Well, I’ve got to admit, I’m standing up here in a little bit of fear. Coming up here right after the conference, I know most of you were there, and you were served by some of the best chefs in the land. They serve the Word of God like few can. And so, I’m fearful being up here following that.
My only hope is the food they used is the same I’m going to use. It’s out of the Word of God. But I must say, I’m not a chef like they are. But the Holy Spirit, He knows how to dice and slice and do all that good stuff with food, so it tastes better and goes down easier. So anyway, let’s just start with a word of prayer.
Lord, we do just bow in Your presence. We continue to bow in Your presence.
And Lord, we’re very needful people. Lord, we’re aware of that. Apart from You, we can do nothing, whether it be speaking, whether it be hearing—Lord, really, whether it be anything.
So we want to commit this time into Your hands, and we pray, Lord, that You will, by Your Holy Spirit, cause Your Word to go forth in power and in truth. We just commit this time into Your hands, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, I’ve got to admit, I’m going to be a little bit of a lone ranger today, in that I’m coming into town and I’m firing my guns, and then I’m taking off. My bride and I, within maybe three or four hours, will be heading up north to visit my family. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to hurry through this.
Last time together—and I don’t remember when the date was—we looked at Hebrews 12:1-2. Some of you may remember that. We shared how we found an exhortation there: “Let us,” and it occurred twice in the first verse. That is in the NASB version.
We talked about how the first “let us” addressed that which was to be laid aside—things that we would call negative or contrary. And we said how the second “let us” addressed those things we were to pursue, that which is positive or befitting.
We pointed out how this principle of laying aside, or putting off, and putting on is found throughout the whole New Testament, such as in Ephesians 4:22 and Ephesians 4:24, where Paul said to put off the old man and to put on the new man. Or in Romans 13:12, where we are told, “Let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
Now, we’ve been considering the book of Colossians in our Friday-night times. Within this book, we find Paul again setting forth this principle.
Now why? Why does he set forth this principle? It is because it is the only way to true spiritual growth. It is the only way of being conformed to the image of Christ in reality.
Apart from this principle of putting off, or setting aside, the old man and putting on the new man, one cannot make any true spiritual advance in Christian maturity.
Now we have to ask the question: Have we seen this truth? Do we know that there is no spiritual good that resides in us? Do we know that the old self can only produce that which is corrupt, as it states in Ephesians 4:22? Do we know that the life of Christ is the only life that can produce true spiritual fruit? Do we know that God’s way is not to change the old man, but to replace him with the new man?
Now, last time we also mentioned how John the Baptist summarized this principle of putting off and putting on by stating what? Does anybody know?
He must increase, but I must decrease.
We kind of don’t like that last one, do we? But I like how John mentioned, “He must increase,” first, before he mentioned, “I must decrease.” And that’s because our goal is to walk in newness of life.
Our goal, or end, is not the putting away of the old man. But we find that the putting-off process paves the way to make room for the putting on of the new self. Our goal is what? Our goal is to gain Christ in our life, in reality. And of course, to do that, we must first be set aside.
So we want to look at this principle again where we find it in Colossians. Now, most of us, I believe, have just wrapped up chapter 2. In the next chapter, chapter 3, we are going to see this principle again, where Paul speaks of having laid aside the old self in Colossians 3:9 and having put on the new self in Colossians 3:10.
So, to keep this in context, let’s read Colossians 3:1-17. Do we not have anybody up here to put the verses up? Oh boy, I feel like I’m there. All right, you’re going to have to do it the old way. You got that Book in front of you.
Colossians 3:1-17. It reads:
Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, 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 that are on the earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ, Who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience.
And in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.
But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.
Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self, who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One Who created him—
a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.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.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
Amen.
Now note, in verse 1, it begins with “therefore.” And we’ve been told that whenever we come across this word, we need to look back and see why this word is therefore. Or, in other words, to see the conclusion the writer has come to which is based on what was previously pointed out.
So if we look back in the book of Colossians and see what the apostle is referring to with this “therefore” in Colossians 3:1, we find in Colossians 2:9-10 that Paul makes an incredible statement:
For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,
and in Him you have been made complete.
