Two weeks ago I read a list of character qualities in Colossians chapter 3

Although it seems like Paul rattles them off,
- each one requires years of devoted practice to embody them fully
• I said then, it would be good for us to meditate on the qualities in that list
• I realize it would be very good for me – and we’ll start today
- so why are we in Matthew this morning and not Colossians?
• because Paul frames the list within a specific context
◦ before the character qualities, he produced a list of vices
◦ regarding those vices, Paul says,
now you must put them all away . . . seeing you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator (Col. 3:5-10)
◦ then he begins the list of virtues with,
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved . . . (v. 12)
◦ the context, then, has to do with this allusion to putting off and putting on