Colossians 3

Division 4. (Colossians 3:1-25; Colossians 4:1-18.)Practical consequences.

Colossians 3:1-17

Section 1. (Colossians 3:1-17.)Christ all. We have now the practical consequences, not negatively merely, in the refusal of certain things, but in that which is morally right and fitting, the image of Christ wrought out in the life.

1. The consequence of being raised with Christ is to put us necessarily outside the world. The risen man is in connection with heaven, although, as with the Lord during the forty days, he may actually be upon earth, but as raised with Christ, in association with Him, the things above belong to him where Christ sits at the right hand of God. What is according to God is seen by this place of exaltation in which Christ is. God has bidden us, in this way, to have our hearts in company with His heart; and Christ, the accepted of God is the rejected of man. Thus, a heavenly Object lifts one from the earth.

It is not a question simply of what is in itself evil or what is not. Christ has passed out of the whole scene. He is in heaven, and the heart drawn there is God’s method of sanctification, therefore, for the soul. The result is that if a true life for God is lived here upon the earth, yet it is in character, in all that in which it has its source and object, a life hidden from the world. Christ is hidden, and hidden in God. As a consequence, to be understood by the world, to be commended and honored, would be contrary to that association with Christ which God has given us.

The day is coming when Christ will be manifested, He who is our life even now. Then indeed that for which the Christian has lived will become apparent to all, and the wisdom of his life will be evident. Then we will be manifested with Him in glory, but for this, therefore, faith must be content to wait through all the present time, finding in Him its present joy and satisfaction, but in strangership here. This is the principle which underlies the whole moral condition for us. 2. The result is that we are to put to death our members which are upon the earth. He does not say our bodies. The body is to be offered up to God “a living sacrifice.” The members are quite other morally than this implies, as he shows here. If the body is allowed to have a life, then, it is to be put to death; but he will not allow that this is properly the body. He speaks of it as if the members, so to speak, were in revolt from the body, in revolt certainly from subjection to God. On account of such things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. You walked in those things, he says, when you lived in them, but the walk must follow, therefore, the character of the life. What a disgrace to walk in things in which we do not live! There are other things to be put off, things which have not the same character of lust, but which, nevertheless, are contrary to God. We are not to lie to one another, as having put off the old man with his deeds, and having put on the new. This has introduced us, as he says, now, into a new scene. The new man has a knowledge which is derived from faith. It is the knowledge of a new creation where there is nothing but Christ. No human distinctions are recognized in it, no conditions upon which men pride themselves here.

Christ is everything and Christ is in all who belong to that place. Here, as we have seen, is that which keeps the heart. We can only be strangers to that which we have been brought out of by being at home in that which is now made ours. We cannot set ourselves right piecemeal. We can only be set right by having our hearts in that, where Christ being all, all is according to God, and where we can let our hearts out freely; where we can covet everything, and nothing will be denied us. 3. The joy of the Lord is our strength. For mortification, we want power; and our power is found in that which lifts us out of the whole scene to which evil attaches. Christ, therefore, is now to give character to every part of our behaviour. As the elect of God, those who owe everything to His will, His choice as those set apart to Him, and those upon whom He has set His love, we are to put on the things which properly accompany this: “bowels of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another.” It is striking how, in all these, there is found some form of self-denial. Power is shown by competence for stooping; God turning also the very things that are against us into the means of educating us in this.

Things evil in themselves may, nevertheless, furnish us with a wholesome discipline for the way and enable us, in answer, to bring forth fruit which is according to God. We are to forbear as God has forborne. We are to forgive as Christ has forgiven us; to all which is to be added love, as that which is the “bond of perfectness,” which keeps everything in its place and perfects every detail of life. Think how the world, even, has to put on the appearance of love, the more if it has not the reality; but love itself has no need to put on an appearance. It will manifest itself in harmony in every tone and gesture. The manifestation of the divine nature has a unity in it which makes everything to be in harmony.

If there is love in the heart, the words will not be hard or unseemly; their very tone will be affected. Here too, the peace of Christ is found, that is to preside in the heart. It is the peace which results from unbroken communion, in a life that is according to God, in ways that are ways of pleasantness and paths of peace. To this we have been called in one body. This peace is the common heritage of all the saints of God; and we may well be thankful as we realize the immensity of such a blessing as this. The word of Christ, too, is to dwell in us richly. All through, it is Christ here; the forgiveness of Christ, the peace of Christ, the word of Christ.

We can see how occupation with Christ is that which is necessarily the basis of it all, and His Lordship is fully owned. Thus, the word of Christ is not only owned and bowed to, but dwells in the soul richly in all its fulness and blessedness; and this issues in an ability to teach and admonish one another in all wisdom.

The truth which God has given, if it be really received, cannot be held simply as one’s own. We cannot but impart it. Truth that is not imparted can scarcely be enjoyed, and in the close contact in which God has brought us with one another, the interest that He has given us in each other, the relationship we bear to one another, it cannot but follow that we shall realize one another’s needs. Connected with this, the power of it all in our own hearts is beautifully shown us. “In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,” the truth makes music in us. We sing with grace in our hearts to God, and what a need there is for this, in order to any true teaching or admonishing one another. Nay, will not this enjoyment in our own souls be the most effectual form of it?

