Title: Who We Were Is Not Who We Are
Text: Colossians 3:5-9 (3:1-15)
Thesis: When we understand who we are in Christ, we will live out of who we were and into who we are.
Series: How to treat people at home and at church: How to walk hand in hand when you do not see eye to eye.
Introduction
When we become followers of Christ we receive what our text describes as “new life with Christ.” In II Corinthians 5:17 the experience is described like this: “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun.” We might liken this experience to that of immigrants who come to this country...
Several years ago I read a most memorable book by Mela Meisner Lindsay titled The White Lamb. It was her story… the story of her life as a young girl from the Russian Volga Region and the difficulties of her migrating to Trego County, Kansas. She was just one of many Germans from Russia who settled in western Kansas in the late 1800’s. It is a wonderful read and is still in print but a bit hard to come by. A new hardcover copy sell for $133, paperback copies (3 in stock at Amazon) are $25.44 and Kindle editions are $15.92.
When they arrived in New York Harbor, immigrants were transferred to smaller boats and transported to Ellis Island for processing. It was not like the Ellis Island we can visit today…. today it is 9 times larger than it was originally. When they were digging the tunnels for the NY subway system all the dirt and rocks were dumped on Ellis Island. So it is much larger now than then. But everyone passed through the Great Hall where they stood in a long line… While in the line and as they climbed the long flight of stairs, medical teams examined them quickly, running through a checklist of 60 symptoms that might prohibit their being cleared to go on to the mainland.
Immigrants were greeted with pointed fingers, hand-gestures and unintelligible commands. They were interviewed to determine their name (Many of the immigrants did not know how to spell their names so officials wrote down how the name sounded or gave them a new name.), nationality, destination, who had paid their fare, and if they had any money. And if they passed muster they were able to exchange currencies they were taken to the train station to purchase a ticket to their destination. Others waited for relatives to come and claim them… usually bringing with them American style clothes. Many old world garments were discarded at Ellis Island.
Most immigrants left all but some personal luggage to begin their new life in America. Similarly, when we become followers of Christ we leave our old lives and begin a new life. For those of us who have a lot of baggage that’s a very good thing.
Our text today is about some of those things from the old life we need to leave behind.
I. Things to put to death, 5-7
So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you… Colossians 3:5
Put to death or mortify the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Earthly or earthen may refer to things like pottery as in made from clay. Earthly can refer to the earth as in soil. It may also refer to things under the earth or underground and to things that are down deep as in deeply rooted.
Dandelions. We live in an HOA and sometimes you just have to take things into your own hands if the association does not do things to your liking. We were concerned about the little plot of grass we think of as our lawn. So we had it power raked, aerated, fertilized and mowed early in the season. We spread some of that grass seed stuff in some areas where the grass was thin and we started watering by hand. In addition, I went out and bought one of those long-handled dandelion thingies that are supposed to dig dandelions out by the roots… I have found that dandelions are deeply rooted. You can mow over them, chop them up, pull at them… but unless you get the root they will just keep coming back and coming back.
That is the image we are to have of things in our lives that we need to put to death or be rid of or stop doing. We are to kill those things that are deeply rooted that are inhibiting our ability to live Christ-like lives.
One of my objectives in the next few weeks is to clearly define those things that are part of our human nature, old nature or sinful nature that need to be put to death and rooted out for good.
We need to root out these kinds of attitudes and behaviors:
“When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissention, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21
Nothing about our old, sinful, human nature is conducive to creating and maintaining good and godly relationships in our homes or here at church in our faith family. We cannot walk “hand in hand when we do not see eye to eye” if our lives are characterized by sexual sin, hostility, quarrelling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissention, division and envy.
We need to replace those old, sinful nature things with these kinds of attitudes and behaviors:
“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” Galatians 5:22-23
When we put on our new life in Christ, the afore mentioned attitudes and actions are conducive to “walking hand in hand when we do not see eye to eye.”
In our text this morning, the second half of verse 5 continues, “Have nothing to do with…” sins of sensuality.
I wondered why sexual sin is the first and seemingly the most prominent concern in our text today. Apparently it was a problem in the Colossian church. Christians were bringing the pagan culture into the Church or Christians were being pulled back into the pagan culture, reverting to the way they lived before Christ.
In our culture getting caught in a sexual sin is embarrassing, inconvenient and frowned upon… think John Edwards. But sexual sin was not regarded as sin in that culture. I suspect that things sensual were as alluring then as they are today. Today, in addition to print media there is internet pornography. Inappropriate relationships between persons of power and those who are vulnerable are common as they take sexual advantage of students, clients, employees, clients and parishioners. Infidelity is hardly a new thing. The revelations unfolding from the Jerry Sandusky trial are about as despicable as human perversion can get. In our culture persons who have a propensity for sexual sin often gravitate to the church as a place where they hope to overcome their demons. In my 42 years in the pastorate I have observed that those who are most condemning of sexual sin are often the ones who have the greatest personal struggle with it. Think well-known Christian personalities who are caught in the very web they so vehemently condemn.
