Colossians 3:12-17 – Putting on the new man

In the last passage, Paul told us to kill our old nature, to stop living the way non-Christians live. Here he begins to lay out the type of lifestyle a Christians should model. This is the result of the philosophy he taught in verses 1-4. This is what the Christians life should look like.

When he tells us to “Put on” this new lifestyle, we see that it is intentional. It is something we have to purpose to do. Living as Christ isn’t an accident.

Paul tells us we should live this way for three reasons; we have been chosen by God, set apart for his purposes, and loved by him.

To be “chosen by God” is to be one of the elect. I know this can be a contentious doctrine for some of you. But here it is, right at the foundation of Paul’s reasoning for living the Christian life. This is the same word translated “elect” in other places. It is used of Christ (being the Messiah), angles (the holy angles in opposition to fallen angles), and people (as the church). What does the Bible mean when it refers to people as elect, or chosen? Wayne Grudem defines it this way.

Election is an act of God before creation in which he chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of his sovereign good pleasure. ¹

Paul goes on to say that God’s elect are holy. To be holy means to sacred, pure, morally blameless. When applied to anything other than God himself, it means to be set aside for his service. This is what it means to be a ‘saint’. All Christians are saints. We are made pure by Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross, and set apart for God’s service. Our living differently from the world is not to be an effort at holiness, it is the result of the holiness imparted to us by Christ. Important difference!

And finally, Paul says we are “beloved”. Which means simply “dearly loved”. The ‘loved’ part is from the Greek word agapao (agape), which is one of the three words used in the New Testament that end up being translated into English as ‘love’.

This word is used throughout the NT. It is the word Jesus used when he said

If you love me, you will keep my commandments – John 14:15

It is the same word used in the oft quoted John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

It is used also when Jesus sums up the law to be love for God and our neighbors (Matthew 22:27-39), and when he commands us to love each other (John 13:34), and even when we are told to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44).

In English, the word love has mostly to do with how you feel. In Greek, agapao has to do mostly with how you behave. It is an action word. Christ loved us by dying in our place. We are to love God by dying to ourselves and serving him. We are to love the others by dying to ourselves and serving others.

So Paul says the reason to live the Christian life is because God graciously chose to redeem us from our sin and rebellion, in spite of our ill-worthiness (not just unworthy, but actually deserving the opposite of what we got); he purified us and set us apart to serve him; and he did so through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

Those are pretty good reasons why we should live as God commands us to.

If we are a new person, made holy and pure by the blood of Christ, why would we want to walk around with a filthy, decaying dead body strapped to us? That’s the picture here. In some parts of the Roman empire, the punishment for murder was to have the body of the one you killed strapped to you. You carried it around with you everywhere you went. As it decayed and became disgusting you were walking around with it tied to your back. Paul told us to put that old, spiritually dead nature off. And now he’s telling us to put on clean clothes. He’s telling us to live as someone who has been so loved by God, since before time began, that he killed his eternal Son so that we might be purified and set aside for his purposes.

Here’s what that lifestyle looks like.

• Compassion
• Kindness
• Humility
• Meekness
• Patience
• Forgiveness
• Love

Wow! What a list. Who wants their life to be characterized by this list? I certainly would. I would like people to look at me and think, “He’s compassionate.” or “He’s kind.” or “He’s humble.” or “He’s forgiving.” or…you get the picture. I’m sure people don’t think those things when they look at me. I do a terrible job of living this way. Especially the top part of that list. I don’t model compassion very easily. I can see that I’ve got some things to work on here. How about you?

Let’s briefly look at each of these, and define them. I’ll present the dictionary definition (Oxford American Dictionary) and then some comments.

Compassion

Sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. Mercy.

The KJV says “bowels of mercies”. In modern English that might read “gut wrenching compassion”. You really feel for this person. You identify with their pain, and you won’t be satisfied until you’ve given them some kind of aid. It might be physical aid, encouragement, support, or just being there empathizing with them. This is Lauren (my wife). She’s great at this. She gets this gut wrenching compassion for people who are hurting.

Kindness

The quality of being friendly, generous, considerate, and morally upright.

In the Greek, it means a useful gentleness. This is about your disposition. Your personality. How you treat others. Are you friendly? Generous and giving? Considerate, putting others first? Kindness is an action.

Humility

A modest or low view of one’s own importance.

Not often taught as a virtue in our culture. We teach our children to be proud of themselves. But humility is a Biblical virtue of great importance. It’s the opposite of arrogance. Lowliness of mind. Thinking of others first. Having a right view of yourself. It doesn’t mean low self-esteem. We should know our place as children of God, made in his image. But it does mean realizing that I’m no better than the next guy. We’re all made in God’s image. It means respecting others as image bearers. No one likes to be around an arrogant, proud person. It means giving God the praise and glory for things I do well.

