Welcome
Prayer
Okay, we wrapped up chapter 2 last week where Paul said in conclusion:
20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not;
22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?
23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh.
And that brings us to chapter 3 of the epistle.
IN the previous chapter, Paul laid out some things that Christian ought not to follow after – the dangers of false philosophy, and the doctrines of erroneous teachers acting humble.
In this chapter, he teaches them what they ought to pursue and to seek instead.
(1.) The duty of setting the affections on things above, Colossians 3:1-4.
(2.) The duty of mortifying their corrupt passions and carnal propensities, Colossians 3:5-8.
(3.) The duty of speaking the truth, since they had put off the old man with his deeds, Colossians 3:9-11.
(4.) The duty of kindness, gentleness, charity, and the spirit of peace, Colossians 3:12-15.
(5.) The duty of edifying one another by psalms and songs of praise, Colossians 3:16,17.
(6.) The duty of wives, Colossians 3:18;
(7.) of husbands, Colossians 3:19;
(8.) of children, Colossians 3:20;
(9.) of fathers, Colossians 3:21;
(10.) of servants, Colossians 3:22-25.
Obviously, since we already covered Ephesians there are some striking similarities between this chapter and the fifth and sixth chapters of it.
So, let’s read our text for today where Paul now says:
Colossians 3.1-8
May 31st 2020
Milk CAMPUS
(SEE PUT ON BOARD NOTES AHEAD OF TIME)
Colossians 3:1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
3 For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 “Put to death” therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
7 In these you once walked, when you lived in them.
8 But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth.
9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices
10 and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
11 Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.
And then Paul provides an extremely important follow-up here, saying:
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience,
13 forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Okay, let’s go back to verse 1
1 If/then (or since you appear to) have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
He has made the notion plain that believers are raised in Christ’s resurrection.
And since His resurrection has enabled Him (Christ) to enter into the Holy of Holies and to sit at the right hand of God, Paul says to them:
“Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”
There are earthly things – carnal, base and material things which consume our fleshly natures – sex, drugs and rock and roll, money, power, fame, control, lands, wealth – and apparently in our day, rioting and turning over police cars – and there are heavenly things, things that are embodied in the person of Christ who resurrected from the grave and went to heaven and sat at the right hand of the invisible God.
The argument here is, that since Christ is there, and since he is the object of our supreme attachment, and since we as his subjects, we should fix our affections on heavenly things and seek to be prepared to dwell with him in them.
And Paul reiterates this by saying in verse two:
2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
To set our minds means to set our thoughts, affections, desires, focus, interests upon. That we ought to be occupied, focused, concerned with those heavenly-based things and not on the things that dwell here on terra firma.
Since we are raised from the death of sin and flesh, and are made to live “anew in His resurrected body” (which dwells in the presence of the invisible God bodily), the greatest object of our thoughts and contemplations would naturally be the heavenly world, which Paul contrasts with, “and not on things on the earth.”
I would certainly agree that these directives are certainly for us in our day and age, according to the Spirit – and they ring true overall, but when Paul said them to them/then, it was in a VERY different situation.
Remember this: They were living in an age that was about to end violently. It was an age where the believers, under apostolic direction, were to be without spot or blemish, a pure bride, and all around her were direct trials and infringements upon the faith they held dear.
The totality of Paul’s directives cannot be overstated – he is literally telling them to focus on the things above and not on the things of the earth that surrounded them.
Again, these words do have application to believers today by the Spirit. But ours is a day where we are pretty much forced – at least in this country – to give a great deal of attention on the material world around us, which is why I think God took care of reconciling the world to himself in that day through THAT bride who in THAT situation could more thoroughly fulfill Paul’s directives.
In our culture and day we must work of earning a living, and possess certain creature comforts that cost money (like lighting and indoor plumbing) and have tax benefits from having children, and owning a home – things like that.
So the advice, while remaining sound and good – “that our priorities and focus is first on the things of heaven and not on the things of this world,” I think that believers today have to take the advice in accordance with context and the Spirit.
