Colossians 3:5-11

Here is the Word .doc for the following lesson. Colossians Study 11

Stop

Tonight we are going straight into the minefield of moral instruction. I’m calling it a minefield because of the danger present as we walk through these verses. Last session we talked about the perils of launching into a diatribe of commands apart from the bigger concept of the letter. Paul has not written a self-help letter of ethical do’s and don’ts. First and foremost the epistle to the Colossians has been about Christ, Christ and more Christ. He’s grand, glorious, sufficient, saving, sovereign, sustainer and Lord. All of Paul’s commands launch from the platform of this knowledge. But make no mistake, those who have experienced the new birth are commanded by their master to forsake sin and represent Him. And oftentimes that means we will hear the scripture tell us to “stop it”, when we confront our sin.

Bob Newhart’s fictional Dr Switzer serves up some needful advice to his patient covering a whole realm of ills. No probing of the subconscious is necessary, just “stop it”. There are more times than we would like to admit when we would all do well to follow that simple prescription. But I think there is a sort of strange reaction that we Christians have to commands sometimes. And it’s not as simple and overt as “I’m just not gonna do it”. It shows up in more subtle and “spiritual” ways.
• I’m praying that God takes the desire away
• I’m still working through that with the Lord
• That’s what 1 John 1:9 is for
I have mine and you have yours. It’s how we, who the scriptures have declared, “dead to sin…and alive to righteousness” deal with our repeated failures in the face of our justified position in Christ. Sometimes we vocalize our excuses, but oftentimes these go unspoken because the sins they accompany are hidden and so there is no one to vocalize them to. We make bargains with ourselves and God, essentially becoming our own defense attorney either accusing or excusing ourselves. And as they say, “a man who acts as his own attorney has a fool for a client”. I am a woefully wretched person and growing closer to God over these past 24 years has only confirmed that opinion of myself. In the weeks and months after I was born again on June 16th 1986, the list of my sinful behaviors couldn’t fill a notecard, so I thought. Now I’d need a notebook.

Ask Paul what the sins of humanity where and he’d tell you.

• “being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; ” (Romans 1:29–31, NAS)
• “But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. ” (1 Corinthians 5:11, NAS)
• “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, ” (1 Corinthians 6:9, NAS)
• “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ” (Galatians 5:19–21, NAS)
• “But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. ” (Ephesians 5:3–5, NAS)
All of this lies within the heart of man. Scary thought, huh? Having just recently finished chapter 2 and reading “These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. ” (Colossians 2:23, ESV), we can accurately make this statement.
The approaches of the Colossian heretics failed!!! The sin is still there.
The long and short of this section is there are genuine implications of vv.2:13-15. “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. ” In light of this utter victory over our treason, rebellion and deceit do we really have a notion that we are to continue to live in the filthiness of our former lives. God forbid! We are called to live out our new life experientially, by putting to death those old sinful patterns of behavior that used to define our lives.
“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. ” (Colossians 3:5–11, ESV)
It’s hard to imagine a time in the history of man when there was a culture that was more inundated with all manners of sexual perversity, yet 2,000 yrs ago when Paul set to address matters that were impacting the Holiness of believers in Colossae; it is the topic of sexual immorality that is first from his pen. He uses five pretty graphic expressions to cover all aspects of sexual sin. I’m not going to parse each of these words, just understand that it is a comprehensive list of everything our depraved world has to offer. The point is that this behaviour has no place in the life of the believer. So strongly is Paul on this that he says we should put these actions to death. The Greek tense in this command suggests a decisive action, as if Paul said, “Mortify it! Do it now! Do it resolutely!” Now we understand that ultimately this death was accomplished by Christ, but we are to act accordingly. Paul put it this way.
“For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. ” (Romans 6:5–14, NAS)
These stragglers and holdovers from our earthly nature are not to have dominion over us. Torment and taunt us, sure, but we are not to be their slave any longer. Even though Christ has made us positionally perfect in the sight of God, we live within the confines of our fallen flesh. This is why Paul has to tell these believers to put sexual immorality to death. We are victorious in Christ yet we struggle. We have been crucified with Christ to sin, yet we painfully acknowledge its influence upon us.
Romans 8:13 is helpful here: “if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” This is not “God did his part, now you do yours.” It is more like “God began a good work in you and will see it through until the end.” God intends Christians to look like his Son, and this passage directs us to flee our past and fix our eyes on that great goal, to be like Christ.
Paul offers up two reasons for his cease and desist order.
1. The first is the more startling one of the two, consider vs.6. It is “On account of these the wrath of God is coming. ” (Colossians 3:6, ESV). God’s wrath is a topic that we often skip over in our sermons, studies and songs. It is a frightening reality to us. Mainly because we cannot begin to fully understand the depths of His fury against sin and sinners. So Paul says, “this sin I want you to put to death is the reason God’s wrath is coming”. His appeal is not a passive aggressive threat. The appeal is not to fear but to faithfulness. These sins are responsible for the wrath of God that is even now here, why would the child of God want to be associated with what God condemns. STOP IT!
2. You are dead! That’s right, how or why do you act like you did before you died? “In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. ” (Colossians 3:7, ESV) Of course this was the pattern of our lives when were alive to sin. We had no choice but to sin. We were enslaved to sin, but now Christ has rendered us dead to sin and alive to righteousness. Paul similarly asked the Ephesians

