Introduction
Looking at Colossions 3: 1 - 8 and what it teaches about life in Christ.
Read Passage
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
When I first came to this passage I though "Oh no, it's another list of rules"! But, as we'll see, it's actually an exciting vision of the transformation that life in Christ brings. I'm going to address:
The context of this passage within the book of Colossians
Life in Christ
Mindset of heaven
Responsibility to respond
Context in Colossians
Paul is writing to the church at Colosse to encourage them to stand firm in the true gospel that they received and to warn them about false teaching.
He begins by giving thanks for their faith and inspiring them with teaching about the supremacy of Christ.
In chapter 2, Paul seeks to expose the dangers of the false teaching that had begun to creep in, which was urging a return to rule-keeping religion and salvation by works. Paul stresses to the Colossians that Christ is enough for them (2: 9 - 10) and makes it clear that salvation can't be earnt and that a place in God's Kingdom isn't dependent on our ability to keep rules (2: 16). In fact, just before the passage that we are looking at he says that religious rules are impotent when it come to enabling people to live a holy life (2: 23)
So when it comes to chapter 3, hopefully the believers in the Colossian church should understand that Christ alone is enough for them and that they need to continue in him and not be side-tracked or disillusioned by the extra rules that false teachers are adding to the gospel.
It is possible that some of them (and some of us) may have wondered how behaviour can be changed if religious rules aren't the answer. And there may have been those who mistakenly believed that, since the gospel is all about grace, God doesn't care how we behave.
So let's look at how chapter 3 deals with the practical outworking of the teaching so far and gives an exciting vision of what life in Christ looks like.
Life in Christ
Paul emphasises to these new believers that their life is now in Christ.
v 1 'You have been raised with Christ'
v 3 'You died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God'
v 4 'When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory'
Christ alone is the source of their regeneration. They have died to their old life and have been made alive in Christ, and that life will be fully revealed in all its glory when Christ comes back.
And it's the same for believers today - not just called to slightly adapt our lives now we're Christians. We have died to our old way of living and everything that that entailed. Utter transformation, and as we will see, there are implications for the way we live in the light of this.
Hamster Alf died, there was no point in feeding him any more. Now we have died to our old lives, there is no point in fuelling those lives with the things we used to believe and do.
So what does this transformation look like?
Mindset of heaven
Paul challenges the Colossian believers to set their hearts and minds on things above, in contrast to earthly things. They belong now to the kingdom of heaven, rather than the kingdom of earth and they are to follow heavenly leadership rather than man-made rules.
We also need to do this. Hold onto the true gospel and God's vision for our lives. Borders the other day: Shelves of self-help books with titles all ending in an exclamation mark like '10 steps to a confident you', 'Beat smoking in 5 days!' 'Overcome drug dependency the easy way'. Lots of false teaching in our society too:
Embrace the moment because this life's all there is.
It doesn't matter what you do as long as you don't hurt anyone else.
In contrast, we're not to have a mixture of Christianity and worldly 'wisdom'. Imagery of death is very strong, but very necessary as we are not to have a faith that's watered down by worldliness.
Need to fix our eyes on Christ hold him as our authority.
Opposite of the instructions you're given as a child, 'Don't look directly at the sun' we need to look directly at the Son!
When you focus on the sun for a while and then look at other things, everywhere you look, you can see an imprint of the sun. In the same way, we should make sure that we focus on God's Son, so that wherever we look we see Him.
We, just like the Colossians, need to set our hearts and minds on things above.
And what implications will this have for the way we behave?
Responsibility to respond
Because the believers have died to their old lives, they are called to put to death all those behaviours associated with their old way of living.
v 5 and 8 detail some of the ways the Colossians used to live:
'Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry... anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language.'
v 7 makes it clear that these aren't hypothetical stumbling blocks, but real things that the Colossians struggled with, and they don't look any different to the things that we struggle with today.
v 8 Clear these things alienate people from God and aren't appropriate for someone who loves Christ.
The Colossians used to be trapped in the things that are listed here, but now Christ has provided a way to be free from the slavery to their old nature. Before they knew Christ, they were unable to escape from these vices, but in Christ they have the ability and the power to 'put to death' these things that were part of their old nature. It is only because of their position in Christ that they are able to put to death these things. Death to the earthly nature means that the Corinthians are no longer slaves to it. Death to the old life and resurrection in Christ is also irreversible!!
We also need to respond to Christ by putting to death those things that don't belong in our new life with Christ.
For me, I used to live a gay lifestyle that was ultimately empty and painful. It was a joy, rather than a burden, when I discovered that through new life in Christ, God could set me free from that.
Christ has given us everything we need for life and godliness, but we need to do something with it. I have everything I need to mow my lawn (lawnmower, power supply, extension lead etc.) but I have to do something to get the lawn cut.
Christ has given us hope for a real transformation of our lives.
Conclusion
Need to understand our lives are in Christ and that this is unmerited, secure and eternal.
Need to centre our lives on Christ and set our hearts and minds on him. (Rom 12: 1 - 2. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind)
Need to understand that we have a responsibility to take hold of the new life that Christ has given us and put to death those things that belong to our old ways of living.
This passage was a challenge to the Colossians and is a challenge to us to live out what we already have in Christ.
"For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory."
Amen!
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