START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Colossians 3:1-11
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OBSERVE:
This passage begins with a big “if” that sets the tone for the rest of this section. This is called a conditional sentence in grammar, which essentially means that if a certain fact is true, then certain results will follow.
Here is the big “If”:
So if you have been raised with Christ…
First, what does it mean to have been raised with Christ? Colossians 2:6-19 covers this pretty thoroughly — it means to have received Christ by faith, to be rooted and established in Christ, to have died to sin through the sign of baptism, and to have been raised to new life with Christ. So, if that is true, Paul says:
seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
The Christian has entered not only into a new way of life — the Christian has entered into a new reality that transcends the present existence. They are to be heavenly minded because they have already died to the flesh and trespasses and the uncircumcision of the flesh which signifies the sinful nature.
The present reality is that the Christian now sets their mind on things that are above; the future reality will confirm this heavenly reality:
When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
Paul then becomes specific about what it means to die to sin:
Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry).
This is not a comprehensive list, by any means. A quick glance at other lists of sins that Paul addresses in other letters suggests that he is speaking to two realities — one, the universality of human nature; and two, the specific context of the community to which he is writing.
For example, in Colossians he deals with sexual sins, but also with greed — which he says is idolatry. These are sins of materialism, worshiping the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25).
In other epistles he includes additional sins not mentioned here — in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 he adds adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, drunkards, revilers, robbers. I don’t think this is because these sins were more “abominable” than others, but because they were a problem in this particular community. There are also lists in Galatians 5:19-20 where sorcery is mentioned, and the dangers of factions and dissension that tear at the fabric of the churches in Galatia.
In other words, sin is anything that focuses the person’s mind on things of the flesh rather than the things of God.
Dying to these sins is a necessary step toward living the life that is above, because these sins tend to deify the creature and “creature pleasures” which are by definition temporary.
The consequence of sin is quite clear:
On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient.
Paul makes it absolutely clear that the Christian life is a repentant and transformed life. He recognizes that many of the Colossians lived lives that were sexually impure and greedy — but now they must put that way of life to death:
These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life.
And he picks up again with some of the sins that are common in relationships within any community:
But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another…
Then, in one of his characteristic metaphorical flourishes, he describes the changed character of a Christian in terms of a person stripping off the old clothes and being clothed with new clothes. This is made more poignant by the knowledge that in the early church the candidate for baptism literally stripped off their old clothes (in private of course) and put on a white robe for baptism, signifying new birth:
seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.
This renewal is not merely pardon from sin and salvation from judgment — it is meant to describe the renewal of God’s image as it was intended from the beginning. This is the doctrine of sanctification, and it is only made possible because of the premise that Paul has already introduced earlier about Christ:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15).
The fullness of God dwells in Christ, who has taken on a human body. His purpose in becoming human was so that the image of God might be restored in human beings!
Finally, Paul makes clear that this new heavenly reality in which the Christian is called to live isn’t merely personal and individual — this new reality breaks down the barriers of ethnicity and class as well, so that all are one in Christ:
In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!
We already know of the religious tension between Greeks and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised especially if we are familiar with the conflicts presented in Galatians. There, Paul points out that the law can’t save, only the grace of Christ can save. And there is this vision of unity:
As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:27-28).
But here in Colossians, Paul also addresses the tension that exists for a community on the frontier of the Roman empire. Greeks regarded all non-Greeks as barbarian, and could be just as snobbish toward them as Jews were toward Gentiles. And Scythians were a tribe of fierce Iranian nomads who, like the Huns of later centuries, had mastered horse-mounted warfare and struck terror into the hearts of people settled in the cities of Asia Minor. Even they could be transformed by the grace of God, and were part of this new Christian identity!
And of course, the inclusion of slave or free, male and female as one in Christ Jesus is a reminder to us just how radical early Christianity was. Women were only slightly higher on the social-status scale than slaves — and yet they, as well as slaves, were considered equals with all Christians! The seeds of a new, egalitarian community where all repentant and renewed persons are united, was present here.
APPLY:
Ethical transformation is a part of new life in Christ. Colossians teaches us that when we come to faith in Christ, we die to sin and are becoming renewed into the very image of our Creator!
This may be a challenging statement for many western Christians today. We have been so acculturated with the notion of “personal preferences” and “individual choices” that we believe such choices include our own sinful proclivities as well.
To tell someone today that they must wait to have sex until they are married; or that they may only have one partner; or that marriage is between one man and one woman — strikes some modern people as a repressive denial of personal freedom!
Somehow we have missed the memo. Not only is it true that we have died to sin when we become Christians, we no longer own our own bodies!
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
Even more importantly, the Christian has a new citizenship and is told to:
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Is the reason that we must have pleasure, material prosperity, and sexual fulfillment in this life because we really no longer believe in heaven as our ultimate home?
Tertullian, the North African Christian who lived from 155 to 240 A.D., addressed this issue. He was advocating that Christians who had jobs in morally compromised fields should quit them. And when they asked, “How then shall we live?” he answered, “Who says you have to live?”
A radical answer for a radical time.
When we consider such radical demands, we must also balance this with a seasoning of grace. In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray:
forgive us our trespasses…lead us not into temptation…deliver us from evil…
This reminds us that even the strongest Christian is in constant need of God’s grace in the face of temptation and sin.
This same Paul who calls us to sanctification and holiness also reminds us:
So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall (1 Corinthians 10:12).
Paul’s message of renewal and sanctification is not for those who have already arrived, but for those who are continuing to press forward to the goal of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14).
Christian renewal is a process.
RESPOND:
When I was preaching at a lecture series in a church some time ago, we had a luncheon prior to my message. I had already preached two sermons at the church, and had experienced a positive response. And then a man came up to me and said “You preachers always like to talk about sin, but you never tell us what it is!”
That may have been true of me, but it wasn’t true of Paul. He didn’t shy away from naming certain sins — adultery, fornication, homosexual practice, greed, etc. Of course, those are the sins that are easy to identify and condemn — the “hot” sins. He also addresses those sins that are “colder” and more common among “church” folk — slander, abusive language, factions, dissensions, quarrelling.
Here’s the answer I would have given if I had thought of it then — sin is anything that takes us away from God and Godly relationships with other people. Paul doesn’t give the same list of sins in each of his epistles for a reason. Each context differs, and the sins to which they may be susceptible may be different. I don’t really feel a deep urging toward greed, so it may be easy for me to condemn covetous people. But I may struggle, especially in this highly sexualized culture, with lustful thoughts. I must stay on my guard against all sins, but I know which sins in my old self need to be stripped away so that I may be clothed with my new self.
One more thought. Dying to self doesn’t mean losing one’s identity. Christ died that all who believe might be saved and transformed into his likeness. But dying to sin and self does mean renunciation and even a form of mortification of ungodly desires and practices.
I saw a good illustration of this in the extraordinary mini-series The Band of Brothers. This was an ongoing account, based on true stories, of Easy Company, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division in the U.S. Army. This was a group of paratroopers who landed at Normandy in World War II, and then fought through Europe until the end of the war.
In one episode, a private confided to a lieutenant that when he had come down on D-Day, he’d hidden in a ditch because he was scared. The lieutenant answered,
The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you’re already dead. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you’ll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function…
Of course, the implications of that acceptance means something very different for a Christian. When we accept that we have died, then we can begin to truly live for Christ because we are truly free from the power of sin.
Lord, you have died for my sins so that I may truly live. Now, may I die to my sins so that I may truly be renewed. Amen.
PHOTOS:
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START WITH SCRIPTURE:
SOAR Lectionary Bible Study 