contains five things: (1) A handkerchief embroidered “A. Lincoln”; (2) A country boy’s pen knife; (3) A spectacles case repaired with string; (4) A purse containing a $5 bill—in Confederate money! (5) Some old and worn newspaper clippings.
The clippings mention the great deeds of Abraham Lincoln. One of them reports a speech by John Bright, a British statesman, saying that Abraham Lincoln is one of the greatest men of all time. That’s not news for us who live over a century later. We all know that Lincoln was a great man. But in 1865, the jury was still out. The nation was divided and Lincoln had fierce critics on both sides as he made decisions that he hoped would restore the Union. Remember, Lincoln hadn’t read the history books on himself!
There is something poignantly pathetic about picturing this lonely figure in the Oval Office reaching into his pocket and spreading out these newspaper clippings as he re-read the encouraging words of a man who believed that Lincoln was a great man. It gave him the courage and strength to go on (Charles Swindoll, in a newsletter, First Evangelical Free Church, Fullerton, California.)
All people, including great leaders like Lincoln, need encouragement! So did the apostle Paul. We need to remember that Paul didn’t know that his life and teachings would be included in the New Testament to be read by millions and radically change the course of world history. From his perspective, he was under house arrest in Rome after two years of house arrest in Caesarea. He had seen the Lord use him to plant a few small churches around Asia Minor and Europe. But some of those churches had major problems. Critics in Corinth were attacking Paul and his ministry (see 2 Corinthians). In Rome, some were preaching against Paul out of envy and strife (Phil. 1:15-17). His main critics, the Judaizers, dogged Paul’s steps wherever he went, trying to get his Gentile converts to conform to the Jewish laws. Rather than accumulating honors, Paul had received numerous beatings, imprisonments, and other hardships as he served the Lord (2 Cor. 11:23-29).
And now Epaphras had brought word to Paul of the false teaching that was threatening the young church in Colossae. In his final greetings to that church, which Paul had yet to visit, he mentions three men, Aristarchus, Mark, and Jesus Justus, and then adds (Col. 4:11), “these are the only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are from the circumcision, and they have proved to be an encouragement to me.” God used these three men to shine a ray of sunshine into Paul’s dark situation.
We saw in our last study that Christians are on a team devoted to serve Jesus Christ. Every Christian is to be committed to serving the Lord. The church is not a one-man-show, but a team effort. The team consists of men and women from different racial and socio-economic backgrounds. The team is the family of God, with every member being a servant/slave of Jesus Christ. The team is focused on prayer and the Word with the aim of helping every member stand mature in Christ. And, with a healthy dose of reality, we saw that the team has members who often will disappoint us. But, how does the team operate? The final principle is:
The team operates in an atmosphere of encouraging each member to become all that God wants him or her to be.
First, there is the goal that each person should become all that God wants him or her to be. Second, the atmosphere in which team members grow is encouragement.
Paul says that this is his aim (Col. 1:28): “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.” Just a few verses before, he said that this is God’s aim in saving us (Col. 1:22), “He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” To be “holy, blameless, and above reproach” is the same as being mature or complete in Christ.
Our church’s purpose statement is: “At Flagstaff Christian Fellowship, we aim to build a community of joyful believers in Jesus Christ who love God and His Word, love one another, and love those without Christ by bringing them the good news of salvation.” The overall aim is to build a community of joyful believers in Jesus Christ. This can be broken down into three components: Love for God and His Word; love for one another; and, love for the lost, both here and abroad, expressed by bringing them the good news of salvation. Paul has emphasized these three goals in this short letter:
Colossians is a Christ-centered book because the false teachers whom Paul was confronting were emphasizing their legalistic philosophy over and above Jesus Christ. In the opening paragraph Paul mentions not only faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but also love for one another and spreading the gospel to the lost (Col. 1:3-6):
We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth.
Faith in Christ Jesus is the beginning point of a relationship with God. By birth and by behavior, we all are alienated from God because of our sins (Rom. 3:23): “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Furthermore, no amount of good works or promises to try harder can bridge the chasm between us and the holy God. So, how can we possibly be reconciled to God and have our sins forgiven? Paul continues (Rom. 3:24), “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”
To be justified is to be declared righteous by God. It’s a gift, not something that we earn by our good behavior. It comes through God’s grace or undeserved favor. Redemption means that by His death, Christ paid the penalty we owed to buy us out of the slave market of sin. We receive this free gift simply through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Colossians 1, Paul goes on to mention his prayer that they would be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that they may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in all respects (Col. 1:9-10). Then he extols the preeminence of Jesus Christ over all creation (Col. 1:15-20). As we saw when we studied that passage, Paul isn’t just talking theology—he is worshiping Jesus Christ!
