Colossians 3:1-11
I wonder if you have ever been to a party or an event, to find yourself either underdressed for the occasion, or maybe you simply weren’t aware there was a dress code, and as a result you would yourself not quite blending in?
I’m not really a big fan of dressing up, whether it’s for fancy dress parties or just wearing something a bit smarter, but despite my reluctance, I find myself frustrated for not joining in if I don’t make the effort.
For me, it’s always something of a struggle to get with the programme. If I’m invited to a fancy dress party, at first I might get excited, full of lots of different ideas about what I could go as. But I find that as the date gets closer, I start to lose confidence, to the point where sometimes I don’t even bother, or maybe dig out a simple mask that I can take off again a few minutes after I’ve arrived.
In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, we are taught that there are certain ways of the world that we need to let go of and leave behind, and there is a new way, which is the way of Christ and the Kingdom.
It’s not always easy to leave old things behind - as the saying goes, old habits die hard - but it’s necessary for us if we are to move forward, grow, and continue to be transformed by Christ.
In his letter, Paul warns against the ongoing temptation to go back to our old ways - the context here being the legalistic aspects of Judaism. For the people of Colossae, there were many who would still find the old ways to be comfortable, and reliable.
As a musician, I find myself sticking to the same old chords and patterns, and that limits me whenever I come to trying to write anything. If I’m going to improve and grow, sometimes I need to throw what I know out of the window and learn something totally new, so that I can find a better way to go forward.
Similarly, any of us can become as good at the English language as we can, able to articulate things and ideas with great depth, but what good will that do us if we arrive in a remote part of China where no one speaks English?
What once worked for us now doesn’t work in the same way. Now we have given ourselves to Christ, we operate under a different set of rules.
Sometimes, what worked or functioned just fine suddenly becomes obsolete.
People are discovering this all the time, particularly in an age where technology is constantly being upgraded. If you keep using the same smartphone for too long, eventually you will find that some of the apps simply won’t work any more.
It’s possible that the people of Colossae felt that going back to the old rules of the Torah would be a help to them, like a kind of safety net, putting some extra rules in place just to be on the safe side and be sure to do better, morally and spiritually.
But this is an illusion. And more than that, it flat out denies that Christ has the ultimate authority over us and our lives. To put other rules in place, or to reinstate old ones, rejects Christ’s supremacy.
Those rules that once had to be followed so rigidly have been fulfilled in Christ.
We still see rules in the Church today - the Church of England calls them ‘Canon Law’, which can sound quite powerful and scary, but in the end these rules are points that have been made by the church through the ages to make sure things are kept in order. Unfortunately, human beings love to take these kinds of guides and turn them into a straitjacket.
These kinds of rules and laws don’t save, even though they are still based on biblical truths.
In the end, we are saved through Christ, and Christ alone, and Paul reminds us that because of our faith in Him, we have been raised again with Him. Because we have been raised with Him, we are encouraged to look up, to raise our eyes to the heavens and set our hearts on Him.
This is how we find out more about who we truly are. While we are still being made holy here on earth, still being transformed, we also see a reflection of ourselves when we look to Christ. As we “set our minds on things above”, we begin to think in a Kingdom context, rather than an earthly context.
As believers, we anticipate the return of Christ - when He appears, He will reconcile heaven and earth, he will complete what He started at the cross. And it will be far beyond anything we can ever imagine.
Are we ready for that? Well, no, of course not, but we can make steps to be prepared, and it starts with setting our “hearts on things above”.
The process of being made holy isn’t necessarily an easy one. There are no shortcuts to holiness. It’s a longer, harder route in some ways, one where we need to die and be raised again. But good news - this has already been done in Christ. The important thing to realise is that although that price has paid, we still need to let go of a few things.
Paul points out some aspects of the earthly, sinful nature that we need to put away, and they fall into two categories; sex, and speech.
It’s as if these aspects of the human nature are a kind of currency. The way broken people operate is often dysfunctional - a wronged person seeks revenge rather than choosing forgiveness, and people are judged based on their physical appearance. The suggestion is that the currency for the Kingdom is found elsewhere, certainly not in the worldly way things are given value on earth.
So Paul lists a variety of areas where sexual sin needed to be addressed for the Colossians, particularly highlighting areas of pagan influence that needed to be turned away from.
What is interesting is how Paul also offers a list of sins that fall into the category of speech, suggesting that the damage caused by our speech can be just as bad as that of sexual sin.
It’s a very postmodern view, to say “As long as I don’t hurt anybody, it’s ok.”
But this is rarely the case.
In either category, they both affect the individual, as well as the people affected and their wider community.
We are being transformed, made new, holy.
We’re being encouraged to take off the old - to stop going to the habits and attitudes that we used to have - and put on the new. It’s time for a fresh attitude that comes from looking to heaven and fixing our eyes on Christ.
It’s not always easy.
But we take off the old because it simply isn’t appropriate. It’s like turning up to a black tie event dressed in a wetsuit.
A while ago I was helping a friend’s child put their shoes and socks on. It did not go well. But just as a child grows, and eventually learns to put their own shoes and socks on, so we begin to think and act in a way that fits more with the kingdom of God.
And as we do this, as our new self is renewed in knowledge, we come ever closer to knowing our Father God, and more about what it means to be the people He has made us to be.
This is all part of the life of discipline that has been set before us. Sometimes it will feel easier, sometimes harder, but we are always moving somewhere and God is always at work in us.
One commentator said: “Learning to believe what doesn’t at the moment feel true is an essential part of being a Christian.”
And the truth is, you have been raised with Christ. You are holy in His sight, and you are being renewed and transformed each and every day.
Chris Marsh, 6th Nov. 2016
1