A Pastor's Thoughts: What Now?

I’m guessing that, like me, you’ve experienced the confusion of not knowing what to do next. Whether you’ve just finished high school and are moving on to college or you’ve just finished college and you’re moving into the workforce or you’re in the workforce and you’re changing careers or you’re getting married for the first time or having kids for the first time, or facing countless other significant changes in your life, you’re probably wondering, What Now? You probably don’t need me to tell you that life can be confusing sometimes. Just when we think we’ve got life figured out, something happens and we lose our bearings and we’re left wondering, What Now? Sometimes we’re left confused through no fault of our own and other times we wander around in the dark because we didn’t fully consider the consequences of our choices.

For example, you’ve gone away to college but didn’t consider how hard it would be to live away from home for the first time in your life. You’ve taken a new job that pays great money but didn’t consider how hard the long hours and travel would be on your family. You’ve gotten married but never really considered how hard it would be for two sinful people to keep their wedding vows for the rest of their lives. Every decision we make; every action we take has consequences that demand our attention. That goes for those of us who have made the decision to give our lives over to Christ and make Him our Lord and Savior. For too many who make that decision, the process ends there and it becomes a one-time confession and then a return to the old way of life. But that’s not what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Making that decision doesn’t only have eternal consequences, in has consequences for how we live here and now. However, for too many Christians, that decision if followed by confusion and wondering, What Now?

Subject Text

Colossians 3:1-17

¹Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. ⁵Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. ⁷You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. ¹¹Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. ¹²Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. ¹⁵Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ¹⁷And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Context

Paul’s letter was written late enough, probably around 60 A. D., that the church in Colosse probably included quite a few second generation believers and false teachings had started creeping in as time went on. Although Paul never visited Colosse, it was, nevertheless, founded by converts from one or more of his other missionary travels. Unfortunately, Paul received word that the church was being poisoned by religious relativism. It appears that there were some who were attempting to combine pagan practices, secular philosophy, and Christian doctrine. If that sounds familiar to any of you it should because it’s a practice that continues in our churches today. In Colosse, Christians behaved in a way that was inconsistent with their confession of faith in Christ so Paul wrote them this letter as a kind of instruction for holy living. It is written to answer the question, What Now?

Text Analysis

¹Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Paul makes it clear in vv. 1-2 that making a decision to be a follower of Christ is no small matter. When Paul says that we have been “raised with Christ,” he is referring to the resurrection of Christ which is a beautiful and inspirational image that we all love to reflect on. However, what we fail to acknowledge in Paul’s statement is the implication that Christ’s death preceded His resurrection. In the same way, we cannot enjoy the benefits of sharing in Christ’s resurrection if we don’t also experience death. However, unlike Christ, we don’t have to experience physical death to share in some of the benefits of His resurrection. What we must experience; what we must actively pursue is the death of the old us—who we were before we became followers of Christ. It means putting to death the sinful heart and mind where sinful behavior originates.

“Genuine spiritual experience begins with understanding our identification with Christ. Paul tells the believers that they have been raised with Christ…This reference to resurrection refers to a past event; we have been raised. The reference is to our identification with Jesus in his death, burial, and resurrection…He means that because of our identification with Jesus we have been granted new life which gives us the capacity to live a new kind of life…The reality of our resurrection with Jesus should produce in us new motivations and new minds…The believer is to see everything, including earthly things, against the backdrop of eternity. With a new (resurrection) perspective on life, the eternal is to impact the temporal.”[1]

³For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Let’s be honest, vv. 3-4 are really confusing. Specifically, what does Paul mean when says that our lives are hidden with Christ in God? To understand what Paul means in v. 3 we have to uncover the meaning of v. 4. When Paul refers to Christ appearing, he is referring to the second coming of Christ. Paul teaches elsewhere (1 Thessalonians) that believers who die prior to Christ’s second coming will be raised from the dead when He returns. But what about those who are still alive when Christ returns? Paul also teaches (1 Thessalonians) that those who are still alive when Christ returns will be transformed. But transformed into what? That’s the key—we will be transformed into the eternal beings we were created to be. However, until the second coming of Christ, that part of who we are is hidden in Christ. You see, while we are part of this world we are both temporal and eternal beings created by God. The temporal aspect of our humanity is still broken and subject to the ravages of sin. However, when we give our lives to Christ, God hides the eternal aspect of who we are with Christ who occupies eternity. We will either return with Him at His second coming if we die before He returns or we will be transformed when He returns if we are still living.

“In Christ’s death, all believers died. Then, like a seed buried in the earth, a believer’s real life is hidden from the world, just as Christ’s glory is hidden, only to be revealed when he returns. The spiritual lives of believers are hidden inner lives that are in union with Christ who has brought them to be with him in God.

