Colossians 3:1–17 - Knowing Who You Are and What You Really Want

1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. 12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on 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 one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts 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.

"A high school freshman battling an eating disorder has died from a heart attack just a day after celebrating her 15th birthday. Lacey Smarr of Longview, Texas, died on February 2 after starving her body of the important nutrients needed for her heart to function. Lacey's eating disorder had begun just months earlier during the eighth-grade when friends had teased her about her curvy physique. 'They would tell her that her butt looked big in the volleyball shorts," mom Candy Miller told News Journal. "That's all it took for Lacey."" ~ Daily Mail News

It's not hard to think that I or my loved ones are not like Lacey and that this is a tragic distant story in Texas. Let's face it: one thought, one memory or an off phrase from our boss and our emotions are off to the races - this is the way the fallen flesh is wired. We all experience it almost everyday. Knowing who you are is serious business. This is the point of Paul - who you think you are determines what you think you desire. "Putting on the new self" is about the food that you take into your mind - "renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator." The truth is that we are very dearly loved by the creator of the universe and we better put this love on everyday. If not, the default is that we'll chase after the wind. If you find that true food, the word of God, can't be stomached, there is a likely a chance that you are busy renewing the "old self" after the image of the world - some "ideal" version of yourself. Paul exhorts, "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." This is so so serious and it is so so easy to lose our appetite for it. Let's reject the lies that the "old self" needs a makeover and let's affirm the truth of the Gospel for our ourselves, our children, our spouses, our friends - "teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."

Posted by Henry Jung on 8/16/2016

Comments

I read a great article yesterday: http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/why-we-really-sleep-in

Here is a quote:

"Elise Snickers was a college student pursuing a career in a psychology when she wrote a letter to 54-year-old C.S. Lewis to ask the question: Can personal sin be avoided — or “cured” — by proving to a patient the un-reasonableness of the sin? In other words, can a discovery of the stupidity of a sin be its cure?

In his response, Lewis used two examples to make his point, beginning with why we sleep in late:

A man’s reason sees perfectly clearly that the resulting discomfort and inconvenience will far outweigh the pleasure of the ten minutes in bed. Yet he stays in bed: not at all because his reason is deceived but because desire is stronger than reason.

A woman knows that the sharp ‘last word’ in an argument will produce a serious quarrel which was the very thing she had intended to avoid when that argument began and which may permanently destroy her happiness. Yet she says it: not at all because her reason is deceived but because the desire to score a point is at the moment stronger than her reason."

Desires are always competing over our reason and reasonableness. And desires are powerful. The amazing thing about the gospel is that Christ's death once and for all secured our heavenly position to be with God FOREVER, but this life that we live under the sovereign hand of God is to test, prove, fail (really often), and refine our desires in this divided broken dry and barren world. And so every moment and circumstance of our lives is sovereignly placed and orchestrated by God to bring us to Him, to graft us to Him, to trust in the promises of the gospel, to lift our heads by His mercy in our failures, and to see His glory and grace.

Robert Han on 8/16/2016 at 11:21 AM

The old self and the new self...putting to death the things of the old self and putting on the things of the new self. It is an "action" we must carry out everyday. But we cannot and do not do it ourselves. We have Christ in us to help us...for we have been raised with Christ (v.1).

Jeanni Eun on 8/16/2016 at 3:44 PM

I discovered Colossians 3 a little while ago and have been meditating on it since. In the NIV, the first section is titled, "Rules for Holy Living." It doesn't say "Suggestions" or "Best Practice"; it labels it at RULES. God made it pretty clear. The majority of what God is telling us to shed from ourselves includes the things that really aren't good for us (junk food), and what God reminds us of is that we are "[His] chosen people, holy and dearly loved..." (vs. 12). Verse 12 is the good food that we chew on and let the flavors sink in like a good steak.

Diana Lim on 9/6/2016 at 7:57 AM