Embodying a New Life – Part 2
Series: The Liberated Life (Colossians)
Brad Bailey - May 31, 2009
Intro – The search for a new means of life that can save us from our own divide.
Two of the big early summer films that just came out are the new Terminator and Star Trek films. Like so many science fiction films… and actually so many epic storyline films…they reflect the dilemma of the world now facing destruction as … until the human spirit of sacrificial love wins out. (Interesting that the Sci-Fi shows and movies that capture mass audiences the most.. are really about our human conflict and condition.)
> It is the storyline that runs through life. We seem destined for disintegration… our marriages ending in divorce or our masses being destroyed by war… unless something fundamental breaks through.
Therein lies the great news that God has raised one up at a perfect point in the human drama. Christ has come to reclaim and restore our true nature. In our current series entitled The Liberated Life, we have followed the great news as the apostle Paul wrote to a new church community that was gathering in the city of Colossae. He new well what rises up when people face the their need for hope.
The Rome Empire said the empire would unite all… but only by force and fear. And in reality, treachery would vie for power .. with leaders betraying leaders (as empires built on human competition for prestige and power always do.)
The religious leaders… offered a limited hope of salvation … to unite only around the goodness of the good… divided by their competition of the most minor issues… and leaving no place for those who couldn’t maintain their rules and regulations.
To this Paul… a citizen of Rome… and a religious leader… now imprisoned as a subversive voice to all such powers of this world … declares the work and way of God. It is the power of God that comes from beyond us to reclaim and restore us from what we face.
Quick review of last week (could skip)
While rules and regulations can serve to guide us, they are not able to make us transform our inner nature.
‘These rules may seem wise…they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.’ - Colossians 2:23 (NLT)
There is a new way of life… it is the life of Christ… who has come and in his death and resurrected life… inaugurated the start of a new humanity… which we can enter and begin to embody. Our spiritual formation involves connecting with the new life that is revealed in Christ… which is shared with us. … as we direct our inner attention and affections on Him.
Now he expounds upon the putting on of the new nature of Christ
Colossians 3:12-17 (NIV)
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Here we find Paul describing the new life that we are to enter and embody… and it is a life of love.
As N.T. Wright describes it, “The mood changes from negative to positive; it is like coming out of the fog into the sunlight.”
He begins by declaring the grand choice of God. That in Christ, everyone can become “God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved.”
In this he is defining all who receive the death and new life of Christ to have become the new and true Israel… as God’s chosen people… God’s new humanity. This new humanity is not secured in our choice but in His… not in our goodness but in His grace… not in our lovableness but in His love. All that God had said he would accomplish through Israel… is now to be fulfilled in Christ who came through Israel as the one who fulfills the role of the one ‘chosen and set apart.’ He becomes the true temple… the true and living word of God… the one through whom all the nations would be blessed. And now that blessing of being the chosen and beloved son is extended to all who receive him.
So the first truth we can take hold of is that…
1. A new life of love is generated by God’s love through Christ… not simply our own nature. (12a, 13)
Paul is declaring a whole new potential for our humanity to be lived out… but the new potential is not rooted in our human potential in itself… apart from God. This is not a call to simply dig deep and find that you are better than you think.
It is about becoming different because of something that has come from God.
That is why we have to ‘put it on’ because it is something that is no longer in our nature to do… or at least to fulfill as needed.
Now I think it’s fair to consider, what about the love that we do find within us… or among us… that doesn’t seem to be connected to Christ or his work? I think we should be very honest about this… because there is such a profound good in people… all people.
I believe that humans in general do love… but notably only up to a point.
God’s Word affirms that we ALL bear his image…. and in this we bear love… along with longings for beauty, transcendence, and justice. But we cannot completely fulfill those very image bearing qualities. We still bear something of our original design and desires… but we cannot fulfill them. That is why the storyline in so many epic films is about that dilemma… of what we face and some breakthrough to fulfill it.
