Colossians 3:10-17 - The Man In Blue and God's Image

Well, welcome back to Strength for the Day. We've got a kind of abnormal format for today as well.

I don't know if it's abnormal anymore. We've already done this twice.

Listen, speaking to us today from Folsom County Jail or Folsom County Prison, we have the man in blue with a black undershirt.

Folsom County, why Folsom County Prison?

There's an old Johnny Cash song, I think.

Yeah, I wouldn't know about that stuff.

See, but you've got to voice deep enough. I feel like you do know about it, and you're just, you are hiding your talents from us, and I feel like that's messed up.

I'm sorry. Maybe you'll have to teach me the song, and then I'll see if I can mimic it.

I got to learn the song first before I try to teach it. But we are in the Book of Colossians, and we last week learned that we should not bring along dead people into our life.

And specifically, the Apostle Paul is going through in Chapter 3, he says, Christ is risen, you are risen with him, he is returning, so you need to live in such a way that is befitting your king and your lord.

And last week, we looked at a long list of sins and things that are indicative of our old nature that was crucified with Christ on the cross, and that is no longer who we are, it's no longer our identity, it's no longer who we have to be.

I think it's good to remember that word, mortify, to deaden, and understanding that it's all new. You know, we've been given new life, and it's not something that...

And we'll talk more about it here in just a minute, but it's not a bunch of things that we have to do because Christ already won the victory. I love what you said last week at church that we serve God from victory, not for victory.

And that's just, I think this passage really helps with that. Yep.

And so, last week, there were lots of, like you mentioned, Pastor, there was mortify. And then the other word that was mentioned in there was put off. And that's kind of like clothing.

I think I've seen you do kind of the visual example of it before, where you take off a jacket, you take off whatever element of your clothing. And then this week, there's kind of the flip side of it.

So, Pastor, would you like to read our passage for this morning? Or do you have anything else that you want to say?

No, that's good. Yeah, let's jump into it. So we are looking from, I'm going to start at verse 10.

I know we're doing mainly verse 12 through 17, but verse 10, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put boughs of mercies on, kindness, humbleness or humility in your mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another.

If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also you are called in one body and be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Yeah. Yeah, wonderful passage. And if any of you happen to see a fly land on me and you see me doing karate actions, it is because this fly has invaded this holy sanctuary and I'm trying to kill it.

I thought it's because you were trying out for the next karate kid.

I don't think I'm quite the type.

I don't think I fit the bill. Pastor, let me ask you, what sticks out to you from this passage? Obviously, there's a ton of stuff in there that we could talk about, but what are some of the big things that you see as you look at this passage?

Yeah.

So I think when we come to this, again, like you said a second ago, there's a put-off and a put-on, and it's like changing clothes. I'm in Indiana right now, that's why we're doing this via Zoom this time instead of in person.

You know, the other day on Thursday, I've been at a Christian school retreat and then their church. On Thursday, we were at this Christian school retreat, and we played a basketball game of the high schoolers versus the adults.

And I played basketball on this court. I didn't bring my shoes, which you know, that's what I need.

So we played this basketball game on the most dusty court I've ever played, and people were sliding all over and falling, and I thought I was going to die, but it was super hot outside.

It was hot in that court, in that gym, and we're playing this game. And honestly, afterward, I got, I mean, I got sweaty and just musty from being in that humidity.

And then the leader came up to me, the school principal, and he was like, hey, I need you to monitor the gym because all of the staff have to go practice for a special tonight. And I was just like, okay, I can do that. How long are you going to be?

And he was like, oh, it shouldn't be long. And I said, good, because I want to shower. I want to change clothes.

And we've all been there when we've done something in activity, maybe it's gardening or doing something outside. And we just get this musty smell on you or you're all sticky or whatever. And you just want to shower and change clothes.

What do you do? You put off the old and you put on the new.

And really that's the picture that Paul is creating for us of helping us understand that when we receive Christ, there is a lot of old, dead, musty smelling things in our life that need to be put off and then we can put on the new.

And really it's a choice. We already know that Jesus has won the victory. And Brian, you taught Welder this a few weeks ago about really the beginning of our series, the whole book of Colossians of what we have in Christ.

But even though we have salvation, salvation has to affect our decisions. And so we now have to choose some things for ourselves. And that's what Paul is speaking to, the put off and put on.

Here's the choice. You choose, last week, you choose to walk in anger or malice or blasphemy. You choose to walk in filthy communication.

You choose to walk in lying. Or today, you choose to instead put on compassion, or you put on patience, or you put on kindness, which is that demonstrative characteristic of God's love.

You put on a humbleness of mind, recognizing humility starts not in our actions, but in the way we think.

And so when I read this, I'm just kind of thinking, okay, the put off, put on, it is a choice that I make, not necessarily something that I get zapped with at the moment of salvation.

