Let us hearken, "But now, ye also put off all these." Christianity is community. Resources . It is necessary to mortify sins, because if we do not kill them, they will kill us. If, as men have fabled, spiritual beings sprang forth ready armed, as well as in fulness of wisdom and vigour, it would not be Christianity. But if we violate these rules, we're going to bring misery into our marriage. It was his confidence in their love; and this is shown not merely in his desire to hear about them, but in the conviction that they would like to hear about him. He is the first-born from among the dead, as well as the Head and firstborn Heir of all subsisting creation. Paul goes on to list some of the things which the Colossians must cut right out of life. "He is the head of all principality and power: in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh [for so it runs] by the circumcision of Christ: buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen.". Our thoughts should be occupied about the things where Christ now dwells, where our final home is to be, where our great interests are. 'This way, sonny. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." If He is, the fulness, you are made full in Him, "which is the head of all principality and power." He it is who strengthens the inner man to enjoy through Christ all the fulness of God. "They went out from us, because they were not of us." 81-82; and John F. Walvoord, Jesus Christ Our Lord, pp. To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. In seventeenth-century English that was clear enough: but it has lost its force in modern language. The fundamental effect of this Christian teaching is that marriage becomes a partnership. Nor is there to be unwatchfulness, but consideration in love of those without. He lives in us by his Spirit, and we live to him in all we do. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. None could pretend that He had ever refused a single soul; none could say that they had gone empty away. The children of Israel made a tragic mistake thinking, "Well, we are God's chosen people, and we can live like the nations around us." The one and same Christ it is who has settled everything. Were He among the Jews, it would be the introduction of the promised earthly glory. He was God's chosen One in the highest sense; He was the holy and beloved. It is evident, therefore, that these apostolic epistles were meant to circulate among the saints. The truth in Christ is not merely that God came down to man in love, but that man, the believer in Christ, is now dead and risen in Him. They needed rather reproof, and they are warned that the course on which they were entering was slippery and perilous. Years before, when he was writing to the Galatians, he had said, "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me" ( Galatians 2:20). They are not indeed to reign with Him: this was by no man and at no time promised to them. It's heaven on earth. Seek marks the practical striving; set your mind, the inward impulse and disposition. And in us, poor feeble souls, why should not this peace rule in our hearts, to the which also we are called in one body? Lit., be minded, think. (i) Christian speech must be kind. Set your affection on things above . Let man be unmendable, let his enmity be beyond all thought, God, in the calmness of His own wisdom, and in the strength of His unwearied grace, accomplishes His purpose of redeeming love at the very moment when man consummates his wickedness. II. NASB Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. [Note: Robertson, 4:500.]. In it there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free man. Thus the striving of the apostle was by no means only in the way of evangelizing. Who ever appealed in distress, and did not find in Him bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering? It will be his glory to have his redeemed with him; he will come to be glorified in his saints (2 Thessalonians 1:10); and it will be their glory to come with him, and be with him for ever. Before we begin to study the passage in some detail, we must note two great general principles which lie behind it and determine all its demands. Everything which would keep him from fully obeying God and fully surrendering to Christ must be surgically excised. "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things' sake, the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: in the which ye also walked sometime. There was, there could be, no lack of the attractiveness of love and power in Him who went about doing good; yet miserable hearts did not turn to Him, save where the grace of God the Father drew them to the only adequate expression of Himself. A man does not decide to be an *apostle. They had been moving away, not perhaps so rapidly as the Galatians; in faith they had been infirm. THE CHRISTIAN WORKMAN AND THE CHRISTIAN MASTER ( Colossians 3:18-25 ; Colossians 4:1 continued). He applies the truth to the case in hand after this: "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven us all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us." The duty of the parent is discipline, but it is also encouragement. How could it be otherwise if by the knowledge of God? Besides, when men, thus slur over its true force, and would extract consolation where God intends warning, it is a proof not of firm but of weak faith. Thus we should hold Him fast, not only in other respects, but in this special relation of "Head.". The tendency of any body of people is sooner or later to fly apart; love is the one bond which will hold them together in unbreakable fellowship. Only through Him are the eyes of the heart enlightened to know what God has wrought and secured for the saints. Such is the basis of the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free. Certainly they have no relation to me now risen with Him. We do not work for pay or for ambition or to satisfy an earthly master; we work so that we can take every task and offer it to Christ. Nowadays to mortify the flesh means rather to practise ascetic discipline and self-denial. We know well that God is making a good use of them, and that, in point of fact, if we meddle, it can only be to loss and confusion. Or to come at it another way, the man whose life is dominated by the desire to get things has set up things in the