Colossians 3:14

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.

Robert Browning, the poet, wrote: “Take away love and our earth is a tomb.” It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of love. It isn’t merely one more excellent virtue which we need to acquire – it’s essential because without it no family, organisation or church can thrive. Paul encouraged his readers to put on the clothing of love, and just like any other clothing, we need to head into each day ensuring that it is in place.

The Greek word for love in this verse is ‘agape’. This is the love you have for people regardless of how they feel about you. It’s the kind of love which just can’t stop loving. It’s so committed to loving that it doesn’t give up when the going gets tough and the opposition is fierce. It is, of course, the kind of love that God first showed to us. When John wrote his first letter, he pointed to Jesus as being the supreme expression of God’s love.

Unfortunately, the word love easily gets confused with other words, such as [itals]like[end itals]. But the truth is that we are called to love people whether we like them or not. To love is our God-given duty. The Bible makes it plain that the way of love is always God’s way and is a path of incredible blessing. At times, it will be agonisingly difficult to love, but as we do so, we are displaying the nature of God.

The only way to truly understand agape love is to look at the cross of Jesus. The only possible explanation of Jesus’ death is love. He didn’t have to go that way, but he chose to. If love was that costly for him, we shouldn’t be surprised that we will often have a price to pay as well. Love isn’t ever an easy path, but it is always the right one and the best one, so let’s clothe ourselves in God’s love today.

Question

What will it mean for you to show agape love to people today?

Prayer

Lord God, thank you that you have shown me what love really means. Fill me with your Spirit so that I may share your love with others today. Amen

Colossians 3:13

Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

Any happy and harmonious community relies upon forgiveness. It isn’t an optional extra but an absolute necessity. However, it is also incredibly hard work, so we need to reflect very carefully upon it.

We step on one another’s toes very easily. We often do it without meaning to, in complete innocence. We say or do things that we think are obviously right, but which cause hurt and unhappiness to others. And, by the same token, people step on our toes and hurt us unintentionally. The only way of coping with this inevitable part of community life is to forgive. God calls us to live with an attitude of forgiveness that graciously and lovingly moves on from the hurt without drawing attention to it.

It is relatively easy to forgive those who unintentionally hurt you, but what do you do when someone has deliberately gone out of their way to cause you harm? Surely justice demands that you settle the score with them and get your own back. However, God calls us to forgive them, and that’s incredibly tough. Indeed, it’s so tough that the only way we will be able to do it is by recalling that this is exactly how God has treated us. Through our thoughts, words and actions, we have sinned against God. There is absolutely no reason why he should forgive us, but that is what he has chosen to do.

Jesus made it plain that God loves to give his forgiveness to us, but it is conditional: we must be willing to pass it on to others. This sounds easy enough until we need to forgive someone who has wronged us. That can be a difficult journey, but it is God’s loving way for all of us.

Question

When did you last need to forgive someone, and what did you learn from the experience?

Prayer

Loving God, thank you for your gift of forgiveness to me. Help me to be more generous in sharing your forgiveness with those who offend me. Amen

Colossians 3:11

In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

Every society is full of divisions, but Paul’s world was sharply and deeply divided far beyond anything we know today. The biggest divide of all was between Jew and Gentile. Jews were the chosen people and Gentiles were the outsiders. The Jews would pray a daily prayer thanking God that they were not Gentiles. There was deep suspicion, and even hatred, between Jews and Gentiles and it focused on male circumcision, which was the physical evidence of the distinction. Meanwhile, Greeks looked down on anyone who didn’t speak Greek, and there was a massive difference between those who were slaves and those who were free. In ancient law, slaves were not even classified as human beings. They were simply possessions or living tools with no rights of their own. A master could thrash, maim or even kill his slaves as he chose. However, in Christ, a revolution had taken place, and all of those human divisions had come crashing to the ground.

Of course, deep human divisions still exist. Our education, wealth, age, ethnicity and many other factors make us very different from one another, and that will always be the case, but the walls of separation fall down the moment we commit ourselves to Christ. Our identity in him is far more important than any human distinction.

I always enjoy worshipping God in church and looking around me at the diverse people who have gathered together. I often reflect that there is nothing that would ever bring these people together in one place, other than Christ. Humanly speaking, we are very different from one another, but in Christ, all of that has changed. He is alive in each of us, and that is the closest bond that you could ever have with another person.

Question

In what ways have you seen human divisions crumble between Christians?

Prayer

Loving God, I praise you for the unity that you have given us in Christ. Help me never to allow human distinctions to get in the way of Christian fellowship. Amen

Colossians 3:10

Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.

I wonder what your goals are for your life. Perhaps they focus on your family, your job or your sport. You may want to become better at what you do and more fulfilled in your life. In this verse we hear what God’s aim is for our lives, and isn’t it amazing? His aim is that we should become like him. Wow! He, the creator of the world, wants us to resemble him.

