For the rest of us, we are continuing this morning in our series in Colossians. We are in Colossians 3 looking at verse 12. So if you want to turn with me, it should be on the screen as well if you don't have your Bible. If you do have your Bible, I always encourage you, don't look at the screen. Look at that personal Word of God in front of you. The Word of God that we want you to be familiar with. You know, when you have your own Bible, you know you're familiar with it when it's like you can say Colossians 3 and you know when you open it, where Colossians 3 is going to fall on the page. We want you to have that sort of familiarity with your Bible. So if you've got your Bible, look there. Colossians 3 starting at verse 12.
Hear God's holy and authoritative word. Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. The word of the Lord.
May he write its truth upon our hearts. You bow your heads with me. Lord, we want to live in the goodness of Colossians 3:16 this morning. We want the word of Christ to dwell in our hearts. We want it to take up residence in our hearts. That's why we are gathered here under your word, to hear the preaching of your word. And so we ask now Father, send Your Spirit. Quicken hearts. Enliven hearts. Strengthen hearts. Let the Word of Christ take up residence. Let it change Your people. Help us to see Your Son. It's in His name that we pray. Amen.
Well, going back as a quick way of review, when Colossians 3 opened up, we looked at this probably 3 weeks ago now, Paul called upon readers to lift their gaze and to take up a heavenly perspective on life. That's a view Paul shows us that flows naturally out of the new identity that people have when they become Christians. This new identity that happens when someone finds they have union with Christ, when they've been united to Christ. We're not just called to a vaguely heavenly perspective though. Paul starts fleshing out the details of what it looks like to set your mind on Christ. Paul calls us to a holy lifestyle. To holiness that matches our new identity.
Now last week we saw he begins with negative examples, right? He begins with the negative side of his argument. He started out by saying, 'Raise your gaze, set your mind on Christ,' and then a litany of things to put to death. Everything in our lives that would fail to match our union with Christ. It would be out of step with the new identity. He listed the vices and sins that had to be put off in his language to live in step with the Gospel.
Now this morning, we turn from the negative to the positive side. Paul sees that as we turn there, those who are in Christ are called to put things off. Likewise, they are called to put things on. To put on virtues. He's still on the same topic. It's still the topic of holiness. He's still considering how do we bring our lifestyles in line with the miraculous way the Gospel has changed us? How do you walk in step with the Gospel? How do you walk in light of what you have become in union with Christ.
6 · Asserts that holiness involves both putting off sin and putting on virtue — countering the common reduction of holiness to merely battling the negative
But it's so helpful to be reminded of the positive side of holiness. Isn't that a helpful exhortation? If we aren't careful, it can become really easy to imagine the notion of holiness and sanctification exhaustively as a battle against the negative, right? Have you ever felt that temptation? Now to be holy, we must kill sin. We must put it to death as we saw in last week's passage. That's the call that still remains, but that's not all we're called to do. For every sinful habit, every ungodly thought pattern that we put off, Paul this morning reminds us that holiness also calls us to put on corresponding virtues. For every put-off, there's a put-on.
7 · Defines the positive vision of holiness: Christlikeness is not merely negative avoidance but positive, joyful obedience that pursues satisfaction in God, grounded in God's loving character
Here's why. Looking like Jesus, the end goal of holiness, isn't about just not sinning. Looking like Jesus isn't about just stopping sinful behavior. Christlikeness isn't just about not doing bad things. And it's certainly not just a curmudgeonly lifestyle. That's not what the holy person, the person consumed with holiness, your image of that shouldn't be a curmudgeon. That's not what Paul has in mind. It's not a mindset dominated by all the things you can't do. No, the call to holiness is to live fully and joyfully for God in Christ. Yes, a call to put off disobedience, but also a call to put on obedience. And here's the good news: because God is loving, because he is wise, because he's sovereign and good, everything, every single sin he calls us to avoid, every single virtue he calls us to pursue, is ultimately for our joy. Holiness is not about being curmudgeonly. Holiness is about pursuing hard after satisfaction and joy. There's no greater satisfaction to be found in the universe than by the grace of God to be both found in Christ and pursuing with all our might the calling to look like Christ.
