Holy Living Col. 3

 

In Col. 2 Paul is reminding the Christians that have been buried with Christ in baptism and that Jesus has nailed the requirements of the Law to the cross. He warns them not to be deceived manmade religion and think that have to do things that the Word God does not authorize. Now in chapter 3 Paul expounds upon this thought and teaches the new converts what they need to be Holy and blameless before the Lord.

 

1- 4 – If you were raised with Christ – direct reference to baptism. As new Christians we should strive to focus in on heaven and the reward that is there.

 

1 Chronicles 16:11 Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face evermore!

Isaiah 55:6  Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. 

Mat. 6:33

Matthew 6:19 " Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;  20 "but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  21 "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

 

If we remain focused on God and holy living we can know that we will be found in the glory of Christ when he appears at His second coming.

 

5-7 Paul gives us a partial list of what sins these Christians used to be involved in until they these sins were removed when they were baptized.

Fornication – any type of sexual relations outside the bondage of marriage

Uncleanness – means have impure motives and thoughts because of a lustful heart

Passion – can be used in good sense or a bad one – this one is obvious bad

Evil desire- you have a deep desire to search out all evil things that God opposes

Covetousness – Greedy desire to have more even if you have to sin to get it.

 

God does not overlook these things people who have these sins will face his wrath.

 

8 - 11 Paul continues on telling these Christians more things they must put off.

Anger, wrath and malice are 3 deadly combinations. A person can become angry without sinning, but anger left unchecked will cause a person to sin which can lead to wrath, which the point when a person loses themselves and harms others. Then if you through malice into this mixture then you have a person who fully enraged with the intent to do harm to another person they do not like.

 

Paul understood this type sin,  Acts 9:1 Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest  2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

 

That is why he says,

Ephesians 4:26 "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath,  27 nor give place to the devil.

 

Blasphemy – to speak evil of others trying to damage there good name.

Filthy language – Saying foul words and talking about inappropriate things

Do not lie to one another – Lying is sin and can end you in hell Rev. 21:8

 

The reason why we should not continue in these sins is because when we baptized we put away our old body of sin (Rom. 6) and we became a new creature in Christ and we share the same unity no matter what our gender or nationality is. Next Paul is going to tells us what we should embrace as Christians so that we can be holy.

 

12 – 13 Once we become Christians we are considered as God’s elect, his choose few. We are his holy and beloved which means we must learn to be holy.

Tender mercies- This means we are to show tender and compassionate mercy to others just as God has shown us.

Kindness- One cannot be a Christian and not be kind because the opposite is being mean and spiteful.

Humility – Just a Jesus was humble before the Father we must be humble – Being humble is required before you can receive God’s Grace, "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."James 4:6 The opposite of being humble is being arrogant an prideful Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.

Meekness – means to be gentile

Longsuffering – means to be a patient and or slow to react in vengeance. God is has the same type of long suffering for us 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Bear with one another and be forgiven of one another – Again this ties in with the idea of being longsuffering and gentile. When someone repents we must forgive them just a Christ forgave us.

 

14 – Love should be center of every Christians life because it is what binds all these different things together. As Paul says in 1 Cor. 13 if you do not have love you have nothing.

15 – The peace of God should dwell in us and we should have great peace knowing that we have been called into that one body which is the church that Jesus will save. So, we should be thankful

16 – 17 This shows the importance of studying God’s Word and allowing it to be our guide. It also shows that we are sing praises to God with our voices and nothing else. Verse 17 shows that we are to respect the authority of Jesus.

18 – 21 Paul give more detail on the relationship between a husband and wife in Eph. 5:28 – 33. Wives are be submissive in accordance with God’s Word the husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. Children are to obey their parents and the Farther is not provoke their children causing them to become discouraged.

22 – 4:1 No matter who you are or who is over you, you are to do all things in sincerity so that God is glorified. Those who abused you in this life will have to answer to God on the Day of Judgment.

4:2 – 5 We are to continue in prayer and thanksgiving. We should always pray for opportunities to reach the lost. As we live our Christian lives we must exercise wisdom when we are in the world so the people can see what a Christian is supposed to be like. We need to redeem the time because the life on this earth is short and we only have short time to win people to Christ. No matter how much we want speak roughly to someone we must hold our tongue and think before we speak so that we can teach the truth in loving way and not a harsh way.

 

If we can learn put away these sinful things and embrace these Holy things then we can truly call ourselves Holy people of God. I want to close with what Paul said to the Philippians Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy -- meditate on these things.  9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.