SERIES: Colossians: Christ is the Answer
The Well-dressed Christian, Part 1: Cleaning out the Closet
SCRIPTURE: Colossians 3:1-11
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction: Almost nobody doesn’t like new clothes. When you talk about a new wardrobe some people veritably salivate, and indications are this is not just a twentieth century phenomenon. Two thousand years ago the Apostle Paul appealed to the Colossians’ interest in clothes when he wrote the passage before us this morning. It seems to me that he is in essence saying that to be a well-dressed Christian, the first thing you have to do is to clean out the closet and get rid of everything that is outdated, outgrown, mismatched, and doesn’t fit. Do you see it in verse 8? “Rid yourself of all such things as these,” and he points out some specific garments that should be dispensed with.
But getting rid of the old clothes does not in itself make one a well-dressed Christian; he must also choose appropriate attire to put in its place. And that is addressed in verse 12, “clothe yourselves with,” and Paul proceeds to identify some fine, well-fitting, and stylish garments. He even suggests a suitable topcoat in verse 14: “over all these virtues put on love.”
Today and next Lord’s Day we want to talk about the well-dressed Christian. The real subject is, of course, righteous living. Last week we examined three religious options the world offers to produce righteous living and deal with sin, but we found all three to be contrary to Scripture and worthless besides. Well, if neither legalism, mysticism, nor asceticism can keep a lid on sin or produce holiness, what can? Paul indicates the starting place is understanding our position in Christ—that is the key to necessary lifestyle changes.
The believer’s position in Christ (3:1-4)
There are two kinds of truth in the NT epistles: positional truth and experiential truth. Positional truth is truth that we don’t feel and can’t see, but its effects are quite obvious, and it is foundational to everything else. Experiential truth is truth that can be observed, examined, and measured.
Paul offers five foundational positional truths in our text today, all five relating the believer to key events in the life of Christ: He died, He was buried, He was raised, He ascended, and He is coming again. Those are facts that most Christians are well aware of and firmly believe. But unfortunately, not all Christians realize that each of those facts contains a corresponding positional truth about us as individual believers.
When Jesus died, we died.
When He was buried, we were buried.
When He was raised, we were raised.
When He ascended and sat down at the right hand of God, we were seated
there as well, because our lives are hidden in Him.
And when He comes again, we will appear with Him in glory.
These are truths we can’t examine in a test-tube or even measure by observation; we must take them by faith. But we can certainly see the positive effects when they are believed and the negative effects when they are ignored. Let me take the first three together.
He died; we died. (2:20)
He was buried; we were buried. (2:12)
He was raised; we were raised. (3:1)
These are plainly taught in chapters 2 and 3 of Colossians. In 2:20, “you died with Christ.” In 2:12, “having been buried with him.” And in 3:1, “you have been raised with Christ.” What does all this mean? Obviously, it is not talking about physical death, burial, and resurrection. Nor is it speaking in a literal, historical sense, for some of Paul’s readers probably weren’t even born when Jesus died and rose from the dead, and certainly none of us were. No, these positional truths about the believer imply that when a person receives Jesus Christ, he becomes so personally identified with Him that he should consider himself to have participated in His crucifixion, burial, and resurrection—not physically but spiritually. And to help us visualize these positional truths we practice baptism by immersion, as instructed in Matt. 28.
In other words, the person I was from the moment of conception died the day I received Christ and a new Michael Andrus was born. I was born again, born from above. As Paul said in 2 Cor. 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” The old what? I think he’s talking about our pre-Christian way of life, with its ungodly priorities, selfish goals, sinful thought and speech patterns, lustful actions, etc. Those things all died when we received Christ in the sense that their control over us has been broken. Before coming to faith in Jesus we had no choice about such things; now that the old person we were has died, the new person we are can choose to live in a way that is pleasing to God. If we return to live by the old ways from time to time, it is because we have chosen to do so, not because we have to.
A fourth truth, not as widely understood as the previous three is that …
He ascended; our lives are hidden with Him. (1-2) “Christ is seated at the right hand of God…. Your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Forty days after His resurrection Jesus ascended to the right hand of His Father in Heaven, a position which speaks of the power, privilege, and authority He enjoys even today. When Paul says we are hidden with Christ in God he implies that we no longer belong to the world but to Christ. Furthermore, the Christian life is a “hidden life” as far as the world is concerned. Our unbelieving friends are at a loss to explain what makes us tick. Our values, outlook, and service to God are an enigma, and at times we may not only be misunderstood, but also belittled and persecuted. But one day that hidden life will be revealed, and Christians will be vindicated.