In Genesis 1:27, we read that God made us in his image. From the very beginning, humankind had a resemblance to God, but sadly, through sin, that image became distorted. However, through our relationship with Christ, God wants to restore his image in us. I am sure we are all aware of our shortcomings, so the thought of resembling God sounds incredible, but that is precisely what God wants for our lives.

Clearly, we are never going to resemble God through our own effort. The only way it can happen is through us letting the Holy Spirit take over. We are totally dependent on him renewing us day by day. It is as we allow his Spirit to renew us that we will be able to put on our new nature and look more and more like God.

Renewal is the basis of our human lives. Our bodies are in a constant state of regeneration – our skin renews itself every 28 to 42 days. The older we get, the slower the process, but renewal is the basis of our physical health. Our red blood cells only last about four months, and every second our bodies produce two million new ones. Just as we trust God to renew our bodies, we can be confident that, when we let him, he will renew our spiritual lives as well.

Question

In what ways is God renewing your spiritual life at present?

Prayer

Loving God, thank you that today you are seeking to renew me in body, mind and spirit. Amen

Colossians 3:2-3

Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.

Paul’s message was a matter of life and death. In the previous chapter, he referred to baptism as being an act of burial (Colossians 2:12). Through baptism, one life comes to an end and another one, focused on Christ, begins. That’s why Paul encouraged his readers to make sure their primary focus was on heaven and not on the things of earth. Many of us know the description of someone being ‘so heavenly-minded that they are of no earthly use’. Paul would absolutely disagree with that, believing that the person who was focused on heaven would be of the greatest possible use on earth.

Paul had a very clear idea of the dangers of allowing our earthly, sinful nature to be in the driving seat. He told his readers to put to death sexual immorality, impurity, lust and evil desires, and warned them against greed. He observed that a greedy person was an idolater, worshipping the things of this world. He knew that a life that was totally focused on earthly things was bound to end in disaster and told his readers to strip off their old sinful nature. They needed to put on new clothing, the things that flowed from a life that was renewed in Christ.

Paul specified the new clothing that Christians need to put on. They are the qualities which flow from the heart of God: tender-hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Colossians 3:12). When we live that kind of life, the world around us will be blessed. Indeed, people will be touched by heaven itself.

Question

Would you describe yourself as heavenly-minded or earthly-minded?

Prayer

Loving God, thank you that you have made it possible for me to live a new life in Christ. Amen

Colossians 2:16-17

Don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.

Throughout history, religious people have been famous for their rules and regulations. We see it particularly clearly with the Pharisees of Jesus’ time. They lived meticulously according not only to the law of Moses but also to layers of other regulations which had been introduced by the rabbis. It isn’t surprising that in the early Church, one of the greatest challenges came from those who wanted to impose complicated regulations upon the new Christians. These came from many places, particularly from the Gnostics, whose religion was built upon complicated rules about eating and drinking and the observance of special days.

Paul was not saying that all rules were bad. A well-ordered family, church or society will only work smoothly if there are rules. Paul’s concern was that people would never find forgiveness and salvation through them. The message of so many religions is that you will achieve liberty and harmony by following a certain number of regulations, but Paul decisively rejected this. Rules are not necessarily bad, but at their best they will only ever be shadows of reality. They will never set us free, because only Jesus can do that.

We all live our lives according to certain rules. They may have come from other people, or we may have devised them because they work well for us. But we must never believe our rules and the way in which we live will earn favour with God. The rules may be helpful but they cannot save us. Only Christ can do that, so we need to keep our eyes fixed on him.

Question

In what ways have you found rules helpful in your Christian life, and in what ways have they been a problem?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, I thank you that life is found in you and in you alone. Amen

Colossians 2:14-15

[Christ] cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

The cross stood right at the centre of Paul’s understanding of the good news. Put simply, if you want to understand Jesus, you have to see him through the lens of the cross. John Stott, in his book [itals]The Cross of Christ[end itals], summed this up when he wrote: “There is then, it is safe to say, no Christianity without the cross. If the cross is not central to our religion, ours is not the religion of Jesus.” For this reason, Paul focused his preaching on the cross even though he was fully aware that the message didn’t always go down well. Jews found it a stumbling block because the law of Moses declared that anyone who hung from a tree was cursed. Meanwhile, non-Jews just found the idea of someone dying on a cross completely foolish. How could anyone find anything commendable in the brutal death of a good man? However, Paul wasn’t fazed by these reactions because he had discovered that the word of the cross was both the power of God and the wisdom of God.

It is always challenging and tough to think about the cross. None of us can fully imagine the intense pain that Jesus had to endure. Even if we have experienced severe pain, none of us has known the agony of being cut off from God. What we do know is that no one will suffer for another person unless they love them intensely. So, as often as we reflect on the awful pain of Jesus’ death, we need to realise that we are staring at love in its purest form. As John Stott wrote: “If we are looking for a definition of love, we should look not in a dictionary, but at the cross.”