You have been made full. My brother opened with that word, talking about the fullness of Christ. You know, this is astonishing. Because we were in Adam, and because of our identification with him, we had become sinners, and thus we had fallen short of the glory of God. But now we find, through our identification with Christ, we have been made what? Complete.
And it goes on to explain how this happened. If you look at Colossians 2:11-12, it reads:
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.
We see here that in Christ, through His death on the cross, we have been cut off. We have been circumcised from that old Adamic nature, and it has been buried with Him, put away, and utterly condemned.
And in Colossians 2:13, Paul goes on to say that we have been made alive together with Him. So, being now identified with Christ, we not only share in His death to sin, but we also now share in His resurrection life.
That is the “therefore” Paul is referring to in Colossians 3:1. He is bringing home to us the fact that we have been crucified, buried, and raised up with Christ.
All spiritual growth proceeds from the truth that we have been put into Christ. As such, we are identified with Him in His death, burial, resurrection, and even being seated with Him in the heavenlies.
So let me reiterate, because remember, repetition is the mother of all learning. Have you ever heard that saying? That “therefore” in verse 1 is referring back to the position we have been brought into in Christ.
We have been uprooted from that old Adamic tree in which we were attached, and we have been planted together with Christ. Or, to put it another way, we are no longer united to Adam, but now are united to Christ.
So Paul begins this section saying, “Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ.” The word if here could be better translated as since: “Since you have been raised up with Christ, since you have now been brought into union with Christ.”
The practical outcome of that should be that we will keep seeking the things above. Now, what does it mean to be seeking the things above? I think, simply put, we believe it means to be seeking Christ.
Christ is the sum of all these things above. And as we are now united to Christ, we should be occupied with the things above. We should be occupied with Christ.
You know, Stephen has shared with us that all spiritual truth has a practical expression. So how do we practically seek the things above? I think Colossians 3:2 gives us a clue:
Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth.
You know, your mind plays a big part, practically speaking, in how you are directed. And of course, our mind tends to follow what our hearts are attached to.
Now, if we have seen with the spiritual eye that we have died in Christ and that our life is hidden with Christ, our next step—our next reasonable step—is to present ourselves to God.
Our old life has been dealt with, or put away, and the life we now live is hidden with Christ. And this is because of our union with Him.
I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about it before, but our union with Christ is as close as the union of Christ with God the Father. And the purpose of this is that Christ will be our life.
So, let me reiterate again: What does it mean, in a practical way, to be seeking the things above and not the things of the earth? We’ve already said our new identity is in Christ, and thus we are to live out of that reality.
For example, before you were a believer, you did everything out of yourself. If you went out to buy a car, a home, or anything else—a piece of bubble gum—you did so according to your own understanding, your own wisdom, and strength. No consideration of bringing the Lord into the situation.
But now you are in union with Christ and are to seek the things above. Or, in other words, you are to seek Christ in all situations to be your wisdom and understanding.
You know, the Greek word for “keep seeking” in Colossians 3:1 is also found in Matthew 7:7-8. Remember that section where it says, “Ask, and it will be given to you,” and so forth? There we find it says, “Seek, and you will find,” and, “He who seeks finds.”
These words, “keep seeking,” mean to seek in order to find. Now, does this not remind you of what Paul said in Philippians 3? Let’s read Philippians 3:12-15:
Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude.
So let us have this attitude, or mindset. Let us set our minds, as it states in Colossians 3:2, which means to direct your mind on a certain object. We are to seek Him in order to find Him. We are to direct our minds toward Him, to strive in order to lay hold of Him, that we may be able to walk in a way pleasing to Him.
You know, God has laid hold of us and put us in Christ Jesus, and our life is hidden in Christ. We are now to lay hold of, or appropriate, His life and allow that life to govern our earthly decisions and choices. We don’t operate, as it were, apart from Him.
Remember, our Lord said, “If you see Me, you see the Father.” He said, “I can do nothing apart from the Father.” His life was, as it were, hidden with the Father. He came to express the Father to us, and we are to express the life of Christ.
You know, what a wonderful thing to have our life hidden in Christ, because it is a place of safety, security, strength, understanding, wisdom, and, as Dennis said, fullness.
