WARNING:PREACHY - 11/22/2015

Colossians 3:12-25 - 4:1 (Part 4)

Wives, Husbands, Children, Fathers…

Today, it is unpopular to tell a woman to obey her husband.  In fact, it is not even popular today to assume that a wife is even a “her” or a husband a “he”.  However, popular or not, the Apostle Paul deals with the Christian ethic of the traditional ‘He and She’ family.  And what is necessary, I think, is to notice that the husband/father (he) is the one who bears the brunt of the Christian responsibility. 

Wives (she) are to obey/submit while a husband (he) is to love his wife just as Jesus loved the Church. (Ephesians 5 gives more detail to the marital instructions.)

Right after my wife and I had married we had a fight.  I prayed that God would show her how she was wrong so it could be quickly resolved.  And yes, while I admit that I am the guilty party in most marital disagreements, this one time I was actually in the right.  So I prayed hard and begged God to resolve the issue by showing her her fault.  After a while God spoke to me (yeah, He speaks quite clearly at times) and said “Go apologize to your wife.”  I argued with God and explained to Him why I was actually in the right and apologizing would be wrong as I was actually the offended party.  Again He told me to go apologize.  So I crossed my arms like Jonah and refused to budge.  And then again He said to me that I was to go apologize and love my wife just as Jesus first loved me.  Romans 5:8 states that while I was still a sinner Jesus loved me and died for me.  Basically, Jesus said He was sorry for my sins before I ever knew my sins existed.  (i.e. Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.”)

It seems to me that if a husband is actually loving his wife as Jesus loved him then the wife might not have a problem obeying/submitting to his leadership in the relationship.

Likewise, children are told to obey their fathers but the fathers are instructed not to embitter their children.  I think the whole “love as Jesus loved” is the key to not embittering our children.  I suspect children are in part embittered by the “do as I say, not as I do” type of fathering that happens as examples for children.  Children aren’t dumb; they seem to pick up on hypocrisy rather quickly.   

For converts of our day, this may not be a new ethic.  But in the days of the Apostle Paul it was a new paradigm in thinking.  In Paul’s day wives were property and children, if not expendable, were of negligible value.  But to the new Christian (of Paul’s day) who was a husband and father who understood the death of Jesus for his sins and new life, this new Christian ethic must have been seriously weird and different.

Husbands and fathers, why don’t we try this.  Let us go and love our families as sacrificially as Jesus first loved us.  I’m willing to bet that when we do we will see a change for the better in our family dynamics.  So go ahead, read Colossians 3 again and get a glimpse of a whole new world, the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+3%3A22-4%3A1&version=NIV

WARNING: PREACHY - 11/15/2015

Colossians 3:12-25 - 4:1 (Part 3)

There are people that ooze compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and/or love in varying amounts and degrees.  I just don’t seem to be one of them.  As God’s people the Apostle Paul instructs Christians to “clothe yourselves with” (Colossians 3:17-25) all of these virtues. 

My friend and I were talking about the idea of “pressing in” on the Holy Spirit and spending more one-on-one time with Jesus in prayer and meditation.  I admit the difficulty in “putting to death” (v. 5) those things that are earthly in my actions as well as clothing myself with those things that are Godly, but I fully recognize that it is only by doing everything in the name of Jesus that allows me to even begin to see victory in my life.  And as though by accident, I occasionally do.

When I read that I am to “take off my old self with its practices” (v. 9) I am mindful that I did just that when I met Jesus at His Cross, and today I am ever so-slowing inching myself into a new set of spiritual clothes (ethically speaking).  Read through the chapter and see if you aren’t as well.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+3%3A22-4%3A1&version=NIV

WARNING: PREACHY - 11/8/2015

Colossians 3:12-25 - 4:1 (Part 2)

Before I get into the Christian ethic that Paul describes here, I think it necessary to first detail a concept:  The concept of the spiritual life (Col 3:1).

Life in the Spirit begins with self-denial and then is maintained by the Holy Spirit. 

First, self-denial comes at the point of us accepting ourselves as sinful beings that will die someday and meet God face to face.  When we recognize that only the death of Jesus on the Cross (Galatians 6:14) fixes this sinfulness we give our lives to Him with a relieved gratitude.  This self-denial is the basis of the Christian life.  Anyone who has submitted to God and asked the Lord Jesus Christ to save them understands that it is a most humbling experience which affects them deeply and for the rest of their lives.

Second, once we have gone through this self-denial our lives as we knew them (worldly) are considered dead and now we live our lives as Christians (spiritual).  This is the life of the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the connection between this physical world and the spiritual world of God’s Presence. 

The scriptures tell me that when I went through the process of becoming a Christian (self-denial) that I spiritually died and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26) was given me (think born again).  The Bible states that I have become (and am now) a new creation, that the old has gone and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17).  I learn that this life I live is not my own but it is Christ who lives through me (Galatians 2:20) by His Holy Spirit.  It is this Spirit that links my physical worldly life directly to the spiritual Presence of God.  This spiritual link is constant, every day, and for the rest of my life.  The Holy Spirit is quite literally the one and only sacramental grace that I need.

And so now, the Life of the Spirit is not a set of do’s and don’ts but about a very real and mysterious connection between the physical world in which I live and the spiritual world in which I will someday live with God.  When we Christians are instructed to live our earthly lives as spiritual beings it is because we have a new otherworldly spiritual outlook upon this physical world.  We have an outlook that is seen through the eyes of the Holy Spirit of God.

I know this is a bit of a rabbit-trail today but read the whole of chapter 2 paying special attention to verses 9-12.  And seriously, I cannot emphasize the part about self-denial enough.  If you have never had a time where you have submitted the very essence of your earthly life to Jesus Christ then you need to because the readings won’t make any spiritual sense otherwise.   

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+3%3A22-4%3A1&version=NIV

WARNING PREACHY – 11/1/2015

Colossians 3:12-25 - 4:1 (Part 1)

There is a lot in these 14 versus but it must be kept in context so I am leaving the verses together and plan to write about the pieces as I go along.

There are four topics addressed here:

1. Christian Ethical Attitudes (3:12-17)

2. A Family’s Christian Ethic (3:18-21)

3. An Employee’s Christian Ethic (3:22-25)

4. An Employer’s Christian Ethic (4:1)

These verses are to be understood in the context of the preceding verses.  The first part of this chapter tells us what it means to be a Christian by informing us what we need to shed from our Christian lives.  The Apostle Paul’s words direct us to put on certain attitudes of Christian living.  Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, and putting on love: All these things are what it means to make up the Christian landscape of the church.  I in no way claim to be good at these things but it is certainly true that if adopted these sort of Christian conducts (ethics) would solve most problems in my life.

The point is that as Christ followers we are expected to live by a new set of guiding ethics:  Ethics which oppose the common self-focused actions of our culture.  As Christians we are different than what we were and as Paul states next, we live ethics that naturally bleed over into our daily lives as parents, children, spouses, employees, and employers.

However, these are topics for the next time.  For now, read through these first 25 verses of Colossians 3 and get acquainted with the Christian ethic, you may discover that there is a deviation between the normal Christianity that we often identify with and the Christianity that Paul is leading us to live.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+3%3A22-4%3A1&version=NIV