Put It On

During this week, Time With God will break from its regular format to explore selected passages to prepare our hearts for the coming New Year.

GETTING STARTED

Yesterday, we explored the first portion of today’s passage and applied it to our lives. We looked at the issues of putting off and putting to death our sin, and more importantly the motivation of Jesus’ finished work of grace. Our efforts never earn us forgiveness, but are the response of a grateful heart for the work God has done for us. Today we are going to talk about the opposite—putting on.

READ THE WORD: COLOSSIANS 3:1-17 (ESV)

^3:1If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. ³For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

⁵Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ⁶On account of these the wrath of God is coming. ⁷In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. ⁸But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.⁹Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices ¹⁰and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. ¹¹Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

¹²Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, ¹³bearing 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. ¹⁴And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. ¹⁵And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. ¹⁶Let 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. ¹⁷And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

RESPOND TO GOD

Having talked about the things we need to put off and put to death (vss. 5-11), Paul made a list of the things we need to put on in our relationship with Jesus (vss. 12-17). But before he mentioned even one character trait, he AGAIN told us why—he clarified our motivation. Put on the character of God because you are already chosen, already holy, and already beloved (vs. 12).

Our efforts don’t earn us anything. They are simply the natural response of a heart made glad by the unchanging mercy made available to us in the person and work of Christ. And when someone notices that we might be kind, patient, or forgiving, we will be quick to take no credit, but instead will marvel that God has made us a little more like Jesus today than we were yesterday. Our prayer will be that we will be more like him tomorrow than we are today.