When people look at us, what resemblance do they see? Do they see us, or Christ?
Our new source is Christ, and as such, we are to be occupied with Him. We are to set our minds, our affections, on Him.
Now, to be so occupied with Him does not mean we cease to be an individual, but that we are under new management, new government, with new affections and thoughts. Verse 4 says:
When Christ, Who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Now, when we come to verse 5, Paul gets down to what we would call where the rubber meets the road. If, in fact, we are now brought into this new union, this new life, what becomes of the old self?
Notice Colossians 3:5 reads:
Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed.
Now, we didn’t have it up there, so that killed my— But did you notice I left the “therefore” in the beginning of verse 5 off? Thus, we are to look back to see what this “therefore” is referring to.
Paul had just told us in verse 3, “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ.” Furthermore, he went on to say, “Christ is our life,” in verse 4. So, based on this reality, based on our union with Christ, we find the ground upon which we are able to proceed with dealing with the old self.
This is the first part of the principle that we have been speaking of: the putting off of those things that are negative or are not of Christ.
Now, we have to be careful, because there is a false putting off, or we may say, a false self-denial. The false self-denial is that which would proceed out of our own strength, from the flesh.
I think we all can relate to this: gritting our teeth, rolling up our sleeves, and saying, “I’ll never do that again.” You know, Paul spoke to this type of self-denial back in Colossians 2:20-23.
But imagine battling the flesh with the flesh. Many believers are caught up in this snare. And the Lord said, “A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.”
You can no more battle the flesh with the flesh than battle your right arm against your left arm. You just find out that you beat yourself up.
Now, we might laugh at this illustration, but if we’re trying to control our members by our own strength, we are fighting fire with fire. It is like trying to push a floating device underwater. Have you ever tried that before? You push one side down, and the other side pops up. Push that side down, the other side pops up, and on and on it goes.
That’s the way it is. That’s self-denial through the strength of the flesh.
Now, the true self-denial is to see that we have died with Christ and that He is now our life. Our understanding of our union with Christ must precede our self-denial.
I have been crucified with Christ.
—Galatians 2:20
You know, our having been crucified with Christ is no less a completed fact than His substitutionary death for the forgiveness of our sins.
We are addressing the realm of faith here, for everything in the realm of our natural reason and feeling is going to be stumped over this truth. We are to accept this truth by faith.
And the bottom line is either we are going to be declaring God a liar if we do not believe this truth, or declare our reasons or feelings amiss if they attempt to stand in the way of the truth of our having been crucified with Christ.
The Scriptures declare that God cannot lie, and He has placed the believer into Christ. When Christ was crucified on the cross, the believer was crucified with Him. We are to accept, or appropriate, this truth.
But how? Remember back in Colossians 2:6, it says:
Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.
The question is: How did we receive the Lord Jesus? By faith. And even as we received Him by faith, we are now to walk in Him by faith.
Now, what is faith? Faith is having dependence on something or some person. For example, some people like to put their faith in money. You know anybody like that? They’re all around you. Some people put their faith in some person, like a spouse or a parent. And some people even foolishly put their faith in themselves.
But these types of faith are all like building on sand. They are all going to sink.
We are to put our faith in the Lord. But how do we break through to have faith in the Lord? Romans 10:17 says—and we should all know this by heart:
Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Faith has to be based on something, and the only true, reliable source is the Word of God. As the Word comes to us—the living Word—the rhema of God, such as, “We have been crucified with Him,” we are able to rise up and lay hold of it. And the Holy Spirit is then able to make it real in our lives.
But, you know, sometimes when it comes to hearing the Word, we may find ourselves as the father who brought his possessed son to Jesus. You remember him? He asked Jesus, “If You can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
And Jesus said to him, “If You can? All things are possible to him who believes.” And remember the father’s response? He cried out and said, “I do believe.” And what else did he add? He said, “Help my unbelief.”
To paraphrase the father’s response, he said, “Remove that unbelief from my heart, that I may believe You at Your Word.”
When we do, we’re on solid ground. When we stand on God’s Word—but it must be revealed to us by revelation. The Holy Spirit must open our spiritual eyes to the truth. And when we receive it and believe it, then it becomes ours.