Throughout the first two chapters, Paul magnifies Christ as he contrasts his ministry with the false teachers who threatened the Colossian church. He wanted every person to come to a true knowledge of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:2-3). He wanted each person to continue walking in Christ Jesus the Lord even as they had received Him (Col. 2:6-7), because “in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Col. 2:10). All that we have received from God centers in Jesus Christ (Col. 2:11-15). We are totally identified with Him (Col. 3:1-4) so that (Col. 3:4), “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
So being rightly related to God through faith in Jesus Christ is our top priority. Everything else depends on that. All that we do as a church should aim at helping each person become mature or complete in Christ.
After extolling Jesus Christ in Colossians 1:1-3:4, Paul applies this to our relationships. We are to put to death the members of our body with regard to sexual immorality and greed (Col. 3:5). We should also cast off all anger, abusive speech, and lying (Col. 3:8-9). In place of these practices of the old man, we are to put on the behaviors of the new man, which may be summed up as love (Col. 3:12-14). In our families, wives should be subject to their husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands should love their wives and not be embittered against them. Children should obey their parents and parents should not treat their children harshly, so that they lose heart (Col. 3:18-21). Slaves should obey their masters and masters should treat their slaves with justice and fairness (Co. 3:19-4:1). If we are Christ-centered, it will show in loving relationships.
Our third priority as we aim at each person becoming all that God wants him or her to be is that we would love those without Christ by bringing them the good news of salvation. Paul hits that in Colossians 4:2-6. Prayer is the foundation for our witness. Pray for those you know who do not know Christ. Pray for open doors for the gospel. Pray that we all could make the message clear (Col. 4:2-4). Then, walk with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunities God opens up. Use winsome, gracious, interesting, sensitive words to communicate the gospel (Col. 4:5-6).
So, that’s what we’re aiming at: We want each person to become all that God wants him or her to be, specifically: to be rightly related to Him through faith in Jesus Christ; to be rightly related to one another in love; and to be rightly related to those without Christ through prayer and wise witness. To do that, there must be an atmosphere permeating the local church:
This passage oozes encouragement! Paul was a master at giving genuine affirmation to others so that they would be motivated to grow to their full potential in the Lord. Here we see nine factors involved in creating that kind of encouraging atmosphere:
Paul sent Tychicus and Onesimus to inform the church of his situation so that they would be encouraged (Col. 4:7-9). He had nothing to hide from them. Remember, he was in prison and other Christian workers in Rome were criticizing him (Phil. 1:15-17). Paul could have made it sound bleak to elicit sympathy or he could have hid the truth to try to make it sound like he was more successful than he really was. But Paul didn’t camouflage his situation by making it sound as if things were better or worse than they really were. He believed in open, honest communication.
Here’s how this relates to encouragement: You’re struggling with discouragement over some problem and someone you know asks, “How’s it going?” You don’t want him to think that you’re struggling, because that makes you look like a defeated Christian. So you say, “Everything’s great! God is faithful!” But you haven’t been honest in sharing your struggles. You just missed an opportunity for that brother to encourage you and to pray with you. For encouragement to take place in the body, we’ve got to be open in communicating the truth.
Paul says that Tychicus will tell the Colossians about his circumstances (Col. 1:8), “that he may encourage your hearts.” How would learning of Paul’s situation encourage the Colossians? The great apostle was in chains. Can’t you hear Tychicus tell them, “It’s just awful! He’s chained to a guard 24 hours a day. He can’t go anywhere or do anything. Other Christians in Rome are preaching against Paul out of envy. It’s a grim situation!”
But Paul didn’t interpret events that way. He saw his imprisonment as a great opportunity to present the gospel to the Roman guards. He had a captive audience that changed every few hours! As for those preaching out of envy, at least they were preaching the gospel (Phil. 1:12-18). Because Paul interpreted his circumstances by faith, he could send Tychicus with a word of encouragement for the churches. If we will interpret our problems through the eyes of faith, we spread encouragement among the Lord’s people and help them to view their problems from God’s perspective.
Paul says (Col. 4:11) of the three Jewish brothers (Aristarchus, Mark, and Jesus Justus), “They have proved to be an encouragement to me.” The Greek word translated “encouragement” here is different than the word Paul uses in verse 8. It only occurs here in the New Testament, but it’s used in secular Greek as a medical term in the sense of alleviating pain (J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon [Zondervan], p. 239).
Mark, by recovering from his failure and now working alongside Paul, alleviated the pain that he had caused Paul when he deserted Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey. Barnabas, whose name means, “son of encouragement,” had helped Mark recover by giving him another chance. So Paul was encouraged by the ministry that the son of encouragement had invested in Mark!
