Practical Christian Living
Colossians 3:12-25
The Christian life is to be lived out by believers daily. We are to shine as lights in the present darkness of a sin ridden lost world. The evidences of the genuineness of a person’s conversion and the reality of that person’s faith should be evidenced in their character and virtue. We need to understand that when a person comes to Christ that person is a new person with a new character that is being developed within them and will be complete when they stand before Christ. But each of us must strive to don the new characteristics and virtues of the practical Christian life daily.
I. The Reality of the New Man
A. Colossians 3:10-11 “…put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.”
B. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
C. When you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are a new creation! You have a new spirit, a new walk, a new life! There may be “old” things in your life that you need to get rid of. You have old habits or addictions that you need to change. But as a new born child of God you have begun to walk a new path. You no longer find satisfaction in the old path.
D. The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. Colossians 3:3 says that the believer’s pre-conversion life is dead and that as verse nine says we are to dismount the old man and his practices..
II. The New Man’s Character – Verse 12
A. Compassion – KJV - bowels of mercy
1. We are to have compassionate hearts
2. It is feeling another's pain
3. A woman rolled an elderly man in a wheelchair into the waiting room at the doctor’s office. As she went to the receptionist's desk, the man sat there, alone and silent. A little boy who was sitting with his mother saw the man who appeared to be sad and slipped off his mother's lap and walked over to the wheelchair. Placing his hand on the man's, he said, "I know how you feel. My mom makes me ride in the stroller, too."
4. 1 John 3:17 “But whoso hath this world's good, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how does the love of God dwell in him?”
5. It is extending mercy to one who has fallen
6. It is a deep feeling that hurts over the concern for others and their needs.
7. Romans 12:10 “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another.”
B. Kindness - treating another without harshness.
1. Kindness is action that reveals compassion, action that arises out of a sense of sympathy.
2. Ephesians 4:32 “be kind to one another, tenderhearted”
3. "Kindness is a language that deaf people can hear and that blind people can see." --Chuck Swindoll
4. Kindness is treating another person with respect and honor.
5. A number of years ago a black man was walking along Forty-second Street in New York, from the terminal to the hotel, carrying a heavy suitcase and a heavier valise. Suddenly a hand took hold of the valise and a pleasant voice said, "That's a heavy load, brother. Why don't you let me help? I'm going your way." The black man resisted, but finally allowed the young white man to assist him carrying his burden. For several blocks they chatted like old friends until they reached the hotel. "And that," said Booker T. Washington years afterward, "was the first time I ever saw Theodore Roosevelt." (Edmund Fuller, ed. 2500 Anecdotes for All Occasions. NY: Wings Books, 1970, p. 44)
6. "Kindness is the virtue of a man whose neighbor's good is as dear to him as his own."
7. Job 6:14a “To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend.”
C. Humility – KJV – Humbleness of mind
1. A church realized the importance of humility, so it formed a committee to find the most humble person in the church. Many names were submitted and numerous candidates evaluated. Finally, the committee came to a unanimous decision. They selected a quiet little man who always lived in the background and had never taken credit for anything he had done. They awarded him the "Most Humble" button for his faithful service. However, the next day they had to take it away from him because he pinned it on. (Kent Crockett, Making Today Count for Eternity, Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2001, p. 122)
2. James 4:10 “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”
3. Humility literally means to think or judge with lowliness
4. It is the opposite of pride and arrogance.
5. 1 Peter 5:5 “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
6. It is important to note that rue humility is not putting ourselves down but rather lifting up others.
D. Gentleness – KJV - meekness
1. Gentleness is often confused with weakness.
2. Prautes "denotes the humble and gentle attitude which expresses itself, in particular, in a patient submissiveness to offense, free from malice and desire for revenge...controlled strength, the ability to bear reproaches and slights without bitterness and resentment; the ability to provide a soothing influence on someone who is in a state of anger, bitterness and resentment against life – copied
3. Prautes is an interesting word. Aristotle defined it as the correct mean between being too angry and being never angry at all. It is the quality of the man whose anger is so controlled that he is always angry at the right time and never at the wrong time. It describes the man who is never angry at any personal wrong he may receive, but who is capable of righteous anger when he sees others wronged. – copied
4. Galatians 6:1 “"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering yourself lest you also be tempted."
5. 1 Peter 3:15 “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.”
E. Patience – KJV – Long-suffering
1. It is literally long-temper as opposed to "short tempered.
2. It is the capacity to be wronged and not retaliate.
3. It is the ability to put up with other people even when that is not an easy thing to do
4. Romans 12:18 “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.”
5. Patience is the spirit which never gives up for it endures to the end even in times of adversity, exhibiting self-restraint such that it does not hastily retaliate when wronged.
