Thus it is that He rises into a new condition, leaving behind that which had fallen under vanity or death through its sinning chief, the first Adam. The ancient writers defined chrestotes ( G5544) as the virtue of the man whose neighbours good is as dear to him as his own. It was in no wise the old thing, elevated by the glory of Him who had deigned to descend into it, but a new state of things, of which the risen Christ is both the Head and beginning; as it is said, "Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.". Never will it be received, either by the world's religion, or by its philosophy. After this follow particular exhortations, on which we need not at present dwell. Before we study the list in detail, we must note two very significant things. There is no such thing here as our sitting in heavenly places. Fathers, do not irritate your children, that they may not lose heart. Paul begins with a heart of pity. If I have Christ as a Saviour at all, instead of struggling to die in the sense meant, I am called to believe that I am already dead. For the Christian the burst of temper and the long-lasting anger are alike forbidden. There is then a healthful progress in the Lord. See the same thing in the famous seventy weeks of Daniel. When he was writing to the Philippians, he said, "For me to live is Christ" ( Php_1:21 ). God knows that the greatest need that the woman has is to know that she is loved, that she is loved supremely. He must say, "This is God's business. The ancient world was full of barriers. She never appeared on the streets alone, not even to go marketing. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. But the apostle was singular in this; for even those who did know that Christ was the Son of the living God, in the highest and eternal sense, seemed but little to have preached it, at any rate in their earlier testimony. James notoriously presents what many think hard in my judgment quite reconcilable, equally inspired of God, and most important for man, but not the same thing, nor for the same end. But is this all? As he was writing to the Galatians and was listing the works of the flesh, he said, "That we know that those who do these things shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven" ( Galatians 5:21 ). But there will be this difference--from now on the Christian will view everything against the background of eternity and no longer live as if this world was all that mattered. Man, what can I do for her today; she's such a doll. The Christian forbears and forgives; and he does so because a forgiven man must always be forgiving. Nor does it offer a man escape from difficult situations; it enables him to meet these situations better. He it is who has now revealed the mystery that was kept hid through ages and generations. Now that he has come, the shadows are of no further interest. There must be in his life a radical transformation of the will and a radical shift of the centre. The word for slander is blasphemia ( G988) , which the King James Version translates blasphemy. Because at the second coming of Christ we hope for the perfection of our happiness. I'm dead to the flesh that I might be alive unto God in Christ, living after the Spirit. If there was danger, certainly it was love to admonish them; and in this spirit he therefore says, "If ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled.". There is no imperfectness in that word, neither does any ground exist to suppose that any part of it has vanished away. Am I to forget His glory in the presence of God? "And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. We have not to imagine a reason, for the Spirit of God has given His own, and this will be found to set aside all others. All that is to be got in certain provinces may be acquired after no long study. To me to live is Christ,Philippians 1:21. We are hidden in it like in a vault, a treasure house, a place to keep valuables securely and safely, where they will not be stolen or in any way degraded. God has been pleased to call the church a body; and so in truth it is. Don't presume upon the grace of God." They use freely His name; they in word and bodily exercise do Him no small reverence; but without faith all is vain. ", Space was left: a revelation was yet lacking. As Paul saw it, to the Christian Christ is the most important thing in life; more, he is life. The average clergyman is shocked and outraged by the prospect of shameless, harmless and unlimited pleasure which birth control offers to the young, and, if he can stop it, he will." Men of different nationalities, who would have leaped at each other's throats, sat in peace beside each other at the Table of the Lord. It is never an ethic on which all the duties are on one side. There is no new means of grace; there is no development, still less supplement to Christ. Hence it runs: "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven." 224-26.]