Colossians 3:12-17 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.
Paul gives us four great challenges here in this passage:
1. Put on Kingdom attitudes.
Paul says here in verse 12 “Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” and he says in verse 14 that “Love will keep us together.” Well, something like that. What he is saying is that love has to be the motivating factor for every other virtue or character trait. Our love for God compels us to be compassionate and kind, humble and gentle and patient with people. I mean, haven’t we all be on the receiving end of those things from God? We have all needed those things from God. We have all benefited from experiencing those things. I know I have. Because I know how good it feels to receive those things, I should have a desire to share those same opportunities with those who haven’t. Here’s what I know from personal experience: You can’t grow as a person without compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience being demonstrated toward you. If we want people to “get there” with Jesus, if we want people to follow after Him and to grow in His likeness, they can’t do it without experiencing the attitudes that enable them to be a work in progress.
2. Put up with each other.
We live in a society that is quick to discard people. We have talked about how the lack of concern for life in our culture plays into devaluing life and people in general. Relationships are easily tossed. People will casually, without looking back, de-friend you on social media. They can hear a political comment or read a post that they don’t like on Facebook and decide to discontinue not only a relationship with that person, but leave a church over those kinds of matters. Where is the Christian witness in any of that? What about the person who just rubs you the wrong way? You don’t have to invite them to your home for a meal and buy a Christmas gift for them, but could you get along when the opportunity presents itself? Does there have to be a cold shoulder? Do you have to come up with an excuse not to attend the event so that you don’t have to “deal” with someone?
I’m not talking about people that are harmful to you. I’m also not talking about being soft on or tolerating sin. But I think we have become quick to decide that because someone challenges us or doesn’t think like us or is different from us or whose personality is one we think is “quirky” or when we think someone is drama and just wears us out, we think we will just keep our distance…when we make those decisions, often we are missing out on some relationships that would be good for us and good for them if we would risk hanging in there.
3. Put offenses behind you.
There is nothing positive about un-forgiveness. Un-forgiveness chains you to the hurt and pain. It will raise your blood pressure. It will lead you to gossip and tear people down. It will cause you to miss out on events that you really want to attend. It will cause division between you and people you aren’t even mad at. If I could find one helpful or holy thing to say about un-forgiveness, I would try to help you out, but I can’t.
I think Paul is telling us that we need to be as generous with people as God has been with us. God acted in forgiveness toward us first. God, through Jesus, reached out to us when we didn’t deserve it, when we weren’t even open to receiving Him. You may find yourself offering forgiveness to someone who tells you they don’t need your forgiveness or want your forgiveness or that they don’t care that you are offering it because they want nothing to do with you. That’s OK. It will put you in good company. You will be like Jesus.
4. Put life-giving things in front of you. “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.” I would say that the Word of God and the Worship of God are life-giving. The Word of God will fill our minds with the right things, and the worship of God will keep our minds in the right place.
Paul concludes this passage this way: Colossians 3:17-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.
When you put on Kingdom attitudes you are doing it to become like Jesus. When you put up with some people and put offenses behind you, you are doing it in order to share the generosity of Jesus and to make sure that nothing gets in the way of you becoming like Him or honoring Him with your life. When you spend time in the Word and Worship, you are choosing to leave the things of this world and to engage with the words and ways of Heaven.
Whatever you do, make sure it represents the Lord Jesus and brings glory to His name.
