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COLOSSIANS #25. COLOSSIANS 3:6-11

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. (ESV, Colossians 3:6-11)

We are continuing from last time, when Paul started warning about the dangers of lawlessness. We need to remember that we don’t avoid sin, or do good, so that God will accept us or forgive us. Our acceptance and forgiveness are already assured by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus and what he has done. But just as in a marriage we live not just for ourselves, but also with and for our spouse, so it is with God. We live not for our own selfish desires, but with and for Jesus, who loves us and gave himself for us. We have entered into a kind of spiritual marriage. Earthly marriage changes the way behave. So does this spiritual marriage. But we change (in both cases) because of love.

[By the way, the Bible often says things like “brothers” when it means “both men and women.” It says we are all “sons of God through Christ Jesus,” because there was a special significance attached to sons, but the concept applies to both men and women. Women need to learn to understand that these concepts are not about gender, but about who we are in Christ. So now, men need to understand the same things when it comes to the concept of spiritual marriage. We are all (both women and men) the Bride of Christ. It is not about gender, it is about the kind of relationship we have with Christ.]

Last time Paul listed some of the changes that take place because of our spiritual marriage to Christ, and they were changes in our desires, and how we acted (or did not act) on them.

Now Paul continues and talks about how our relationships with each other should change. In the first place, we must put away all anger and wrath. I might have translated these words, anger and rage. Paul says we should “put them away.” The Greek does not mean “put them away” like putting away socks that you will use again. It means, “send them away from yourself;  distance yourself from them.” Now, the truth is, at times Jesus was angry (Mark 3:5). So, not all anger is sinful.  Paul says it this way in Ephesians 4:26-27:

^“Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.”

Clearly there are times when anger is not sinful, since God himself gets angry at times. Of course it is right to be angry about injustice. Who would not be angry to hear about someone abusing a child, or stealing from the poor, or treating someone like  a second class citizen just because of their ethnicity? Who would not be angry if someone wrongs them badly?

But we must set a limit to the anger. Paul says, deal with it before the day is over. We are not to nurse anger, or feed it, or dwell on it. Get it out of your system, and send it away. Sometimes, to do that, you might need to express your anger to the appropriate person. Do so as soon as you can do it calmly, and then be done with it.

Malice is the next thing we are to send away. Malice is when you are deliberately trying to hurt someone, whether through words or actions. It indicates evil intentions. Sometimes people who are malicious may ask a question or say something that is technically innocent (on the surface) but it is said to hurt someone.

Slander is actually the Greek word from which we get our word “blasphemy.” Slander/blasphemy is saying something about God or someone else that is not true. I think it includes incidents where you say something that you don’t know to be true. In other words you are telling a lie or something that you know might be a lie about God or another person. So, perhaps I wonder if someone is having an affair. If I tell others that this person is having an affair, when I don’t know it is true, that is slander/blasphemy. Paul doesn’t mention gossip in this context, though he does in other letters. Gossip is repeating a fact that is not yours to repeat. So, to use the affair example, if I know for certain someone is having an affair, it is still not my business to talk about it with someone who does not need to know it.

The fourth thing Paul mentions is obscene talk. He says something like this also in Ephesians:

²⁹ No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear. (CSB, Ephesians 4:29)

I am both astounded and disappointed at how many Christians completely ignore both our verses today, and Ephesians 4:29 above. I have met probably more than a dozen pastors, and know of many others, who freely swear, tell dirty jokes and generally use foul language. They tell me that they are just trying to relate to “the people.” By this logic, they should commit adultery so that they can help adulterers!