. Everything which could break the heart of a holy man from day to day he passed through. His labours were not merely indefatigable, but accompanied by the sorest trial and anguish of spirit, as well as continual detraction with public hatred and persecution. And then, verse sixteen: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; [And that's why we're here tonight. Like a mine of unknown and inexhaustible wealth, the treasures of wisdom are all in Him hidden, but not in order to remain so; they only need to be explored for you to attain "unto the riches" in them ( Colossians 2:2 ); but until you, Colossians, press after attaining the full knowledge "hidden." The maimed and the sickly went to the wall. When Christ, who is our life, [Now, you see this is the key to it right here. This is the only allusion to the Spirit, as far as I remember, in the epistle. (ii) The really new thing about the Christian ethic of personal relationships is that all relationships are in the Lord. No one, no thing, can add to Christ's power, lustre, or value in any one respect. Besides, Christ is the first-born of all creation. You notice it's in italics. ", All the blessedness that Christ has procured is for those that believe; but this of course supposes that they hold Him fast. I can do what I want." "Beware," says he, "lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." "Even as Christ forgave you." So "let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts;" that is, the very peace which Christ Himself lived and moved in. The foundation of the apostles and prophets took in the New Testament writers in general. (iii) Christian speech must be true. Set your mind -- Greek think of - phroneite. It is an effort to become dead to what is wrong; to cultivate what is felt to be glorifying to God; to avoid what is contrary to His will, and injurious to the soul. The cross terminated the awful struggle and heartbreaking sight of man thus manifestly led captive of the devil at his will. He always ends with an uncompromising and crystal clear statement of the ethical demands of Christianity in the situation in which his friends are at the moment. "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." The thing which settles any master and servant relationship is that both are servants of the one Master, Jesus Christ. Montgomery was famous as a disciplinarian--but there was another side to him. People will say, "How is it that on Monday you can be so happy; you're whistling. Leave off therefore earthly things. I shall not contend against others who are of a different mind; but certainly the Apostle appears to me to go on step by step, so that, in the first instance, he places traditions as to trivial matters in contrast with meditation on the heavenly life, and afterwards, as we shall see, goes a step farther. And as a rule, it is always what God is actually doing that is the urgently needed truth. multitudes have so failed, nor is anything more common at this present moment, even as it was always so. That is, he brings in His authority, for there can be no mistake for the Christian more profound than to suppose that the presentation of the Lord as such is the more elevated for the saint. Christ was now in these Gentiles who believed the hope of a heavenly glory in prospect for them. In view of the freedom that Christ has won for them, the Colossian believers must not listen to those who try to force them to obey the rules and regulations of the Israelite law. Am I then false or true to the constant sign of my Master's death? 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. In such a state dwelling on it would detract from Christ's glory; whereas when Christ alone is the object of believers, they can bear to know and to dwell upon, and to enter into, and understand, the various operations of the Spirit, which turns so much the more to the glory of Christ. The first two chapters present Christ's person and work and the last two His peace and presence. This is a very good general rule: "Be as much in earnest for heavenly and eternal things, as ye formerly were for those that are earthly and perishing.". This it is that always settles the difficulties in the great conflict that rages now as ever, and more than ever, between human religion and the truth of God. We must and do judge all things as they are. He must remember that the time will come when the balance is adjusted and evil-doing will find its punishment and faithful diligence its reward. And they keep teasing the child, pulling it away until the child just looses control and screams, and then, isn't that funny and then hands them the candy. Thus it begins, not with the incarnation (for sin was not yet judged, nor man brought to God), but with the cross, with redemption. It pertains to a life in this world to say, "Touch not; taste not; handle not." See how and for what the apostle gives thanks again. And you should be seeking those things which are above where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God. While that would be awkward speech in our culture, such repetition was then a way of laying emphasis. Is it kind?" It is not merely the life of a Christ that lived in this world, but the life of Him that was lifted up on the cross, and bore my sins there. To make laws to live by is the way of the worldly person, not the way of the Christian. Chastity was the one completely new virtue which Christianity brought into the world. In its own nature like the rays from the sky, it was the sun not for one part of the world alone, but for every quarter. Colossians Greeting. He does not say "against you," because, in truth, the Colossian saints had never been under the law and its ordinances; they had been Gentiles. "Are you sure? The workman must do everything as if he was doing it for Christ. The Jews are enemies, and unbelieving; the Gentiles are specially the object of God's present ways. In other words, it's not what you say which really counts; it's how you're walking that counts. it is impossible to look for it from human nature. "That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing," urges he, "being fruitful in every good work." The Christian doctrine of work is that master and man alike are working for God, and that, therefore, the real rewards of work are not assessable in earthly coin, but will some day be given--or withheld--by God. Continue to teach and to admonish each other with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Paul narrowed