I might add here that sexual sin for the Christian is different from other sin. The bible says to Christians, “Flee sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside the body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, who you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” I Corinthians 6:18-20
When a Christian practices sexual sin that person, as a person in whom the Spirit of God lives, is violating the very place wherein the Spirit of God makes His home. So in our text, God instructs us to have nothing to do with sexual sin.
Things to put to death:
A. Have nothing to do with Sexual immorality – Porneia / fornication. Any form of illicit sexual intercourse. Every form of sexual immorality. Infidelity. Adultery. Pre-marital sexual relations. Homosexuality. Pornography. Any sexual activity outside absolute fidelity with one’s spouse falls within the broad category of sexual immorality. When Bill Clinton said, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman,” he was in error.
B. Have nothing to do with Impurity – Akatharsia / uncleanness. Any form of uncleanness physical or moral. Just as one can be physically dirty… one can be morally dirty. Any uncleanness in thought, word or act. Filthy minded. Lurid imaginations and speech.
C. Have nothing to do with Lust – Pathos / passion. Shameful passions or desires. Emotions that lead to excess. Uncontrolled desires.
D. Have nothing to do with Evil Desires – Epithymian kaken / evil desires. Similar to but more general lusts.
E. Have nothing to do with Greed – Pleonexia / covetousness The desire to have more… always in a bad way. Wanting more than you ought to want. (“A greedy person is an idolater, worshipping the things of this world [rather than God].”)
The putting to death of these kinds of things must be a radical and decisive decision.
127 Hours. 127 Hours is a biographical survival drama about canyoneer, Aron Ralston, who became trapped by a boulder while hiking in an isolated slot canyon in Blue John Canyon in the Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah in 2003.
The gist of the story is that the canyon he was making his way through was very narrow with boulders suspended in the canyon where they had fallen down and become wedged between the canyon walls. As he was climbing through he fell and one of those boulders came loose, pinning is arm against the canyon wall. There was no getting his arm free and there was no one to rescue him.
After 5 days, 127 hours, he made a radical and decisive decision to break his arm and then used the dull knife to sever the arm to free himself. He then walked out of the canyon, rappelled down a 65 foot rock face and hiked several miles until he met a family who called for help.
What Aron Ralston did was as extreme as extreme gets but in a moment of decisiveness he snapped the ulna and the tibia bones in his forearm and cut off his arm in order to live. As radical as it was it was also logical and ingenious.
That is the kind of decisive, radical, extreme, logical and ingenious act God expects of us when he says, “Put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you.” You say to yourself, “Self, I will no longer have anything to do with any form of sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires or greed in thought, word or deed. From this day forward all that stuff is dead to me.” And then you walk away and leave it.
And why would you do such a thing? There are three good reasons:
1. Those things are things you used to do when your life was still part of this world. Colossians 3:7
2. You died to this life, and your real life is now hidden in Christ. Colossians 3:3
3. Because of these sins the anger of God is coming. Colossians 3:6
The good news is, “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through his Son, Jesus Christ.” Romans 6:23 For those who are followers of Christ, “God chose to save us through Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us. Christ died for us… so we can live with him forever.” I Thessalonians 5:10
In Romans the bible says that despite his offering of grace there are those who simply blatantly reject it. God does not force anyone to receive his mercy and grace. God is a free-will kind of God and people are free to accept or reject Christ, but to do so is to suffer the consequences of that choice. People really do reap what they sow.
So, the bad news is, “God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” Romans 1:18 Persisting in sin is to place oneself in the way of God’s wrath.
However, we are new people in Christ… because the old is gone and the new has come, we put to death sinful earthly things and have nothing to do with the sensual sins of sex and greed.
The text continues from “have nothing to do with” certain things to “get rid of” some other things.
II. Things to get rid of, Colossians 3:8
You used to do these things when you life was still part of this world. But now is the time to get rid [of them]… Colossians 3:8
Earlier I made reference to digging out or uprooting dandelions in order to be rid of them in my lawn. Here the imagery changes from digging out those things that are deeply rooted in our lives that belong to our former way of life to stripping off a filthy old garment and getting rid of it.
The TV reality series: What Not to Wear. The TV reality series: What Not to Wear features stylists Stacy London and Clinton Kelly. Participants are usually nominated by friends or co-workers or relatives who think the person dresses inappropriately or is dowdy or generally less than stylish. They typically offer the participant a $5,000 Visa gift card to purchase a whole new wardrobe if they will allow the stylists to give them styling guidelines tailored to their age, body shape and profession.
