Colossians 3:11-17: No Distinctions or Favorites

Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 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. 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.

Introduction: God’s Bold New Venture
The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence contains this phrase: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

But is that true? Is it really true that “all men are created equal”? I would argue that it is clearly not true. Pick a category: color, size, brains, agility, background, genetics or personality—we are not the same; we are not equal; we are different. Dave Babb and I are different. Einstein and I are different. Peyton Manning and Tiger Woods and I are different. Helen and I are different. Pick any means of categorizing and classifying and measuring and you and I will not turn out the same. In fact, we depend on the fact that, whether by fingerprints or DNA or dental records or passwords, we can be told apart.

So, in what sense are we created equal? If it can’t be measured, is it real? Maybe it can be measured, if you are God. What criteria does God use? It is in the next phrase that the authors of the Declaration express a profound theological truth: “that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” Stop and think about this for a minute: are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness stamped on my forehead? Are they built into my DNA, tied into one of the 46 gene pairs? No! The founders felt those rights were unalienable because God endowed us and enforces them. Equality is relational.

Paul uses a similar idea as we pick up the thread of his argument in the middle of Colossians, chapter 3.

Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. – Colossians 3:11

At the end of chapter 2, we talked about boundary markers, which we defined as: “the highly visible, relatively superficial practices that allow people to distinguish who was inside and who was outside the family of God.” There were whole lists of things which people have used and still use to determine whether someone is in or out. We are categorizers and classifiers and labelers. We use these labels as a sort of short-cut to determine how we should deal with people. When we first meet, we size each other up to determine which folder we should file someone away in: “loser” or “leech” or “stuck-up” or “know-it-all” or “sleeze” or “nice” or “helpful” or “worrying” Not only do these help us organize other people, they also help us define our own identity.

When Paul says that these are unimportant, he is setting up an identity crisis. How can he say that all of these types of people are the same? How can Jews be considered the same as non-Jews? How can Greeks be equal to barbarians? How can slaves be worth as much as free men? The boundary lines have been erased because Christ, who lives in each believer, is equally available to you, regardless of your background. What distinguishes us now is not our skin color or our strange clothing or our language, but our relationship with God. “Christ is all, and is in all.” (vs. 11)

The next six verses hold four key guidelines, based on this one thought:

1. Choose What God Has Chosen
2. Forgive As God Has Forgiven
3. Unite As You Were United
4. Teach As You Have Been Taught

Choose What God Has Chosen
Paul says:

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. – Colossians 3:12

Here are two key observations:

1. God makes us equal because we are equally chosen. We don’t know what God’s criteria are for choosing, he never tells us. But the Bible is clear that if our standards are higher than his, we are in the wrong. Steven Colbert, a TV talk-show comedian, was interviewing the dean from a prestigious Christian college back east. Steven asked the dean, “I understand that in order to get into your college, you have to profess a saving faith in Jesus Christ.” “That’s right,” the dean answered. “And yet you also have certain academic requirements for admission, such as GPA or test scores.” “Yes” “So you’re telling me it is harder to get into your school that it is to get into heaven?” Laughter. “Yes, I guess so.”
2. We have trouble remembering that we are equally chosen. Why is this verse in the Bible? Certainly not as a pat on the back! We find it easy to not only divide, but be divided. We are easily annoyed, offended, put off, insulted, snubbed and hurt by other believers.

God wants us to choose what he has chosen. We are his chosen people. He picked us out. But just look who he put together. Are our standards higher than God’s?

I remember my sister telling me a few weeks ago about their son Jason, who was just learning how to pull himself up on things. You know the stage where curiosity gets them off the ground and that strong grip helps them leverage themselves. But once he got up, he didn’t know how to get down again. So he would stand there, paralyzed, unable to go anywhere, as his little legs got more and more tired and then he would cry for momma or daddy to come and rescue him. The first several times, my sister did it, but she realized that he needed to learn how to fall down. So the next times, when he pulled himself up, she let him grow so tired so that eventually, he had to fall. And it was a safe landing and that allowed him to be even more daring the next time.

The church is a sort of training ground; a place full of real, quirky and annoying people. But it is also, God willing, a place full of grace and mercy, sort of bumper guards so that we can grown up. It’s a place to try out new things. That’s why Paul tells us to “clothe” ourselves with compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience. Try them on. See how they look. They aren’t our normal clothes. But they are the clothes we will wear for eternity. And the people of the church are the people we will spend eternity with.