8 · Brief transition from introduction into the body of the exposition
So with that in mind, let's dig in.
9 · Outlines the first major movement: before listing virtues, Paul roots the command in identity — believers are to put on virtues *as* God's chosen, holy, and beloved people
The first thing Paul shows us in our text, verses 12-17, is the call to live. To live in light of the Gospel. To walk in step with the Gospel. Namely here, to live as chosen people. Paul begins by calling us to put on virtues in a specific way. Put on these virtues— before he gets to the list of virtues, he has a little aside. Put on virtues as God's chosen ones. As those who are holy. As those who are beloved.
10 · Unpacks how union with Christ creates a new corporate identity: believers are not only joined to Christ but also formed into one body drawn from diverse backgrounds
Before he calls us to put on, he reminds us of what we've already become. This new self identity that connects us to Christ. Through faith, we've been joined to Him. We've become His body. But we're not just His body. We become one body. The Gospel takes people from every imaginable ethnic, religious, and social background and gathers them together and forms them into a new community. That's what the Gospel does.
11 · Cites Colossians 3:11 to show how the gospel abolishes former ethnic, religious, and social distinctions, creating a new community with identity rooted in Christ alone
The end of our previous passage in v. 11, it says, 'Here in the Gospel, in the body of Christ, in the gathering of those united to Christ, there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian and Scythian, slave, free,' But Christ is all and in all. The old boundary markers are pushed aside. The Christian community transcends all the things that often divide the world. Pro-Russia, pro-Ukraine— nonsense in Christ. Whatever we were before, we've been changed. We now belong to the community of Christ with identities primarily bound up in Jesus. Not primarily bound up in your heritage or your language or your social status.
12 · Identifies the language of 'chosen, holy, beloved' as Old Testament language for Israel, now applied to the church to reveal that the church is the New Testament fulfillment of Israel
It's the community of God's chosen ones, Paul says. His holy, set-apart, and dearly loved people. It's language of the Old Testament. It's the way God would describe Israel in the Old Testament. Paul applies it to us because he wants us to see that the church, the body of Christ in the New Testament is the new Israel.
13 · Makes the doctrinal claim that sanctification is grounded in God's work in Christ, not in human effort — the foundation is union with Christ
So here's what that means. The foundation of our sanctification, what it's built on, it's rooted not first of all in us, in you or in me or our achievement of a holy lifestyle. It's grounded, it's rooted, it's built upon all that God has done in Christ. It's grounded in what God initiated in our union with Him.
14 · Contrasts two approaches to holiness: introspective, incremental self-measurement (exhausting and discouraging) versus Paul's wide-angle view of God's work in redemptive history (the proper starting point)
Paul's language is really helpful. If you're like me, you can be tempted to start conversations and measurements of holiness by getting way too introspective. I measure holiness by getting consumed about me and myself and where I'm at. I take a narrow, myopic view of my life and I try to measure progress incrementally, minute by minute and hour by hour and day by day. And it can get exhausting and it can get discouraging. Paul does the opposite. He steps back and he takes a wide-angle view. He takes a broad view. He calls us to begin our consideration of holiness by looking at the macrocosm of God's work in redemptive history.
15 · Explains how union with Christ empowers godliness: by recognizing that believers share in every dimension of Christ's work — death, resurrection, ascension, reign, and return
This, Paul says, is what enables individual believers to grow in godliness. Not by starting off obsessively viewing ourselves, but stepping back and considering our union with Christ. Considering all the points at which we've been united to Him. We share in His death. We share in His resurrection, His ascension, His heavenly reign, and one day His return. We share in all that Christ experiences and has and will inherit from the Father. It's a stunning, thing to consider. We've been enveloped by Christ into the body of Christ.