He is coming again; we will appear with Him in glory. Look at verse 4: “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” This fact is a little different from the others. The first four were only positional, spiritual truths, but this one is also literal. Many other passages indicate that when Jesus comes, we will literally be caught up together with Him and receive our glorified bodies, similar to His own resurrection body, not limited to the normal parameters of space and time.
The importance of these great facts concerning the believer’s identification with Christ is that they affect everything else, particularly our perspective and our behavior.
The believer’s perspective in Christ (3:1-4)
Two commands are given, and they are almost identical:
The heart must be set on things above. (1)
The mind must be set on things above. (2)
Both are based upon the positional truths we have already looked at. “Since, then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above.” “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” The proper heart-set and the proper mind-set are dependent upon an understanding and acceptance of our total identification with Christ. By the same token, the reason why a great many Christians find their hearts and minds set on earthly things is because they have not grasped the fact that they have died with Christ, been buried with Him, been raised with Him, are hidden with Him, and will one day be glorified with Him.
Now I think there is a good reason why Paul repeats this phrase, “set your hearts on things above,” with only the word “mind” substituted for “heart.” The heart and the mind, representing the spiritual and emotional part of mankind, on the one hand, and the intellectual on the other, must remain in tandem. Some people demonstrate an amazing ability to live with a dichotomy between their heart and mind, but the end result is spiritual schizophrenia.
Pascal once wrote something like this, “The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of,” but I’m not so sure. Perhaps in romance, but not in theology. The Bible puts so much emphasis on our minds that I don’t think we should ever put them in neutral while we seek to enjoy some spiritual experience. Worship singing, for example, should indeed touch our emotions, but mindless songs have no place in our worship, no matter how seriously they tug at our heartstrings.
The heart-set and the mind-set Paul is looking for is on “things above, not on things on the earth.” This is not to suggest that, as Dwight Moody used to say, we become “so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.” Nor is it to suggest that Christians should never excel at earthly things—I think Christians should excel at everything they do. Rather it means that the practical, everyday affairs of life must get their direction from Christ in heaven, and further, that we must look at earth—its possessions, its honors, its position, its advancement—all from heaven’s point of view. This is certainly not easy for earthbound creatures such as we are.
Now everything up to this point this morning has been preliminary, kind of foundation laying. We must understand our identification with Christ, and we must have a perspective that fits our ultimate destiny. But Paul’s major concern right now is our behavior and lifestyle. There are both moral habits and social attitudes that are inappropriate for a believer’s lifestyle. A new person deserves a new look.
The believer’s lifestyle in Christ (3:5-11)
Dealing with the moral habits of our pre-Christian days. Verse 5 says, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature.” The word “therefore” is critical here, because it points to the rationale for all that follows. It’s because we are so closely identified with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and second coming that we are called upon to lay the axe to the characteristics of our earthly nature, i.e., the moral habits we pursued in our pre-Christian days. It’s the incongruity of a new creature living by old habits that jumps out at us here. Fortunately, Paul gets very specific, for if he had stopped after that first phrase, all of us would decide what “earthly things” are by looking at our neighbor’s life. Instead, we are forced to look at our own, as he offers us …
A catalog of characteristic sensual sins that have no business in a believer’s life: “sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.” “Sexual immorality” is a broad term which includes adultery, premarital sex, homosexuality, exhibitionism, and every kind of immoral sexual relation.
The one completely new virtue which Christianity brought into the world was that of sexual chastity. Paul’s call was radical to the pagan culture in its day, and it is almost as radical today. Standing up for Biblical morality can result in your being labeled a moral brontosaurus today—something from the pre-Cambrian era! But that doesn’t change the fact that sexual immorality is sin.
The second term, “impurity,” is a wider and more subtle term for moral uncleanness, embracing the lurid imagination, speech, and deeds of a filthy mind. It describes the total content of Night Court, Married with Children, and many other prime-time television shows, to say nothing of soap operas or most movies.
Kent Hughes writes that “it is conceivable that on a given evening of TV watching, one may see more sensual sights than one’s grandparents did in their entire lifetimes.”[i] It is getting so bad that even the American Psychological Association, not known for its fundamentalism, sounded a warning this week about the fact that a pervasive cultural desensitization is taking place with our children through sex and violence on TV. Psychology Today even suggested that many Hollywood films be packaged with warning labels, as are cigarettes.