Now, having said all that, let’s return back to verse 5. So, because of the fact that we are in Christ and share His death, we are to consider the members of our earthly body as dead.
Now, this word translated “consider” here in the Greek is really an interesting one. We find it in Romans 4:19, where it references Abraham:
Without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old.
Here is that word, consider. Now Abraham’s body, naturally speaking, was dead as regarding any potential to produce offspring, being he was at the age of a hundred. But because God had told him that he would have a child, he believed God despite his natural circumstances.
The Scriptures say we are to walk by what? Faith, not by sight. If Abraham had walked by sight, he would have believed the so-called fact that his body was dead, and he would not have been able to have a son.
But he walked by faith, regardless of what the realm of sight was displaying, and he trusted God’s Word that he would become a father.
Now, we are to consider that the members of our earthly body are dead. And this is based on the fact that in Christ our old self has been crucified with Him.
So the question is: Will we walk by faith and believe this fact, or will we walk by sight, listening to our feelings or our empty reasonings?
You know, really, a better translation of this word consider is “put to death.” It is an action word. It is a command, and we are exhorted to put to death—or, we may say, keep dead—the old self. This again is based on the fact that the old self has been crucified in Christ.
Now, do you know in God’s eyes our old self is gone, even as He says we are already glorified, as it states in Romans 8:30? That is because God is not locked in time. The beginning and the end are the same to Him. But the mystery is that He works in time to bring about His purpose.
Now, Paul, in stating the command to put to death in verse 5, lists some sins to be put away. Look again: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
Now, why did Paul start by listing these sins to these saints at Colossae? Because Paul was addressing a serious problem in their culture, or their society.
William Barclay writes on this matter:
Chastity was the one completely new virtue which Christianity brought into the world. In the ancient world, sexual relationships before marriage and outside of marriage were the normal and accepted practice. The sexual appetite was regarded as a thing to be gratified, not to be controlled.
Doesn’t that sound a lot like our culture now? And even how advertising uses it to promote products, as if to say, “If you get this product, you can have this type of lifestyle.” They parade it before our eyes.
Now, let’s look at these five briefly. The first listed, then again, is immorality. We derive the word pornography from this Greek word. How many—and I dare say even Christians—are trapped and struggling in the vice of pornography?
Immorality was not considered a sin in Gentile society. Visiting prostitutes, both religious and otherwise, was common. Thayer, in his word study, includes homosexuality and lesbianism in this definition.
The next word, impurity, is referring to unholy affections and evil thoughts. In particular, in this context, it has reference to sexual evil thoughts.
The next two, passion and evil desire, are two closely linked cousins, with passion being a more fired-up version of evil desire. Remember, desire is a neutral word, and it can refer to either good or evil desires. But here it is referring to an evil desire.
Regarding these two, what can start out as an evil desire can turn into a passion for an evil thing.
And then greed, or some versions translate this word as covetousness. This word means to desire what is forbidden. And notice Paul equates this to what? Idolatry.
Why does Paul equate idolatry to covetousness? Remember, idolatry is the replacing of God with something else. You remember how Eve desired the forbidden fruit, and then, choosing it, she replaced God with the fruit, and thus it became an idol to her.
There is within the old nature that desire which wants to gravitate toward that which is forbidden. We need to be aware of this and guard against it in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now notice Paul listed these sins in the order of the actual act down to the motive. If we were to reverse the order listed here, we would first have the seed of sin, which is covetousness or idolatry. This can lead to an evil thought or affection, which can lead to a consuming evil desire and passion, which lastly can lead to actually committing an act.
Remember, our Lord not only condemned actual evil deeds, but also the thoughts and the motive that can lead to an actual evil deed. He said in Matthew 5:27-28:
You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery”;
but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
So we come to verse 6, which is a very interesting verse. I’ll read it again:
For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience.
Now, the word sons here does refer to believers on occasion in the Scriptures. So the question is: Can a believer, in some way or portion, experience the wrath of God?
We know certainly a believer will not experience the eternal wrath as unbelievers will. But consider Ephesians 5:5-6, where the kingdom is in view and this word wrath is also found:
For you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person, or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Notice here Paul lists the same sins that are listed in Colossians 3:5. He says any who partake in these will have no inheritance in the kingdom, and again says that because of these the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Serious food for thought.
