“HOLY LIVING”
Colossians 3:1-17
The
church is victorious only to the degree that each Christian experiences victory in his or her own
life. Defeated Christians constitute a
defeated church; victorious
Christians constitute a victorious church.
Colossians
sets out the preeminence of Christ in the early chapters. He is a member of the Trinity. He is fully man, but He is also fully
God. He is preeminent in creation for He
is the Creator. He is preeminent in
redemption for He is the Redeemer. He is
preeminent in the church, because He is the One who gave Himself for the
church. And He must be preeminent in our
lives.
You
cannot just say, "I am a dedicated Christian,” and then live your life as
you please as a great many people are trying to do today. No, if Christ is preeminent in your life,
then you are going to live out His life down here on earth.
Many
things lead people away from Christ.
Paul has warned against enticing words of great oratory, which carry
people away. He has warned against
philosophy, legality, mysticism, and asceticism. All these lead people away from Christ.
The
lives of the Colossian Christians evidenced their salvation. What was the evidence? It was faith, hope, and love - the fruit of
the Spirit was in their lives.
"Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus" - the word had
gotten around that they had a living faith in Christ Jesus; "and of the
love you have for all the saints" - they loved the believers (Col.
1:4). Love is very practical—it gets
right down to where the rubber meets the road.
Love manifests itself in reality.
Where
is Christ today? He's sitting at the
right hand of God. What are we to do? We
are to "seek those things which are above.” Seek actually means "having an urgency and a desire and an ambition.” There should be excitement in seeking
spiritual things.
When
we see the Olympics, we see people running or performing some athletic feat to
win a gold medal. Those people are
really seeking. I don't see many saints
looking for gold medals today, but we are to be seeking Christ with that kind
of urgency.
"Those
things which are above" - these are the things of Christ. Let me say very carefully, you will really
only experience the new life as you "seek those things which are above,
where Christ sits on the right hand of God." We are to seek Him. There is no shortcut. Real study of the Word of God will get you
through to the living Christ.
Set your affection on things above, not on
things on the earth. The word
for "affection" is mind. Think
about the things that are above. In Philippians
Paul said whatever things are true and
honest and just and lovely, think on these
things—the things of Christ. Life is
full of smaller problems (like
whether or not you can get along with
your mother-in-law), and they are very real, but by far the greatest
need is for us to get through to Christ.
If we are truly raised with Christ this will
be evident in two areas of our lives: (1) our personal
holiness, and (2) our fellowship with others who are about us.
It seems Christians are
frightened of this matter of holiness. Somehow we don't like this term holiness. Now, if you are in Christ, if you have
accepted Him as your Savior, then that is going to
show in your life down here.
Put to death whatever belongs to your
earthly nature: sexual immorality
(fornication), impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed (covetousness), which is
idolatry (Vs 5).
Fornication
(King James) means "sexual immorality.”
Is that your sin today? Do your
eyes give you trouble? Do you look with
the eye of covetousness, or the eye of lust?
"Covetousness,
(greed)” means we always must have more.
Is the dollar your god? Does
money interest you more than the living Christ?
These questions can begin to hurt!
Covetousness
is the root of many problems in our country today. "… the love of
money is the root of all evil…” (1 Tim. 6:10).
Money is not the problem—it can even be used for the glory of God. But many, even Christians, are working on the
second million, and they don't need it.
They worship an idol. Christ must
be first.
Men
are not lost because they do these things, nor because they haven't heard of
Christ. Men are lost because they are
sinners, and as sinners, they do these things.
Many trees appear to be healthy during the summer. But in the winter, when their leaves have
fallen, we may find underneath the lush green of summer foliage was a parasitic
plant called mistletoe, which had been slowly sucking away the tree’s vitality.
We as Christians sometimes have hidden sins, which –
like the mistletoe – slowly suck away our spiritual vitality. Although not always evident in times of
outward spiritual health and fruitfulness, we must always examine ourselves for
those small, unseen, parasites of sinful habits that sap our vitality. We must remember, while they are not apparent
now it does not mean that in another time in life God will not reveal them for
all to see.
Do we
put Jesus first? Or are we engaged in
the things the world is engaged in and for which God will judge? How can we expect that we shall escape the
judgment of God? If you are in Christ,
seek those things which are above, and you will not find yourself involved in
the things of the world.
Paul
wants us to be aware of these things which destroy so easily. Think about this list (Vs 8-9). And remember, we don’t automatically become
righteous or holy. We must battle those
things that pull us down.
These are the habits
that we are to put off as we would put off a garment: Anger – rage (unforgiving spirit) – malice –
slander – filthy language – lying. Do
not lie to each other… To whom is Paul
speaking? He is writing this to believers,
because he says, "since you have taken off your old self…” Is it possible for a Christian to lie? It certainly is. You won’t lose your salvation when you
do. It does reveal your failure to rid
yourself of the old nature, when you became a child of God.
One
of the first sins a little child commits is to lie. There is the story about the little boy who
came running into the house and said, "Mama, Mama, a lion just ran across
our front lawn.” The mother said,
"Willie, you know that was not a lion.
That was a big dog that ran across the lawn. You go upstairs and confess to the Lord that
you lied about that.” Little Willie went
upstairs and after a while he came down again.
His mother asked, "Did you confess your lie to the Lord?” He answered, "Yes, I did. But the Lord said when He first saw him, He thought he was a lion, too!” Lying is something that is deep-rooted in the
human heart, and many Christians still indulge in it.
"Put
on the new man.” If you take off the old
garment, the old man, you put on the new garment, the new man. Nature abhors a vacuum. Putting off is not enough, we must live in the
new man by the power of the Holy Spirit.
You
and I have an old nature which has controlled us for so long that we have set
up certain habits. We have developed
certain patterns in the way we say and do things.
Paul
has clearly labeled the things of the old man to be put off. Now he labels the specifics of the wardrobe
of the new man. Notice the garments Paul
mentions are actually the fruit of the Holy Spirit. You and I cannot produce them in our lives.
As
the children of God we still sin. Then
we need to remember the boy who got away from his father and his home, who
lived in sin and wasted his fortune in riotous living. When he returned home, his father saw him and
ran and fell on his neck and kissed him - the kiss of pardon, the kiss of
forgiveness which God gives to His children.
Paul
is saying that as believers we should have a heart of compassion in our
relationships with those around us.
“Over all these virtues put on love.” Let
the word of Christ dwell… (Vs. 16)
Do
you want a norm for Christian conduct?
Do you want a standard to go by?
Do you want a principle rather than a lot of little rules? Paul gives us just such a principle. He does not say what we should or should not
do. He simply says, "Do all in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” My friend, whatever you do—at your place of
employment, in your home, and in all relationships with others—can you say,
"I'm doing this in the name of the Lord Jesus"? If you can say that, if you are doing it in
His name, then go ahead and do it. This
is a marvelous standard, a yardstick that we can put down on our lives.
What does it mean to be filled with the
Holy Spirit? It means you must be filled
with the Word of Christ also. The Word
of God is inspired by the Spirit of God.
If the Word of God dwells in you richly, then you are filled with the
Spirit of God. I do not believe you can
be filled with the Holy Spirit or that you can serve Christ until you are
filled with His Word. "Let the word
of Christ dwell in you richly."
Now, if the Word of Christ dwells in you richly, it will work itself out
in your life, and it will have an effect on your home.
© 2007,