Pastor Hughes is right on track with this observation:
“What makes the situation even worse is the amazing human capacity for self-delusion in respect to sensuality. I have known professing, Bible-carrying “Christians” who talked sensitively about theology and serious issues, yet were adulterous and even incestuous. I have known Christian workers who were fundamentalists at work (mouthing all the shibboleths) and cable TV voyeurs at home. Even more tragic, the delusion is so deep that they see no inconsistency in their behavior.[ii]
The third and fourth elements, “lust” and “evil desires,” are hard to distinguish, for both deal with the shameful emotions which lead to sexual excesses. Desire in itself is not bad, even strong desire, but when the object of that desire is something that God has forbidden at a particular time and place, then that desire has become lustful and evil.
What a deadly quartet of immoral habits we have here—sexual immortality, impurity, lust, and evil desires—and Paul says they must be put to death, which conveys pain and effort and blood and tears. No one said it would be easy, but it is essential. “Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?” (Prov. 6:27)
Following the catalog of characteristic sensual sins Paul highlights one sin for special attention.
A sin highlighted for special attention. It’s the sin of greed, and it attracts a little extra attention in verse 5 because it appears distinct from the others and is the only one with a descriptive phrase attached (namely, “which is idolatry”). Our initial reaction is that greed has nothing to do with the sexually impure habits just mentioned, but, as a matter of fact, it is really just another form of the same thing, except that it is fixed on material things. It represents a strong desire toward something out of God’s will at the time. In fact, often when sensuality loses its hold, materialism takes its place. Perhaps this is why many middle-aged people who were once devoted to sensuality are now equally given to money. These sins have the same source.
Greed is a form of idolatry, perhaps the lowest form, for nothing could be lower than putting our trust in a material thing and making that our god. There is even a sense in which greed is more dangerous than sensuality, because it has so many respectable forms. In our society the greedy person receives a great deal of honor. Even in the church this can happen, as the proverb goes: If a man is drunk with wine, we kick him out of the church; if he is drunk with money, we make him a deacon!
Thirdly, why is it important that we deal with these sins of sensuality and greed? Because such habits incur the wrath of God.
The reason corrective action is needed: such habits incur the wrath of God. We have conveniently assigned the wrath of God to only unbelievers and pagans, but the NT doesn’t allow us to be so cavalier about it. Do we think God hates sin in the life of the believer any less than in the life of a pagan? And if He hates these sins enough to eventually bring judgment upon this whole world, how can we ignore such behavior in our own lives?
Having warned us about moral habits inappropriate for those who call themselves Christians, Paul now turns to social attitudes that are also inappropriate. After noting that Dr. G. Campbell Morgan called these “the sins in good standing,” Warren Wiersbe writes,
“We are so accustomed to anger, critical attitudes, lying, and coarse humor among believers that we are no longer upset or convicted about these sins. We would be shocked to see a church member commit some sensual sin, but we will watch him lose his temper in a business meeting and call it ‘righteous indignation.'”[iii]
Dealing with the social attitudes of our pre-Christian days. Paul says, “you must rid yourselves of these.” Just as Jesus Christ left His graveclothes behind when He rose from the dead, so we need to get rid of the graveclothes that represent our old life with its sinful social attitudes. Again, we are offered …
A catalog of characteristic social sins. Among those mentioned are anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language. Anger and rage are hard to distinguish, though it seems that “anger” deals more with habitual attitudes, while “rage” refers to the sudden outburst. Clarence Macartney tells a story about Jonathan Edwards, third President of Princeton and one of America’s greatest thinkers, who had a daughter with an ungovernable temper. A young man fell in love with her and sought her hand in marriage.
“You can’t have her,” was the abrupt answer of Jonathan Edwards.
“But I love her,” the young man replied.
“You can’t have her,” said Edwards.
“But she loves me,” replied the young man.
Again Edwards said, “You can’t have her.”
“Why?” persisted the man.
“Because she is not worthy of you.’
“But,” he asked, “she is a Christian, is she not?”
“Yes, she is a Christian, but the grace of God can live with some people
with whom no one else could ever live.”[iv]
“Malice” is the next sinful attitude mentioned. It speaks of a viciousness of mind which plans evil and rejoices when misery falls on the one it hates. If these evil attitudes are not dispensed with, wrote Maclaren, “the heated metal of anger will be forged into poisoned arrows of the tongue.”[v]
Not coincidentally, the next sin mentioned is “slander”—hurtful speech which defames another person’s character. Slander, by the way, can be spoken with a smile on one’s lips and with a facade of moral rectitude. I have even heard people slander others in the form of a prayer request. (“Please pray for so-and-so that he will find the power to quit such-and-such”). Next Paul mentions “filthy language from your lips.” This would include taking the name of the Lord in vain, obscenities, crude speech, coarse humor, and verbal abuse.
