WEBVTT 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:15.919 This morning we are continuing our study in Colossians by looking at chapter 3, verses 12 through verse 17. 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:18.480 So let me begin our time by reading from the Word of God. 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:23.839 Would you follow with me as I read from the book of Colossians and chapter 3, beginning in verse 12? 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:41.679 Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if anyone has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:46.000 As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:51.520 And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:57.200 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:08.239 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:16.560 And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. 00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:18.959 This is the word of the Lord. 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:33.040 Two hundred years ago, a Scottish minister named Thomas Chalmers, who was at the heart of a kind of Scottish revival, preached a very influential sermon titled The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:41.840 He stated his main proposition, his main claim in that sermon with these words You have all heard that nature abhors a vacuum. 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:44.719 Such at least is the nature of the human heart. 00:01:44.959 --> 00:01:51.920 The only way to dispossess it of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one. 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:56.959 That very adequately captures what Paul is teaching us in Colossians and chapter 3. 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:00.959 Through the first two chapters, Paul was explaining to us who Christ is. 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:02.959 He is the radiance of the glory of God. 00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:04.719 All that is in God is in Christ. 00:02:04.879 --> 00:02:15.039 And he's been explaining to us what it means to be a Christian is to be united to Jesus Christ, so that you are forever in a union with Jesus Christ, who is the all of the fullness of God. 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:17.919 So that to be a Christian is to take on a new identity. 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:24.080 It's to be fully incorporated into the life of Christ, so that as God looks at you, he sees you in Christ. 00:02:24.319 --> 00:02:32.080 All of the love that's been radiating from the Father to the Son is now fully radiating to you because he sees you as united to his Son Jesus. 00:02:32.240 --> 00:02:33.360 Your sins are forgiven. 00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:35.039 You have an eternal inheritance. 00:02:35.199 --> 00:02:40.800 All that belongs to Christ, the eternal Son, now belongs to you because you're in Christ. 00:02:41.039 --> 00:02:45.680 What Paul then does in chapter three is teach us how to live out our new identity. 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:55.680 So he told us in the beginning of chapter three that we studied last week that to live out this identity in Christ means you have to set your mind on Christ and put to death what is earthly in you. 00:02:55.919 --> 00:03:00.879 Anything that is not going into the new world, the new kingdom of Christ, you're to put to death in this life. 00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:10.080 Put off all of that that is characteristic of your old life, all of your old self, anything that is sinful or displeasing to the Lord to whom you're united, you're to put off. 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:16.240 But just to put off old habits or old attitudes or old actions, in itself is insufficient. 00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:20.080 You have to also put on new attitudes and new actions. 00:03:20.240 --> 00:03:32.560 Maybe in a very simple way, if you have a daily donut habit and you want to put off your daily donut habit, it's not enough just to stop eating the donut and then walk by Krispy Kreams every day and just jouncing for Krispy Kreams. 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:37.360 You need to replace your old habit with a new, greater enjoyment. 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:47.439 In an even greater way in your spiritual life, it's not enough just to try to put off old sinful habits, but you have to drive off old sinful habits with new holy habits. 00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:55.759 You have to drive off old affections, old desires, old loves with greater, more powerful new affections and new loves. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:58.080 That's what Paul teaches us in this text. 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:06.479 Having taught us in the first 11 verses of chapter 3 how to put off what is old, in the following six verses, what Paul does is teach us how to put on what is new. 00:04:06.639 --> 00:04:09.520 And we could really summarize what putting on the new is in this. 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:11.120 We're putting on Christ. 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:19.040 We're living out our identity in Christ by being attracted to, by loving, and being characterized by what characterizes Christ. 00:04:19.279 --> 00:04:23.279 You put off the old man by putting on the new man, namely you put on Christ. 00:04:23.519 --> 00:04:32.240 And so what this passage does is it guides us how to put off our old person by replacing them with new per with new affections, new attitudes. 00:04:32.480 --> 00:04:37.759 I think a little outline that we could use would be this passage guides us into four ways that we put on Christ. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:42.319 The first way that we put on Christ, I'm going to summarize with these words, we'll put on a new self. 00:04:42.560 --> 00:04:43.199 A new self. 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:48.800 And I say that because what Paul describes for us in verses 12 through 14 is a really comprehensive kind of transformation. 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:50.319 So look down at verse 12. 