For those believers who remain unmarried and are able to live unencumbered by children and cars and debts and rent payments, good for them. I think in some ways they are blessed to follow this directive more closely.
But for others, not as much – thank God He took care of the pure bride in that day.
So, after telling them to:
2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Paul adds:
3 For . . . you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Now, in this way, in the way of the first line of verse three, I do see application to believers, true Sons and Daughters of God today – if we wanna get real, for I am of the opinion that true Sons and Daughters (ready) have DIED.
That is what Paul says to the believers of the Bride in that day – FOR YOU HAVE DIED.
And only you can decide if that statement is applicable to you because only YOU know the answer.
NOTE Paul’s words:
“YOU . . . HAVE . . . DIED.”
In Romans Paul said this about himself, that he had died but then added, “nevertheless I live,” Adding, “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 for me.”
So back to the point he makes to them in this epistle – “YOU HAVE DIED” take us back to the last couple weeks.
Believers are dead to the world. Dead to sin. Dead to earthly ambitions and pursuits that take precedence over the things of God.
Again, in our day its not that such walking dead are not present but the application to us today is what motivates, drives, and gets you up in the morning?
What consumes our thoughts, our mind, our objectives, our time and our conversations?
If, as a Christian YOU and I have died (to this world and the things about it) it is impossible for you to also live for or through such things.
I still participate in a number of things that are offered in this world – food, films, music, money and purchases, career – but they are way down the totem pole of my priorities.
That is the result of Him in me.
Perhaps, some of those things would mean even less if I was more mature and strong in the spirit and less immature and strong in the flesh, but the bottom line is in terms of priorities at least – I can say that I have died.
Try and remember, that this death which Paul describes is in Christ, it is NOT literal, because we continue to walk around as did the believers at Colosse.
So there is a shift, so to speak, of why we do what we do in the world. Those who have died are driven to do things in the world that speaks to that realm beyond, and not to the benefits here so much.
So, our death is IN Christ’s death. And at his death HE DIED to this world too – entirely. So much so that in and through His death he overcame the world and triumphed over it. And then Paul says here to them/then:
For YOU HAVE DIED (and he adds) and your life is hid with Christ in God.
So we note that Paul in this second line refers to our life, but he says, “and your life is HID with Christ in God.”
We do have a life and are alive, but it is not prioritized by earthly things, in fact this life is “HID” with CHRIST in God.”
Where was the resurrected Christ when Paul wrote this? At the right hand of God.
So the meaning seems to be that our eternal lives are sequestered away in Christ, who is in God, and that is it safely and securely deposited in Christ Himself.
This location is unassailable. It is a treasure in heaven where robbers or thieves or rust cannot invade and steal it.
Paul wrote in 2nd Timothy 1:12 and speaking of the Gospel message that he was sharing with the world
But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.
This guarded position of our lives, which is our eternal lives, with Christ in God, is fixed and the safest place in the universe.
Nothing can reach it nobody can take it away. We note that it has not been left with us nor has Jesus or God entrusted us with its keeping – where it cannot be lost, misplaced, stolen or forgotten.
Our lives – the spirit lives we have through faith on Christ – is WITH CHRIST IN GOD – or to be perfectly contextual, is with the believers at Colosse’s. We are merely benefiting from the insights he shared with them.
And so, the view is we live this life on earth dead and have entrusted that our real eternal heavenly based lives (genuine lives) are with Christ in God.
And this brings us to the question, is our eternal life forever secure – since it is, according to Paul, with Christ and in God?
I have to be honest, I think this passages is speaking to the believers in that day and he is telling the true believers then that their real life was secure in Christ with God.
However, I am also convinced that the security of this life sequesterd in heaven is based on faith – and that the loss of faith will subject this hidden life to being removed. Could be wrong.
So, Paul has said:
Verse 3 For YOU HAVE DIED and your life is hid with Christ in God. (And he adds verse 4)
4 When Christ (he says, “who is our life,” again referring to our real genuine lives being in him in and through His resurrection) “When Christ appears,” (Paul says) “then you also will appear with him in glory.”