16 · Emphasizes the identity markers 'treasured,' 'chosen,' 'set apart,' and 'beloved' as the perspective that sustains long-term holiness
And so Paul says we are treasured. We're a chosen people, a chosen possession. We're set apart for his glory. We're specially loved. That's what that word beloved means. You are specially loved in the Son of God. It's keeping that perspective in mind that empowers long-term success in the pursuit of holiness.
17 · Signals the shift from identity to practice: the new identity must now be lived out through putting on virtues
Now, with that said, this new identity given in Christ, Paul also wants to be achieved in practice. Put it on. This is true of you. Now go live it out. Live in light of it.
18 · Reintroduces the 'put on' clothing metaphor from earlier in Colossians 3, emphasizing that putting on virtues is a communal act for the sake of the watching world
As His chosen, holy, and beloved people work to live this out in the context of the body. Live together, Paul envisions, as a chosen people. He picks up the clothing imagery we talked about last week from earlier in chapter 3. This urging of the newly formed community to put on virtues like you would put on a new shirt. Put on a new pair of pants. Put on a cloak. Put these things on for the display of the world that as you put them on, the world would see what the community of Christ looks like.
19 · Contrasts last week's toxic vices (anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, lying) with this week's essential virtues (compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience) — the virtues are the antidote to the vices
That whole list we looked at last week, those lists of things in verses 8 and 9 that were so toxic to community, these community-destroying sins enumerates there. Now, he really in a lot of ways gives us the antidotes, the antithesis to those things. He tells us, 'Don't merely put off anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, and lying.' It's not enough not to do those things. To be the body of Christ together, you have to put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Where the former is toxic to community, especially one that would resemble Christ, the new list is essential for it.
20 · Explains that the virtues Paul lists are not arbitrary but the specific character traits of Jesus, citing Romans 13:14 where Paul simply commands 'put on the Lord Jesus Christ' as a parallel
These things are essential because Paul isn't simply pulling random nice habits out of his hat for us to try on. That's not the image of the clothing store that you should have. Paul just randomly grabbing stuff off the rack and kind of throwing it. Try this on. Give this a try. That's not what's going on. The idea isn't that we've put off the old nasty garments of the flesh and now just walk into the store to pick out whatever we want. It's that we take off the rags of our old life and we step into Paul's custom tailor shop and we find that he's already laid out specific garments on the table. Specific garments He wants us to put on. He wants us to wear. Well, why these garments, Paul? Why these particular virtues? Why? Because these garments, these are the virtues of Jesus. That's really what Paul's listing here. Not an exhaustive list, but things essential to the character of Christ. In fact, in Romans 13, we see a similar discussion. He tells them, he tells the Romans, put to death, put off, and then he enumerates a list similar to the one here in Colossians. Put off all of these things. He's calling them to battle the flesh and its evil desires. And then he goes into the same put on language, but instead of listing The virtues, you know what Paul does? He goes shorthand. He says put off, he lists all the things, and then he simply says Romans 13:14, 'And put on the Lord Jesus Christ.'
21 · Unpacks each virtue individually, showing how each one mirrors Christ's character: kindness (gracious like Jesus), humility (the High King who became a servant), meekness (not puffed up though He is the eternal Word), patience (in His reactions to human weakness)
Why these garments, Paul? Because when you wear these, you will look like Jesus. Put on kindness. So that you will be gracious like Jesus. Put on humility and so be clothed in the self-giving, community-prioritizing mindset of the High King who became a servant. Clothe yourself in meekness, that gentle, refreshing mindset that isn't puffed up with a sense of your own importance. Even if you are the eternal Word of God. And then fill out that new look with patience. The Son of Man wasn't just kind in how he approached people. He's patient in his reactions. So when people bring him junk, he's patient. Patient in his reaction to our stubbornness and our hardheadedness and our slowness and all of our weaknesses.