00:04:50.560 --> 00:05:00.000 Paul starts this section by saying, put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 00:05:00.319 --> 00:05:04.079 So this verse really encompasses both your identity and your actions. 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:05.839 Your identity being who you are. 00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:10.319 And because of who you already are, you're supposed to act in a corresponding way. 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:13.680 And your identity is in these first three little descriptions. 00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:16.720 You are God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:19.040 This is who you are in Christ. 00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:20.560 You're God's chosen ones. 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:29.040 God has chosen you, He set his affection on you, He set His love on you, He's given His inheritance to you, He's given you His covenants and His oaths and revealed Himself to you. 00:05:29.199 --> 00:05:35.199 You're chosen by God, elected, and brought to Him so that you're now holy, which is a category distinction. 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:39.920 Not just describing your actions, but it's describing who you already are, your identity. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:40.959 It's a position. 00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:47.519 To be holy is to be set apart, to belong to God and be used exclusively for the service of God. 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:49.600 This is who you are in Christ. 00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:53.040 So Paul can also call you beloved because you're in Christ. 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:54.959 And this is the way that Paul describes Christ. 00:05:55.040 --> 00:05:56.480 He's the beloved of the Father. 00:05:56.639 --> 00:06:04.560 If you just flip back a page in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 1 and verse 13, look at the way Paul describes Christ in chapter 1, verse 13. 00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:13.360 In verse 13, Paul says, He that's the Father has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. 00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:14.399 This is Jesus. 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:16.720 He is the eternally begotten Son of the Father. 00:06:16.879 --> 00:06:24.160 He is forever the beloved of the Father, all of the divine perfections radiating in love and enjoyment towards the Son forever. 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:34.800 And now that you have been grafted into Christ, now that you're united to Christ, all of the divine love that is flowing full force eternally from the Father towards the Son is now flowing towards you. 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:42.240 You are caught up in the trans in a transcendent, loving relationship between the Father and Son. 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:50.399 The Father looks at you and genuinely calls you his beloved because he sees you in his son, in Christ. 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:58.240 This is your identity, chosen, holy, and beloved, and out of that new identity, you are to put on new actions. 00:06:58.399 --> 00:07:10.720 I mean, even just to say it one step further before we move on to the actions, Paul has already said in chapter 3, verse 10, just a couple verses prior, if you glance your eyes up in your pip in your Bible to verse 10, he says, you have put off the old self. 00:07:10.879 --> 00:07:15.439 Your old self has died, and then you have put on the new self in verse 10. 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:17.519 So you are already new in Christ. 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:19.279 You're incorporated into Christ. 00:07:19.439 --> 00:07:21.199 This is the reality of who you are. 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:22.639 Your old self is dead. 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:24.160 You have put on Christ. 00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:26.639 So, Paul says, live it out. 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:34.160 You genuinely and eternally are a member of the divine life, partaker in divine life, a member of the divine family. 00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:40.399 So live out that new identity with actions that correspond to who you already are in Christ. 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:44.160 What would actions that correspond to your identity look like? 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:46.480 Paul describes them in verse 12. 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:52.720 With a little list compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 00:07:53.040 --> 00:08:04.560 Now each of those attitudes or attributes deserves a sermon in itself, but we could simplify this by saying what Paul is describing for us is living in a way that corresponds to who you are in Christ. 00:08:04.639 --> 00:08:06.319 In other words, act like Christ. 00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:08.079 How does Christ act towards you? 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:12.720 Christ act towards you in compassion and kindness and humility and meekness and patience. 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:18.399 So the ways that Christ acts are the ways that you are now to act because your life is united to him. 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:23.680 Now, we should say a little bit about each of these, so let's just walk through this list rather briefly. 00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:28.399 If you look at the first item in the list, Paul says, put on compassionate hearts. 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:33.440 And that little expression is rendered a little bit differently depending on your English translation of the Bible. 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:40.159 A very wooden translation of the Greek would read something like guts of compassion. 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:43.759 The idea here is it's just very simple, it's a little metaphor. 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:48.320 In modern vernacular English, we use the heart as a metaphor for kind of the seat of the emotions and feelings. 