“One day, when Christ is revealed in his glory, believers will also share in all his glory. The divine life of Christ will be revealed fully and will glorify us (reveal our true potential as children of God). Christians look forward to the new heaven and new earth that God has promised, and they wait for God’s new order that will free the world of sin, sickness, and evil. In the meantime, they go with Christ into the world, where they heal people’s bodies and souls and fight the evil effects of sin. Christ gives us power to live for him now, and he gives us hope for the future—he will return.”[2]

⁵Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. ⁷You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.

As I told you in my last lesson, one of the things I was doing during the month I was away from teaching you was attending a required class for my doctoral studies. One of the things I love about spending time with other students and professors at the seminary is being around people who always manage to teach me something new or remind me of something I’ve forgotten that I can pass on to you. Well this last time was no different. I learned many things during my week in class but there was one thing that is particularly relevant to vv. 5-6 and it has to do with the idea of putting something to death. The class discussed the clear disconnect between what Christians say they believe and how they actually behave in everyday life. What this group of pastors experienced in their respective ministries is supported more formally by George Barna from the Barna Research Group in various formal surveys that led him to conclude, “Most Christians—not those who merely call themselves Christians but those who have confessed their sinfulness and have asked Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Savior—have fallen prey to the same disease as their worldly counterparts. We think and behave no differently from anyone else.”[3]

What was agreed to among this group of pastors was that Christians have failed to incorporate one particular ancient spiritual discipline into their daily lives—the discipline of self-mortification. Sadly, at one point the Catholic church distorted this vital practice and turned it into self-flagellation or, more appropriately, self-abuse as a public display of piety. As a result, this very valuable and biblical discipline became largely neglected by the Church. The biblical practice of self-mortification is found in Paul’s imperative to “put to death” all the immoral and unholy practices in our lives. Paul provides a brief list of some of those practices. They are intentionally general because they are intended to be like category headings under which all inappropriate thoughts and actions fall. When Paul says that you are to put them to death, he is using the metaphor of death to convey to believers with the strongest language he can that they should stop behaving in the sinful ways they did before they became believers. “This does not merely mean that Christ demands a new standard of life from his redeemed people. It means that everything associated with distorted humanity is to be put to death because it has been transformed according to the perfect model, Christ himself, and therefore there is no excuse for such distorted behavior.”[4]

⁸But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

I’m guessing that most of you felt pretty good about yourselves after hearing that first list of inappropriate behavior from v. 5. But what about the list behaviors included in vv. 8-10? Still feel pretty good about yourself? I know I don’t. This list like the one before it was not intended to be exhaustive but an outline of behaviors that are pretty common and rarely considered to be all that terrible. But we are usually wrong when we think we understand how high God’s standard really is. Remember that Jesus commanded us to be perfect in the same way that the Father is perfect. That is the real standard for the way we are called to live. That includes putting to death the obvious behavior of sexual immorality but also includes the less obvious behavior of anger and rage. For most of us, it was fairly easy to rid ourselves of “evil desires,” but how are you doing with the imperative to rid your life of filthy language? How about ridding your life of lying? I recognize that the standard of being perfect in the same way that the Father is perfect is unattainable but that’s not an excuse to stop trying and when we fail to confess our failure and try again. We will never be perfect in this life but imagine how much closer you will be by the end of your life if you keep striving for that goal.

Paul uses the metaphor of the old self and the new self to describe our lives before we became Christians and our lives after we became Christians respectively. He tells us that the more we become transformed into our new self, the clearer will the image of the Creator; the image of God become in our lives. “Paul was appealing to the commitment the believers had made, urging them to remain true to their confession of faith. Every Christian is in a continuing education program. Renewal is constantly needed in the believer’s battle against sin and the old nature [old self]. What we learn is personal knowledge of Christ who created this new nature [new self] within us. The goal of the learning is Christlikeness. The more believers know of Christ and his work, the more they are being changed to be like him. Because this process is lifelong, we must never stop learning and obeying.”[5]

¹¹Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

God’s imperative with respect to our spiritual condition doesn’t discriminate. Instead, it applies to all humanity equally regardless of race, nationality, religious practice, class, or station in life. Everyone who has made the decision to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, must also accept Him as the Lord over their life. It is a package deal. Christians cannot have Jesus as Savior but reject Him as Lord. And no one is exempt from accepting these terms. “It is precisely because of the cosmic scope of Christ’s work, including above all his act of reconciliation, that such internal divisions and ways of categorizing peoples and individuals have ceased to have meaning as determinants of Christian self-preconception, conduct, and relationships…Anyone who recognizes God in Christ to that extent will find such human distinctions and boundaries relatively trivial and unimportant. If ‘Christ is [all, and is in all],’ then nothing can diminish or disparage the standing of any one human in relation to another or to God.”[6]

¹²Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. ¹⁵Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

Teaching about ethical living isn’t just a matter of what Christians shouldn’t do, it also includes instruction on what Christians should do as described in vv. 12-15. Limiting our practice to removing unethical behavior from our lives without replacing it with ethical behavior could very well turn us into proud, religious elites. It is only when we add the ethical behaviors listed in vv. 12-15 that the image of God in our lives becomes more evident to the world around us.