If you’ve ever reached the ends of your best efforts… your disposition… you know something about what God says. We can try to claim that we are all ‘good enough’… but we are left with something that isn’t able to fulfill the good it aspires to. This is what God’s Word means when it declares that ‘none are good’… and that we are spiritually ‘lost’ or ultimately ‘dead.’ We and others, may very much reflect something of God’s image… including profound examples of love… even sacrificial love… but interestingly, those who do so most… are often those who most recognize their limitations to fulfill all that they know is right.
To be lost does not mean we simply we feel lost… or act worse.
Dallas Willard -
To be lost means to be out of place, to be omitted.
Something that is lost is something that is not where it is supposed to be and therefore it is not integrated into the life of the one to whom it belongs and to whom it is lost.
(Paraphrase only - Think of what it means when the keys to your house or car are lost. They are useless to you, no matter how much you need them and desire to have them and no matter what fine keys they may be. And when we are lost to God, we are not where we are supposed to be in his world and hence are not caught up into his life. We are not "partakers of the divine nature,")
From "Renovation of the Heart": pgs. 55-56
We need a force that can reconcile us to what is right… and restore us. This what Paul grasps of what God has done.
• God chose and set us apart… so we can now choose to a new life
• God loves us… so we can now love others
• God has forgiven us… so we can now forgive others
This is a new birth into a new life in which the nature of Christ is born… whose nature bears the fulfillment of loving God and others.
2. A new life of love is embodied as we re-orient our nature to that of God’s disposition of love towards others (12 – 14)
As noted last week… the intent of this great image of taking off old clothes and putting on new… is not to imply how simple or expedient it is… but to note that it is a process… that we are involved in. We can take off the old and put on the new.
What do we put on? What is the nature of God’s new humanity that Christ embodied and is now ours to take on?
Notable list of the kind of qualities that the nature of Christ bears…
Compassion – allowing oneself to feel for another
Matthew 9:36 (NIV)
“When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
> How vital are those first words… “When he SAW…”. Compassion is the capacity to really see another. This is what activates the power of love.
Kindness – love in action; expressing to others their value
It can take many different forms—a smile, a kind word a pat on the shoulder, an invitation to lunch, an offer of help. One such example I recently heard was that of Mamie Adams…
Mamie Adams always went to a branch post office in her town because the postal employees there were friendly. She went there to buy stamps just before Christmas one year and the lines were particularly long. Someone pointed out that there was no need to wait on line because there was a stamp machine in the lobby. “I know,” said Mamie, ‘but the machine won’t ask me about my arthritis.” (From Personal Touch, Bits and Pieces, December, 1989, p. 2)
Humility – not a low view of ourselves, but loving others before ourself.
Gentleness – not weakness, but the power to make our force positive
Example: this is a word our children heard a thousand times when a new baby was born into the family and they wanted to touch it… or we got a dog. As they were poking and batting…we’d say: “Be gentle.” It didn’t mean become a weakling… but use your power in a positive way.
Patience – suffer with the weaknesses of another; able to overcome destructive reactions
All of these virtues… these dynamic ways of relating… can be summed up and centered in LOVE.
Love – to live in service to the God given value of others
At it’s heart… love is that disposition of being FOR someone.
Mother Teresa is one who embodied these virtues so profoundly… as o the many who continue in the order she began. When asked about what she understood them to be doing, she explained that while they bring people practical needs… the greatest need is not that of tings. ‘The greatest disease is that of being unwanted. We now have medicines for many diseases… but unless there is love… we can never cure this terrible disease.’ (Rough quote from the Communicators Commentary, Maxie Dunham)
This love, is described as the “bond of perfection”, it perfectly holds compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience together. Our English word for perfection is from a Greek word which means complete, or, in good working order.
As someone described it, ‘love is metaphysical gravity.’ It pulls all the virtues of the heart together.
If you were here last week… or are familiar with the previous section… Paul spoke of the old self / nature that is to come off… and describes examples. There were two lists that could be summed up as the power of lust and contempt… both of which reflect that which seeks to use and hurt others in pursuit of a false self. They are by nature self centered and consuming of others.
Just as we sense the power of hate to disintegrate us… love is that which integrates us… brings us into the power to bless.
> What Paul describes as the new life of love is essentially the opposite… as it is that which finds itself in the self-giving nature of God.