III. The New Man’s Virtues – Verses 13-14 (Forbearance, Forgiveness, Love)
A. Bearing with one another – KJV – Forbearing one another
1. Forbearance is making allowance for each other's faults or simply stated put up with each other
2. Anechomai - means to endure, to hold out in spite of persecution, threats, injury, indifference, or complaints and not retaliate.”
3. 1 Corinthians 4:12b “…Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure”
4. Matthew 7:3 “why do you behold the mote that is in your brother's eye, but do not consider the beam that is in thine own eye?”
5. We live in a society today where people are offended over the smallest matters. Things that we just used to shrug off and say, "Oh! That's just crazy" ...now are made a big stink about. Since our society has become all so touchy, we're constantly fighting and arguing over nothing, over little itty-bitty things that don't matter a hill of beans in the grand scheme of things. It's this same sensitivity, this same offensiveness that has made us such a litigious society. In America someone is always going to court over something. Sadly at times this attitude creeps in our lives as Christians. This ought not to be. We need to learn to let it go.
B. Forgiveness - forgiving one another
1. Ephesians 4:32 “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
2. Charizomai - means literally to give freely and unconditionally or to bestow as a gift of grace and then to remit a debt, and hence to forgive.
3. The church as a whole is to be a gracious, mutually forgiving fellowship.
4. Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive. – C.S. Lewis
5. In the home, at work, on the playing field, and in the church we are called upon to exhibit the spirit of the Lord Jesus. In one of his sermons, D. L. Moody used to picture the Lord's saying to Peter, "Go, hunt up the man who put the crown of thorns on My head and tell him that I love him. Tell him that he can have a crown in my kingdom, one without a thorn. Find the man who spat in my face and preach the gospel to him. Tell him that I forgive him and that I died to save him. Find the man who thrust the spear into my side and tell him that there is a quicker way to my heart." That is how the Lord Jesus has forgiven us. Now it is our turn. We are to forgive others and make an end of our quarrels. The Greek word occurs only here and means "grievances." (Phillips, John: Exploring Colossians: An Expository Commentary)
6. Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was reminded one day of a vicious deed that someone had done to her years before. But she acted as if she had never even heard of the incident. “Don’t you remember it?” her friend asked. “No,” came Barton’s reply, “I distinctly remember forgetting it.”
7. Forgiveness is an intentional act on our part.
C. Love
1. Love is the most important moral quality in the believer’s life, for it is the very glue that produces unity in the church. Believers will never enjoy mutual fellowship through compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, or patience; they will not bear with each other or forgive each other unless they love one another. (MacArthur, J. Colossians. Chicago: Moody Press)
2. 2 John 1:5 “And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another.”
3. Believers will never enjoy mutual fellowship through compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, or patience; they will not bear with each other or forgive each other unless they love one another. - copied
4. Love is the foundation of every godly fruit. Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love”
5. Love may or may not involve emotion, but it must always involve action.
6. FB Meyers said, “Wherever there is true love, there must be giving, and giving to the point of sacrifice. Love is not satisfied with giving trinkets; it must give at the cost of sacrifice: it must give blood, life, all... We are to imitate God's love in Christ. The love that gives, that counts no cost too great, and, in sacrificing itself for others, offers all to God, and does all for His sake.”
IV. The New Man’s Strength – Verse 16-17
A. The Word of God - Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom
1. The Bible should be at the heart of our existence.
2. We must hear the word - Romans 10:17 “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
3. The Bible is like a spiritual cell phone: it only works when it's open.
4. We must understand the word - Mark Twain said, "It's not the things I don't understand in the Bible that bother me, it's the things I do understand!"
5. We must apply the word – James 1:22 “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
B. Involvement in service – teaching and admonishing one another
1. God has designed the church so that we are inter-dependent.
2. God has called us to all be involved in ministry to edify the body of Christ.
3. Ephesians 4:16 (NLT) “He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love
C. Corporate Worship - Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.
1. As member of Christ’s Body, we are to be a joyful, singing body that unites together to celebrate the grace of God!
2. Hebrews 10:24-25 “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
3. Singing is not to be a display of talent but be a demonstration of the grace of God in our hearts.
D. Daily Exercise - Consistent demonstration of the grace of God in your life. - And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus
1. NLT – “whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus”
2. The host of a radio program told about a man who described his religious views by saying, “I’m a Christian on Christmas and Easter.” He seemed to think Christianity was a part time proposition. Even if we don’t deliberately relegate our faith to just 2 days each year, many of us engage in a form of part time Christianity. We do that when we pick the time and place to practice our faith instead of being consistent every moment of every day. When we choose to sin or neglect our relationship with Christ or let the world squeeze us into its mold, we become part-time Christians. Jesus told us to take up our cross daily and follow Him (Lk. 9:23). He didn’t suffer an unbearably cruel death on the cross so that we could pick and choose when we want to follow Him. - copied
3. Demonstrate God’s grace in your life both at home and at work – 24/7.
4. Philippians 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