00:08:48.480 --> 00:08:53.679 In ancient Greek, they use the guts, the bowels, as a metaphor for the seat of affection and feeling. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:54.960 Both of them are appropriate. 00:08:55.519 --> 00:09:00.559 When you feel very deeply about someone, when you feel deep compassion and love towards someone, where do you feel it? 00:09:00.799 --> 00:09:06.639 Maybe you feel it in your heart, your heart races a bit, but you also feel it deep down in your guts, don't you? 00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:10.080 So this is the metaphor that the Greek language uses to describe this. 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:15.360 And what this is describing is a genuine visceral affection for other people. 00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:18.000 That's how we are supposed to relate to one another. 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:20.559 Think of it this way: how does Christ relate to you? 00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:25.120 Does he just perform perfunctory good deeds because that's his duty to the Father? 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:31.519 Or does he look at you and extend genuine compassion and love for you? 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:33.519 Well, of course, the latter is the case. 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:40.480 Christ doesn't just perform perfunctory deeds on your behalf, but he has genuine, true, divine affection for you. 00:09:40.720 --> 00:09:51.120 And as you receive and become more aware of the genuine divine affection God extends to you through Christ, that's going to overflow in the way you look at those who are also beloved by God. 00:09:51.360 --> 00:09:56.320 If he or she is beloved by the Father, how can I not also love them too? 00:09:56.639 --> 00:10:00.559 As Christ has genuine affection for you, you extend it to others. 00:10:00.639 --> 00:10:02.000 That's compassionate hearts. 00:10:02.080 --> 00:10:05.039 And then Paul goes on with this next word, kindness. 00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:06.240 Kindness. 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:10.000 Which is a word that often gets reduced to just mere niceness. 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:13.360 And like compassionate hearts, is not just perfunctory goodness. 00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:19.360 So kindness, the kind of kindness that Paul is describing, is not just kind of social niceness and etiquette. 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:22.159 But rather, kindness is an attribute of God. 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:24.399 The way that God treats you is kindness. 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:26.799 It's according to his goodness and mercy. 00:10:27.039 --> 00:10:35.679 So for example, one verse in the scriptures that tells us about God's kindness is Romans 11 22, where Paul says, Note the kindness and the severity of God. 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:43.360 Severity towards those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:51.840 So if you want to understand what is the kindness that I am to extend to others, think about what are the ways that God in Christ relates to you. 00:10:52.080 --> 00:10:53.360 How does he treat you? 00:10:53.519 --> 00:10:58.639 Is it not with goodness and mercy and patience and love? 00:10:58.879 --> 00:11:02.480 That is the kind of kindness we are then to bend out and extend towards others. 00:11:02.639 --> 00:11:09.039 And Paul continues, the kind of compassionate hearts and kindness that we treat others with will also usher forth in humility. 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:18.480 Humility, which is a really interesting word because this word that he uses is a word that in most ancient literature in the time of Paul would have been used on a vice list rather than a virtue list. 00:11:18.639 --> 00:11:22.639 In the Greco-Roman world, most people looked down on the idea of humility. 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:23.759 That was cowardice. 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:26.720 It was something that was groveling and unbecoming. 00:11:27.279 --> 00:11:33.840 But Paul says it is a virtue in Christian life because it is characteristic of the way that Christ has acted towards you. 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:39.120 So he Paul uses the same word in Philippians and chapter two to describe the work of Christ. 00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:52.080 He says, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself and humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. 00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:57.360 So as Christ humbled himself to the point of death, so you are to humble yourself towards others. 00:11:57.519 --> 00:12:05.200 And he says, the way that you humble yourself towards others is Philippians chapter 2, verse 3, by counting others as more significant than yourself. 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:07.519 This is the way that Christ has treated you. 00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:19.279 He has humbled himself to the point of death, and so you look at those who are beloved in Christ, and you place their needs above yours, their significance above yours, and seek their interests above yours. 00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:24.960 That's clothing yourself with humility, the kind of humility that Christ has extended towards you. 00:12:25.200 --> 00:12:30.799 When Paul continues with another word here, meekness, or some of our translations render this word as gentleness. 00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:33.279 Either is an adequate translation of the Greek word. 00:12:33.519 --> 00:12:37.519 This word in Greek would sometimes be used for the domestication of a wild animal. 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:50.559 So if you take a wild horse that's used to following its own impulses and drinking for whatever streams it desires, and you bring it into captivity and you bring it under submission, you tame that wild animal, you bring it under the will of another. 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:54.480 Put a bit and a bridle in its mouth, and you bring it under the will of another. 