God is love. Through the power of His forgiving love which bears our shame… we can enter and be re-oriented by His nature of love… as it displaces the opposite… which is the lust and contempt that defiles, degrades and destroys.
This is why we find love is the underlying and defining disposition.
• Jesus was asked… what matters most… and said ‘to love God and others’…and that all the commandments summed up in that disposition.
• 1 Corinthians 13 – “You can have all the power imaginable… even choose to give everything to the poor… but without love… we have nothing.” That great chapter on love… expounds upon love with similar qualities that flow from it… and form it. (‘Love is patient… kind…’)
• Galatians – fruits of the spirit … is meant to be read the same way… begins stating love… and then the attributes that flow from love… and includes some of the same ones stated here. (The last three of these are mentioned in the Greek in the same order in Ephesians 4:2; and Galatians 5:22-23 in the Greek includes three of them: patience and gentleness, as well as kindness.)
> It is what the Spirit is always seeking to work in us… but we are a part of the process.
But while love may be the defining and central virtue… love cannot be grasped as a mere ethereal idea.
Love can only become real and realized in relationship to others.
So Paul engages the kind of real choices that these virtues will involve.
Paul describes how we experience and exercise this new life in relationship to others.
Verse 13 – ‘Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.’
It flows from what? What God has done for us. It is precisely a description of the nature of Christ… who bore our faults and forgave our sin. At it’s root it means a life in which we are…valuing of each other beyond individual hurts and faults.
3. A new life of love is cultivated and captured in the interaction of Christ-centered community. (13, 15-17)
He unpacks this beautifully in some final phrases that I want to close calling us to consider as a way to assess where we are in embodying this life.
Let the PEACE of Christ rule in you (‘arbitrate your relationships’) – because we are united as one body called to peace.
The word translated ‘rule’ means to arbitrate… and is that used of an umpire in athletic games. (brabeuetô, “arbitrate, decide every debate”; a word used only here in the NT). God knows that our hearts are arenas of competition and conflict. All sorts of feelings clash within us. Let Christ’s peace be the umpire to the conflicts within us.
This new life is revealed through being UNITED in Christ.
Am I honoring the unity and peace of Christ in his community?
Let the WORD of Christ dwell in you – as you encourage each other in words and worship.
The Word of Christ is his life and the reality he bears in all he did and said. This is to dwell in us… which literally means ‘to be at home’ in us.
The community cannot be formed in this new and subversive way of life without sharing in a new Word… and a new song that declares it. Like the power of declaring something public… it affirms it in the power of community. Why do you think that the ‘empires’ of this world that are most bound in governmental control make their first restriction to be that of limiting the gatherings of people? Because they know the power of people gathering to subvert their imposed ways. This is why you and I need others who are fellow advocates of our true identity. We are all a needed voice in the life of others… priests who help mediate the true kingdom of heaven. We are all to be ministered to and be ministers… servants and shepherds who help each other stand… and when we fall… to stand again. This is why I have come to believe that worship is itself a very spiritual defiant act… as we declare the sovereignty that belongs to God alone.
This new life is revealed through being SHAPED by Christ.
Am I allowing the life and teaching of Christ to form my inner life through fellow followers and worshipers?
Let the NAME of Christ be represented in all we do as we ‘do all…in the name of Christ.’
Paul concludes by bringing home the centrality of Christ… that as our lives are re-oriented around him… then everything we do will represent him… we will act with his purposes and by his power.
This new life is revealed in LIVING FOR AND BY Christ.
Am I allowing the life and love of Christ to be ruling all that I do… in all the various roles and responsibilities of my life?
Closing: In the Terminator movie… the central figure and leader is John Conner… and while the world looks overwhelmed with the machines that have destroyed nearly all of human civilization… from a rough underground station… he gets on a radio and sends out a message… one picked up by all the human left who are willing to fight… and he makes a passionate plea… explaining how the machines are indeed vulnerable and can be destroyed by the resistance forces. And concludes by stating… “If you are hearing this… YOU ARE THE RESISTANCE.” I believe the Lord is using Paul’s words to call out to us this morning… and says… if you are hearing these words… you are the resistance.