place of God--and that precisely is idolatry. "Within a few yards of where I was standing, a very young soldier, still looking sea-sick from his voyage, came struggling along gamely trying to keep up with his comrades in front. Not on things on the earth - Wealth, honor, pleasure. The sense of the phrase can be captured with "direct your mind to minding things above.". So it is said here, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." He must be heavenly-minded here on earth and so help to make earth like heaven." When the Christian was baptized, he put off his old clothes when he went down into the water and when he emerged he put on a new and pure white robe. Human words fail to add to such a thought. And the tragedy is that many people have become so habituated to unclean talk that they are unaware that they are using it. Suddenly the whole aspect of the heavens is changed. We have wives and husbands, children and fathers, servants and masters, brought together successively up to the first verse of Colossians 4:1-18, which should, of course, closeColossians 3:1-25; Colossians 3:1-25 rather than begin a new one. The most honoured servants of God invariably stir up the keenest opposition from man. In fact there was not even the thought of striving to be dead before the death of Christ came; and when He died, the Spirit in due time revealed not alone that He died for us, but that we died in Him. Its true character will be fully shown on the day when Christs glory is revealed (3-4). The Greeks likened it to a fire amongst straw, which quickly blazed and just as quickly burned itself out. And as this was so blessed and novel a truth, the apostle states his own earnestness about it "whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ.". Of God He is the image, not exactly in an exclusive, but assuredly in the only adequate sense. A man seeks to shine in the world now; it is a heedless if not heartless forgetfulness, that here He knew nothing but rejection. It is, therefore, a sin with a very wide range. And now the apostle would recall them: "Walk in him, rooted and built up in him." They were a people living in the world, and the whole system of Judaism supposed and dealt with a people in the world. If the peace of Jesus Christ is the umpire in any man's heart, then, when feelings clash and we are pulled in two directions at the same time, the decision of Christ will keep us in the way of love and the Church will remain the one body it is meant to be. The Greeks were the scholars and they would never have deigned to study a barbarian tongue. So the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in Him. Jesus says the greatest commandment in the law is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" (Matthew 22:37; see also Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12; Deuteronomy 30:6). The word father in his mind stood for nothing but severity. All the privileges and rights belonged to the parent and all the duties to the child. It is hid with Christ; not hid from us only, in point of secrecy, but hid for us, denoting security. The answer is important, for in it there is the whole Christian doctrine of work. But the great basic Christian virtues are those which govern human relationships. Orge ( G3709) is anger which has become inveterate; it is long-lasting, slow-burning anger, which refuses to be pacified and nurses its wrath to keep it warm. It is not merely bringing the heavenly into them, so to speak; and decidedly not of joining the two things together. In Colossians the argument requires that our resurrection with Christ, as well as death and burial, should be distinctly stated. "Behold, He comethevery eye shall see Him" ( Revelation 1:7 ). "In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." You must live as God's people. It was just because Montgomery combined discipline and encouragement that a private in the Eighth Army felt himself as good as a colonel in any other army. Thus the believer can look round full of joy upon his brethren; he can count up souls from every tribe, tongue, and station. She never appeared on the streets alone, not even to go marketing. This cannot be forgiven by all who cleave to the first man, on the side either of ordinances or of philosophy. He earnestly presses to mutual love and compassion (v. 12-17). It is remarkable that the two well-known and standing institutions I will not call them ordinances of Christianity, baptism and the Lord's supper, are the plain and certain expression of death in grace. The uncultured and the cultured came together in the Christian Church. Chastity was the one completely new virtue which Christianity brought into the world. Do we look for such a happiness, and should we not set our affections upon that world, and live above this? J. "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Whenever Christ, your life, shall appear, then you too shall appear with him in glory. Bible study tool. One of the great effects of Christianity is that it destroys the barriers. Under Roman law a slave could not possess any property whatsoever and here he is being promised nothing less than the inheritance of God. This was an entirely new thing. THE UNIVERSALITY OF CHRISTIANITY ( Colossians 3:9 b-13). Paul could think more deeply than any man who ever tried to express the Christian faith; he could travel along uncharted pathways of thought; he could scale the heights of the human mind, where even the best equipped theologian finds it hard to follow him; but always at the end of his letters he turns to the practical consequences of it all. ], "The Christian has to keep his feet upon the earth, but his head in the heavens. 