“Spirituality always works itself out in the context of community.”
Continuing in our series, Live Again, Ben Stuart teaches us how Colossians 3:12-17 lays a framework for Christian community.
“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 through him.” – Colossians 3:12-17
Key Takeaway
In todays culture, we have lost the art of getting along. We have access to the source to help us live differently. We are meant to be dressed in the gospel. He has given us the fashion of people of faith. We are clothed in compassion and tailored in truth.
As the people of faith in Jesus, He has purchased for a us new wardrobe. We take off our old selves where we satisfied our own fleshly desires and lived in immorality and we put on compassion. We are tailored in truth.
Paul never gives an action without a motivation. As a Christian, our activity is always the effect, not the cause. We don't do things for God's approval, we do things because we're God's people.
We have to put on compassionate hearts because we are united with people different than us. We are chosen, holy, and loved by God. We get to share those names with Jesus.
These attributes are essential and natural. We are going to need them. He's already purchased the outfit with His blood, we just have to put it on.
Motivations
- Put on compassionate hearts. In Greek, it means your lower intestine, your guts. At the deepest part of you, you hurt with someone. You care.
- Put on kindness. It's a desire to help, the inclination to act on someone's behalf.
- Put on humility. It's a willingness to disadvantage yourself for someone else. See Philippians 2.
- Put on meekness. It's gentleness and courtesy. You're not harsh with someone, you care.
- Put on patience. In Greek, it's "makrothymia" meaning "there's a macro amount of time I can bear the heat."
Actions
- Bearing with one another. Colossians 3:13
- Be thankful. Colossians 3:15 continues. Gratefulness has been all through this book. In Romans 1:21, Paul says they neither glorified God nor gave thanks.
- Let the Word dwell in you richly. Colossians 3:16. As you speak to others and yourself, you have to be guided by His Word. To dwell means to reside, to live.
Colossians 3:17. Jesus is Lord, not life coach. What He says to do and say, you do and say. He determines how you live your life because he is over all of it.
Quote
"My goal was to strongly oppose the wrong philosophies of people on that stage, but so respect them as human beings in the process that it not at all feel odd to grab dinner afterwards."
Francis Schaeffer
Discussion Questions
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Ben Stuart Ben Stuart is the pastor of Passion City Church D.C. Prior to joining Passion City Church, Ben served as the executive director of Breakaway Ministries on the campus of Texas A&M. He also earned a master’s degree in historical theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Donna, live to inspire and equip people to walk with God for a lifetime.