Paul’s not saying that non-Christians exhibit none of these characteristics in their lives. Some non-Christians may in fact exhibit many of these characteristics in their lives. This shouldn’t surprise you since all humanity is created in the image of God. That image is simply more evident in some unbelievers and less evident in others. However, it must be evident in all those who call themselves followers of Christ. In other words, while ethical living as described by Paul might be evident in the life of some unbelievers, ethical living must define the lives of every believer regardless who they are or what their life circumstances might be.

“The focus on regulations like, ‘do not drink, do not smoke, do not even dance’ distracts us from the genuine and valuable ‘mortification’ described in Colossians…which trains us to strip off not just certain socially unacceptable behaviors (in the eyes of a particular group) but to strip off our very selves in favor of the new self God wishes to birth in us through the Spirit. In the process of becoming this new person, we are challenged far more deeply than by any code of behavior designed to make us look ‘Christian.’ In opposition to the pale shadows of Christian life seen in the lifestyles that promote the ‘holier than thou’ mentality stands the vision of [these verses], in which love, forgiveness and mutual encouragement toward growth characterizes every interaction between those who call themselves by Christ’s name.”[7]

¹⁶Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ¹⁷And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

The message of Christ is not a message of being stuffy, stuck-up, unhappy, mean, and angry. Instead, it is a message of having and living life to the fullest (Jn. 10:10). Unfortunately, too many Christians are defined by the former and completely miss out on the latter. Verses 16-17 paint a very distinct picture of Christians as teachers and encouragers of one another who are so filled with joy that they can’t help but sing praises of gratitude to God from the bottom of their hearts. This is the picture of believers that will have the greatest chance of attracting unbelievers who are desperately looking to discard their old self defined by selfishness and self-satisfaction in exchange for a new self defined by joy, praise, and gratitude centered in and directed toward Christ.

“Christianity offers good news, and worshipers are not well served by a steady diet of melancholy. God has broken into our sorrows and bestowed on us such a glorious destiny that it should evoke a joyous thrill. Our worship should reflect the good news that we have been redeemed, and we should express our deepest gratitude to God. Some Christians have been restrained in openly expressing their delight in God, perhaps because they think that too much exuberance can become frivolous and subject to delusion. Some may see their task only in terms of getting people to walk the straight and narrow, and they fear that any hint of holy intoxication will lead instead to people getting out of hand. The letters of Paul, which exude such joy in the direst circumstances, make clear that Christian faith rouses the deepest joy, and Christians need to express this joy in their worship of God.”[8]

Application

“Most fairy tales end with the prince marrying the princess, and the stories always conclude with the words, ‘And they lived happily ever after.’ After the hero has rescued the heroine, the marriage of the prince to the princess comes as an anticlimax. But this is not the Christian view of marriage. The wedding day with bells and rice is not the arrival point that marks the end of the story; it is only the beginning. The wedding is the beginning of a lifelong adventure. It is a journey through uncharted seas, which explains why so many marriages today end with a shipwreck.” To often married couples begin their marriage adventure with the question, What Now?

This explains the experience of countless Christians as well when they first make a confession of faith. They make a public profession of faith that is marked by baptism and then they think they will “live happily every after.” But like marriage, the confession and baptismal ceremony isn’t the end of a journey, it’s the beginning of an adventure. Far too many Christians stand at the edge of that adventure and are left wondering, What Now? Also like marriage, the Christian life is an adventure into uncharted territory with many highs of joy and lows of sorrow. It is a life that must be marked and defined by transformation. Like the experience of an exhilarating adventure changes us, the experience of the Christian adventure must change us. If it doesn’t, then we’re doing something wrong. Jesus doesn’t want us to just live life, He wants us to live life to the fullest! Paul gives us a good part of the map for the adventure we are on as Christians. The adventure involves completely ridding ourselves of the dirty, old, ragged, life-sucking habits and behaviors that defined our old self and put on clean, fresh, new, life-giving behaviors that define our new self and reveal more clearly every day the image of God that has been obscured and distorted by sin. With joy and gratitude we can begin or continue the adventure of living the Christian life; teaching and encouraging other travelers along the way with Christ at the center of your life always striving toward the goal of Christlikeness without being needlessly mired down in the uncertainty of, What Now?

[1] Max Anders, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians & Colossians—Holman New Testament Commentary, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 1999), 326-327.

[2] Bruce Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, and Dave Veerman, Life Application New Testament Commentary, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), 882.

[3] George Barna, The Second Coming Of The Church, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1998), 6-7.

[4] Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, Daniel G. Reid, eds., Dictionary of Paul and his Letters, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 629.

[5] Bruce Barton, et al., eds., Life Application New Testament Commentary, 883.

[6] James D. J. Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon—The New International Greek Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 227.

[7] David A. deSilva, An Introduction to the New Testament: Contexts, Methods & Ministry Formation, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 728.

[8] David E. Garland, Colossians/Philemon—the NIV Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998), 239.