This is a combination of some interesting factors that Paul presents to us. And it is not entirely clear to me on how to explain it as it relates to these people then. But I will try.
Paul has plainly said that we are dead with him, and that we are alive in Him (“in and through his resurrection”), and that “our lives are hid with Christ in God.”
And then (to those people) Paul adds (Listen carefully)
4 When Christ appears,” (Paul says) “then you (readers of this letter) also will appear with him in glory.”
Then shall you also appear with him in glory. Paul alludes to this in 1st Thessalonians 4:16-17 when he said:
“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord.”
Most or many Christians believe that this is speaking to what they call a rapture of the Saints.
But in my estimation this is only speaking of the Resurrection that will occur at Jesus return to them/then.
So, after saying this, Paul specifically names some things that a person who is both living in the power of Christ resurrection and who expects to receive a better resurrection in the future would have no part of, saying
5 Put to death (therefore) what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Notice the directive for the believer to take action. “Mortify therefore the members of your flesh” – remember, they are dead in the grave with Christ and since you are dead to sin and the world, and are to appear with Christ in the glories of his kingdom, subdue every carnal and evil propensity of your nature.
The imagery of course is if you have died with Christ in your flesh – STAY DEAD! I really love that little couplet : STAY DEAD!
Don’t let your body rise up from the grave like a zombie roaming the earth seeking to feed itself, seeking to do what dead flesh does.
STAY DEAD! Put to death what is “earthly or fleshly” in you.
And then Paul gives us a laundry list of things he tells them to stay dead from.
“Fornication.” In the Greek Pornia – which means a number of things in scripture including idolatry, interestingly enough and it seems to be the expression of the flesh that is most ubiquitous in the world.
Paul adds “Uncleanness,” which in the Greek means impurity. Filthiness.
“Inordinate affection” – which in the Greek is Paythos, which speaks to emotional appeals to things. I’m very interested in how the Greeks saw the way people are influenced and motivated.
They helped us form categories of such appeals in the words LOGOS, ETHOS and PAYTHOS
With LOGOS appealing to logic using words, reasoning, argumentation, facts, figures and case studies.
ETHOS appealing to credibility and trustworthiness or reputation of somethings, and
PAYTHOS appealing to emotions through stories, inspirational speaking, quotes and tales and vivid language.
When Pathos is used in a sinful manner it is when our flesh LUSTS and LONGS after something or someone – which is emotional and painful when such a things is kept from our grasp.
If you have ever been in lust with someone that you can’t have rightly, this is the thing Paul means. It is often referred to in scripture as “vile affections.”
In our ministry our focus is to reach people first with LOGOS, second with Ethos and lastly with PAYTHOS.
Why? Because Mormonism – and many other religious bents reverses this and first appeals to PAYTHOS (emotional drivers) the Ethos (authority) and lastly Logos (logic and reason).
EPI-THUMEA, the next thing, is closely related to PAYTHOS and means, “longing” – a total product of the flesh.
Goodness is my flesh when fed subject to longing. It is perhaps once of my weak points in character. To long for something or someone and to allow that longing to consume my thoughts, ambitions and ways.
Not good – of the flesh.
And then Paul adds, and “covetousness,” (and adds, “which is idolatry,”) which sort of rounds out the playing field of it all as we might find ourselves coveting, longing or lusting painfully, for the things that are not ours or what we can’t or shouldn’t have.
In scripture it is marked as “a strong desire after the possession of worldly things” but more than just a want as it is marked by (listen) “a cold hearted worldliness for things” – a devil may care desire to possess something at all cost – which is why Paul calls it idolatry – and because in the Christian heart such a desire ought to be aimed at God – to possess him over all other things.
So the world is guilty of Idolatry when its heart is more set on the things of it than on him. And taking all of this Paul adds now at verse 6
6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming on the children of disobedience.