And wouldn't that be nice to just be zapped with new decisions and all of that stuff. And we have that capability because of what we have in Christ, but we have to remember it's a decision.

Yeah, it's great.

I think it's interesting, continuing the thought from verses 10 and 11 like you did, that we are putting on the new man, we are putting on that new self, that is being renewed according to the image of him who created it, and that we were initially

in the garden, created in the image of God. And that has not been completely effaced away, that we've met people that are kind or patient or gentle, that don't know Christ.

And it's part of them still being made in the image of God, that is still there. But as we turn away from the old man, and instead turn to the new man, we are once again asking God, like, God, please help me to look like you.

Because as we read this list, this is who Christ is for us. He is compassionate. He is kind.

He is humble. You can think of the verse that says that he is gentle and lowly and heart. He is patient.

He bore with us in our sins when we were far from him, and he forgave us. And so as we look at this list, and actually, I do want to highlight, that's exactly what Paul says.

Bearing with one another, forgiving one another, whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so much do you do also. That we are being called to reflect the new man, and the new man is Christ.

We're being called to reflect God's image. And so it's not, hey, you know, you've got to try and reach some sort of sainthood.

You know, you've got to become the next Mother Teresa, in a sense, and you're trying to go, okay, well, how can I accomplish these incredible righteous acts or whatever to be seen as great in the eyes of people? And I don't think that's the point.

The point is mirror Christ, that when people see you, they're not seeing where he mentions in verse number six, but the old man is because of these things that the wrath of God is coming upon the children of disobedience.

So he's saying, don't look like the children of disobedience any longer, don't look like the son of God who is righteous in what he did and mirror his image.

And I just think that brings some comfort to this list of things that we're to put on because it's mirror Christ.

As you see what Christ has done for you, as you read in his word about who he was and what he did and how he did it, mirror him, mimic him, and we have the comfort of the word of God that we are being conformed to the image of Christ through the Holy

Spirit. So as we're putting on, it's not strictly, hey, you better get this done. It's God is doing this in you. And so allow him to do it.

Don't, yeah, I was just going to say, it's a good reminder that one of the thoughts I preached this morning, this recording this, I preach this morning to church on Sunday.

And one of the thoughts I brought is the fact that the Lord never asks us to do something or follow in something that he hasn't already done.

Yes.

And I love how Paul does that in a lot of his writings. Paul says, even as Christ, you know, hey, do that, even as Christ, follow here, even as Christ, be followers, therefore of God is dear children. And so I love that you bring that out.

But I want to jump just real quick. What you had said reminded me of verse 14, because we have all of these things that we're looking at, that we need to put on.

And Paul kind of ends the put on list with verse 14, when he says above all these things, put on charity or more active love, put on an active love, which is the bond of perfectness in the King James. It says that.

I don't know which one you're reading there. What are you reading?

I got the New American Standard, the perfect bond.

What's that say right there?

Yeah. In addition, all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Yeah.

So that word perfectness, it means complete maturity or complete unity of the ability of working together.

Yeah. I just think that it's cool that Paul closes that put on part with like, hey, yes, do these things, but above all, focus on love. Yeah.

When we make decisions based on the character trait and the heart of love, it really impacts what decisions we make. Yes. And Paul writes to that, I mean, 1st Corinthians, right?

Faith, hope, and charity, but the greatest of these is charity, greatest of these is love. Yeah. And of course, that wasn't anything new to Paul because Jesus had said that.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's very true. I think even a couple of weeks ago, our church has been going through the Book of Luke. Yeah.

And in Chapter 6, you have the Pharisees keep attacking Jesus for loving people. And it didn't fit with their particular rules and customs that they had.

But Jesus said, okay, if people are going hungry, if people are physically damaged and hurt and harmed, I have both the ability and the responsibility to help these people. I am going to let love determine what I do.

It's not going to be some extra religious whatever. It's going to be the love of God. And so I think, I think that's great.

I'm going to highlight real quick. One thing perverse in 15, 16, and 17, and then I'll toss it over to you to whatever you want to do after.

Well, wait, before you do that, let me just say this, that I think, you know, in the Christian's mind, when we read something like that, before you get into 15, 16, 17, the question is, how do we do this? Like, how can I put on?

So go from it from that angle.

Okay, so he gives all of these, all of these things that are reflective of Christ. How do I show compassion? How do I forgive and forbear?

How do I love someone? And those can happen in through three very important things. The first is verse 15, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

Oh, there we go. Let the peace of Christ, to which you are called in one body, rule in your hearts and be thankful. So first off, he says, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

This is the only time in the New Testament that this particular word rule is used.

And it's a specific kind of ruling, like an officiating, that you would have in sports, or that you would have at races, or that you would have during the Olympic Games. And it's to allow Christ's peace to help determine your steps.

If you are going to do something, and Christ's peace is not in your heart, and the Holy Spirit is going, uh-uh, that's not it. If you say that to that person, that's not going to be good. Or if you said that to that person, and that was not good.