himself to no local ties, nor should we allow such a thing for an instant. So again by Him alone do all, Jews and Gentiles, draw near to the Father. There is malice. In Colossians the argument requires that our resurrection with Christ, as well as death and burial, should be distinctly stated. II. We must make heaven our scope and aim, seek the favour of God above, keep up our communion with the upper world by faith, and hope, and holy love, and make it our constant care and business to secure our title to and qualifications for the heavenly bliss. Proud, fallen nature is satisfied even by these efforts to put down the body; whereas God would have the body to have a certain honour in its own place, and that of the Christian is the temple of the Holy Ghost. They had done with Him, and, as far as will was concerned, they had done with Him for ever. "He will, for instance, set giving above getting, serving above ruling, forgiving above avenging. The epistle to Laodicea is not said: so we have no sufficient reason to trouble ourselves about there being a lost portion of the inspired writings. (iv) It destroyed the barrier between class and class. Every right-minded person revolts from it as a lusus naturae, and a piece of affectation or acting. Undoubtedly the one word would suggest the other. How can that be? The Holy Spirit brings in that which completely judges and sets aside all such speculations. Orge ( G3709) is anger which has become inveterate; it is long-lasting, slow-burning anger, which refuses to be pacified and nurses its wrath to keep it warm. In material science it is not so, in schools of doctrine it is not so: there is something altogether circumscribed, in known limits, and definite enough to satisfy the mind of man. But treat them as means desirable to attract the world, or as objects to be valued for their own sake by Christians, and as they are intruders, so they will prove to be aliens, and enemies of the glory of Christ. I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me,Galatians 2:20. But to play up to that is to open the door for all kinds of demonstrations of love. "Let no man judge you" is the exhortation. (2) He is at the right hand of God. But, as truly and fully making God known, there is none but Christ. The Rheims version translates it benignity. Now, as we had mentioned when we were going though Ephesians, God gave very simple rules for marriage. An *apostle is a person whom God sends to lead Christians. They were endeavouring to strike an alliance between Christ and the world. 3:1-4 If then you were raised with Christ, set your hearts on the things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Philosophy is an idol of man or nature, a blind substitute for the knowledge of God. Alas! That the word of Christ might dwell in our hearts richly. And here we come back to where this passage started--that is precisely why the Christian sets his mind and heart on the things which are above and not on the things of this world. Colossians 3:1 "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." Colossians 3:5-6 " Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. But not a few of those that were baptized from early as in later days turned out untrue to the glory of Christ. The two commands differ in that the first emphasizes the more practical pursuits of life whereas the second stresses the whole bent of the life. Dean, "A Study of the Enthronement of Christ in Acts 2, 3" (Th.M. A substantially similar blessing is stamped on the table of the Lord. We must live such a life as Christ lived here on earth and lives now in heaven, according to our capacities. Under both Jewish and Greek laws and custom all the privileges belonged to the husband and all the duties to the wife. Have a mind all of whose thoughts are fixed on the things which are above, not upon the things on earth. They shall make known unto you all things which are done here.". The word father in his mind stood for nothing but severity. She had no legal rights whatever. "Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you. Now he may have the blessed enjoyment of communion with Christ, but it is a Christ crucified on earth. It matters little how well taught the saint may be, nor how he may know the moral beauty and the unfailing wisdom of the word, if positive fruit be not increased: if the spirit and power of worship abound not, there is something altogether short, or wrong. He meant to reconcile man spite of himself; He would prove His own love to be the conqueror of his hatred. Colossians 3:2-3 "Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. He must not be the kind of servant, who, as C. F. D. Moule puts it, does not dust behind the ornaments or sweep below the wardrobe. Hey, it opens up so many opportunities to witness for you. Pleonexia is one of the ugliest of sins but while it is quite clear what it means, it is by no means so easy to find a single word to translate it. We can readily understand that the Spirit did not bring out the fulness of the glory of Christ then, but as it was needed. Again we could translate "If" as "Since" (first class condition). Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, [now, you put on Jesus Christ, you put off these things, put off anger, wrath, and malice and instead, put on] bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, and if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. It is a question now of truth and holiness in the Spirit of Christ, in short. Christians must put off slander and foul talk and they must not lie to one another. "Oh, my little sweet heart. THE THINGS WHICH LIE BEHIND ( Colossians 3:5-9 a). 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