00:12:54.720 --> 00:12:57.200 This is the kind of attitude that Paul is describing here. 00:12:57.360 --> 00:13:03.120 In fact, this is the attitude that Jesus uses to describe the real, genuine member of the kingdom of God and the Beatitudes. 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:06.399 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God. 00:13:06.639 --> 00:13:08.159 So, what is meekness? 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:12.240 Meekness is this attitude of submission to the will of God. 00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:16.320 Previously you followed your own desires and you drank from whatever streams you wished. 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:25.440 But now that you the gospel has been revealed to you, now that you've been united to Christ, now that you know Jesus, your will has been brought into submission to the will of another. 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:28.399 You are living your life under the will of Christ. 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:33.360 And so you act towards others the way that Christ would have you act towards others. 00:13:33.519 --> 00:13:38.080 So just pause and think about this for a moment here, before we continue on in the rest of this list. 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:42.240 Think about your relationships with the people who are nearest to you. 00:13:42.399 --> 00:13:48.559 If you are married, think about your relationship with your spouse or your children or your roommates or your friend or your parents. 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:57.840 How much of your relationship with those near you is characterized by the will of the Lord? 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:01.120 Submission and surrender to what does Christ want me to do? 00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:17.120 How much of your relationship with others, on the other hand, is characterized by just kind of my own impulses, and I'm just kind of riding my relationship out and just letting life happen, and the way I act towards others is just kind of natural and spontaneous, and whatever comes out of my heart. 00:14:17.919 --> 00:14:21.200 Well, what comes out of your heart is not always the will of the Lord. 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:38.559 And if you actually actively take hold of your life, which is the way the scripture says that we are to live our life, and you examine your life in the light of the Word of God, you'll find that there's a lot of ways in which your relationships with others are not characterized by meekness, submission to the will of the Lord. 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:44.799 There are many ways in which our lives aren't characterized by extending compassionate hearts and kindness and humility. 00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:47.840 Or this last word, patience, putting up with others. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:50.879 But isn't that the way that Christ has treated us? 00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:54.879 Has he not been infinitely patient with you? 00:14:55.120 --> 00:15:00.159 Have you ever looked at Christ and he given you so much as a sideways glance? 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:06.240 Has he ever put up a front of begrudging tolerance towards his relationship with you? 00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:12.000 Has he not always treated you with tender mercies, kindness, and compassion? 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:19.200 Have you, when you have gone to Christ in your time of need, not always found him ready to receive you and to help you? 00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:25.039 That's the way that Paul says our relationships with others should be characterized. 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:37.440 As we increasingly behold the glory of who Christ is and the way he relates to us, then our hearts bend out horizontally and extend that kindness and meekness and gentleness and patience to others. 00:15:37.759 --> 00:15:41.360 Now Paul goes on in the kind of attitudes that we're to put on in the next verse. 00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:42.799 Look at verse 13. 00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:44.799 Bearing with one another. 00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:47.840 And if anyone has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. 00:15:47.919 --> 00:15:55.679 So bearing with one another obviously overlaps with patience, but the kind of bearing with one another that we're supposed to do is not just a kind of begrudging putting up with someone. 00:15:55.919 --> 00:15:59.200 Man, I don't like that guy, but I won't kill him. 00:16:00.639 --> 00:16:04.000 Rather, Paul says you're to extend something even more. 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:12.320 If anyone has a complaint against another, and the word he uses for complaint could be rendered with a number of different words, it's the idea of you've got a legitimate gripe with this person. 00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:13.600 You could recriminate him. 00:16:13.679 --> 00:16:16.639 You have a genuine charge that you can place against him. 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:18.960 They've actually done something wrong. 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:26.080 And the way that you relate to them is not mere begrudging bearing with them, but Paul says extending forgiveness to each other. 00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:27.919 Now, just a word on forgiveness. 00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:31.919 Again, this is one of those attributes that deserves an entire sermon. 00:16:32.159 --> 00:16:33.600 What is forgiveness? 00:16:33.919 --> 00:16:40.799 Very simply, we could just say forgiveness is letting go of the wrong and extending compassion and goodness towards the wrongdoer. 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:45.279 Now, forgiveness, of course, would be in a different category from reconciliation. 00:16:45.440 --> 00:16:49.440 To be reconciled with someone who's genuinely wronged you would require repentance on their part. 00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:57.519 And reconciliation, restoration of relationship, also is different from trust, which has to be built in a genuine organic relationship over time. 00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:02.559 But none of that precludes the command that you forgive. 