22 · Pastoral aside: gentle, humorous reference to Peter's experience of Jesus' patience, inviting the congregation to reflect on their own experience of Christ's patience
There's probably a little footnote in the letter to the Colossians. If you're wondering about this patience one, go talk to Peter. He can fill you in on how great this garment looked on Jesus.
23 · Explains the meaning of 'compassionate hearts' — the Greek literally means 'from-the-bowels mercy,' signaling deep, heartfelt care that rises from within, not mere external performance
And of course, don't forget about compassion. Literally, it means the word— it's a call to a from-the-bowels mercy. From the bowels mercy. That's a weird kind of way of thinking about it, right? There's a reason why the ESV doesn't translate, 'And put on from the bowels mercy.' A lot of question marks pop up when you hear that. The idea is, don't put on just the facade of caring. In the ancient world, to talk about something being from the bowels, it means this is something that rises up from within you. It's in your gut that you feel this. You're not pretending to care. In your gut, in your bowels, You care.
24 · Connects the compassion command to Christ's incarnation: the Word became flesh to sympathize with us, embodying the heartfelt compassion believers are called to put on
And so the ESV says, 'Put on heartfelt compassion.' The heartfelt compassion of the Word becoming flesh so He could sympathize with us in the weakness of all our flesh.
25 · Transitions from the initial list of virtues (compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience) to the two that hold the outfit together: forbearance and forgiveness
Put on these garments, put on these virtues, because they are the garments and virtues of the Messiah. And then to pull this outfit together, Paul calls us over to the grounding graces of forbearance and forgiveness.
26 · Explains forbearance as 'put on so you can put up' — the ability to endure others' unintentional weaknesses and annoying habits with grace, as Jesus does
The forbearance is basically like, put on so you can put up. That's what forbearance is in a nutshell. You put it on so you can put up. Forbearance recognizes sometimes people are hard to deal with and they're not intentionally trying to be hard to deal with, but you're just, called to forbear with them in their weaknesses. In some guy telling a joke for the 80th time, forbear with him. Chuckle along. You can tell the punchline before he gets there, but just forbear with him. Forbear with that person and the habit that just really bugs you. It's just a bad habit. There's nothing inherently sinful. Just put on forbearance so you can put up with their weakness. Jesus would do it.
27 · Uses the analogy of a store mirror to set up the coming discussion of forgiveness: the virtues look great in the controlled environment, but life in the body gets messy
And then especially forgiveness. It's like he's saying, hey, your new garments look exceptional here in the store. You know, it's like you go to the mirror and I'm convinced these mirrors in the stores are intentionally distorted to make you look thinner in them because I swear I try it on in the store and it's like, this looks good, man. And I didn't gain 15 pounds in 2 hours no matter how much I ate when we went for supper. You get home and you're like, what on earth? Like, this doesn't look like it did at the store. That's sort of what's going on here. Paul's saying, hey, you're going to look exceptional in the store, not because I've got mirrors that are tricking you into this, but because you're going to go out there in the nitty-gritty of life. And life in the nitty-gritty amidst the body, It's gonna get messy.
28 · Personal story about getting his new shoes scuffed at basketball camp, illustrating how we interpret others' actions uncharitably and how life in community inevitably involves offenses
People are gonna step on your shoes. I remember I got this brand new pair of Charles Barkley sneakers. I convinced my mom to spend like $120 on these stupid shoes, and I thought they were so cool. And then in basketball camp that summer, a guy who would end up being my best man stepped on my foot. I mean, can you imagine during a game of basketball he stepped on my foot? I was convinced he had done it intentionally to ruin my new Barkleys because he was jealous of them! These shoes are so awesome, the only response he could have is to intentionally step on them and to mar them up. And I was mad and I told another buddy and he looked at me like, 'You are so dumb.' But we think that way when we get out amongst each other. But life gets messy. People are gonna scuff your shoes. They're gonna unintentionally snag your shirt. Sometimes on accident, other times because they're being boneheaded. Sometimes because they've willfully decided to put on old rags again.