Such heart-songs will awaken other songs, and in all this, he says, whatever is done, in word or deed, we are to do all things as representatives of the Lord Jesus, in His Name. How much this would settle for us as to details of practical conduct, if it were only frankly accepted by us all!

In word and in deed, identification with Christ in His spirit is to mark us, and here again, as those who are giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. How we see that the spirit of joy and praise is that which becomes us, the atmosphere of heaven to which our life belongs. Here, then, is a beautiful and comprehensive picture of the Christian life in its moral aspect. We are to learn it in His company, or we shall never learn it.

Colossians 3:18-4

Section 2. (Colossians 3:18-25; Colossians 4:1-6.)The Relationships of life. We have had the character of the new man put before us with a completeness which might make us think that the whole range of Christian duty was contained in it. What are we called to recognize or “put on,” but this new man? But the new man is the man in Christ, and the place in Christ takes one outside of human distinctions; for “in Christ there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female” (Galatians 3:28). And thus the most fundamental natural distinction seems to be set aside. We have, however, to learn that Scripture is larger than our thoughts, and that the God of creation is that of redemption also. As long, therefore, as we are in the unchanged body of the old creation, we are subject to the ordinances which He has made for it. Doubtless also, there are higher purposes to be worked out in this way; but our point is now, the steadfast way in which God maintains His own thoughts, and will have us maintain and honor them. Husbands, wives, parents, children, are thus natural relationships established of God, and honorable in all, as the apostle says of marriage (Hebrews 13:4). But there are other relations here which are not established of God, but have come in through sin, as that of master and slave: here one might expect that there could be nothing but (as among Christians at least) the prohibition absolutely of such. This is a matter important enough to be in effect (though not formally) the subject of a distinct epistle, which finds place as supplementary to this; we shall examine it, therefore, in that connection. Here, however, we see that the slave or bondman is addressed as such, and (what is more to the purpose) the master also. After this there is insisted on the duty to those who are without, outside of Christian claim, but not of the all-embracing love which in Christ came after the lost, -a love to which we owe our every blessing also, who were all once outside, and among the lost. In this review of relationships, therefore, the apostle will not omit one that is so real as this, however different from, and indeed in contrast with all others,

1. Relationships ordained by the Creator come here first, and are indeed the shadow of higher and spiritual ones. This, however, which Ephesians develops so fully as to marriage, is not in any way referred to here. We have but brief exhortations, which are for the most part repetitions of those in Ephesians; we shall not do more, therefore, than point out how these repetitions emphasize what is the main responsibility in each case. Those who are in authority are to exercise it in love -a love that seeketh not its own; while it is for those under authority to yield obedience as to the Lord: a thing which gives it at once a needed guard from any weak sufferance of evil, while making the hardest task that in which “thy God hath commanded thy strength;” so that His strength may be reckoned on for its accomplishment.
2. This principle is carried out in application to the poor slave, who is now Christ’s servant, and thus truly free. If the Lord has appointed him a lowly and trying service, it will not be counted a dishonor to him in the day of final recompense, when servant and master will stand before their common Master, to receive, not according to the place they may have filled, but according to the faithfulness with which they have filled it. The Master then will be One who has filled Himself the very lowest place to serve us all.
3. This naturally leads on to what in this day and world is truest service, and as to which Paul had a special commission, the manifestation of the mystery of Christ, against which all the world is, and he who is the usurping “prince of this world;” so that, if it is to have way, God must open a door for it. For this, therefore, the apostle seeks the prayers of the disciples, and in general that they persevere in prayer, watching, as in expectation of answer, and with thanksgiving, which implies the tender and encouraging remembrance of abundant mercy. But indeed the very fact of having such a gospel to pray for may well be the greatest encouragement: how could He, who at such a cost has provided salvation, fail to answer the desire of heart which is so completely in sympathy with His own heart? Here is that as to which we may pray therefore with boldness and confident expectation; and here is the secret of confidence, when we have learned to identify ourselves with Christ’s interests upon the earth as our real concern. With Paul himself there certainly was no other, as we well know.
4. Finally, apart from the direct preaching of the gospel, we are to “walk in wisdom towards those that are without, redeeming opportunities:” for in a world under Satan’s power there will not be always such. For this reason one must be ready when the time comes. At all times, also, the speech is to be characterized by grace, the “salt” of divine holiness preserving this from passing over into mere laxity and inability to stand for God. This in fact alone is grace; but the holiness of grace is as far as possible from that of law, though law is holy. A Christian, as one who owes all to grace, falsifies his testimony if he shows a spirit of legality; nor will there be wisdom found in this way to “answer,” or meet according to their need, the various conditions of those around. We must be in the spirit of Christ (which grace is) in order to do His work.