The very first thing the stylists do is meet with the participant and go through her wardrobe, piece by piece and throughout the sorting process most of the clothes are tossed into a large garbage can. The old clothes are stripped off and discarded and replaced by a whole new wardrobe.
So with the imagery of stripping off old, outdated, out of style items that are no longer fitting for your new life… these are some of the things that God instructs us to “strip off” or “get rid of.”
Things to get rid of:
A. Get rid of Anger – Orge / long lasting, slow burning anger. Settled and simmering anger.
B. Get rid of Rage – Thumos / exploding anger. Anger that erupts as a blaze and burns quickly.
C. Get rid of Malice – Kakia / viciousness of mind. Mean-spirited. Wishing ill for others.
D. Get rid of Slander – Blasphemia / Insulting and slanderous. Hurtful and denigrating talk.
E. Get rid of Dirty Language – aschrologia / Filthy language. Foul mouthed. Vulgarity.
None of these things is conducive to healthy relationships in the family or in the faith community.
Cleaning is a way of life, not an event.” Have you ever noticed how you can work really hard to clean the house only to find in just a short time it is all messy and dirtied-up again? You empty the dishwasher and before long more dirty dishes are piled up and ready to be washed. You dust the surfaces and within a few days you can see new dust. Bathroom sinks sparkle one day and the next you see remnants of tooth paste spatter. You get the idea. Here is the simple truth of the matter: “Cleaning house is a way of life, not an event!”
Getting rid of sin in our lives is not an event… it is a way of life! In the Christian life we are constantly reminding ourselves that we have put those things to death and we are constantly reminding ourselves that we still have to clean house and take out the trash and get rid of it… as a way of life. As followers of Christ we keep our lives clean as a way of life.
Why? Because all those kinds of things are what typified your old life… they way you were - not the way you are to be now that you are in Christ.
Our text concludes with something to stop…
III. Something to stop, 9a
Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and its wicked deeds. Colossians 3:9
Election years are always good for political misspeaks, deceptions, distortions and outright blatant lies.
Matt Arnold, CU Regent Candidate. Matt Arnold is apparently a gifted man who may well be given the opportunity to serve on the CU Board of Regents… however his chances were dimmed when he was found to have misrepresented his academic credentials. He claimed to have a Master’s Degree in International Studies when in fact he received a Graduate Diploma. Apparently the difference in degrees is to earn a Master’s Degree he needed to complete the course work and his thesis but he lost his work in a computer glitch… hence no thesis.
His chances were further dimmed when he explained why he did not complete his work… he did not want to “waste more time in pursuit of academic (expletive deleted) that no one cares about.”
I suspect that most people do care about academic credentials and would hope that any person who wished to be on the CU Board of Regents would think academic achievements are important. However the larger issue is Mr. Arnold’s loss of credibility in perpetrating a deception and then defending it as unimportant.
Apparently God thinks truth-telling is pretty important if we are to lean anything from the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. Ananias and Sapphira owned a parcel of land they sold. In a gesture of good-will they gave a portion of the money to the church, which was in and of itself a kind and generous thing to do. However they claimed to have given all of the proceeds to the church, which apparently would make them seem to be even more self-sacrificing and generous. However, because it was a deliberate plot to deceive both the Church and God… they both dropped dead. Needless to say, no one did any distorting of the truth in that church after that.
Credibility in the life of a Christian at home, in the faith community of the church and the community is an absolute. God says, “Don’t lie to each other.” “Don’t mislead, imply, distort, skew, and exaggerate the facts.”
A. Stop Lying – Pseudo / falsehood. Deception.
Why are we to stop lying and deceiving? Because you have stripped off the old way of life and put on a new life.
Conclusion
Actually our text probably covers just about everything that can destroy human relationships in our home and at church. Sexual sin is a violation of God’s character and God’s will. Self-serving greed in any form violates a Christian’s commitment to loving God and others. Anger and angry outbursts and exchanges run contrary to walking hand in hand when we do not see eye to eye. Vulgar and off-color conversations are not helpful in building up others. Wishing ill of others is hardly conducive to good will in the home of Christian community. And lying absolutely destroys any trust we might have in each other.
Across the pond the British have just honored their queen on the anniversary of her 60th year on the throne. Queen Elizabeth acceded to the throne when her father died in 1952. The only other monarch to rule for 60 years was Queen Victoria in 1897.
Scottish theologian Alister McGrath tells of when he was a boy he would experiment with various chemicals in his school’s laboratory. He liked to drop a tarnished coin into a beaker of diluted nitric acid to see what would happen. He often used an old British penny bearing the image of Queen Victoria because when tarnished Her Majesty’s image could not be clearly seen. But the acid quickly ate away the grime and the Queen’s image would reappear in shining glory.
That is something of what it means for us to live out of our tarnished past and into our shiny new image in Christ.
When we understand who we are in Christ, we will live out of who we were and into who we are.