Remember, remember, the tenth Commandment to them/then, the Nation of Israel, given by Moses on Mount Sinai, was thou shall “not covet.”
Where was this wrath of God coming to land on? Well, who had that law? The Jews. And so the wrath of God was going to fall on their HQ – Jerusalem, during the high holidays, when all males were required to attend. The wrath of God fell on them/then for these things that Paul has listed because by virtue of the Law they were in violation and rejecting their Messiah and they deserved death as the children of disobedience.
They could have become “the children of obedience by and through faith in Christ who fulfilled the law on their behalf,” but they lusted after and coveted after other things.
This caused Paul to write in Romans 1:18:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.”
Again, in Ephesians 5:6 Paul wrote:
“Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.”
See the connection please when you read scripture!
The Jews (the Children of Israel) had the LAW of Moses.
The Law made them sinners.
Jesus came and lived the Law sinlessly on their behalf.
They rejected Him and killed Him.
Therefore, the wrath of God was coming upon them, the Children of Disobedience.
This was not, is not, and will not be upon us! They were the First called the Children of Israel and then the Children of God and God gave them (and them alone) the LAW, and they BECAME the CHILDREN of Disobedience.
That is not the rest of us gentiles. We are disobedient by nature to the things of God, by birth – but we have no Law given.
So we are aliens from God by virtue of our nature but are not in the same boat as the Nation whom God called out, called His own, gave them the law and the prophets, gave them his son, whom they killed because the coveted after other gods (the things of this world).
So, the physical punishment that was coming to them/then is not coming to us in our future.
What will come to us from a reconciled God is “rewards or non-rewards – predicated on if we received His Son by faith, were adopted as His children because of such, and chose to walk with Him.
Our loving God does not punish the world for its sin – that punishment was paid for by His Son!. Then his wrath was poured our on the Children of Disobedience for rejecting Him.
Now he merely rewards those who receive Him by faith, with citizenship in His Kingdom now and hereafter.
So, getting back to Paul and his letter to the believers at Colosse we read at verse 7:
7 In these (all the stuff he just mentioned) you once walked, when you lived in them.
And he now adds more to his list of fleshly actions, saying:
8 But now put them all away!
anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth.
In verse 3, he told them that they were dead to the things in the flesh. Here he tells them to “put them all away!”
And he lists them as:
Anger, wrath, malice, slander and foul talk from your mouth.
Now, the reason we gather and read the scripture is because it describes for us not only the person of God and how to know Him, but it also clearly lays out what is expected of Sons and Daughters.
These are descriptions for each of us to hear and understand NOT to take and judge each other by.
We all have our fleshly issues – some of us more than others – and while Paul IS certainly telling them directly what to do and be, his demands, while applicable to all Christians, were in some ways more didactic and demanded of them (as the Bride to whom Jesus was coming to take).
Its sort of sticky because the things Paul says CERTAINLY have real meaning and application to believers today, but the way these things are overcome today are through less demonstrative ways.
Again, Paul was an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ and was there to bring the bride through those times so she could be taken without spot or blemish.
We are all self-preparing, by the Spirit and through teachings of the Word, to enter into life eternal at our deaths, and so while the principles remain important to us today individually, they are not collectively enforced or forced upon us by others.
It is you, the individuals decision, to avoid fornication and lust and covetousness, and anger and malice and the like.
Just like it was Adam and Eve’s decision whether to eat of the forbidden fruit or not!
Our gathering together to hear the word and to be move by the Spirit remains an individual experience, and the decision lies in the hands of each of us to choose to grow in such ways – or not.
Those who do not are to be loved as it is love that teaches all of us to turn from the flesh and choose to live by the things of the Spirit.
So Paul says, “put away” and I want to spend the rest of our time addressing just the first two words that Paul mentions – “anger and wrath.”
There is righteous anger and there is unrighteous anger – and most of us deal
in the latter.
According to Mark 3:5 Jesus looked around at unbelieving Jewish people and had righteous anger because of their hardness of heart.
Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:26, “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger” James added that we ought to be “slow to anger.”
But even anger justifiably expressed has the potential to overflow into evil anger and so a person has to be really cautious about this emotion.
Because James 1:20 says “the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God” I will stick to this form of anger noting that all righteous anger is moved by love, unrighteous anger is moved by the flesh.
Anger is a sin that can become life-dominating – this I know as I was dominated by it most of my young life.
Jesus actually likens this type of anger to murder as it comes the exact same source.
There are two Greek words that we must examine here in this passage: Orge is translated to “anger” and “wrath” comes from the Greek word, “thymos.” What is the difference?
Vine says that thumos/wrath “indicates a more agitated condition of the feelings, an outburst of wrath from inward indignation while orge suggests a more settled or abiding condition of mind, frequently with a view to taking revenge.
Orge (anger) is less sudden in its rise than thumos (wrath) but it appears to be more lasting in its nature.
Barclay says that the Greeks thought that thumos (translated wrath here) comes from thuein, meaning “to boil.”
Plato said that the term comes from “raging and boiling of the soul.”
Ammonius said that “thumos” (wrath) is temporary and momentary, but “orge” (translated anger) is “longerlasting and is even found in the cherishing of the evil thoughts.”
Wrath, therefore, will erupt and burn itself out while anger can seeth and light many future fires.
Some might suggest that anger is more feminine and wrath is more masculine, and there are always supports for such, but to me it seems that in humans the terms are not ever gender exclusive.
Perhaps looking to the law when it comes to murder, orge (anger) would be akin to first degree murder (plotted and planned out) and “Thumos” (wrath) would be related to 2nd degree or an act of passion.
Interestingly, in the eyes of the law, orge (anger) is far more sinister – but the terms are certainly related, aren’t they?
In either case, as proven by Paul, both are not pleasing to God.
I think that a person can have long seething anger without ever expressing wrath – but I think it’s rare, as the one usually leads to the other if they are not put in check. In other words, I think wrath is always a product of some sort of seething anger.
Bottom line – they have to be controlled – especially the anger, because it is the true fuel of violence, murder and wrathful acts.
Because God judges the heart of an individual, deep seeded anger is really a vile trait to nurture and maintain because, as stated, it is the same fuel that motivates wrath and evil deeds – therefore to possess unrighteous anger is to possess the spirit of murder.
Thumos is defined as wrath, angry fits of rage, temper tantrums, outbursts of passion, bad temper, fury, angry tempers, ill-feeling, passion, and furious rage.
And while anger might express itself it tends to linger and live much longer in the heart of Man. Of course the biblical antidote to anger and wrath is genuine agape love.
Paul says that love is patient—but anger and especially wrath is impatient.
He said that Love is kind—but anger and wrath are often very very unkind.
He said that Love does not act unbecomingly—but anger and wrath are not becoming of a follower of Christ.
Paul says that love is not easily provoked—but anger and wrath a are often the opposite.
To me, the only way to actually overcome or control innate anger and or wrath is by the increase of the fruits of the Spirit.
The start of this process begins with humility – for when we see ourselves for who we really are in the heart before God we will break.
Allow that lowly view to fester and work in you if you struggle with anger or wrath – use it in the presence of getting angry and wrathful in situations, realize that in the end, we really don’t have the right to such attitudes – ever. In this, the anger and wrath will begin to subside. This I know.
PRAYER
PUT ON BOARD
PUT TO DEATH/PUT AWAY
PUT ON
1 fornication,
2. impurity,
3 passion,
4 evil desire
5 and covetousness, which is idolatry
6 anger,
7 wrath,
8 malice,
9 slander,
10 and foul talk from your mouth.
11 Do not lie to one another,
12 seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices
1 the new nature
(which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator).
2 Compassion
3 Kindness
4 Lowliness
5 Meekness
6 Patience
7 forbearing one another
8 and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
9 love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
10 let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts
11 and be thankful.
12 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom
13 and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
14 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus
15 giving thanks to God the Father through him.