It is easy, in California, to just pick up and leave a church you don’t like and go somewhere else. And I can’t say I am immune, since that is how Helen and I came to El Dorado Hills. But God has taught me so much here by working through really tough times with people and I can feel God working off the rough edges.

Forgive As God Has Forgiven
God holds no grudges against you. You need to give up on grudges also.

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. – Colossians 3:13-14

So what does legitimately divide us, in the church? Sin. I have been in churches where there have been issues between families that have gone back 10 or 20 years; where so-and-so was jealous of the attention that her husband gave to such-and-such and froze out that woman forever. I have also seen remarkable instances of forgiveness in this very church; where families have gone through incredible hardships at the hands of another have made it through. The difference is spelled forgiveness.

Unite As You Were United
In order for a church to move forward, it needs to be working together. Working together with Christ, the head and working together with each other. You only have to look at a 2 year old trying to walk one direction when his mother calls from behind. His head swivels back to make eye contact with Mom, but his body continues the other direction. Various limbs windmill in an attempt to balance before there is a stumble and a fall.

The only difference between “unite” and “untie” is an “I” out of place. Why? Because unite is an active verb. Why? Because unite is a verb which requires the cooperation of more than one person. The motion of your fingers requires a coordination of muscles that pull in different directions. Entire systems work together to process our food, or deliver food or process sight. Paul says:

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

Notice it doesn’t say “let the peace of Christ rule in your heart” Working together is just that…work. This is another case of where our situation and our behavior don’t seem to match. We belong to the body of Christ. But we act like we are an independent agent.

If you have been deeply involved in a church, you have known frustration. There are always a thousand things undone; things done poorly; decisions foolishly made. That’s the church. And we haven’t even touched on the messes people make in their personal lives. And it can be the most difficult thing in the world to “let the peace of Christ” rule in my heart. It requires an act of surrender.

I have put together a list of four counterfeits to the peace of Christ that I have seen. Maybe you have seen others, or different versions of these:

1. Snipe From The Sidelines. You don’t like the way things are going? Sit on the sidelines and make snide comments. It is easy to be witty and funny at someone else’s expense. This one goes with with second-guessing, instant-replay and mistake magnification.
2. Death by a Thousand Details. Keep asking questions and bring up all the possible things that could go wrong. When those are answered, ask more and do nothing until all are answered; until we have “a peace” about it.
3. Kingdom of Tim. This counterfeit has the motto: “As for me and my ministry, we will serve Tim.” And if I don’t like it, I won’t cooperate. I may outwardly agree to participate (to avoid a firestorm), but will slow down until someone becomes so frustrated they eventually leave me out of the loop.
4. Better Left Unsettled. This counterfeit avoids all contact with the other person, rather than be upset.

How many times I have had to relinquish ownership of Cornerstone Christian Church and its problems and give ownership back to God? I am not the salvation of the church or the ministry. I won’t sabotage someone else. I am not indispensable.

Teach As You Have Been Taught
We are all equal. Part of that is that we all being tutored by God and he, in turn, is using us to tutor others. Here is what Paul said:

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.

Humility is the posture of learning. We all have something to learn. Helen always reminds me that other people have good ideas, too. And that’s true. Around this table and around this room is a wealth of experience and wisdom. But this verse teaches me two things:

1. Don’t hesitate to put what you have learned forward. The verse says as you teach. You are unique. Your experience is unparalleled in human history. God’s gospel comes differently to each person and works differently. Sometimes we are afraid that we have nothing special to say.
2. Filter what you have learned with the word of God. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. When you gold pan on the American River, you start with a pan full of dirt. Then you add some water and let it swish around and slop off the edge. What is left is the gold. Otherwise you end up like me: full of words without any real insight as to what is important.

Conclusion: I Don’t Have My Own Name

In the church, God has embarked on a new experiment. In the Old Testament, he took a people of similar ancestry, culture and language and chose them. But in the New Testament, he took people of every conceivable ancestry, culture and language and chose them. Much more ambitious, much more difficult. Nothing short of the Tower of Babel in reverse. At the Tower of Babel, God separated the peoples and confused the languages and then he chose Abraham to be a great nation. But now, through Jesus, he has drawn from everything he separated to create one nation.

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. – Revelation 7:9

What unites these people who are otherwise so different?

[To] Him who overcomes…I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. – Revelation 3:12

We share the name: the name of Jesus.

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. – Colossians 3:17

Are we prepared to live for his name?