If you do not have the peace of Christ, it tells us, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Um, and I love the fact that it says, let the peace of Christ to which you are indeed called in one body.

Uh, that Christ's peace is to determine all of our actions, uh, together, that we would do things not out of strife or vainglory, as Paul would say in Philippians 2, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves.

Uh, so that's the first thing is let the peace of Christ rule or officiate, uh, your actions. That's one way to put on is that you can know, all right, have I got the right clothes on right now? Okay, well, how's the peace of Christ in my heart?

What's the Holy Spirit telling me about this decision or these words or this action?

Uh, secondly, he says, Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another, with Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace or thankfulness in your hearts to God.

So then he says, Okay, it's great if you have the peace of Christ, uh, that should officiate everything that you're doing. But you also need the word of Christ to dwell richly in you.

If you don't know what God says, then how are you going to know if, uh, maybe a feeling is the peace of Christ, if it is the Holy Spirit, or if it's just some, uh, you know, bad lasagna or something that you're eating.

Okay, well, you know, if it's in line with the word of God. And so, uh, he challenges them, hey, let God's word dwell richly in you.

And he gives one very important thing that as a music pastor guy, uh, I feel like I got to give my plug for, uh, the point of singing in church is, uh, not to hype people up.

It's not to make people really happy about whatever songs, uh, that are chosen kind of like a karaoke thing. It's not a best hits of. It is to teach the word of God to the people of God.

And so that's, that's one of the things that, um, our music team is always trying to do is say, okay, what is this teaching people from the Bible about the truth of God? And so, uh, so first he says, peace of Christ, officiate in your hearts.

Let the word of Christ richly dwell in you.

How that works out, uh, in this particular, uh, realm, the Colossians didn't have a bunch of writings from the New Testament, uh, but, uh, they would learn things through the Psalms, the hymns and the spiritual songs.

You might not have a physical copy of the word of God that you had, but you could memorize, uh, scripture that was being sung. And that was a very common thing back in those days.

And so, uh, I think you could also very safely make the statement that to, uh, let the word of Christ well-wishly, and you would also apply to things like memorization in addition to singing God's word.

And then, uh, very lastly, just whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Um, the, the command there that is given is do everything in the name of, uh, Jesus.

Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. It's one of the 10 commandments to not take the name of the Lord, a God in vain. And so here he is telling them, hey, do everything you do in the name of the Lord Jesus.

However, you're talking to people, whatever action you're participating in, everything you need to be able to say, I am doing this for the Lord. Uh, and there are all of the actions that were to put off.

We should not be doing those things and saying, oh yeah, like I'm a Christian, I'm one of Jesus' disciples and also living like the old man. So those are the three things, peace of Christ, word of Christ, and the name of Christ. So, Pastor.

No, I totally agree.

And I think that when you look at putting off, putting on, and then verse 15, 16, and 17, the how, I think it's recognizing that if I allow Christ to inhabit my attitude, that's the peace of God, letting that be on my mind.

If I allow him to inhabit my attitude, if I allow him to inhabit my influences, the word of God, music, all of that, and my actions, I'm living for the glory of God, then a byproduct of God being allowed to be a part of every aspect of my life, will

be those things being put on. So as I walk with the Lord, as I allow him to be my influence, as I allow his piece to rule, I love that word, to govern and to lead and to guide my heart and my actions and my mindset.

As I do that, living for his glory, then the putting on is something that I don't have to work for. It's something that kind of comes as a, again, a byproduct of walking with him. So I love your thoughts on that.

I think that's rich, that's really good stuff.

Yeah, I got to preach a sermon on that a few years ago, and some of those things have kind of stuck with me. So I didn't want to leave without mentioning some of those cool things that God spoke to me about through that time.

Yeah. Well, from this passage, let me ask you then as we close from this passage, what's an application for the week? I mean, here we are, strength for the day, strength for the week.

What's a thought from this that we could walk away with?

Yeah. I'd say the thought I am walking away with today is letting Christ's peace officiate in my heart.

That I don't want to do anything in my life, that as I'm going to do it or after I've done it, that I go, the Holy Spirit's telling me I was not right in saying that. I was not right in having that attitude.

I was not right in how I treated that person. I don't want to do that and want to rely on him. And whether that means maybe not humble myself and say, I was wrong, please forgive me, whatever it is.

I feel like that's something for me.

That's great. Well, it's a great thought. And I hope that we could walk away with that today.

I will say to our listeners and the viewers that I'm looking forward to our next week, getting into how the Lord changes all of our relationships and being in Christ. We'll talk more about that.

But today, walking away with these truths and maybe something we could do is just to kind of go back each day, reading these verses and just as Pastor Bryon said, really allowing the Lord's peace to work in us, his word to influence us, and his name

to be the glory for which we live. Well, thank you for joining us for Strength for the Day today. Hope you have a great day. Hope you have a great week.