A lot of people use foul language more or less as a habit. You get used to using certain words, and they sort of slip out of your mouth before you realize it. I am not deeply concerned about this, though, I think our scripture today is telling us that it isn’t a neutral habit and we should do what we can to change it. I think Ephesians 4:29 (above) gives us the important thing: the way we talk should uplift people and give grace to those who hear. I think we can say that in general, the F-word does not give grace to those who hear, nor do any of the other words. I think it is safe to say that the life we have in Jesus is not consistent with dirty jokes, or suggestive sexual language, or racial slurs, or insults, or demeaning labels. I think a big part of the problem is this: if these things come out of you, that means they are inside you in the first place. Jesus put it like this:

¹⁴ Summoning the crowd again, he told them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: ¹⁵ Nothing that goes into a person from outside can defile him but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
¹⁷ When he went into the house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸ He said to them, “Are you also as lacking in understanding? Don’t you realize that nothing going into a person from the outside can defile him? ¹⁹ For it doesn’t go into his heart but into the stomach and is eliminated” (thus he declared all foods clean ). ²⁰ And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. ²¹ For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, ²² adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. ²³ All these evil things come from within and defile a person.” Mark 7:14-23

Another thing Jesus said:

³³ “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. ³⁴ You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. ³⁵ The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. (ESV, Matthew 12:33-35)

I’m not trying to make anyone feel terrible about themselves. But what comes out of our mouths is an indication of what is in our hearts. Again, swearing is sometimes nothing more than a bad habit, and you shouldn’t stress too much about it. But it is a habit that you ask the Lord to change in you.

When I’m working with someone, and they hit their finger with a hammer, and they swear, I don’t think much about it. But when someone hits himself and does not swear, that gets my attention. In some jobs or circumstances, you can say a lot by not saying certain things, if you catch my drift. Many times, I have ended up having spiritual conversations because people noticed that I don’t swear. I will freely admit that it is easy for me not to swear, because I never got into the habit in the first place. But I think our language can say something about Jesus to other people. More often than not – maybe 75% of the time, at least, I find that those who don’t swear are Christians.

The final thing Paul puts here is “do not lie to another.” Part of the Greek word for “lie” is “pseudo.” The word goes beyond simply telling  a lie, and includes any kind of deception or falsehood and could even include “putting on a false front,” or hypocrisy. This is really important. We cannot grow together as a community if we are not honest with each other. Sometimes we are afraid of honesty, because sometimes it brings conflict. But listen, dear friends, listen well: Conflict is unpleasant. But when you have walked through conflict with someone else, and resolved it, you are closer than you would ever be if you never had issues. We are God’s children together forever, so there is no question of conflict destroying your Christian community, provided we go about it in a godly way. And so honesty, even when it leads to conflict, leads ultimately to greater love for another, and a greater sense of support and encouragement.

Verses 9-10 are extremely important in order to put all in this context:

…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.

This is the key. Remember, this all builds upon what we have already learned. I don’t want anyone to confuse all these commands with some kind of legalism. Instead, these things are a guide. They show us what the character of Christ looks like. They show us how to put to death the old person, and let the new us, in Christ, be manifested more and more. We are being renewed in the knowledge in the image of our Creator. This isn’t about following rules, it is about allowing the Holy Spirit to renew us in God’s image. In a sense, it is about “unpacking” the gift of Christ in our everyday lives.

This also gives us a diagnostic tool. If there continues to be anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk, if we continue to deal with others in hypocrisy and deception, then there is some sort of problem. The life of Christ is not flowing out into our souls and then changing how we live in the body. The problem might be that we don’t truly believe who Jesus Christ is, and what has done for us. It could be that we are feeding our souls with the things of the world and flesh, instead of the things of the spirit, like the Bible, Christian fellowship, prayer, worship and music.

I am quite sure that the actual Colossians, the first readers of this letter, would have understood these things to be especially important to how the lived in Christian community with each other. That is why the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write verse 11:

¹¹ Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. (ESV, Colossians 3:6-11)

In Paul’s world, there were many divisions and distinctions between people that threatened real Christian community. Greeks considered themselves to be cultural elites. Jews thought they were better than all others, because their ancestors were chosen to be God’s people. “Barbarians” had a different meaning than we might imagine. It meant nothing more or less than someone who didn’t speak Greek, and was therefore not part of the Greco-Roman culture that dominated that area of the world in those days. Scythians were the real barbarians. They were white-skinned Europeans who lived far to the northeast, in crude huts, with a brutal, primitive, savage tribal culture. Perhaps a few made their way into the civilized world of the Mediterranean and became Christians. Slaves, were not exactly the sort of slaves that lived in nineteenth century America, but their freedom was certainly limited. We will talk more of slavery later in the letter, but in some ways, the big difference between slave and free in those days was that slaves had less money.  All these were ways of dividing people from each other in Paul’s time. But the Holy Spirit, through Paul, says, that these are meaningless distinctions. The only important thing about all people is where they stood in relationship to Christ. There is only in Christ, and not in Christ. And in Christ, there is no distinction worth mentioning.

