Going Shopping~Our First Set of New 'Clothes'

So today we ‘head to the mall’ to obtain a classy and gorgeous brand new wardrobe to fill our heart’s closet!  What are you imagining? Something bright?  Something cheery? ~~~Ready?

As we start our trip to the ‘mall’ in Colossians 3:12, we see that it begins with a description that reminds us of who we are in Christ. ‘Holy and dearly beloved’ means we are set apart BY God, set apart FOR God,  AND…we are dearly loved by God. I’d say that is some pretty good motivation to ‘put on’ this special new wardrobe, don’t you think?  That was exactly Paul’s point!

Let’s create a ‘shopping list’ by checking out a few of the requirements for our new wardrobe. I think it may involve more than one quick day of shopping!

First we see tender-mercies. This involves compassion and having tender, heart-felt sympathy. In Philippians 2:1 the same word is translated as affection and mercy. Please check out my archives section for my blog segment Comfort Zone (February, 2011). It includes a more in-depth study on compassion from the Mary/Martha Series.

Next, we find kindness, which involves benevolence (a disposition to do good) in action. It includes the idea of goodness, kindliness, and graciousness. Ephesians 4:32 (Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted...) speaks of the same concept.

The next two words, humility and gentleness, are interesting. They were not considered virtues in the pagan world. They were actually considered to be signs of weakness in a culture that worshipped strength and power. However, they soon became two of Christianity’s greatest virtues.  I think this makes it a perfect example of the put-off/put-on concept. Remember, we are NEW CREATURES in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17)!   

Humility basically involves a lowly attitude toward God. It is seeing ourselves as we really are as compared to the Righteous and Holy God. Take a moment sometime to read Philippians 2:3 or 1 Peter 5:5 for more on godly humility.

Gentleness (or meekness), on the other hand, involves a lowly attitude towards others.  Meekness is often looked upon as a quality of weakness in today's culture. Due to the negative connotation of this word, I think we will stop here today and look at meekness in more detail next week.

So, we have done enough shopping for one day! Do you like your new ‘outfits’? I think they look great on you!!!

Take opportunity this week to wear your new loving, kind, and humble ‘outfits’. Others will notice!

Word Studies taken from Bible Knowledge Commentary and Expositor's Bible Commentary

Debbie

Good Riddance!

This past week a friend posted the following personal quote. It was such a perfect addition to what we have been discussing the past few weeks while cleaning out our heart’s closets, that I asked her if I could use it.  She graciously agreed and was thrilled to be ‘famous’!  Thanks, Ruby!

“Let’s stop rearranging junk: say good riddance to bad rubbish!”

That is exactly what we have had in mind when we used such terms as annihilate, burn, destroy, and exterminate!  Don’t store those old, frayed, and filthy ‘outfits’ in a corner, get rid of them! Good riddance!

Now, back to Colossians 3! We have already discussed how we should put off the actions, attitudes, and lifestyle of our past life outside of Christ. According to Colossians 3:10-11, there are no excuses. Our status, culture, position, gender, or rank doesn’t matter. God expects everyone who is now a new person in Christ to clean out their ‘closet’. 

We talked about throwing away the stinky, ugly, old faded and frayed sweater. But we can’t stop there—we must replace what we have thrown out with something new!

But before we head to the 'put-on' store, we must first realize that we can’t just go get whatever it may be that WE want to add to the wardrobe of our heart’s closet. Paul provides some very specific guidelines in Colossians 3:12ff. 

 To put it another way, as Wiersbe states in his Colossians study, Be Comforted,  Paul “exhorted his readers to put off the ‘grave clothes’ of sin and the old life and to put on the ‘grace clothes’ of holiness and the new life in Christ.”

The previous cleaning out section may have been more difficult for some than it was for others. This next section was the area with which I had to come to grips. I was blessed to find Christ at an early age and the things in the put off list hadn’t become deeply engrained in me. So, throwing away the old sweater wasn’t that difficult for me.  However, I wasn’t careful enough to put on the ‘outfits’ we will discuss next week. I hadn’t made this new list a part of me.  I had taken off the stinky, ugly, old faded and frayed sweater, but had neglected to put on a new one. As a result, my ‘wardrobe’ didn’t match my new life in Christ.