Meekness

Quiet, gentle, submissive, and easily imposed on.

That’s the dictionary definition of the word meek. But that’s not even close to what Scripture means. This modern English definition implies weakness. Jesus was meek, but he wasn’t weak. It has more to do with voluntarily restraining your strength in deference to others. It’s the picture of Aslan being led to the stone table to be sacrificed. He had the strength to shrug off the bonds they placed on him, and to scatter and defeat his oppressors. He chose instead to restrain his strength. To suffer patiently for the sake of one he loved (Edmond).

For us to be meek means to voluntarily restrain our strength, not to insist on our rights, because we love each other. It doesn’t mean letting evil people do wicked things to you without responding. It just means, not fighting back in like manner.

John MacArthur defines meekness this way.

…a willingness to suffer injury rather than inflict it. “If somebody is going to get hurt in this deal, let it be me. If somebody has to suffer here, let it be me.” ²

That takes more strength than retaliating against someone. It takes more strength to be meek, than it does to punch somebody in the nose.

Patience

The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.

Self-restraint in the face of provocation, without striking back or retaliating. Not letting your actions be ruled by the circumstances.

In verse 13, this idea of patience gets expanded to include putting up with each other, and forgiving each other for offenses. If we are to “put on” Christ, and live like imitators of him, then we must learn to forgive.

Forgiveness

Stop feeling angry or resentful toward someone for an offense.

In the Greek it’s more than that. It is showing favor toward that person. It means to give favor unconditionally, and to release or pardon a person from punishment for a crime. God didn’t just extinguish his anger toward us in the cross, he extended active love toward us. He adopted us, and treats us as favored children. If someone in the church, he’s talking to Christians here and saying “each other”, is behaving in such a way as to offend you, you are to be patient, kind and gentle toward that person, and to let go of your rights, real or perceived. You must have an attitude of humility to forgive.

Does this mean that you let someone continue such behavior? No. There is a procedure set forth in Scripture for dealing with offenses in the church, but it must be done patiently, with humility and forgiveness. In other words, in love.

Love

An intense feeling of deep affection

Can you see how the English translation misses the point? Agape is translated in the KJV as charity. This isn’t it exactly either, but it closer because charity, by modern definition, is giving. Agape is giving as well. It is the giving of oneself for another, even if that other is ill-deserving.

Paul tells us this idea of giving ourselves is to be our first priority. He says “above all”, more important than anything else on the list is this self-sacrificing agape love.

When you put on all the rest of the clothing of the new man, you have to put on the belt, or sash, of love to hold it all together. You all have the picture of the way they dressed. A tunic of some kind that goes over your head, maybe a couple layers of clothing such as that, and if you didn’t put a belt on and cinch it all up, it’d be flapping all over the place. Love is the belt that holds it all together.

You can’t be compassionate toward someone unless you can love them. You can’t show true kindness, humility, meekness, etc. unless you love. How could you be patient and restrain yourself, and sacrifice your rights, unless you loved?

Compassion without love, is false compassion because it’s about you not others. Humility without love is false humility, because it’s about you not others. Get the picture?

He goes on to say that love will create harmony. Now harmony is a wonderful thing. It’s beautiful. It’s the blending together of two or more notes to form a chord that is pleasing to the ear. The opposite of harmony is discord. Discord is notes that are in opposed to each other, they don’t form a pleasant sounding chord, they create tension. Tension within the church (body of Christ) is not a good thing. We should all be working together in harmony, each doing his part, to produce a result that is pleasing.

Let me offer one caution. We are to love and exercise all these character qualities toward each other as Christians. But…

It is not right that my charity be liberal enough to tolerate unsound doctrine. In the case of false faith and doctrine there is neither love nor patience. Against these it is my duty earnestly to contend and not to yield a hair’s breadth. Otherwise – when faith is not imperiled – I must be unfailingly kind and merciful to all notwithstanding the infirmities of their lives…A defective life does not destroy Christianity; it exercises it. But defective doctrine – false belief – destroys all good. So, then, toleration and mercy are not permissible in the case of unsound doctrine; ³

Self-sacrificing, active love is to be the defining character quality of regenerated, Jesus loving Christians.

Consider the following verses and replace “love one another” or “love each other” with the phrase “sacrifice yourself for others”.

• John 13:34-35
• John 15:12
• Romans 13:8
• 1 Peter 1:22
• 1 John 4:11