In our day and age, we are tempted by divisions also. Some people consider themselves intellectuals and elites, and they might be tempted to think of themselves as better than others. Some might have a strong religious background, and so look down on people who only started following Jesus after many years without him. Some might be Westerners: part of the Western European culture that has dominated the world for the past four hundred years or so. Others might be from non-Western countries. Others still might come from very primitive places in the world. Some might be in economically difficult situations, while others have more money than they strictly need. Unfortunately, in America, as other places in the world, we also allow ethnic differences (which some people call “race”) to divide us.

I want to speak, very briefly, about racism. This scripture shows us that it is a sin when we use peoples’ ethnic background or appearance as a means to judge them, put them down, or divide us from them. Paul says very clearly that these things don’t matter: in Christ, we are all the same. In Christ, the important thing is that we belong to Him. I think there has been some confusion about this. Sometimes, in the United States, it seems like we are supposed to be especially sensitive to a person’s ethnic background. The Bible seems to be saying the opposite. I’m not saying we should insult each other with racial slurs. Obviously, the rest of this passage calls that sort of thing sinful. But I am saying, that in Christ, race is not important. Any way we have of making it important pales in comparison to the oneness we have in Christ.

Sure, we can celebrate the heritage of our historical cultures, but in America, even that sort of thing has had the tendency to divide more than to unite. In Christ there is neither black nor white. The idea that blackness or whiteness is somehow important, is, I think, one of the great lies of the 21^st century. Let me put it this way: anything that starts you thinking about “them” and “us,” can become a real problem. I realize that racism is a thorny and difficult issue, which I will not solve here. However, I have seen race relations between blacks and whites deteriorate during my adult life, and that deterioration was accompanied by the idea that we should be especially sensitive to a person’s race, as opposed to simply striving to see every person as a person, regardless of his or her appearance. Also, when I was young, tension between American Asians and American whites was almost non-existent. However, as our culture has drawn more attention to race, and insisted upon “sensitivity,” racial tension has grown up between these two groups, where previously there was very little.

What we have been doing for the past thirty or forty years has surely not been working. Could we find a better place than scripture for guidance? In Christ, there is no black or white, Asian or Native-American, man or woman. Christ is all, and is in all. None of these things are supposed to matter. None of them should make any difference to the fellowship we have in Jesus.  None of them may be used as excuses for anger, rage, malice, slander, obscene talk or deception, or anything else that interferes with our one-ness in Christ.

What if, in listening to this message, you realize that engage in some of these sins, or allow these differences between people to be important? What then?

First, do not panic. The presence of sinful flesh does not, all by itself, mean that you are not a true Christian. But a true Christian responds to sin by repenting, and giving Jesus permission to change him or her. Repentance is not about generating will power in order to avoid sin in the future. But repentance agrees that what the Bible calls sin, is in fact, wrong. A repentant heart wants to change, and gives God permission to work so that it can be changed. The main questions are: do you agree with God that your behavior needs to change? Do you give him permission to change you? Do you believe that he can and will change you through the power of the Holy Spirit? Will you try to go along with the changes he wants to make in you?

The change may not happen as quickly as we think it should. That’s fine. I don’t think it is up to us evaluate how much and how fast we change. But, is there any movement in a direction that looks more like Jesus and less like your sinful flesh? We don’t get to decide how much progress we make, only that there is movement in the right direction. The good news is given to us right here in these verses:

you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

And…Christ is all, and in all.

For anyone who is in Jesus, the putting off of your old self and the putting on of the new is a present, spiritual reality. You are being renewed in knowledge after the image of  God. Maybe not as quickly as we think it should be, but it is happening to us, and our main job is to not fight with God about it, but let him do it. For those who are in Christ Jesus, he is all to us, and he is in all of us.