4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. The Spirit, having secured His glory, is more at liberty as to every other topic. His master could thrash or brand or maim or even kill him at his caprice; he had not even the right of marriage. There must be in his life a radical transformation of the will and a radical shift of the centre. And what a deliverance from self to see Christ in them! He had not even the right to marry, and if he cohabited and there was a child, the child belonged to the master, just as the lambs of the flock belonged to the shepherd. But she says, "It would be simple if he really loved me, liked Jesus loved the church." And if we are dead to the earth, and have renounced it as our happiness, it is absurd for us to set our affections upon it, and seek it. Note well again that it is not here man striving to become dead, which is a notion unknown to the revelation of God, new or old. All the saints belong to us, as we belong to all of them. Clearly, therefore, the whole character of the new system depends, first, on the Deity of the incarnate Saviour, and, secondly, on the glorious truths of His atoning death and of His resurrection. Upon all such things the wrath of God must fall. What a humbling consideration that those so blessed (dead, as we have said, and risen with Christ) are here told to mortify what is most shameful and shameless! Who has been overlooked in the comprehensive and active grace of our God? Read full chapter Colossians 1 Colossians 3 But they are to be the people in whose midst the glory of Jehovah will take up its abode. He does not even say worthy of Christ, but "of the Lord." This is truth about them; and He who is the truth told it out. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Never will it be received, either by the world's religion, or by its philosophy. He belonged to God's chosen people and the other nations were fit only to be fuel for the fires of hell. So, in spiritual things, the mere taking up and repeating thoughts, deep and high but unproved experience, cannot be the fruit of the Spirit of God's teaching. Had you to do with the law? For the Christian, Christ is his life. He assigns three reasons for this, Colossians 3:3; Colossians 3:4. As the waters close over him, it is as if he was buried in death; as he emerges from the waters, it is like being resurrected to a new life. T. K. Abbott points out how this passage shows in summary fashion the barriers which Christianity destroyed. The sexual appetite was regarded as a thing to be gratified, not to be controlled. There were evils to be corrected, dancers to be warned against; but if he thinks of that which the Father has in view for them, and of them in view of His glory, less he could not say, neither could he say more. A man alive in the world is under these ordinances, and owns them. Why should we heed conjecture? Colossians 3:1. In the Spirit are both built together for God's habitation. The guilt which a broken law charged on the conscience is gone by an act infinitely more glorifying to God than the personal righteousnesses of all the men that ever lived, not to speak of the conscious pardon which is also secured to those who possess it. It is never an ethic on which all the duties are on one side. He must not be the kind of servant, who, as C. F. D. Moule puts it, does not dust behind the ornaments or sweep below the wardrobe. It is an ethic of mutual responsibility; and, therefore, it becomes an ethic where the thought of privilege and rights falls into the background and where the thought of duty and obligation becomes paramount. Wherein is the difference? The very fact that I have accepted Jesus Christ, the whole concept is that I have renounced the life of the flesh. But woe to such iniquitous and ungrateful adversaries! As Rev., set your mind. And if we'll follow these rules we can have a very happy marriage and a happy relationship. As he says, "having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether it be things on earth or things in heaven.". The supreme example was the Roman Patria Potestas, the law of the father's power. First the apostle brings in all things as a whole, the universal creaturehood, earthly and heavenly; thus giving us an adequate notion of the perfect triumph of God at the time when it seemed as if Satan had completely succeeded through man against the counsels of God. To the Colossians the Holy Ghost has to speak about their state, and along with this to present the truth of Christ as a remedy for it; not so much as the centre of blessedness and joy in the communion of the saints, but as supplying the true and only divine corrective to the efforts of Satan, who would drag them down into tradition on the one hand, and into philosophy on the other, the too common snares of human nature, and the latter more particularly for cultivated and reasoning minds. Paul turns to the working out of Christianity in the everyday relationships of life and living. No matter what may be the demand, love is after all most essential and influential too. As this gives us the new estate, and position, and relation in which stands the glorious person of the Lord Jesus, so next we have a view of His work suitably to the object of the epistle: "For all the fulness was pleased in him to dwell." He looks not at some advanced souls at Colosse, but at all the saints there. The Christian will have all the desires of the new man gratified. Colossians 3:1 "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." Colossians 3:5-6 " Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. * [3:1-4] By retaining the message of the gospel that the risen, living Christ is the source of their salvation, the Colossians will be free from false religious evaluations of the things of the world (Col 3:1-2). Christ it is who determines this, as all else. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged ( Colossians 3:21 ). I am very far from insinuating that Peter, James, John, Jude, and all the rest, did not preach justification by faith. It was not so in the Ephesian epistle, where one of the richest developments of divine truth precedes any particular allusion to the saints in that city. Yet even this did not reconcile man to God, but the very reverse rather; it proved that man was irreconcilable as far as he was concerned. After this follow particular exhortations, on which we need not at present dwell. There Jew or Gentile is all alike, and those who believe the gospel are by the Spirit united to Him as His body, Here the Gentiles in particular have Him in them, the pledge of their participating in His heavenly glory by and by. 1. It is all well for a Jew, because he has got his abstinences and his restrictions. It is a quite different state of things from what could be gathered from the Old Testament. And here we come back to where this passage started--that is precisely why the Christian sets his mind and heart on the things which are above and not on the things of this world. 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