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:1–5, NAS)

Spurgeon asks,
Christian, what hast thou to do with sin? Hath it not cost thee enough already? Burnt child, wilt thou play with the fire? What! when thou hast already been between the jaws of the lion, wilt thou step a second time into his den? Hast thou not had enough of the old serpent? Did he not poison all thy veins once, and wilt thou play upon the hole of the asp, and put thy hand upon the cockatrice’s den a second time? Oh, be not so mad! so foolish! Did sin ever yield thee real pleasure? Didst thou find solid satisfaction in it? If so, go back to thine old drudgery, and wear the chain again, if it delight thee. But inasmuch as sin did never give thee what it promised to bestow, but deluded thee with lies, be not a second time snared by the old fowler—be free, and let the remembrance of thy ancient bondage forbid thee to enter the net again!
Let’s all understand though, just because these sins characterized the life of the unbeliever doesn’t mean they are out of reach for the believer. In fact, I believe this is why Paul has written these very words to them.
Paul isn’t finished with the negative commands. He moves on, “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another,” (Colossians 3:8, ESV). Leaving sexual sins and taking up the topic of sins of the tongue. I found it interesting, although I wouldn’t presume to lay this upon the text, that the first issue that Paul dealt with traditionally has men as its target. Now the second, again traditionally, I’m not making blanket statements, finds its home in the vocal powers of the woman. I think the way Andy Griffith put it.
Aunt Bee: “I suppose you think men aren’t capable of gossip.”
Andy: “Oh, we’re capable enough, it just doesn’t come as natural to us.”
Aunt Bee: “According to you, the Lord made two sexes… men and blabbermouths.”
Andy: “That was well put.”
Paul begins to use clothing as a metaphor for a person’s lifestyle choices. The word “put away” or “rid” (apothesthe) means “to put off” like a suit of clothes. In its ethical use here it means “throw it off like a dirty shirt”. And again Paul hits us with a list of items that all share in one way shape or form a connection to hatred that make their way out throw the vocal chords. And Paul’s simple answer to the problem? Just like a person takes off his dirty clothes at the end of the day, so should believers discard the filthy, tattered rags of their old life.
After having issued negative commands, Paul now turns to the positive ones. And when I say positive and negative, I’m not speaking of good and bad but do and don’t. Sticking with the clothing metaphor Paul says “put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. ” (Colossians 3:10, ESV). Now that your old clothes are removed, you don’t want to be walking around naked do you? Put upon yourself the garments of your new life which is the process of renewal (or sanctification) that we may look more and more like Jesus Christ.
• “and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. ” (Ephesians 4:24, NAS)
• “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ” (Galatians 3:27, NAS)
• “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. ” (Romans 13:14, NAS)
So what does this renewal look like as it lives itself out around others? “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. ” (Colossians 3:11, ESV). In Christ distinctions are removed. These include
• racial distinctions (Greek or Jew; Jews called all those outside their nation Greeks)
• religious distinctions (circumcised or uncircumcised);
• cultural distinctions (anyone foreign to Greek culture was a barbarian, and a Scythian was a wild, savage nomad);
• social distinctions (slave or free).
If a Greek, an uncircumcised person, a barbarian, a Scythian, or a slave became a believer, he was a “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17), a “new self” (Col. 3:10), just like a Jew or free person who became a Christian. For Christ is all, and is in all. That is, normal human distinctions are overruled and transfigured by one’s union in Christ.