There is no such thing as the perfect church. We might long for it, but we won’t find it this side of heaven. The reality is that churches can experience tensions and disagreements amongst their members. Yet church is important. Jesus said, ‘I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it’ (Matthew 16:18). Paul, and Peter too, had every expectation that ‘church’ should be a good experience for us.
RELATIONSHIPS
In Colossians 3:12-17 Paul points to attitudes and actions we need to work at in our relationships, so that instead of walking away, we might find a way to keep the peace. He writes:
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with 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 with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs 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.
ATTITUDES
If we are to experience the peace of Christ in our relationships, we need new attitudes. Instead of indifference – compassion and kindness; instead of pride – humility and gentleness; instead of impatience and resentment – patience.
Above all, Paul says: Forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven you. Designed by God to love him, we have turned our love inward. However, God is prepared to pardon and deliver us through the death of Jesus Christ, when we turn to him in repentance and faith. Paul is saying, because God is prepared to forgive us, we should be prepared to forgive those who wrong us. Paul knows how easy it is for us to be divided and the corrosive effect of wounded feelings. But he also knows of the one force that can heal, and enable us to grow into maturity – love.
Churches ought to be different from the wider society for they are the one place where the ethics of the kingdom should be evident — love, mercy, and reconciliation rather than revenge or personal retribution. ‘Pray about your attitude towards those who have wronged you’ says Paul. ‘Will you forgive them? Do you care for them? Above all will you love them?’
PRACTICAL ACTION
Keeping the peace doesn’t mean simply sweeping our differences under the carpet or putting on an artificial smile. Paul advises us to act on three principles:
Bible. By coming to the Bible together we can instruct and help one another, and even correct one another (3:16). We need to learn to bring our minds under the direction of the Lord’s mind and the way we do this is by coming to the Bible together. Furthermore, we are to read the Scriptures with wisdom. There is no place for uninformed Bible study, reading into the Bible what we want it to mean. Rather, we need to discover its plain meaning together, text in context.
Music. Most of us think of singing in church as simply a way to praise God. But Paul suggests there is another purpose: instruction and exhortation. We do not have to address God every time we sing, for it’s also important we speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. It’s one reason we should sing songs that are not insipid or soppy, but strong on Bible. Singing is an important way of building relationships.
Gratitude. Discontent often creates tension and division amongst us. Usually our discontent springs from ingratitude. A thankful heart trusts God in every situation, knowing that the Lord Jesus is in control. Thankful people are usually joy-filled and encouraging people.
You may want to consider:
1.your attitude to someone who has hurt you or someone you resent: is there anything in your life that needs to change? Are you prepared to forgive?
2.the way that Paul puts God’s Word, the Bible, at the heart of our relationship with one another: what lessons can we learn from this?
3.three people / things in your life for which you can thank the Lord.
12 As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with 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 with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs 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.
TRANSFORMED RELATIONSHIPS
Attitudes. There is no such thing as the perfect church this side of heaven. We long for it, but we won’t find it. The reality is that churches experience the tensions and sometimes the conflicts that are found in the wider society. Yet ‘church’ in the New Testament is important. Jesus said, ‘I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.’ Paul, and Peter too, had every expectation that ‘church’ would be a good experience for people. Paul gives us some practical clues to help us make this happen. In Colossians 3:12-17 he points to attitudes and actions we all need to adopt in our relationships so that we may keep the peace.
Consider the flip-side of attitudes that Paul enjoins us to adopt: indifference, pride and impatience. Indifference doesn’t concern itself with others; pride only thinks about self; impatience ignores the realities of life now. If we are to experience the peace of Christ in our relationships, we need new attitudes: instead of indifference – compassion and kindness; instead of pride – humility and gentleness; instead of impatience and resentment – patience.
GOD’S LOVE
Above all, Paul says: Forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven you. Designed by God to love because we are made in his image, we turned our love away from him. But what was the response of God, whose essential nature is to give life and to love? He offered full and free pardon to anyone who turns to Jesus Christ in repentance and in faith. If God was prepared to pay in full the cost of our reconciliation, shouldn’t we be prepared to forgive those who have wronged us? Paul knew how easy it is for us to be divided. He knew the corrosive effect of wounded feelings. But he also knew of the one force that can heal, and enable us to grow into maturity – love.
Churches ought to be different from the wider society for churches are the one place where the ethics of the kingdom should be evident — love, mercy, and reconciliation; not revenge or personal retribution. ‘Pray about your attitude towards those who have wronged you’ says Paul. ‘Can you forgive them? Do you care for them? Above all will you love them?’
