CHRISTIAN LIVING January 23, 2005 Evening Service Text: Colossians 3:1-17 Having just delivered his severe reprimand to those making false claims and teachings to the Colossian church, and having just gone to great lengths to tell the people there that the regulations were man-made impositions, Paul now goes on to set out his own list for proper living. This can be confusing because it can easily appear that Paul is just substituting one list for another. Which list we follow just depends on who sounds the best to us. It is confusing if we don't keep in mind Paul's purpose. We have to put together the two chapters; remember, Paul didn't write with chapter and verse divisions in mind. He wrote a letter, continuous in thought from one idea to the next. He had just finished warning the Colossian church to not follow after those who delighted "in false humility." He told the Christians to "see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." Having said what he was against, Paul now sets out to say what he is for. This is the way Paul is. He was never satisfied to only denounce what someone else was teaching. Paul would have never finished his letter at the end of our chapter two. Paul's interest is always to establish the truth. The commentator G. Preston MacLeod wrote that, "a Christian whose aim is to persuade and win rather than to denounce and reject will win nobody unless he presents the highest in so clear, convincing, and satisfying a way that his readers or his hearers must come to life's inevitable moral choices in full knowledge of what the highest is." (The Interpreter's Bible, v. 11, p. 209) Paul's main thrust against the false teachers in the Colossian church is that their teaching is bondage. "Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules?" he asks in 2:20. At the same time, though, Paul admitted that even these false teachings had an appealing ring to them: "Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom..." So Paul sought to lift his brothers' and sisters' hearts from earthbound morality to that steady focus on Christ. Still, the question arises: what makes Paul's list of morals right and the other's wrong? The basis of an answer comes with recognizing this important element of Paul's thinking: after his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road, Paul trusted Christ. He didn't just think that he trusted Christ, or that he only believed intellectually in Christ. Paul trusted Christ so much that he changed his whole way of thinking for Him. Paul was a Pharisaic Jew - and a good one. After meeting Jesus, Paul gave up a promising career; he changed the ways he had always been taught; he gave up who knows how many friends and how much support in order to be a Christian. Because he trusted Jesus, Paul went hungry; he exposed himself to harsh elements of nature; he went to prison. Paul trusted in Jesus Christ as the one and only Lord and as his Lord. Therefore, when Paul makes his list of "rules for holy living," when he tells his readers to "set your minds on things above, not on earthly things," he has a completely different perspective than the legalisms of the false teachers. Recall that, from the false teaching, men and women were supposed to adhere to rules of piety and subject their bodies for harsh treatment in order to attain spiritual purity. In other words, follow the right rules to the letter of the law and then you will be made holy, then you will be saved. Because Paul trusted Jesus Christ, though, he writes: "You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these..." and he goes on to list some. Paul tells Christians that we are not interested in lists of morality so that we can find salvation. He tells us plainly that salvation has found us, and because we love and trust in Jesus Christ who has bought us for a price, then we "clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." We "bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." We read in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." The Corinthians, like the Colossians, were going astray. Notice that when Paul wrote to them, he didn't tell them that they needed to straighten up so that they could attain spiritual perfection. He wrote specifically to remind them that they "were bought at a price." They were not going to be bought. The action is past tense. They, like the Colossians and like us, were already bought at the cost of Jesus on the cross. Nor were they were going to be returned. Paul says clearly, "Christian! Wake up! You have already handed yourself over to the One who has bought you. Don't forget that. Therefore honor God with your body. Therefore put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature. Trust Christ's completed work on the cross and do these things which are right." What causes the world confusion - and even oftentimes confuses Christians - is that it doesn't appear to make much difference whether people are pious in order to attain perfection or in response to the perfection given by Jesus Christ. From outside the Christian faith looking in, there is no apparent difference between the Buddhist living a pious life in order to work off Karma in order to attain Nirvana and the Christian living a pious life in response to Christ's sacrifice. In terms of piety and high moral standards, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses have a superb testimony. Followers of the Islamic religion follow a strict piety. In fact, when it comes to pious, moral living, virtually every typical member of a pseudo-Christian cult or an Eastern religion can run rings around typical Christian. And if the world is giving awards based on piety and morality, then these other groups will receive the trophies. But you know what Paul would say to them today? "Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules?" Paul recognizes, as every Christian should, the difference between being pious for the sake of receiving salvation and being pious in response to the salvation