Now notice Paul references in verse 7 that these Colossian saints were at one time no different than the other Gentiles, that they had walked according to the course of the world. But Paul goes on to further exhort them in verse 8 to put aside all expressions of the old self, in particular mentioning some which have to do with attitudes and speech toward others.
Notice first he mentions anger. Anger is a quick flare-up, generally brought on by some sort of annoyance. A provocation does not create anger, but merely exposes it.
Then wrath: this is anger prolonged. A good example of this would be Hitler’s wrath toward the Jews.
Malice: Thayer defines this as a desire to injure. Lightfoot defines it as the vicious nature which is bent on doing harm to others.
Slander is the utterance of false charges or misrepresentations which defame, belittle, or damage another person’s reputation, and can cause them to fall into disrepute or receive a bad reputation. Simply put, it is evil speaking of others.
Abusive speech: Barclay says, “Obscene language.” Lightfoot calls it “foul-mouthed abuse.” The word was used for both abusive and filthy talk.
And lastly, in verse 9, Paul exhorts us not to lie to one another; that is, to speak untruths, whether fully or partially. We call it a half-lie. And I believe this is not only referring to speech, but also to behavior.
You know, there can be a great temptation among believers to project spirituality when there is little or none.
Now, at the end of verse 9 and the beginning of verse 10, Paul states again the reason why the believer is not to walk in such a way as they did before they were saved. It is because in Christ we have laid aside the old self with its evil practices and have put on the new self.
This is our position in Christ, our heritage in Christ. Now, we’ve talked at some length about putting off the old self. But the putting off is to pave the way for the putting on.
In verse 10, we see it says:
And have put on the new self, who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One Who created him.
This new self is referring to what the believer has received from Christ at their spiritual birth, even as the old self is what a person received from Adam at their physical birth.
And notice that this new self is to be what? Renewed. This new self is to be renewed. The word renewed here is found in one other verse in the New Testament—an interesting verse, 2 Corinthians 4:16:
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
This inner man is referring to our spirit. Our inner man was made alive when we were born again, and now it has the capacity to be renewed. This word renewed can also be translated as “to cause to grow up.”
This new self we have received is to be renewed, or it is to grow up. And it is to grow up according to—or I may say, into—the image of the One Who created him: to be conformed to the image of the Son.
Now, this new self we received is, in one sense, already complete. And if so, why does it have to grow up?
I think maybe the best illustration is that of a baby. When a baby is born, assuming the baby is not deformed in any way, the baby is complete. It has two arms, two legs, two ears, and so forth. He has all the normal parts and lacks nothing.
But the baby has the capacity to grow. The baby has the capacity to mature. Thus, the child of God has received the new self, but that new self needs to grow up.
Or, to put it simply, we are to come to the knowledge—or to come to experience—Christ more and more. Verse 10 says, “renewed to a true knowledge.”
We have in us, in our spirit, the life of Christ. His life is complete, but we are to experience, to come to know, that life in a greater measure, even every day, as 2 Corinthians 4:16 spoke. Paul explained it as “to know Him.”
As the Holy Spirit reveals more of Christ to us, we can appropriate His life and grow according to His image.
Paul speaks of this process in Ephesians 4:22-24:
That you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
And he also says in Romans 12:2—and we’re very familiar with this:
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.
Now note in these two sections we read that this transforming process has a lot to do with the renewing of the mind. This renewing of the mind comes about through the illumination of the Word by the Holy Spirit concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it matters not what your background is, whether you came from the epitome of an uncivilized heritage or whatnot. Having Christ is all that matters. And we are to allow that renewing process of putting off and putting on to take place in our lives. Why? So that Christ can be all and in all.
So in verse 12, look at it again. Paul reminds these believers of their true identity: they are chosen of God, holy, and beloved. And because of this, he exhorts them to live a life that corresponds with that new identity.
He tells them they are to put on these various virtues mentioned in Colossians 3:12-14. Now, how are we to put on these virtues?