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:05.279 That's not contingent upon the wrongdoer's response. 00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:07.039 That's contingent upon you. 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:12.880 And the Lord says, we are to forgive one another, and look how we are to forgive at the end of verse 13. 00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:17.680 As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 00:17:17.920 --> 00:17:21.200 So if you ask the question, how am I supposed to give forgive this person? 00:17:21.359 --> 00:17:25.359 Then you look at Christ and you ask, How did he forgive me? 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:30.319 Was it not free and full and extravagant? 00:17:30.880 --> 00:17:34.319 Was any of Christ's forgiveness towards you begrudging? 00:17:34.799 --> 00:17:35.119 No. 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:41.599 All of it was overflowing and kind and willing and exuberant. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:44.960 This is the way that Christ has extended his forgiveness to us. 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:48.319 And so Paul says that's the way we are to forgive one another. 00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:53.759 We could even say it this way: what did it cost Jesus to extend his forgiveness towards you? 00:17:53.920 --> 00:17:55.519 Was it not everything? 00:17:55.680 --> 00:18:01.599 It was the blood of his own cross, it was his very life that cost Jesus his forgiveness towards you. 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:05.680 So our forgiveness towards one another is never measured based on relational cost. 00:18:05.839 --> 00:18:12.319 As soon as you catch yourself examining and calculating what are the relational costs to extending forgiveness to this person, you're wrong. 00:18:12.400 --> 00:18:13.920 You're already wrong. 00:18:14.240 --> 00:18:21.119 There's no calculation entailed in the forgiveness that Christ offered to us, neither should there be in what we extend towards one another. 00:18:21.359 --> 00:18:26.079 We extend the same kind of lavish forgiveness that Christ has already lavished on us. 00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:28.799 This is what it looks like to live out your identity in Christ. 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:30.079 Then Paul just keeps going. 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:31.359 Look at verse 14. 00:18:31.519 --> 00:18:37.519 And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 00:18:37.759 --> 00:18:39.200 Now, what does Paul mean by love? 00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:43.519 And I think very clearly here, he doesn't just mean action, but affection. 00:18:43.759 --> 00:18:53.599 And the reason that I point that out explicitly is that it's natural for our modern-day American Christians to emphasize the reality that biblical love is action. 00:18:53.839 --> 00:18:57.839 It's an actual act where you act on behalf of someone else in their best interest. 00:18:58.160 --> 00:18:59.599 You do what is best for someone else. 00:18:59.759 --> 00:19:01.599 You put their interest above your own and you act. 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:02.319 That's love. 00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:11.680 And that's an important emphasis for us to make because so much of the world's understanding of love in our society is kind of frothy, warm fuzzies, and there's no substance behind it. 00:19:11.839 --> 00:19:18.079 But Christian love is always self-sacrificial acts on behalf of those who are the object of your love. 00:19:18.799 --> 00:19:25.839 But even that description of love would be insufficient to capture the biblical idea of love, wouldn't it? 00:19:27.039 --> 00:19:28.720 How does Jesus love you? 00:19:29.519 --> 00:19:34.319 Is it self-sacrified self-sacrificial acts on your behalf? 00:19:35.359 --> 00:19:39.759 And then after it's all over, he says, Glad that's over. 00:19:40.319 --> 00:19:44.160 Sheesh, man, I can't stand that guy, but I did what I had to. 00:19:44.319 --> 00:19:45.200 I loved him. 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:47.119 That's not the way Jesus loves you. 00:19:47.359 --> 00:19:49.680 He extends genuine affection towards you. 00:19:49.839 --> 00:19:55.200 Real biblical love is action and affection, always both. 00:19:55.519 --> 00:19:59.920 And what Paul is commanding us here is we are not just to do this list of actions. 00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:04.799 In fact, if he were thinking of love just merely in terms of actions, this would be the most redundant verse in the Bible. 00:20:04.960 --> 00:20:14.000 He just gave us a whole list of all of the self-sacrificial actions to extend to one another, and then at the end of that, he says, crown it all with love, with more self-sacrificial action. 00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:25.440 What Paul is saying rather in verse 14 is here are all the actions that you extend towards your brothers and sisters in Christ, and crown it all with genuine godly affection for those whom you are acting towards in love. 00:20:25.920 --> 00:20:27.279 Genuine affection. 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:30.559 In other words, he begins and ends in the same place. 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:36.160 Compassionate hearts, extending real visceral affection and love, crowning all of your actions. 00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:40.960 What ties it all together is that you actually have affection for the person you're acting towards. 00:20:41.119 --> 00:20:46.960 Now, of course, that doesn't mean wait until you feel something for a person before you act. 00:20:47.200 --> 00:21:08.640 Sometimes the act of sacrificing your own interests and placing the interest of someone else above your own, it's in the course of that act, as you get caught up in doing what the Lord wants you to do, even though you don't feel like it, that the Lord works on your heart in such a way that he conforms your affections towards his own and trains you to actually love the person with affection that you're already loving in action. 00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:15.440 But all genuine, godly Christian love always has both: affection and action. 00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:17.519 This is what it means to put on the new self. 00:21:17.759 --> 00:21:23.440 To put on Christ, to ask, what are the ways that Christ has, is, and will treat me? 00:21:23.680 --> 00:21:24.960 That's how I treat others. 00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:30.160 Now Paul goes on and says, not only do we put the put on the new self, but we also have a new arbiter. 00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:32.160 Look at verse 15. 00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:39.839 In verse 15, Paul says, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you are called in one body, and be thankful. 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:42.079 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. 00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:50.960 And this word that's translated rule is a word that would be used for a referee or a judge in an ancient athletic event, or an arbiter between two competing parties. 00:21:51.279 --> 00:21:59.759 So the idea here is that the peace of Christ has the final say and is dictating your life whenever you have two competing desires or interests. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:01.119 In your heart. 00:22:01.440 --> 00:22:04.160 So, what is the peace of Christ that Paul refers to? 00:22:05.359 --> 00:22:10.640 It might be natural for us to think that the peace of Christ is referring to is some kind of subjective inner peace. 00:22:10.880 --> 00:22:18.640 But the way that Paul describes the peace of Christ in his writings and in fact the New Testament writings broadly is something objective. 00:22:18.799 --> 00:22:21.039 It's a real status that you enter into. 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:33.119 Wherein the Holy God, who's not at peace with you, but stands over you in judgment for your sin, satisfies his judgment through the death of Christ on your behalf, and brings you into a new status, brings you into his peace. 00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:36.079 He's at peace with you through the blood of Christ's cross. 00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:40.640 That's the objective reality in which you stand because of your union with Christ. 00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:41.759 That's the peace of Christ. 00:22:41.920 --> 00:22:44.079 You see this in a number of places in the New Testament. 00:22:44.240 --> 00:22:49.519 For example, Acts chapter 10, verse 36, Peter uses these words to describe the peace of Christ. 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:59.519 As for the word that he sent to Israel preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, the gospel offers you to come into a status, a reality of peace with God. 00:22:59.680 --> 00:23:02.720 And Paul says that when you become a Christian, this is your reality. 00:23:02.960 --> 00:23:03.920 Romans 5, 1. 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:10.799 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:23:10.880 --> 00:23:11.839 That's your reality. 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:13.440 You are in peace with God. 00:23:13.599 --> 00:23:15.119 That's your status before God. 00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:23.599 In other words, you could say the peace of Christ is maybe shorthand for the totality of the gospel realities that describe and compromise your life. 00:23:24.480 --> 00:23:25.920 You are in the peace of God. 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:32.480 You are in the status of having peace with the eternal, holy, infinitely loving God through the death and resurrection of Christ. 00:23:32.799 --> 00:23:39.920 So, when you have competing desires in your heart, the peace of Christ dictates who gets the say in your life. 00:23:40.640 --> 00:23:58.720 So if in a relationship you have on the one hand a desire to get revenge against someone, and on the other hand, the inclination that maybe I should forgive, the peace of Christ comes into your life and says, Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. 00:23:58.960 --> 00:24:02.559 Rather, overcome evil with good. 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:08.000 Because God is your avenger, God is your judge, God is your father, God is on your side, he'll take care of you. 00:24:08.079 --> 00:24:09.359 You don't need to avenge yourself. 00:24:09.519 --> 00:24:11.200 Leave it to the wrath of God. 00:24:11.920 --> 00:24:18.079 Because you're in the status of having peace with God, you can entrust your soul to a faithful creator who will do what is right. 00:24:18.240 --> 00:24:24.559 And instead, you can extend all of the attitudes that we just saw in verses 12 through 14 to those around you. 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:28.640 This is what the peace of Christ being the arbiter in your life would look like. 00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:39.200 Or you could say, if you are caught between worrying about a situation or resting in confidence in God, then you look to the peace of Christ and ask, what does the peace of Christ say I should do? 00:24:39.359 --> 00:24:50.160 Well, the peace of Christ would say, if God has already done the greater thing of securing peace for you through the death and resurrection of his son, will he not also do the lesser thing of guiding you through this storm? 00:24:50.480 --> 00:25:00.160 Or if you're caught between being frustrated because you don't have what you deserve in life, or between being content because you already have more than you deserve. 00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:06.799 Well, the peace of Christ would answer resoundingly that what you have in Christ is already more than you deserve. 00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:14.799 You can be content so long as your gaze, your eyes, your mind is fixed on the reality that you have peace with God through Jesus Christ. 00:25:15.039 --> 00:25:19.359 Let the peace of Christ be the arbiter in your warring desires in your heart. 00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:25.680 Paul goes further on this interior life reality and says, Inside of your own heart, you now have a new master as well. 00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:27.359 Look at verse 16. 00:25:27.599 --> 00:25:32.000 And in verse 16, Paul says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. 