already received. The Christian is free from the bondage of sin and the works of worldly death. Doesn't that warrant an Amen!? Ephesians 2:8-10: "For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Piety and morality do not save us! Good works do not save us! Jesus Christ saves us. Jesus Christ has saved us - all who believe in His work on the cross, receive Him into their own life and trust that same life to Him. Piety, morality and good works may lead someone to faith in Jesus Christ. An unbeliever, for example, may become a believer while working on a Habitat for Humanity project - building a house for a poor family - alongside Christians. But the project did not save him. Not even the good works of the other Christians saved him. Jesus Christ alone gave that unsaved man spiritual life now and eternal life in the age to come. But good works did play a part in that man's conversion, and that leads us into some reasons why Paul was concerned with piety, morality and good works - which I'll lump together and call holy living. First, holy living is a response to the sacrifice and indescribable love of Jesus. We all know that even in strictly human terms, the phrase "I love you" can mean very little. Oh, we do need to tell it to each other more. But a husband cannot say to his wife "I love you" and then go be involved in some adulterous affair. When I really love someone, I will act in loving ways toward that someone. When I say I love my Lord, Jesus Christ, I need to act in loving ways toward Him. One of the primary ways that Scripture tells us to do that is what Paul writes here in Colossians 3: "clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience... And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Secondly, holy living is our expression of the freedom we have in Jesus Christ. It is an outward display of our absolute trust in Him. Holy living makes a statement to the world. We spend time in worship, Bible study, training and so forth when the world says spend time on ourselves. We use our resources in Christian service to others when the world says spend them on ourselves. We believe that people everywhere need to hear the gospel message of Christ when the world says any system of beliefs will do. We try to apply a Christian morality to our own lives when the world says do your own thing. But we are free from the world and called to do unworldly things like forgive and love and live in peace and take concerned action against injustice and immorality. And as we do some or all of these good works, unbelievers are filled with wonder and can be led to open their lives to receive Jesus Christ. As we express our freedom in Christ through holy living, we also allow Him to work in our lives. Many people, even some Christians, say that lists of holy living are restrictive. The unsaved world, especially, likes to point to Christianity as nothing more than a restricted, captivated lifestyle. They couldn't be farther from the truth. Rather than stifling creativity and the enjoyment of life, holy living does the opposite. It opens up better avenues for life as we refrain from sinful activities which bring us nothing but harm. And, most wonderful of all, holy living gives God a chance to work with us. My favorite example of all of this comes from the Reverend Walter Wangerin, Jr., in his book As for Me and My House. In this book, Walter uses his own marriage as a case study. At ten years of marriage, his marriage crumbled. All of the differences of opinion, all of the missed communication, all of the miscommunication, all of the "I'm rights, you're wrongs," came to a head. Suddenly, their "perfect" marriage fell apart. And in spite of ten years of marriage and children, you know what could have happened - divorce. However, in the most profound paragraph in the book, Walter writes: "And the thing that neither one of us would even contemplate was divorce. We were stuck with each other. Let the world call that imprisonment; but I say it gave us the time, and God the opportunity, to make a better thing between us. If we could have escaped, we would have. Because we couldn't we were forced to choose the harder, better road." (p. 79) Most of us would applaud them for merely not seeking a divorce. Staying married is one of those elements of holy living that we like to uphold. So many people this day give up the marriage so easily, and this is wrong. Others say that the marriage should hold together regardless of how trapped either partner is, and this is wrong. What the Wangerin's discovered is that sticking to the marriage - this step of holy living - became a way for God to free them from the bondage of an unhealthy relationship and into a fuller relationship through Him with each other. Walter concludes his book: "Whereas the contract is (and will continue to be, so long as you live in this fallen world) conditional, your gifting and your volunteering is unconditional. It depends on nothing but love itself. And if this in any way means being "faithful till death," it means being faithful to God within the marriage, to God's manner, his mercy, and his new covenant - but for the sake of your spouse. Do you see the richness of this marriage work, this task? It invites the loving God to come and dwell between you, and it is he who empowers you to do so unworldly and irrational an act as to give for nothing in return, to set yourself aside for your partner's sake, to die a little that she might live more. When God loved the unlovable, he made us lovely after all." (pp. 251-252) Paul's purpose for making the list he did was not for creating another religious system or adding to the work of Jesus Christ. He wrote them for the purpose of responding to Christ's love and for sharing that same love to others. Colossians 3:17, a verse we should all try to remember and cherish as much as John 3:16, certainly sums up Paul's thinking here: "And 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." Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN