Colossians 3:1-10: Priorities and Values

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.

You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Introduction: Getting A Little Perspective (vs. 1-2)
What if we lived like heaven exists? As we start chapter 3 of Colossians, that is the question that Paul asks: What if we really lived like heaven exists? What if we lived like we will live forever? What if we lived like what we do will matter for eternity? Would we do things differently?

The first 1½ chapters focused on theology: what we believe. The next ½ chapter focused on religion. Now the next chapter, chapter 3, focuses on the personal. Here, Paul lays out his guiding rule:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. – Colossians 2:1-2

We need a little long-term perspective.

Recently, in the Wall Street Journal, they noted that Google has started to cut back, not only on the amazing perks which included 3 free meals a day, but also on the culture which had focused on long-term projects, allowing engineers to spend 20% of their time on pet projects. Instead, with the introduction of a new CFO, Google was starting to rank projects based on near term profitability, leading some people to fear that they would be sucked into the quarter-to-quarter mentality which hurts visionary companies. Sometimes we settle for the day-to-day when the eternal is more rewarding.

We need a little God-sized perspective.

Sometimes we start to take our cues from what we see around us and the people we interact with. Instead of being active, we are reactive. Instead of take our cues from God and then working those out in the day-to-day, we try to do the dodge and weave. Instead of being bowlers, we are pinball machines.
Jesus said:

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. – Matthew 6:21

We follow what we value. We chase what we embrace. We pursue what we value. Paul said, back in chapter 1 of Colossians that our

…faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven. (Colossians 1:5a)

When something is really important to us, we re-direct our heart and our mind to protect it. When someone is really important to us, we adjust the trajectory of our lives to orbit that person. Since we are people of limited resources and energy, in order for us to say “Yes” to that person, we have to say “No” to other things.

Because my kids are important to me, I get up at 5:45 with them and sit with them at breakfast. Because I need sleep, that means I have to go to bed early. Because I go to bed early, I can’t have those late night hobbies or start my own company or whatever. In order to say “Yes” to my kids, some things get left behind and other things, like flute practice and Monopoly games and winter walks get added.

The same is true of God: when we value our savior, when we start taking our cues from heaven, some things should naturally get left behind and some things added.

So, what does it mean to say “Yes” to God? What are the practical implications of setting our minds and hearts on the things above?

Paul divides his answer into three pieces:

B.C. before Christ: You are not who you were.
A.D. in the years of our Lord: Don’t waste your time.
A.R. After his return: You are not who you will be.

You Are Not Who You Were (vs. 5, 7)
Our reconciliation with God the Father has introduced not only a change in our relationship with God but also a fundamental change in who we are. Sometimes the Bible describes this change as the death and re-birth (“born again”), sometimes as the new self, and sometimes as a new change of clothes. Whatever the picture used, these all reflect the radical reorganization of our self which begins when God planted his Spirit in us and which is demonstrated by the fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control.
But in coming alive to God, there are some things which ought to be dying:

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry…You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. – Colossians 3:5-7

There are three key ideas hidden here:

1. These sins are like zombies: better off dead, but with an annoying tendency to come back to life.

Ruthlessness is required. B.C. we spent our entire lives cultivating habits focused on ourselves. Starting from the time you were 2 years old, you actively worked to satisfy yourself, smile and throw tantrums to get what they want. Those habits are still there. Paul, talking about himself, says:

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. – Romans 7:18b-19

This is the discipline in disciple.

2. Willpower is not enough, but Christ is.

These sins are desires out of control. It doesn’t require a lot of insight to see the effects of the “I want” out of control, from the greed at the root of the financial system meltdown to the rise of crime and anti-social behavior. Nearly 1-in-100 Americans are currently in prison. But controlling those desires is not a matter of “getting my act together” Paul notes:

Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. – Colossians 2:23

We need to be transformed.

3. Desire is repackaged as deity.

Paul tags the word “greed” with the label “idolatry” Rejecting God as the object of worship, we fashion new things to worship out of our desires. Is it any wonder that so many mini-religions and cults throw sex and money into the mix? Paul commented “their God is their stomach.” (Philippians 3:19) You see, without God, all religions will degenerate into hedonism: seek pleasure and avoid pain. Even selfless giving tends to center around relieving pain (cancer walks) and giving pleasure (make-a-wish). Nothing against these. But they stem from a deep-seated feeling that all that’s left in life is padding our coffin.

Sometimes our lack of control is depressing. We find ourselves falling into the same trap, over and over again, and each time we fail, it becomes a heavier and heavier burden. Paul felt that keenly, both as one who felt his own failures B.C. (“for I am the worst of sinners”) and even A.D.:

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? – Romans 7:24

But balanced against his own failures, he saw the graciousness of God:

Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! – Romans 7:25

We are not who we were. God has a plan for us and we don’t have time to waste.

You Don’t Have Time To Waste (vs. 3, 6, 8, 9)
Twice in these verses, Paul emphasizes the “now” portion of our lives.

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. – Colossians 3:3

But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. – Colossians 3:8

If this life is all there is, or even if this life is all that really counts, then doing the right thing is a waste of time. All that is left is intelligent self-interest. So why do anything?

Why don’t we just “be happy”? In the ancient Greek epic, The Odyssey, Odysseus is trying to get home after the Trojan War. Along the way his ship finds the island of the Lotus Eaters. His scouting party eats the flowers of the plant and become blissfully happy, sleeping and no longer caring about going home. Odysseus needs to drag them back to the ship and tie them up so they won’t jump overboard.

So here’s the question: Did Odysseus do the right thing? Why stop them from being happy? In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s character Elizabeth says, “I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me.”[1] If the primary purpose in life is to make ourselves happy, then what’s wrong with drugging out in front of TV and letting the world go to hell?

Why did Odysseus do it? Cruel, cruel man. Because he was trying to return home! Long away from the his house, his wife and his now grown son, he longs to see them again. His purpose drives him on. He might be happy somewhere else, but he would not be home.

Likewise, God is calling us home. That home is not just a place, but it is also the culmination of God’s reform school for our character. Our life is “now” hidden with Christ. Our destiny has been redirected. Our home has been relocated from Planet Earth to heaven. Our purpose is no longer to fiddle our thumbs in the few years between birth and death.

…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. – Hebrews 12:1b

Like Odysseus going home, we have a purpose; a race. Life is not about comfort, it is about character. We are being conformed to the image of Christ. That is our destiny. What gets in the way? We already looked at how our desires and the habit of selfishness hinder us. But here, Paul lists out a few more items which entangle us: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language.

This list is not a list of desires gone wrong; this is a list of relationships gone wrong. What derails us? What sidetracks our spiritual lives? Many times it is the storm that surrounds people around us. Some of them are the people we love the most. Some of them are the people who control our circumstances. Whoever they are: they can pull us away from God and one of the main ways that happens is anger. Resentment over hurt that turns into a boiling pot of pus in side us, turning to rage and subtle acts of revenge and snide comments and swearing.

In a way, these damaged relationships become another form of idolatry. Our attention is diverted by our hurt until we forget what God put us here for. I don’t think God put us here to cut down others to size, to help them get what they deserve, to make them recognize their wrong towards us. In fact, that’s God’s job:

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. – Romans 12:19

God is calling you towards heaven, but heaven lies through this life. Your time is too important wasted in anger. You are not who you were B.C. Let these truly be A.D. :the years of our Lord”

You Are Not Who You Will Be (vs. 4)
I am not who I will be but thank God, I am not who I was. But what will we be A.R (after his return)?

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. – Colossians 3:4

The journey we are on will not be complete until Jesus returns. God’s kingdom be “on earth as it is in heaven” When that happens, we will share in Jesus’ glory because we also share in his life. We have died. The wages of sin are death. Jesus died and we died with him. But in his life, we also live and in his glory, we are also glorified. Paul says: For those he predestined, he all also called; and those he called; he also justified and those he justified; he also glorified. (Romans 8:30)

So, when Jesus succeeds, we succeed. He is our life. He is the head of our body. He is the elder brother in the family. When his reputation is enhanced; when he gets the credit, we all share in that glory. When he is shamed, we are all ashamed.

Remember Odysseus’ dilemma: happiness or purpose? Jesus answered this in the parable of the faithful servant. When the master returned, he found the good servant and he said:

'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' – Matthew 25:23b

His happiness is our happiness. God has not given up on the idea of Eden, as some misguided have assumed. [2] Eden still awaits, but it would never really be Eden unless we have been renovated into the character of God. Once lost, Eden will be restored, when we are restored.

We have been predestined to the image of His Son so that He may be the firstborn of many brothers.
You are not who you will be.

Conclusion: The Wardrobe
In the Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, it is the wardrobe which holds, not just the winter coats, but the possibility of a new world.

Paul concludes with these words:

…since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. – Colossians 3:9b-10

Those words ‘taken off’ and ‘put on’ are the words of clothing. we need a new wardrobe. Not a wardrobe of old habits and lies, but a new ones which opens up a world of possibilities.

I’m not one for changing clothes. If I get home from church and need to mow the lawn or trim a rose bush, I usually don’t notice the fact that I am wearing the same clothes. There is this peculiar green fringe which rings the bottom of each pant legs and stains my shoes. Bits of grass are stuck into my socks. Time to change my clothes!

I often take these short business trips where I work all day and then catch a late night flight home. I look pretty crumpled. I smell pretty terrible. My wife packs an extra shirt in my carry-on bag. Time to change my clothes!

It is not easy. My old, dead self, keeps wanting to return. It wants to focus on my pleasure, not my purpose. Left on my own, I would tend to slide off my real mission in life onto a shadow mission: one which makes my talents and abilities and experience and passion focus on myself. Time to change my clothes.

In Washington D.C. there is a beautiful hotel, the JW Marriott, that offered a $1 million “build-your-own-ball” package which overlooks Pennsylvania Avenue parade route for the Obama presidential inauguration. With, it you get 4 suites, 300 rooms and $200K worth of food and drink. Earl Stafford, the retired son of a Baptist minister, rented out the entire hotel for $1,000,000 so that he could invite “a cross-section of society – those who are distressed, those who are terminally ill, those who are socially and economically disadvantaged, those veterans who are wounded and served our country.” He intends to raise an additional $600K so that each guest can have tuxedos, breakfast and lunch that day.”The price tag was pretty stiff, but we felt that’s what the Lord would have us do.” [3]

Jesus told a similar story, but it was the story of a wedding feast. Many of the original guests sent their regrets, saying that they were too busy to come. So the groom sent the servants out to gather those who were willing to come; The wedding table was filled with the losers and the misfits and the also-rans. All who would be grateful, rather than disdainful. Then there is the interesting moment when Jesus throws a little twist in the story:

"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless. – Matthew 22:11-12

When I read this, something bothered me. How did the king pick out this one guest? It stuck in my brain. What did he mean, “how did you get in here without wedding clothes?” Which one of the losers, picked up from the streets had “wedding clothes” And then it dawned on me: they were given the new wedding clothes.

You can’t sneak in. God has invited you. We are the losers who have been granted new clothes so we can be with God at the wedding feast of the Lamb. Why stick with my B.C. habits when a more beautiful person has already been recreated underneath? Why stick with my B.C. lifestyle when a new lifestyle is granted? Take to change my clothes!

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[1] Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, pp. 358 as cited in Jane Austen, Claudia L. Johnson, University of Chicago Press, p. 84
[2] Charlie Peacock, The Secret of Time
[3] Virginian to give needy coveted spots at inauguration, Michael A Ruane, The Washington Post, December 3, 2008.