If you ever feel unloved or unlovely, the very best thing you can do is look at the cross. What more could anyone do for you?

Question

What’s your reaction to the fact that Jesus died on the cross for your sins?

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, thank you that you were willing to give your life so that I can be free. Amen

Colossians 2:8-9

Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.

Paul didn’t believe in beating around the bush! He was so convinced that Christ was the complete answer to the human predicament that he saw every other philosophy as a waste of time. That didn’t mean he was unwilling to spend time listening to people with other beliefs. He simply didn’t believe that they had anything to offer when compared with Christ. When Paul visited Athens, he spent a great deal of time speaking with the philosophers and gladly accepted an invitation to address the Areopagus, which was the forum where the Greeks held debates. He sensitively referred to their own poets and thinkers, but his focus was always to proclaim Christ.

It is the fact that Jesus was both fully man and fully God which marks him apart from other great teachers. I love the words of Victor Hugo, the French novelist and poet, who stated: “Pythagoras, Epicurus, Socrates, Plato, these are the torches of the world; Christ is the light of day.” Great thinkers and philosophers have contributed insight and wisdom through the ages, but they pale into insignificance alongside the Light of the world. We live in a society which wants to suggest that every philosophy and religion is of equal significance, but Paul would robustly disagree. Only of Jesus can it be said that the fullness of God dwelt in him. He alone can be described as “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6).

Everyone should be able to believe what they want, and it is our Christian duty to protect their right to do so. At the same time, I believe we are called to be faithful to the truth that we have received. Jesus came to bring life to the world, and we need to seize every opportunity to share this good news with the people we meet.

Question

How do you respond when you are faced with false philosophies?

Prayer

Lord God, keep me strong when I face up to people who reject your truth. May I always be both clear and gracious when I disagree with others. Amen

Colossians 1:22-23

You are holy and blameless as you stand before [Christ] without a single fault. But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News.

What Christ has done for us is absolutely amazing. Failed and sinful as we are, he has totally forgiven us and made us right with God. He has made it possible for us to stand before him, holy and blameless and without fault. But that doesn’t mean we can now take it easy and do what we want. We need to stand firm in our faith and ensure we don’t slip away from the truth.

In my experience, very few people who drift away from Christian faith do so because they suddenly disbelieve it. What normally happens is that they become distracted and busy with other things. Gradually, their work, family, sport or hobby claims their attention and they find it inconvenient to attend worship. Sometimes they move house and find it difficult to find another church in which they feel at home, or their children join a sports team on a Sunday morning and they find it impossible to get to church. They simply drift. At first, they are conscious that they are drifting, but after a while, their minds move on and they totally forget about their faith. This can happen surprisingly quickly, so we all need to be alert to the need to maintain strong and helpful rhythms in our Christian lives.

God has given us the gift of a weekly Sabbath, which is an opportunity to refocus our lives on him. We all need the refreshment and renewal of that day, but we cannot wait the whole week for God’s blessing. Amid the busyness of our lives, we need to ensure that each day we find opportunities to praise God and listen to him. The way that you find this refreshment may differ from other people, but making time to meet with God and allowing him to bless and equip you for the challenges of life is essential. Drifting away is so serious that we need to ensure we do everything possible to avoid it happening.

Question

What are you doing to ensure that you don’t drift away from your faith in Christ?

Prayer

Loving God, help me to stay close to you throughout this and every day. Amen

Colossians 1:15

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation.

Most people have good things to say about Jesus. They like that he welcomed every kind of person; they admire that he was willing to stand up to the religious rulers of his time; they enjoy that he told compelling, down-to-earth stories and went out of his way to get alongside people; and they value how full of love he was. The apostle Paul, however, goes far beyond these kind comments. For Paul, Jesus showed the world exactly what God was like. Just as we can look at a coin and see what the sovereign looks like, so too by looking at Jesus we can see precisely what God is like.

We don’t know exactly what Paul’s opponents were teaching, but it seems to have been a combination of Jewish and Greek thought. Paul’s answer was to give them the most magnificent and clear description of Jesus: he is not only the one who existed before anything was created, but is now the one who holds all creation together. Jesus is intimately involved in our world right now, and is the head of the Church, the community of people who love him.

In every age there are people who will attack Christian teaching, and we shouldn’t be surprised that many people seek to challenge us today. It is always good to engage in conversation with our opponents. We need to do so graciously, clearly and thoughtfully, but our supreme task is not so much to win arguments as to point to Jesus. We are most likely to bless people by helping them to see how magnificent Jesus is, and to share with them how he has transformed and blessed our lives.

Question

In what way would you speak about Jesus to someone who felt that he was merely a really good man?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, I worship you because you are supreme over all creation. Thank you for loving me and for giving me new life. Amen