A brief summary of the sermon preached at the evening service this week, on...


COLOSSIANS 3:5-17

HOLY LIVING


Introductory points to note:


1. Remember our calling


God has called us to belong to Christ, to be part of his glorious heavenly Kingdom. That is a tremendous privilege! We are called to live in a way that is worthy of that calling (Ephesians 4:1, Philippians 1:27). The best motivation for living a godly life is to remember always with a sense of excitement what a wonderful calling we have from God!


Remember verses 1-4 - think of things above!


Read through, regularly and often, passages like Romans 8:29-30, Ephesians 1:4-6, Ephesians 2:4-7, Philippians 3:20-21, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 2 Thessalonians 2:14, 1 Peter 1:3-5, 2 Peter 3:13-14, 1 John 3:2-3, Revelation 2:7, Revelation 3:21, Revelation 7:9-17, Revelation 21:1-7, Revelation 22:1-5. These all talk about our hope and our calling; and you can ask God to make them a source of inspiration to you in those moments when you feel your Christian life, and the requirements of discipleship, are getting a bit routine and burdensome!


2. Remember our forgiveness (= our forgiven-ness!)


Simply to read a passage like Colossians 3 makes most of us painfully aware of our failures and shortcomings! Remember that God has forgiven us, and will always continue to forgive us when we fall short, if we confess it to him.


Many Christians make the mistake of constantly asking forgiveness for things for which they have already been forgiven! It is good to start each day, or each time of prayer, by giving thanks, joyfully, for the fact that we are forgiven. If there are also things for which we need to ask new forgiveness, we can also do that. But praise God that we have forgiveness in Christ. See Ephesians 1:7, 1 Corinthians 6:11.


The cross has made it possible for you to be forgiven. The Spirit makes it possible for you to live in forgiveness.


3. Remember the Spirit


The Holy Spirit will provide us with the strength we need to live this way. We don’t do it on our own! Let God reproduce this life in you every day by the Spirit, not by your effort.


Again, it is important to give thanks for the fact that Jesus has given us the gift of his Spirit. It is better to make your prayers positive (“Thank you, Lord, that today your Spirit is going to help me to live in love and truth...”), rather than pleading (“Please, Lord, I need your Spirit to help me live in love...”), affirmative rather than asking.


4. Remember God’s grace


These are not “rules” to be kept, but a description of the kind of life that God wants us to enjoy in Christ. This life is not just our responsibility; it is first and foremost his gift. The whole of Christian life is not something we do, but a gift we receive. It is lived by the grace of God. This means two things:



5. Remember Jesus


These principles all focus on Jesus. He is our life (verse 4), and we live this life, not by gritting our teeth and trying harder, but by living in close relationship with Jesus. You get to be like people you spend time with. You could summarise this whole chapter, and all the challenges of Christian life, by saying that we are called to become more like Jesus. That is a growing thing. We become more like him day by day, throughout our lives.


And it happens, primarily, as we spend time with Jesus, in worship, prayer, fellowship, in reading about him in his Word, etc.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


So we come to the principles in verses 5-17. Note at the heart of them the picture of getting undressed and dressed (verses 9-10,12). The old life and the old ways are like shabby old clothes that we take off, and the new life and character of Jesus is a like a new suit of clothes that we put on.


Note the “old clothes” that have to go:


wrong attitudes (verse 5)

wrong language (verses 8-9)


Note the “new clothes” that God wants us to have:


new unity (verse 11)

new character (verse 12)

new relationships (verses 13-14)

new attitudes (verses 15-16)

new priorities (verse 17)


In the light of these “new clothes”, here are eight practical steps by which we can “put on” the new life of Christ.


1. Identify specifically the old ways that are a particular “bad habit” of yours.


2. Confess them to God, and receive his forgiveness. In particular, offer to God any guilt feelings you may have about these areas, for him to deliver you from them. God does not want us to go around full of guilt about our past. He wants us to know, and to rejoice in the fact that, we are free from the past!


3. Pray for God’s strength to renounce (turn away from) these things. Ask for his strength, and believe that you are receiving it! And in every case, there should be a positive and conscious statement before God that you will, by his grace, have nothing more to do with that particular sin.


4. Identify some practical steps that you can take as part of “renouncing” wrong things. Turning (“repentance”) is not about what we feel; it’s about what we do. So, for example, the person addicted to, say, pornography, can take any such material he has in his house and burn it (as a burnt offering to the Lord! - see Acts 19:18-19). This kind of “practical repentance” will not always be possible in every area, but where it is possible and appropriate, it should be done. Where it is not possible, some people find a symbolic act of repentance helpful; such as writing on a piece of paper what it is that has been a sin, and then burning the paper.


5. Consciously ask God for the opposite good qualities that you need to start to practise. So, if your problem is, for example, lying, you need to ask him for the gift of truthfulness.


6. Think of practical ways in which you could express that new quality. For example, if you were going to start to be kind to a troublesome neighbour, what would you actually do? When you have decided that - do it!


7. If appropriate and necessary (it may be, especially for what are for you particularly difficult areas), get others to pray with you and minister over you about these areas. This can be the greatest possible help.


8. Finally, we come to the key thing. Make a daily discipline of “putting on” these qualities every day. Let God clothe you in them. Just as you get dressed physically every day, so “get dressed spiritually”. You may want, in prayer before God, to say something like, “I put on truth (or love, etc.) for today, and I thank you that you are going to help me to wear them and live them out all day!” Again, it is better to pray in terms of positive intention (“Thank you, Lord, that today, with your help, I’m going to speak the truth all the time!”), rather than worried pleading (“Lord, I really need you to help me stop telling lies!”)


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Finally, some reminders:



Take the matter of getting dressed morally and spiritually seriously. It matters!



What you are putting on is a new life with Jesus!



You can, in the name of Jesus, and through his grace.


God has already provided the wardrobe.


All you have to do is wear it!