00:25:32.240 --> 00:25:34.640 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. 00:25:34.799 --> 00:25:36.319 What is the word of Christ? 00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:40.720 More common in the Bible is to hear of the Word of God or the Word of the Lord. 00:25:40.799 --> 00:25:41.680 So what's the word of Christ? 00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:43.279 Is it something separate? 00:25:44.079 --> 00:25:50.079 Well, if you have read Colossians 1 to 2 and have picked up anything that Paul was putting down, you would know this. 00:25:50.640 --> 00:25:51.920 Christ is God. 00:25:52.079 --> 00:25:54.640 In him all the fullness of deity dwells. 00:25:54.960 --> 00:25:59.200 So the word of Christ and the Word of God are not separate realities, they're synonyms. 00:25:59.359 --> 00:26:02.960 The word of Christ is the Word of God, is the Word of the Lord, because Christ is the Lord. 00:26:03.119 --> 00:26:07.200 So another way of saying this, you might just say to yourself, let the Bible dwell in you richly. 00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:10.240 Let the Word of God, the Word of Christ, dwell in you richly. 00:26:10.400 --> 00:26:13.680 Now, what does it mean for the Word to dwell in you richly? 00:26:14.160 --> 00:26:19.519 The word for dwelling here is not just like a stay at an Airbnb, but it's rather taking up permanent residence. 00:26:19.599 --> 00:26:26.079 And it is a truism that he who dwells in the house is the master of the house and not just a passing guest, right? 00:26:26.400 --> 00:26:30.799 The one who takes up residence and lives there permanently is now the master of that domain. 00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:37.920 The word of Christ dwelling in you richly means that the word of Christ takes up its home in your heart and now it rules over the home of your heart. 00:26:38.160 --> 00:26:45.680 The word of Christ has the say, the word of Christ has sway, the word of Christ is directing and guiding everything that's going on in your internal spiritual life. 00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:56.319 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly and abundantly, and when the word of Christ is living in you, it will be your master and your guide, and it'll change everything about you. 00:26:56.559 --> 00:27:02.559 Now, this thread of the word of Christ dwelling in you and controlling your internal life just runs all the way through the New Testament. 00:27:02.640 --> 00:27:08.640 And I want to show you a couple parallel passages to show you some of the ways that the Word of Christ is described elsewhere in Scripture. 00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:10.480 Flip back to Ephesians. 00:27:10.640 --> 00:27:19.759 And in Ephesians and chapter 5, I want to show you a parallel text, actually, two parallel texts in Ephesians, to look at some of the ways that the Word of Christ dwells in us. 00:27:19.920 --> 00:27:30.400 In Ephesians and chapter 5, in a very famous text in verse 18, Ephesians 5.18, Paul says, Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. 00:27:30.559 --> 00:27:32.720 What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? 00:27:33.039 --> 00:27:37.440 Well, if you are filled with the Spirit, the Spirit is filling you and controlling and dictating your life. 00:27:37.519 --> 00:27:38.720 This is what your life would look like. 00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:40.160 Look at verse 19. 00:27:40.400 --> 00:27:50.640 Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:27:50.799 --> 00:27:54.799 That's synonymous with Colossians chapter 3, verses 16 and 17. 00:27:54.960 --> 00:28:02.319 So in these two passages, you have, on the one hand, in Ephesians, the Spirit of God filling you and creating this kind of life. 00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:07.759 And in Colossians and chapter 3, the Word of God dwelling in you richly and creating this kind of life. 00:28:08.240 --> 00:28:14.480 Do you see to say that the Spirit of God is filling you is synonymous with saying the Word of God is dwelling in you richly? 00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:27.920 Because when the Word of God is dwelling in you and controlling your mind and it's shaping your affections and guiding your life, then the Spirit of God is controlling and shaping your affections and guiding your life, because it is the Spirit of God that inspired the Word of God. 00:28:28.880 --> 00:28:39.119 If you want your entire life to be conformed to the image of Christ, then the Word of Christ has to dwell in you richly, and it is the Word of Christ that is the instrument by which God does his work in your life. 00:28:39.359 --> 00:28:41.599 Let's flip over to Ephesians chapter 3. 00:28:41.680 --> 00:28:47.519 Let me show you one other parallel passage that would show us and flesh out for us something of the way the Word of God would work in our hearts. 00:28:47.599 --> 00:28:51.279 And in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 17. 00:28:51.440 --> 00:28:58.160 Now very famously, Ephesians is comprised of six chapters, in the first three of which Paul is teaching us about who God is and what he's done for us. 00:28:58.319 --> 00:29:02.240 And in chapters four to six he says, now what are the ways we should live in light of those truths? 00:29:02.400 --> 00:29:06.720 And at the end of chapter three, his teaching about who God is and what he's done for us. 00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:25.200 Paul prays in 3.17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:30.160 This is what you need is the love of God to overwhelm and saturate your heart. 00:29:30.480 --> 00:29:34.640 As a Christian, you are called not to love the world or the things in the world. 00:29:34.960 --> 00:29:37.440 But prior to knowing Christ, that was all you knew. 00:29:37.599 --> 00:29:43.519 All of your affections, your whole life, your joys, your hopes, everything you understood was comprised of the things of the world. 00:29:43.680 --> 00:29:47.680 To say, do not love the things in the world is an impossible task. 00:29:47.839 --> 00:29:51.359 What is strong enough to expel your love for the world? 00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:53.519 The love of Christ. 00:29:54.160 --> 00:30:05.599 You need the love of Christ to come in in a rush, in a tidal wave, a tsunami into your heart and to take up residence and to be the guiding and dominant controlling reality of your heart and your affections and your mind. 00:30:05.920 --> 00:30:06.960 How will that happen? 