Real time Tactical Protocols for Spiritual Maturity, Colossians 3:1 17 Review Remember, God is speaking to both the believers at Colossae and then, to us, who follow them as the body of Christ in history. This letter, then, reveals God s objective for us. And here central to what God reveals as his objective is epignosis or full knowledge, that we may engage as those who are spiritually mature and walk worthy of the Lord. Colossians 1:9 12 9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. 1
Then Paul revealed our motivation or the cause of the believer which was and is, forever and ever, Christ our Lord. Colossians 1:13 23 13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins 19 For it was the Father s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, 21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond 25 Of this church I was made a minister for your benefit so that we may present every man complete in Christ. 29 For this purpose also I labor 2
Following this we are given the Divine Offensive Strategy to being built up in the faith Identifying a true Shepherd A life committed to learning sound Bible doctrine and mixing it with faith Attaining spiritual maturity which stabilizes us in every manner and results in our appreciation for God Colossians 2:1 7 1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. 3
And then, in the remainder of chapter 2, we covered the Divine Defensive Strategy for spiritual maturity Responding to and setting boundaries with false teachers and doctrine, Colossians 2:8 23. Those principles were: There will be competing viewpoints to God s Word, expect them to come (v.8) Christ is greater than any and all of these competing persons or ideas, is he being diminished or replaced? (vs. 9 15) Recognize false teachers and false ideas because of what they bring (vs. 16 19) False judgments Robbery of the life of faith against believers Pseudo spirituality Focus is away from Christ Remember your justification, it makes you religiously uncondemnable (unimpeachable) (vs. 20 23) 4
Seeing that God, through Paul, has revealed to us our cause, objective, the divine offensive and defensive strategies to spiritual maturity that we may please God with our lives, he now places us inside that strategy and face to face with the conflict. Here we will be provided with real time tactical protocols that are indispensable to our success in maturing as saints. Again, notice that Paul begins with the overarching cause and objective, then narrows to strategic protocols and further to tactics and detailed contexts. Let s begin this section. 5
Accepting Divine Viewpoint as a Way of Life Colossians 3:1 3 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Every single day we live as Christians we have a choice, day in and day out. Either we commit to having our thinking be that of God s or of humanity s. It must be a way of life, not a casual, incidental or part time pursuit. Our thinking must be that of Christ s (abide in me and my word abide in you). God s command, here, contains some vital realities which will help us understand the nature of developing a divine viewpoint. 6
Divine viewpoint is for the believer (v 1.) Paul says if you have been raise up with Christ. This reveals that what he is about to say is for the Christian. It is constant, ongoing and never ending (v 1.) Here Paul uses the present active imperative for the word seek. A present tense verb is not a one time action with the active voice but a continuous, ever occurring thing; in other words, a way of life day in and day out, moment by moment. It is the divine value system God gave for making judgments (v2) The Greek word for set your minds is φρονεῖτε (phroneite) which means not just to think or ponder but to think with judgment. It refers to decision making type of thinking which assumes values and principles. 7
Each day belongs to Christ and his purposes (v3) What does Paul tell us? He says, your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your purpose on earth is not to meet earthly objectives but that of God s. This does not mean we will not be part of earthly objectives such as vocation or leisure but they are not the overriding and ruling objective of our life. Thus, to meet God s objectives we must have his thinking. Living with and by a divine viewpoint is an inglorious and invisible way of life (v. 4) Too often in Christianity we see modeled the life of glory, your best life now. But what does God teach? He teaches that the glory of what we have done, are doing and will do as obedient believers following his protocols and living life with a divine viewpoint won t be revealed until Christ, who is our life is reveled. (Compare with J. Meyers) 8
Accepting Your New Identity, In Christ Colossians 3:5 17 (NRSV) 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! 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. 9
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. Refuse to give expression to the sin nature (vs. 5 9) Here Paul uses the metaphor of putting something to death. When we permit bad thinking we pave the road to bad words and deeds. All of the things Paul described begins with bad thinking. Hence, we are to refuse to feed our minds that which encourages sinful expression such as sexual sins, greed which is equated with idolatry and sins of the tongue. 10
This will be an ongoing and daily engagement for the believer until he or she is freed from their body of sin in eternity future. As well, the text presents this as a two fold process. It is not merely putting off and refusing to live a life controlled by the sin nature of the flesh. It is also yielding to a life controlled by God s Spirit through the new man created in us in the new birth who empowers us to not sin and please God in our thoughts, words and deeds. Give expression to your new identity, in Christ (vs. 10 17) Paul here lays out a description of the new life we are to live. This life is the life that leads to maturity and ultimately the objective(s) of God, in Christ. Let s examine its properties. You are a new man which means new things. You are not to look at yourself and compare yourself to the world and its expression. (v. 10). (1 Cor. 2:14, 2 Cor. 5:17) 11
Your identity comes with a new way of thinking. Renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator (v. 10) The word renewed is translated from a Greek word which means to renovate. Whatever human philosophies of life and interpretations of life s meanings, they are to be replaced with God s viewpoint which we get from the Scriptures. Your identity as a member of the body of Christ, which has in view this epistemological renewal, is based in a spiritual construct where no human/anthropological properties have any relevance with regard to your spiritual exercise (v. 11). 12
It is a great shame, today, that our churches in many places count race, ethnicity and gender with special interest. The fact is, in the body of Christ, these properties are anecdotal and should not be matters of pursuit. Our pursuit is to the unbelieving world with the gospel regardless of their person and our pursuit of spiritual fellowship with other believers is again, without respect to their person and based on their being spiritual brothers and sisters. You are to be led about by the desires of the Holy Spirit which are listed by Paul (v. 12). When you encounter a sinful desire or sinful way of thinking which leads to the desire to act sinfully, you are to refuse its rule over you, forsake its errant disposition and yield to God s viewpoint and desires. (Eph. 5:18) You are to bear the shortcomings of others and ready to forgive. Not forgiving and intolerance of imperfect people will throw you off of reaching God s objective. You will be stuck in anger, bitterness and resentment and develop a resentment and pettiness complex. 13
You are to practice divine love or impersonal love, not personal, love toward believers (v 14). Remember, it is not social compatibility but spiritual camaraderie, which can only be accomplished through the power of the Spirit whose love will motivate and guide us and ultimately is that which brings what verse fourteen identifies as, binding everything together in perfect harmony. You are to be ruled by peace which is that of Christ s, (v. 15). This peace can only come from trusting God which can only come from knowing God which requires all that we have been talking about, spiritual maturity by epignosis or full knowledge, having the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5) You are to be appreciative and have a heart of gratitude toward God (v. 15) 14
You are to be preoccupied with Christ as described by Paul as having the word of Christ dwell in you richly. His word, its meaning and how it may be applied by faith, in your life, must regularly be on your mind in order to have the word dwell in you richly (v. 16) You are to communicate to other believers the truths of God through teaching and warning(v. 16) You are to participate in the community of saints through singing, with gratitude, various forms of songs to God which build up others at the same time (v. 16) You are to do everything in Christ s name, hence, believing he approves of it, thanking God the Father (v. 17) 15