Together, these three men “from the circumcision” gave encouragement to Paul because they didn’t join with the circumcision (the Judaizers) in their attacks on Paul and his ministry. Paul’s critics, including the preachers in Rome who were attacking him, were probably saying, “If he were a true apostle, he wouldn’t be in prison. God isn’t behind his ministry.” But these three men believed in Paul’s gospel and his ministry. They didn’t let his critics’ attacks stop them from serving alongside him.
When you’re involved in ministry, you will be criticized. You expect it from the enemy, but it stings when it comes from professing believers who attack your motives. At a time like that, it’s a great encouragement to have brothers like Aristarchus, Mark, and Jesus Justus stand with you in ministry.
Even though Paul was an apostle and one of the most gifted men in church history, he acknowledges that these three men had been an encouragement to him. He didn’t view himself as being on a pedestal where he ministered to everyone else, but he didn’t need their ministry to him. When Paul wrote to the Romans, he said that he longed to see them so that he might impart some spiritual gift to help establish them. But then he quickly added (Rom. 1:12), “that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.” Paul not only wanted to give encouragement; he also knew that he needed to receive it.
Paul let people know verbally that he cared about them and appreciated their ministries. He affirms each of the workers here, except for Demas. Paul wasn’t afraid to promote others’ ministries. We need to remember that we’re all on the same team and that if a team member is doing well, that’s great! Tell others in the church how much you appreciate the work they are doing.
Paul encourages the Colossians by telling them of Epaphras’ prayers for them. It’s always an encouragement when you hear that someone has been praying for you. I encourage you to get a church directory and pray through it. When you see those you prayed for that week at church, tell them that you prayed for them. That says, “I’m with you in the battle! We’re on the same team!”
Also, Paul’s final request (Col. 4:18), “Remember my imprisonment,” was probably a prayer request. He needed the encouragement of their prayers. It also showed the cost of discipleship: Following Christ often leads to increased trials. Thus we need to uphold one another in prayer.
In his letter to Philemon (sent along with Colossians), Paul asked him to forgive Onesimus, his runaway slave. But Paul practiced what he preached: he had forgiven Mark. Forgiveness is encouraging to experience and to see in others. It broadcasts hope for those who have failed. It says that the past can be set aside; there can be a new beginning. Yes, Onesimus had wronged Philemon. But now he was a brother in Christ. Yes, Mark had failed by deserting Paul. But now he was to be welcomed as a faithful fellow worker. We need to be forgiving each other the hurts and wrongs that are bound to happen as we work together on the Lord’s team.
Note how Paul carefully exhorts Archippus (Col. 4:17): “Say to Archippus, ‘Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.’” Why didn’t he address him directly: “Archippus, get with it”? By addressing the church, Paul gently corrected and challenged Archippus, but he also affirmed his belief in Archippus’ call to ministry. We don’t know why Paul felt the need to exhort Archippus. Perhaps Epaphras had reported some concerns to Paul. Perhaps, like Timothy, Archippus was timid and needed the confidence to do what God had given him to do. In one brief sentence, Paul both challenged Archippus and, in effect, said to the church, “You guys get behind him.” Sometimes encouragement requires the gentle correction and challenge of saying, “You’re doing well, but you can do better.”
Literally, the final sentence is, “The grace be with you.” (That sounds like, “The Force be with you,” but “The Grace” is far better than “The Force”!) This was more than a perfunctory way of closing the letter. Grace was the theme of Paul’s gospel, the motivating force behind all he did for the Lord. Grace means that God blesses us apart from any merit on our part. He saves us by grace and we grow in His grace. By grace, we must strive to be holy vessels for God to use. Beneath all that we do in serving the Lord is His abundant grace.
Years ago in California I came under intense criticism because I had decided that I could not endorse certain “Christian” psychology programs that some wanted to use in the church. One night, feeling rather discouraged, I went into our bathroom to get ready for bed and saw a yellow sticky note from our 14-year-old daughter, Christa, with Jeremiah 29:11 in her handwriting: “‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’”
Then, shortly after I began as pastor here, four elders at that time tried to get me fired because I firmly opposed one of them who was pro-choice on abortion. Many in the church sent me encouraging notes, expressing support for my ministry, which meant much to me. But the note that meant the most came from our then 13-year-old daughter, Joy. She wrote,
Mom & Dad, I just want you to know that I really appreciate you even though some other people don’t! Don’t listen to them. They don’t know what they’re talking about! Dad, I’m really glad you only preach the truth and don’t compromise what the Bible says. Your sermons have helped me lots! A lot of other people have said the same. Just hang in there and both of you keep up the good work! Look up these verses: they’ve been an encouragement to me: Jeremiah 29:11; Romans 8:28. I love you lots! Love always, Joy.
That’s encouragement! That’s how God’s team should operate! We want to develop an atmosphere of encouraging each member to become all that God wants him or her to be.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2016, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation