Colossians 3 | How to Put Off Your Old Self and Walk in Christ

How should Christians approach relationships according to the Bible?
What is the significance of "putting off the old self" in Colossians 3? What does the Bible say about race, diversity, and equality among believers?

Colossians 3 is a powerful chapter where Paul provides practical guidance for living a life centered on Christ. He begins by urging believers to set their minds on things above and not on earthly matters. Paul emphasizes that Christians have been raised with Christ, and therefore, they should put to death their old selves.

Paul makes it clear that all believers, regardless of their backgrounds, are united in Christ. He challenges cultural and social norms by stating that there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, slave and free, because Christ is all and in all. This equality in Christ creates a new community where your identity in Christ is more important than any other identity you may have.

The chapter also contains instructions for household relationships, which were radical for their time. Wives are called to submit to their husbands, but husbands are also instructed to love their wives and not be harsh with them. Children are to obey their parents, while fathers are warned not to provoke their children to anger. Paul even addresses slaves and masters, advising them to serve and lead as though they are working for the Lord, not for human approval. This household code emphasizes mutual respect and love, reflecting the transformative power of the gospel in everyday life.

In Colossians 3, Paul encapsulates the essence of living a Christian life: it is not about adhering to rules or traditions but about allowing the love and grace of Christ to transform every aspect of one’s life. The chapter encourages believers to embrace their new identity in Christ, live in harmony with others, and foster a community where Christ is the center of all relationships.

As Paul wraps up his instructions, he reminds the Colossians to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father. This is the ultimate purpose of a believer’s life: to glorify God in all things. Whether in personal conduct or in communal worship, every action is to be done in a spirit of gratitude and in alignment with the new life in Christ. The message of Colossians 3 is a timeless exhortation to seek Christ above all else and to live a life that reflects His love, grace, and truth to the world.

#ChristianLiving #Colossians3 #FaithInAction #ChristCenteredLife #BiblicalGuidance #GodsPl

Transcript

 Colossians 3

Colossians 3

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, welcome to God's plan, your part year two, where this year we're reading through and studying the entire New Testament one chapter at a time. Thanks again for joining us in discovering God's plan and your part in it. Welcome back to Monday. Today, we are looking at Colossians. Chapter three.

And I would say that as we close out Colossians, uh, we're pretty much going to be looking at this final section of the book that focuses on how do you do this thing that Paul has been calling you to do? The thing that Paul has been calling you to do is to make Christ the center of everything in your life so that you're constantly following Christ in your decisions.

And here, he's going to be outlining what those decisions look like and how you can do them. In the classroom, we used to call this how to writing. Oh, this is how to writing. So, it would take on, I would say, some of the similar pieces of a how to writing in that he's, he's essentially talking about here's where you've come from.

Um, here's where you should land as a [00:01:00] follower of Christ in these various ways. And then from that, he gets much more pointed with how do you do this even within your own home, your own household. And it calls out each person within the household, so no one is left out, um, even to the point of masters and bond servants.

So um, We're going to tag on a little bit of chapter four, just one verse, because it seemed really odd to leave it out. But we'll call out the editors like we like to do every once in a while. But this chapter is really just, I think it's like a how to, how to live in a like, right Christian mindset. So before we dive into like a point by point, what he's saying, and I don't, I don't even know that we'll do point by point, but before we dive into the specifics of the how to, I think it is worth noting that for two chapters, and we've seen Paul do this before for two chapters of Colossians, he's laying out essentially like theology and doctrine.

Like, Hey, Don't be distracted and misled by [00:02:00] false teachers. Keep Christ at the center of your life. And one of the ways you keep Christ at the center of your life is you recognize that you're not made righteous by holy days or things of the flesh or actions that you do. So like the first two chapters, it's like, you're not made righteous by what you do.

And then the last chapters are like, Here's what you should do. And it's not contradictory. No, because this is talking about, I would say this chapter is like a, how to almost like refrain from your old self. Exactly. Like, so how do we change a life that used to be into one that reflects Christ in all of our actions?

So your salvation, your right relationship with God comes in Christ. Only Christ can give you right relationship with God. We have. Talked about that. I mean, a lot. And it's very important to who we are. Um, but then it's, it's important to catch the fact that after he establishes that salvation comes only through Christ, he starts this movement of, and once you're [00:03:00] in Christ, this is how you walk in Christ.

This is how you live with Christ. So salvation is only through Christ. It's not by your works, but you are saved by Christ. Unto works. Like there are things that you do because you have been saved. Not to gain salvation, but because you want to walk out salvation. You want to walk out sanctification, you want to honor Christ with your life.

You wanna show the world that you're in Christ, and these are the things that you do, and these are the ways that your life will look differently than the rest of the world. Uh, verse five kind of leads into that. So he's saying. In the beginning of this chapter, he's talking about how Christ has done these great things.

So you are, you're no longer bound to your old self. So he says in verse five, put to death what is earthly in you. And then he lists through so like several things, but he's essentially saying like, All those old things are not what define you anymore. Like, just put them to death and then start wearing these new things, like, on your new self.

Uh, some of the things just to, [00:04:00] I don't know, give them a little bit of justice. Uh, verse 5 is, says, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetous, covetousness. Covetousness. Idolatry. Verse six. It doesn't say idolatry. Or witches idolatry. Excuse me. That's something I wanted to touch on if I can interrupt you quickly.

Well, let me finish my lesson. You can go back. So, no, I can't interrupt you. Nope. And then verse eight also says, put all of them away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth. Uh, lying is also brought up as well in the following verse. So, a lot of those things, it's just like, don't even let those be a part of your new identity because they're not of Christ and it's not a reflection of what he's done.

Just put them to death, put them away. So now back to verse 6. I think it's worth, uh, highlighting the fact that he says initially, like, like he does make a list of all these essentially sinful things. Sorry, verse 5. Um, but verse 5 says, Put to death therefore what is earthly and use sexual morality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness.

Comma, which is idolatry. [00:05:00] It's a very definitive statement before he gets to the next couple of things. I do think it's helpful that he recognizes those specific things as idolatry, because I think it's fair to say when you are trapped in these things, you are guilty of idolatry. Like you are, you are worshiping created things rather than the creator when we're still stealing.

from the, uh, New City Catechism, which we're doing with our kids. So that's the one we're doing this week. Um, but specifically I, what is idolatry? Let's not go the other direction. Um, so it's interesting and I think it's helpful in our world today to recognize that these kinds of things actually are idolatry.

It's putting something that is not God. Above God. Certainly we see that with sexual immorality. Um, certainly we see that in a lot of the, the, it's weird how sexual immorality can encompass so many things going on in our world today. Uh, but, but that clearly is idolatry, um, passion, evil, desire, and covetousness.

Like all of those, I [00:06:00] think are connected. Uh, evil desires are just basically like knowing what is right and refusing to do it. That's an evil desire. Like if If you have any evil desire, it is leading you closer to Satan than it is to God. Uh, and then covetousness is just desiring essentially what your neighbors have.

So if my neighbor comes in with a new truck, which he actually has a quite nice truck, I like it a lot. Uh, and I lose a lot of sleep over how much I need that truck. Um, I'm worshiping that truck. It's, it's a little bit odd to see it that clearly, but that's what Paul's doing. And I think it's worth noting that, um, If you find yourself in a church that is trying to soften these kinds of things, which are definitely idolatry, like if you're in a church and you're, you're noticing that they're trying to make it seem like sexual immorality is not wrong or covetousness, desiring things that they do not have is not wrong.

Like that's worth thinking through, uh, and processing and asking the Holy Spirit for discernment because I, I [00:07:00] don't love, uh, all the different. kinds of Christianity that I see that are trying to soften these things and act like they're not idolatry. Then he goes on to say to just kind of wrap this, this little first part up, not only are we supposed to like wear this new identity and live in this new identity, not just show it off and, and have fake things going on in the background.

He also says, um, in verse 11. That it doesn't matter who you are, where you're from. If you are new in Christ, you are all in the same covenant. You're all equal. He's saying that this new identity of being in Christ supersedes all other identities. So it's way more important than anything. Any other identity you could possibly have.

I heard a pastor one time say, uh, if you are a Christian in the United States, you should have more in common with a Christian living in Iran than somebody that lives in your neighborhood who is not a Christian. Now that that statement is like. [00:08:00] Purposely provocative, I think, uh, but it does get your head turn in a little bit.

Um, I also heard another pastor. This was Vodie Bauckham that was talking about like a lot of times people try to use race to distract us, um, at the least distract us and at the most divide us. And it is very easy in our current. day and culture and state to allow race to divide us, but race is not meant to divide Christians because Christians are not supposed to be distracted by race because our identity in Christ supersedes race.

So I don't think Paul's saying that you're not a Greek anymore. I, I, let's, I'm here. There is not Greek and Jews circumcised and uncircumcised barbarian, Scythian, like these guys didn't magically become uncircumcised when they were circumcised. He's saying, Hey. That stuff doesn't matter. The Greeks didn't all of a sudden become not Greeks.

They're just Christian Greeks and the Christian part of their name and title and identity is radically more important than everything else. I will be super Frank here. One of the ways that I've seen [00:09:00] this play out in churches is it's becoming very popular to say, um, in, in one camp, like I'm a gay Christian.

Well, first of all, that's not even possible, but it should get our attention That we're putting an identity above Christ on purpose. Uh, the other way that I see that playing out in churches is like, well, you need to make sure that your church is diverse. Like you need to make sure that you're giving the right people, the right voices.

I'm not against diverse churches. I would say we attend a very diverse church, but we want to make sure that our identity in Christ is way more important than the culture, cultures, languages, backgrounds that are present in our churches. And anytime that we elevate one above the other, like anytime we elevate something above.

Christ. I think we are sinning and I think we are guilty of idolatry. Uh, the last verse in this little, this little part, verse 11. Um, we kind of skipped it, but it says, but Christ is all and in all. So our study Bible says Jesus, who is all and in [00:10:00] all binds all Christians together in equality. So God's not looking around like, Oh, well there's the whatever Christians and there's the other Christians and there's, and I think the examples that he uses.

What's that? That group, the barbarians, the Scythians, the Scythians were like, they were very well known to be like awful people by the Greeks and they did not appreciate them. They thought they were like, well, very barbaric and uneducated, uncultured. And so for that purpose, he's calling that out too.

Like, Hey, don't think of yourself better than somebody else. And that goes for every race. Like Scythians don't be thinking you're better than the Greeks. Greeks don't be thinking the opposite. And that would have been very important. Very current to them and very provocative and perhaps offensive to them.

Like, what do you mean I'm not better than a Scythian? Have you met a Scythian? Um, so I, I do want to drive this home very clearly that. That Christ is the most important identity. And we do not want to compromise on that because [00:11:00] when we compromise on that, I think we, we needlessly divide ourselves, um, because we should, we should, we should be happy, um, to worship together with other believers, regardless of their race and not make their race and culture and background and practices, um, more important than Christ himself.

So then we kind of move on to the rest of the, this beginning of the chapter, uh, where Where it's giving, like, lists of what it looks like, and I don't think we necessarily need to read them over again. Um, something else that really caught my attention, though, before we move on Um, verse 16 though, like part of that is, uh, it says, 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.

So I also think like. Not only are we supposed to wear this new identity with all these characteristics, it's actually talking about, like, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Like, [00:12:00] do that with accountability with other believers, too. Like singing, I think there's like that community piece where it's like unifying them together and like read God's word, sing psalms of praises and like be a body of believers.

Regardless of the background wearing this new identity. Um, and then I don't know if you want to talk anymore about that, but we move into that much more detailed family unit. We moved from that into a household code, which we've, we've talked about household codes before these were very common in a Roman society and Greek societies, so.

So Paul's taking something from the culture and explaining to people what it means to be a Christian within that culture, uh, in the context that would have been understood, it is worth noting that these Christian, uh, household codes were wildly different because like in other cultures, it was just seen that like the men led the house and you did what they said.

And it didn't matter. Um, but here you'll see, uh, that, that husbands, they are the head of [00:13:00] the household. That's, that's true. I think fair to say. Um, but they also have like a pretty tall order in how they care for people, making sure that they're not provoking people, making sure that they're loving people and guiding people well, that would have been extremely different than what was expected in Roman culture and in Greek culture.

Well, I think too, something that Always caught my attention was, I remembered that verse, being a child, of like, children, obey your parents and everything for this pleases the Lord. And I remember hearing that one over me a lot. And as an adult, I never really understood. it even existed, uh, the following verses, like fathers do not provoke your children to, uh, anger lest they become discouraged.

So like there is, there is a two fold part there. Like it's not just, that's a tough job too. Yeah. Like if you have kids, you probably, you know, I'm not a father, but I [00:14:00] understand the tension there too. So that, I don't know, I guess that is good to know on this side of things. There is expectations of how to run a family in a godly and honoring way.

I think that's what's interesting about these Christian. Household codes is that, I mean, in modern culture today, like some people find this very offensive. Some people try very hard to explain it away. Like it doesn't mean what it means, or it doesn't say what it says. Um, I, I think it means what it means and says what it says.

Uh, but the thing that's interesting is that you can feel the sense of respect and. Like, like generosity, I guess that's required on all sides. Like children are supposed to obey their parents, but parents are supposed to care well and not provoke their children. Like there is responsibility on both sides.

Wives are supposed to submit to their husbands. Um, but. Husbands are supposed to love their wives and not be harsh with them. That would have been extremely [00:15:00] counter cultural by the way. So it's, it's not just this list of like, do this and do this and do this. That's like this mutually beneficial circle of people caring for each other and living out, uh, honoring Christ in their household roles.

And so what's really cool about that, like a, kind of like a beautiful picture is if the families. Um, are treating each other this way or are interacting with each other this way and how God has called them to, how beautiful it is when families that are all doing that are working together as the body of believers.

And just like, I don't know, it just seems like a really cool way to just fit everybody together then perfectly in the body, um, building each other up, I guess kind of going back to verse 16 that I was talking about earlier. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Of just like, that is how we do community well, when we are all following, like even down to the family, that code that has been set before us, and then working together with other families within the body of believers, it's just like, [00:16:00] oh no, it's just a cool picture to think about.

So, uh, the, your part for today is to actually Tangibly live out Christ in your life. I think we we've hit on a lot of different ways that you can do that. Uh, read the chapter for yourself. Colossians three and see, you know, where you have room to grow. That's, that's what we're doing constantly. Hopefully that's what we're doing constantly.

And we invite you to, to do the same. Um, I do want to wrap up with a personal note. It's not often that we land on a personal note. We've talked a couple of days ago about how baby is coming soon. Uh, we do not know when that's Going to be, but there may be a podcast disruption when that happens. Uh, we're anticipating the baby to come in like a week or two, probably.

Hopefully less. Uh, but if you guys could pray for us, um, we are in a season of our lives where there's, it feels like there's a lot going on and we appreciate your prayers. We, we know that a lot of you out there listen to us most days. Uh, we pray for you guys, uh, a lot. And I just, Would love to be transparent and say, Hey, there's, there's a lot of, [00:17:00] um, decisions we're making.

We feel the tension of the baby coming soon. Uh, we feel the, the tension of, um, honoring Christ well in our lives. And so if you could just be praying for us, I think it would be really helpful. Mm-Hmm. . Yep. I second that. . So we appreciate your prayers and we will be praying for you guys as well. Again, if you have specific prayer requests, you can email them to us.

God's planned your part@gmail.com, and we will be happy to commit to praying for you as well. So we appreciate you guys, uh, listening day in and day out. Um, it does not go unnoticed and we hope that you are encouraged, uh, by God's word, and that you'll come back again tomorrow for Colossians chapter four.

We'll see you then. Thanks for listening to today's episode. Before we get to the reading, I want to recommend another podcast that I'm a part of called God's whole story. This year, we're releasing one episode a week on Monday mornings, overviewing one book of the Bible each week. So God's plan. Your part is a deep dive chapter by chapter where God's whole story is [00:18:00] taking it one book at a time.

If you enjoy this podcast, you'll enjoy that one. Go check it out. Now here's the reading Colossians chapter three. If, then, you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not things that are on earth.

For you have died, and your life is 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, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Amen. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.

In these you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another. Seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the [00:19:00] new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all. 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 [00:20:00] through Him. Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents, in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. Bondservants, obey, in everything, those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.

You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done and there is no partiality chapter 4 verse 1 Masters treat your bond servants justly and fairly knowing that you also have a master in heaven Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of God's plan your part Don't forget, you can find us on just about [00:21:00] every social media platform and YouTube.

Let us know what you thought of today's episode, and if you have any questions, go ahead and post them there. You can also reach out to us directly at godsplanyourpartatgmail. com. As always, if you don't have a Bible, or if you'd like to use the one that we use, uh, reach out to us via email and we'll be happy to send one to you.

Thanks again for listening. We'll see you again tomorrow.