And once again he concludes with …
A sin highlighted for special attention. “Do not lie to each other.” Lying is a great sin against God, against the Church, and against one another. Satan is a liar (John 8:44), while the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth (John 14:17), so when a Christian tells a lie, he is cooperating with Satan, and when he speaks the truth in love he is cooperating with the Spirit of God. A lie is any misrepresentation of the truth, even if the words are accurate. It involves the intent to deceive for the purpose of personal gain.
The reason corrective action is needed: such attitudes violate our new character and our new relationships. Look at verses 9-11: Do not do these things “since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” In other words, such attitudes violate our new character as believers. I return to 2 Cor. 5:17: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
If you were given an entire new wardrobe, would you go back to the shoes with holes in them or to the sweatshirt that’s all stretched out or the jeans with paint on them? Some people would, because they’re comfortable with the old. In fact, they may let the new shoes sit on the shelf for months, even though it only takes a little while to get used to them, and even though the new shoes would ultimately make them feel so much better about themselves. Sadly, some Christians also keep wearing the garments of the flesh instead of the new and better garments of the Spirit.
But not only do these attitudes violate our new character; they also violate our new relationships, as addressed in verse 11: “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” If we make a practice of putting to death our immoral habits and our unsocial attitudes, we will experience an astounding removal of barriers to relationships. It will result in the breaking down of racial barriers, religious barriers, cultural barriers, and economic, political, or social barriers. All of these distinctions belong to our pre-Christian days, not to the new creation we are in Christ.
In this passage today we have been urged to clean out the closet. Don’t even call Goodwill or AMVETS; just send everything to the landfill or, better yet, burn it. Next Sunday, Lord willing, we’re going to go shopping for a new wardrobe. But before we conclude this morning, I’m sure someone is saying to himself, “It’s all well and good to tell us to rid ourselves of the moral habits and social attitudes of our pre-Christian days, but getting it done is something else.” How true!
I happen to be more of a pack rat than my wife. From time to time she’s been known to get in my closet and take a pair of shoes and or two, and maybe some shirts or a suit and put it all in a box for World Impact. However, if I get to the box first, I’m likely to drag about half the stuff back into my closet. The fact that I haven’t worn those shoes for 11 years is not the point—I may need them someday. Isn’t that a lot like how we handle these immoral habits and antisocial attitudes? Instead of putting them to death and getting rid of them, we keep them in our repertoire in case we ever need them. Friends, there is a way to break out of the cycle, and that brings us to our final point–
The believer’s resources in Christ
There are three specific ones I want to mention very briefly.
Knowledge. Did you see it mentioned in verse 10? “You have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” The renewal of the image of God in us is a great need. We were formed in God’s image; we were deformed by sin; but we can be transformedonce again in God’s image through increasing knowledge of who God is and what He desires from us. Such knowledge is progressive, not instantaneous, and the principal source of it is Scripture. Dealing with sin and growing in holiness demand a commitment to regular and sincere study of the Bible.
Will. Knowledge alone won’t cut it. I have known people who had an enormous grasp of biblical facts and yet their moral and social lives were in shambles. There has to be a personal commitment of the will to be obedient to God’s Word. That’s why our passage today includes a whole series of commands:
“Set your hearts on thing above.”
“Set your minds on things above.”
“Put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature.”
“Rid yourselves of all such things as these.”
“Do not lie to each other.”
There would be no point in giving such commands if we had no choice to obey them. But even with the knowledge and the will, there has to be one more factor present—the power.
Power. The power to carry all this out comes from the Holy Spirit. If we try to pull it off on our own, we’ll end up with legalism. If we try to pull it off with the power of the spirit world, we’ll end up with mysticism. If we try to use the power of the flesh, we’ll end up with asceticism. If we lean on other people, they’ll let us down. There’s only one totally reliable source of power to deal with sin and to produce a godly life—and that’s the Holy Spirit. Consider Romans 8:5-11:
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
Conclusion: If you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit is living inside of you and is available to you. He will provide the motivation, the discernment, the strength, the courage, and the staying power for you to become a well-dressed Christian. Our task is to consciously yield our lives each day to His control.
DATE: March 1, 1992
Tags:
Positional truth
Experiential truth
Greed
Lying
[i] R. Kent Hughes, Colossians and Philemon: The Supremacy of Christ, 96.
[ii] Hughes, 96.
[iii] Warren Wiersbe, Be Complete: How to Become the Whole Person God Intends You to Be, 105.
[iv] Clarence E. Macartney, Macartney’s Illustrations, 377-378.
[v] Clarence E. Macartney, The Epistles of St. Paul to the Colossians and Philemon, 287.