00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:08.079 Verse 17. 00:30:08.319 --> 00:30:09.759 Christ will dwell in your hearts. 00:30:09.839 --> 00:30:15.680 That word dwell is the same word that Paul uses to describe the word of Christ taking up residence in your heart. 00:30:16.240 --> 00:30:23.680 You will have the word of, excuse me, you'll have the love of Christ shed abroad in your hearts when you have the word of Christ in your hearts. 00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:27.839 Because it's only the word of Christ that reveals to you the love of Christ. 00:30:28.160 --> 00:30:35.039 To have Christ and his love dwell in your hearts is synonymous with the word of Christ dwelling in you richly. 00:30:35.200 --> 00:30:41.519 The way that you access all the love that is objectively there, Christ's love for you is objectively real. 00:30:41.680 --> 00:30:50.319 The way you access it and know it and experience it and live it out is when the word of Christ takes up residence in your life, when the word of Christ dwells in you richly. 00:30:50.480 --> 00:31:06.079 When you can flip back to Ephesians, excuse me, Colossians in chapter 3, and as you're turning to Colossians and chapter 3, if you have heard some of our studies of Colossians chapters 1 through 2, you have heard that I have repeated, or at least tried to repeat at length, this line. 00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:11.680 You need more of Christ. 00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:15.839 I think that is an adequate summary of what Paul is teaching in Colossians chapter 1 and 2. 00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:17.759 You only ever have one problem in life. 00:31:17.920 --> 00:31:18.799 You need more of Christ. 00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:33.440 Yes, you have very practical problems, there are prescriptions that you need, there are carpouls you have to arrange, but ultimately the fundamental realities that compose your life and determine your happiness are only and exclusively and sufficiently provided for you in Christ. 00:31:33.599 --> 00:31:42.160 You need joy and satisfaction and love and wisdom and purpose and meaning, and all of that is provided for you overwhelmingly and abundantly in Christ. 00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:44.720 You only genuinely have one need in your life. 00:31:44.799 --> 00:31:49.519 You need more of Christ, who is more than you've ever begun to imagine. 00:31:50.160 --> 00:31:56.079 Now, to say that line that all you need in life is more of Christ, we could actually say it another way. 00:31:56.319 --> 00:31:57.519 Because how do you access Christ? 00:31:57.680 --> 00:32:03.839 Paul's told us in Colossians 2, it's not through mystical dreams and visions, it's not through legalistic aesthetic practices. 00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:05.680 How do you access Christ? 00:32:05.920 --> 00:32:12.319 What he's telling us in Colossians 3.16 is you access Christ fully and sufficiently through the word of Christ. 00:32:12.559 --> 00:32:18.799 So we could also say this very similar line, equivalent line. 00:32:19.119 --> 00:32:22.240 You only ever have one problem in your life. 00:32:22.640 --> 00:32:24.640 You need more Bible. 00:32:24.880 --> 00:32:26.559 That's the entire sum of your life. 00:32:26.720 --> 00:32:27.680 What are you doing with your life? 00:32:27.839 --> 00:32:28.880 What are you doing here in this world? 00:32:29.039 --> 00:32:30.400 Your life is so fleeting. 00:32:30.559 --> 00:32:31.839 You have one problem. 00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:33.680 You need more of the Bible. 00:32:33.839 --> 00:32:44.160 You need to know more of the truths of Scripture, to believe them with faith, and obey them in faith, because it is the word of Christ that is adequate to equip a man for every work pleasing to God. 00:32:44.319 --> 00:32:46.000 2 Timothy 3.17. 00:32:46.240 --> 00:32:47.759 You have one problem in life. 00:32:47.920 --> 00:32:53.039 You need more Bible, because it is the Bible that reveals to you the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 00:32:53.119 --> 00:32:59.680 And as that glory fills your life and controls your affections, it will train you and guide you in the way the Lord wants you to go. 00:32:59.920 --> 00:33:01.359 Now, this is the teaching of Scripture. 00:33:01.440 --> 00:33:03.599 It's also the teaching of the church historic. 00:33:03.920 --> 00:33:12.640 Fourth century bishop of Constantinople, John Christostom, in his sermon on this text, said, This is the cause of all evils, not knowing the scriptures. 00:33:12.799 --> 00:33:19.200 Or Jerome, the translator of the Latin Vulgate, ignorance of the Bible means ignorance of Christ. 00:33:19.440 --> 00:33:20.480 Simplify your life. 00:33:20.640 --> 00:33:23.599 You only really have one problem: more of the Bible. 00:33:23.759 --> 00:33:25.200 Who is Christ in this situation? 00:33:25.359 --> 00:33:26.240 What has he done for me? 00:33:26.319 --> 00:33:27.519 What does he want me to do? 00:33:27.680 --> 00:33:30.160 What is the word of Christ for me in this instance? 00:33:30.400 --> 00:33:33.839 What is the promise of Christ in this time, right now? 00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:35.839 What are the ways that Christ can help me? 00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:38.400 What are the ways that Christ would have me walk? 00:33:38.720 --> 00:33:45.119 All you need in life is Christ, and Christ is fully revealed to you on the pages of Scripture. 00:33:46.559 --> 00:33:51.599 All of Christ for all of life revealed fully and sufficiently in Scripture. 00:33:51.839 --> 00:34:05.599 Now that reality, more of Christ being revealed to you and dwelling in your heart richly through the Word of Christ, will not just stay inside of you as an individual, but it'll flow out of you into the life of the body corporate. 00:34:05.759 --> 00:34:08.000 Look at the rest of what Paul says in verse 16. 00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:16.159 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. 00:34:16.320 --> 00:34:19.119 Now that teaching and admonishing one another is Paul's work. 00:34:19.280 --> 00:34:25.840 If you flip back a page in your Bibles to Colossians 1 and verse 28, this is the way Paul describes his apostolic ministry. 00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:34.880