Practical Action. Keeping the peace doesn’t mean simply sweeping our differences under the carpet or putting on an artificial smile. We need to work at three things:
Bible. By coming to the Bible together we can instruct and help one another, and even correct one another (3:16). We need to learn to bring our minds under the direction of the Lord’s mind and the way we do this is by coming to the Bible together. Furthermore, we are to read the Scriptures with wisdom. There is no place for uninformed Bible study, reading into the Bible what we want it to mean. Rather, we need to discover the plain meaning of the Bible together, text in context.
Music. Most people think of music and songs in church as only praise to God. However, Paul suggests another purpose: instruction and exhortation. We do not have to address God every time we sing, for it’s also important we speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. It’s one reason we should sing songs that are not insipid or soppy, but strong on Bible. By implication singing is an important way of building relationships.
Gratitude. Discontent often creates tension and division amongst us. And usually our discontent springs from ingratitude. A thankful heart trusts God in every situation, knowing that the Lord Jesus is in control. Thankful people are usually happy and contented people.
You may want to consider:
your attitude to someone who has wronged you or someone you might resent: is there anything in your life that needs to change? Are you prepared to forgive?
the way that Paul puts God’s Word, the Bible, at the heart of our relationship with one another: what lessons can we learn from this?
three people / things in your life for which you can thank the Lord.
1 So if 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 hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. 7 These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. 8 But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices 10 and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. 11 In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!
TRANSFORMATION
A New Status. In the first two chapters of his letter Paul has been saying that when Jesus Christ came, God’s rule over the cosmos took on a new form. A new world order began which, for the present, co-exists with the one we know. In Colossians 1:13 Paul put it like this: God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves….
He wants us to know that God is working out his cosmic strategy in world events and the arena of our lives. Ephesians 1, echoing Genesis 1:15, makes it clear that from before the creation of space and time, God put in place a plan to rescue men and women. And Philippians 2:5-6 tells us that the Son of God not only agreed to take on human form, but gave his life as a sacrifice. Sharing with God the Father the desire to give life and to love, he, the just, would give his life for the unjust, to satisfy God’s perfect righteousness. Jesus’ death was not the end. Rather, it was the end of the beginning— the last stage of God’s plan for the world as we know it.
DARKNESS AND LIGHT
Jesus’ resurrection confirms this, for it points to a power at work that can overcome death itself. It points to the existence of a new world order that we can begin to experience now.
We can think of it like this: two great realms now co-exist— the dominion of darkness and the kingdom of God’s Son. The dominion of darkness is shrinking to eternal destruction. But the kingdom of God’s Son is a universe that is expanding to an eternal glory. For the present, there is a door that allows people to pass from one world to the other. When we turn to Jesus and give him our allegiance we have an identity in both worlds. Physically we are still in the old, but our names are registered in the new.
A New Life-Style. In 3:5 we read, Put to death therefore whatever in you is earthly… Toss out of your life what doesn’t fit this new life with Christ. Is it sexual immorality? Is it lust? Is it evil desire or greed, which is idolatry? Is it anger or rage, or malice or slander, or perhaps foul talk? Do you always tell the truth? These things belong to the old self. Put on the new selfwhich is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.
You may want to consider:
the meaning of Paul’s words in 3:1-2 – So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God;
the implications of Paul’s words in 3:4 – When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
the significance and application for you of the imperatives in 3:5-10.
6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
MATURITY
The Exhortation. Paul’s words here unlock the central theme of Colossians. Sometimes God’s people go looking for extra experiences and blessings due to their lack of growth and maturity. They have received Christ, but their faith has shriveled and dried up. This is the opposite of the New Testament expectation.
As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so now live. When we turn to Jesus Christ, through his Spirit he takes up residence in our lives. And as there are many things in our lives with which he is not comfortable, there is a lot of cleaning up to do. But, as anyone who has been involved in renovation and repairs knows, it takes longer and costs much more than expected. It’s like that with our lives. It takes longer and costs a lot more to make our lives a place fit for the king. The challenge is to make Christ Lord in every part of our daily lives.
Paul often uses the imagery of putting off the old and bringing in the new. Colossians 3, as we will see, provides examples of the kinds of practical things Jesus wants to see happen in our lives.
