Colossians 3.5-11
Don't buy the lie. Be true to your (new) self.
Because we have died… we must now kill. (5-7)
Immorality - meaning any sexual activity outside of marriage.
Impurity - uncleanness in thought, word, or deeds.
Lust - illicit and/or uncontrolled sexual desire.
Greed - the desire to possess more and more things and to run roughshod over people in order to possess them. The haughty and ruthless belief that everything and everyone exists for one's own personal amusement, benefit, or pleasure. Greed is not just limited to stuff. It can also crave and collect people as conquests; never being satisfied and always lusting for more.
Greed elbows God away from the center of our lives as it seeks to captivate our hearts inch-by-inch. Money, sex, self-interest. Anything ahead of, or instead of, God… is idolatry.
Dead men tell no tales… nor say mean things. (8-9a)
Anger/wrath (or rage) - Think a single coin with two-sides. Anger being that chronic ticked-off feeling and rage referring to the sudden, passionate outburst of that chronic anger. Violence in the mind leads to violence with the mouth. Seething leads to shouting.
Malice - That disposition of heart that tempts and prompts us to cause verbal injury to other.
Slander - Those insulting, demeaning, defaming potshots and side-comments and/or direct assaults on a fellow Christians' character and reputation. Malicious gossip that is fueled by seething anger, unforgiveness, bitterness and – dare we say – hatred and revenge for a real or perceived wrong.
Obscene talk - Anger to the point of using obscenities? Sure. And ANY abusive language that is designed to cause harm… hurt.
Lying - We know big lies are bad. But so are little ones. Lies can, many times, reveal the fact that we do not truly trust our Sovereign and loving Lord. So, we lie in order to maintain control over a situation or a person. So we don't look bad in their eyes or be hurt by them.
Communication within the Christian community must pass the truth test. But it must do more than just that. Does it help or harm the listener? A lie, or the truth, that is motivated by sinful anger doesn't pass muster and we must get rid of it. Put it away. ALL of it.
Permanently positioned for a persistent process. (9b-11)
"The more we are like Him the more we understand Him" (Dawson Walker) and the more we "know Him" (1 John), the more we look, act, talk, and think like him.
No system of man-made do's and don'ts can earn or produce life. Nor can they kill off or control sin. And they certainly can't create and display the image of God.
It follows that new life cannot come as the "result of a successful, daily battle with temptation. Rather, the new life marks the starting point. Paul does not urge the Colossians to amend their lives for the better, to reform their ways, or to make minor modifications… One's whole nature must be exchanged, not just revamped." - David Garland.
Our new nature is a gift from God. We have already had a once-and-for-all radical, life-changing experience – conversion!! Death, burial and resurrection. We are hidden with Christ in God. God, by His Spirit, is in us. All because of what Christ accomplished on our behalf.
Paul tells them and God tells us: YOU ARE!!! NOW BECOME!!! Don't buy the lie. Be true to your (new) self.