Do we write down on one palm of our hand the words compassion, kindness, and humility, and on the other gentleness, patience, and forgiving, and review it as we go through the day, attempting to apply it when needed? You know, I’m playing with you.
Does Paul’s mentioning of putting on these virtues not remind you of Romans 13:14, where it says:
Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
These virtues mentioned here are simply expressions of the life of Christ. In Him, we see all these virtues expressed. And when the believer puts on the new self, which can also be equated to putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, these virtues can flow forth.
But how do we put on the Lord Jesus Christ? We already talked about this: by faith. It is through a life of fellowship. It is through a life of abiding in Christ, which consists of a life of obedience to His Word and a life of dependence on Him.
And through these, we are actually putting on Christ. Then His life is able to flow through us, and these virtues will be expressed through us.
So let’s look briefly now at these virtues. Paul first says to put on a heart of compassion. This means a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for others who are stricken with misfortune, and expresses a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.
How we see in the Gospels the Lord’s compassion on those He came upon.
And then kindness. You know, Ray Stedman says that kindness is action that reveals compassion—action that arises out of a sense of sympathy. It can take many different forms: a smile, a kind word, a pat on the shoulder, an invitation to lunch, or an offer to help.
Humility: Thayer defines this as having a humble opinion of oneself. Oh, that’s easy, isn’t it? Stand up here and you will get humbled in a hurry.
The pagan world of Paul’s day did not admire humility. Instead, it admired pride and domination.
Gentleness—some versions say meekness—literally means to be tamed. You know, Moses was called the meekest man on the earth. How God had worked in his life to tame him so he could be useful to God and before men.
You know, one who is meek is not rough on others, but is gentle.
Patience: Barclay says, “The spirit which never loses its patience with its fellow man.” It reflects an emotional calm in the face of provocation or misfortune.
Patience, or longsuffering, is the capacity to be wronged and not to retaliate. It is the ability to hold one’s feelings in restraint, or bear up under the oversights and wrongs inflicted by others without retaliating.
Bearing with one another: this is just simply putting up with one another. I pity you, how you have to put up with myself.
Forgiving one another. You know how easy it is to have a complaint against each other. “Did you see what so-and-so said about me? Did you see what so-and-so did to me?”
But we are not to hold grudges. We are to forgive one another when we have been wronged. The basis of this, of course, is how the Lord has forgiven us. Consider how much wrong He has forgiven in your life.
And Paul says lastly to put on love. One brother has said this virtue is the key to bonding the church. Love is the key to bonding the church. It holds all other virtues in place.
Love covers a multitude of sin and looks for ways to benefit others at the expense of self.
Now, Paul sums up this exhortation of putting on the new self with two keys that we find in verses 15 and 16. First, he says to let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Then he says to let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.
The peace of Christ rules in our hearts when we are under His lordship. This word rule was an athletic term referring to an umpire or judge of the games. He was the one to sustain order and peace in the competitions.
Christ is to be our umpire. And as we yield to Him and allow Him to order our life, His peace will rule in our hearts.
And secondly, it says, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within us.” I don’t think I need to stress how important the Word of God is, because without it, there is darkness, there is death, there is no hope.
But notice it says we are to let the Word richly dwell in us—that is, to richly find a home in us. This word richly means abundant. Don’t let yourself starve. Don’t stunt your spiritual growth. But feed abundantly upon the Word.
In fact, the Word of God is key to this matter of putting off and putting on.
And in conclusion, the life of one who has put off the old and put on the new will be exemplified by what? By thankfulness and a life given to be a blessing to others.
So once again, this principle of putting off and putting on is absolutely necessary for Christ to be able to be all and in all. So may we, by His grace—may we, by His grace, as Dennis pointed out to us this morning—be willing to go that way.
Because this is the way to true spiritual maturity. There are no shortcuts, brothers and sisters. This is the only way.
Lord, we do come back to You. We do commit this word back into Your hands.
Lord, may we take Your Word seriously. May it just become richly a part of our lives.
Lord, show us in a practical way those things that need to be set aside, that need to be put off.
Show us, Lord, where we are not abiding in You. Show us, Lord, where we have not turned the reins fully over to You, and thus put on the new self.
Lord, be merciful to us. We just pray in Your name. Amen.