As you were rooted… be built up. Paul seems to be mixing his metaphors here – one from the world of botany, the other from building. But his meaning is clear: he is keen to see growth. He doesn’t want stunted followers of Jesus Christ in Colossae – or anywhere else. What then do we need to do? Look for more ecstatic experiences? No! A genuine experience of Christ rarely comes to someone who is not spending time in the Bible. This is one of the reasons for this 40-Days of Readings and Reflections.
Sometimes we aren’t motivated to dig deeper into the Bible until we have experienced a crisis, sickness at home, or the death of a friend. Only when we see the houses, cars, the costly jewels of the world for what they are, goods and trinkets that have a fading and passing splendor, we see the reality of God’s truth. And then we begin to grow.
As you were taught… be established in the truth. For some years a little saying kept me focused on the need for consistent Bible reading in my life: ‘No Bible, no breakfast; no prayer, no paper.’ The danger with this kind of line is that Bible reading and prayer become a law. But if it is taken as a guide it can be a useful reminder of the need for daily Bible reading and prayer.
And don’t ignore Paul’s concluding exhortation: …abounding in thanksgiving. To have a thankful heart is to have a contented heart. How often do we get anxious because thankfulness to God is not part of our psyche. The sense of thankfulness within us is a real measure of our growth in Christ. We cannot get taken up with our own desires and moans and groans for long if a spirit of thankfulness to Christ is an essential part of our thinking and attitudes – because we know deep down that he is the Lord, he is the good shepherd bringing good for us out of all the confusion and frustration of life.
You may want to consider:
how you can be rooted and built up in Jesus Christ – developing and maintaining a meaningful relationship with God – in tough times as well as good times;
what abounding in thanksgiving might look like in your life.
1 For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face. 2 I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I am saying this so that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments. 5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
GROWTH
The Agony In his first words in Colossians 2 Paul implies that he is praying for his readers – I want you to know how greatly I strive for you,…(lit. how much I am struggling for you). At the end of chapter 1, Paul had spoken of the way he agonized over his work of teaching and preaching. Now, he implies, ministry involves more than teaching: it also involves prayer. It was not something he did when all else failed. Prayer was an essential part of the hard work of his ministry. As with Jesus, it was a major investment of his energy.
And notice what he prayed: I want their hearts to be encouraged (strengthened) and united in love,… The issue of unity is at the heart of his concern. Lack of unity in a church often hinders the growth of God’s people and limits the witness of God’s gospel in the city. Paul goes on to set out his goal – that all may know Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The key to the transformation is a unity in mind and heart centered on Jesus Christ. Paul knows all too well that lasting unity depends on truth and love.
RICHEST BLESSINGS
The richest blessings in life are found in knowing Jesus Christ. Paul reminds us that true faith is not a matter of mystical experiences or intellectualism. It involves a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If we don’t know anything about a living, personal relationship with Jesus Christ, we are God’s people in name only. There’s all the difference in the world between waking up in the morning and saying, ‘Good Lord, it’s morning’ and ‘Good morning Lord.’
In Christ all the treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge are found. In the past these were hidden. Now in Jesus Christ they have been revealed. But Paul is concerned that the Colossians might be drawn to people who would distract them from a vital, unambiguous relationship with Jesus Christ. None of us can add to who Jesus is, or to what he has done for us.
The Ecstasy. Despite his concerns, joy and happiness bubble through Paul’s next words: I rejoice to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ. He had heard good things about God’s people in Colossae. Even though he couldn’t see them in person – he was in prison – he wanted them to know that he was with them in spirit. Prompted by God’s Spirit (1:8), they had responded positively to Epaphras’s preaching and had turned in repentance and faith to Jesus Christ as the Lord from heaven.
You may want to consider:
the place of prayer in your life;
why it is that professing Christians can sometimes feel that either their faith is dry or they need a new experience of God.
Practical Action. Keeping the peace doesn’t mean simply sweeping our differences under the carpet or putting on an artificial smile. We need to work at three things:
Sometimes we aren’t motivated to dig deeper into the Bible until we have experienced a crisis, sickness at home, or the death of a friend. Only when we see the houses, cars, the costly jewels of the world for what they are, goods and trinkets that have a fading and passing splendor, we see the reality of God’s truth. And then we begin to grow.
In Christ all the treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge are found. In the past these were hidden. Now in Jesus Christ they have been revealed. But Paul is concerned that the Colossians might be drawn to people who would distract them from a vital, unambiguous relationship with Jesus Christ. None of us can add to who Jesus is, or to what he has done for us.