September 7, 2003 Communion Dedication - Baldwin Christian Church

Colossians 3:5-11

Lots of people write lots of spiritual self-help books from a Biblical perspective, but the best ones are found in the Bible itself. This chapter is one of the very best every-day guides to Christian living, and it continues through verse six of chapter four. Thanks to Jesus, our true life and treasure are hidden with Him in heaven. Paul began chapter three pleading with us to set our hearts and minds toward things above, considering ourselves as spiritual beings, dead to the temptations down here on the earth.

5. Mortify therefore your members (any part of you that causes you to sin) which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
6. For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
7. In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
8. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
9. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

(man = anthropos: generic term for humans, whether male or female) (his = autos: he, she, it)

10. And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
11. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

These verses are very difficult to hear. They're like hearing charges being read against us, and indeed they are. Paul wouldn't be telling the little church at Colosse (and he wouldn't be telling us) to "mortify our members which are upon the earth" and "put away all of these" things if we'd already done so completely! For Jesus' sake, and for the sake of our state of grace, it's essential that we be compelled by these words in verses 5,8 and 9, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and no man knows the day and hour of His return (Matt 24:36).

Whether we'd admit to it or not, and whether we know it or not, these things are in each and every one of us. I suspect that if you're like me, at some point during this passage you probably became distracted, and some of you may have thought of someone you know (other than yourself) that fits the description of these charges, or perhaps you did feel convicted by one or more of them, but your mind then began racing to find excuses for this sort of behavior. Even worse, you might feel convicted, but the finger in your mind begins pointing the blame toward other people, onto your surroundings, or even onto the God who "made you this way." These are difficult verses to hear, but they're good for communion scripture.

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a football game at the University of Arkansas. It was a lovely evening with perfect temperatures, the sweet savour of barbecued delicacies permeating the air, and a huge crowd all dressed in red to root on "the Hogs." During the game there were many good plays (most of them went in favor of the home team), but one play really sticks out in my mind. One of the tallest players on the field also happened to be one of the fastest, and he also happens to be a quarterback for Arkansas. Near the end of the first half, he was running toward the sideline on an option play at about the fifty-yard-line when he decided to keep the ball and make the turn upfield. Several defenders were closing in on him quickly, but he split the gap between them, and suddenly he was in the clear with fifty yards of nothing but green in front of him. His first two or three strides upfield looked pretty fast, but when he split through those tacklers and saw a clear path to the goal line, it seemed like a huge weight was instantly lifted off of him. He kicked in a burst of speed that put everyone else on the field to shame, and with those giant, funny looking strides of his, he sprinted all the way downfield untouched, across the goal line. I know you've all seen something like what I'm talking about. Whether it be a long distance runner that breaks out in front of the pack with a sudden burst of energy and keeps pulling away, or the same thing near the end of a horse race, or even if it's just the surprising bursts of speed you sometimes see at the dinner table after someone finally says "Amen."

As we run toward our ultimate goal line, sometimes we forget that it's the Holy Spirit that "quickens" us (John 6:63, Rom 8:11, Eph 2:1, Col 2:13, etc) by lifting the burden of sin that condemned us to death, and we sometimes get apathetic toward the dangerous hooks and barbs with weights attached; the weights in verses 5, 8 and 9. Should we ever feel sluggish, weary or frustrated as we run this race, remember that this spiritual self-help book was inspired by the same One who takes away our burdens and "quickens" us unto eternal life.