As mentioned in the first segment of this series, a friend had experienced a heart-breaking family situation and called me several nights in a row in tears-just wanting to know someone was on the other end of the line to listen. Then one night, she called full of excitement. Although the situation had not changed, and sadness and hurt were still present, she had discovered something from God’s Word that had encouraged her to make some changes in her life.

She had discovered Colossians 3:12-15. She read to me and I ‘heard’ that passage like I have never heard it before. (BTW, God’s Word does that. Sometimes it speaks to you in ways you have never heard-when you need it. There are times I find myself saying, “Where did that verse come from? ~ when I had heard it all my life!) Anyway, her excitement about how this passage had blessed her ended up blessing me. A lot of things about me changed after that conversation-and I was supposed to be the teacher/counselor during this tough time in her life!  

We will look at that section of Colossians 3 next week.

Good riddance to the ‘grave clothes’~bring on the ‘grace clothes’!

Debbie

One Last 'outfit'-DO NOT LIE TO ONE ANOTHER!

Whew! We will conclude our cleaning out project with this segment! Has it been difficult to decide what needs to go? Or, has it been easy to decide what needs to go~~but hard to throw them out?

If you recall, this entire series from Colossians 3 started out as discipleship devotional material for a new believer who was interested in knowing where to begin in her new Christian walk. We know it is important for new believers to change their ‘outfits’ once they have become new in Christ. But, I wonder how long it has been since some of us who have been saved for a long time have cleaned out our heart’s closet. I bet we have refilled it several times with ‘outfits’ from our former lives before salvation!  Agree?

For the past few weeks we have exterminated and thrown away these non-fitting and out of style ‘outfits’ from our ‘closets’.  Can we brush off our hands, sit down, and say “whew, we are done with that job!” Not quite yet. There is  one more outfit we need to get rid of.

Let’s consider that ‘outfit’ still in our ‘closet’ that no longer fits and really is out of style—but—it was one of our favorites. Maybe we are saving it, you know, just in case????

Paul places great emphasis on this one last outfit. He is short, blunt, and to the point. He simply states in verse 9, “Do not lie to one another.”  Throw out that outfit, too! Don’t hang on to it! You won’t (shouldn’t) wear it anymore. It will never fit in your new lifestyle again, so don’t even think about keeping it!

Have you ever stopped to consider what the Bible says about lying? Let’s take a look!

1.       1.  In John 8:44 Jesus refers to Satan and states that he, “…does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resourses, for he is a liar and a father of it.” Thus, “When a Christian lies, he is cooperating with Satan; when he speaks the truth in love, he is cooperating with the spirit of God.” (Wiersbe-Be Complete, Colossians)

Remember, we are new creatures in Christ ~and Christ IS TRUTH!  Talk about the perfect outfit!

2.       2.  One of my favorite verses to share with children is found in Proverbs 12:22. It states:

:  Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truly are His delight.

3.      3. And, don’t forget that lying is one of the 7 abominations listed in Proverbs 6:16-19.

 GOD HATES LYING!!!

 We know what constitutes a lie, even if we try to justify it. Plain and simple, a lie is a misrepresentation of the truth. We know when we are putting on that ‘outfit’!  Paul is bluntly telling the new Colossian believers, don’t do it!  So we might as well just throw it out instead of keeping in our closet taking up space!

Well, now our ‘closet’ should be well cleaned out and pretty empty. Maybe some of us have thrown out more than others have, but regardless, we are left with empty spaces in our heart's closet. NOW, who wants an empty closet?  So, I guess it is time to go on a shopping spree and add some new and exciting ‘outfits’ in the verses to follow! Whoo hoo!!!!

Let's be truthful,

Debbie

Closet Cleaning~~The Next Step

Welcome back to your closet! We took a week off to contemplate some thoughts on change, now we are ready to return to our heart’s closet cleaning project as we consider the teachings found in Colossians 3. I guess this provides an opportunity for us to consider the role of change in our individual lives.

Last time, as we looked at verse 5, we discussed the command to ‘mortify’~put to death, annihilate, exterminate~ specific sensual sins that were a big part of the Greek culture of Paul’s day. (And ours as well, I might say!)

As we move down to verse 8, Paul increases his intensity and tells the Colossians believers, “OK, you have done that part, NOW you need to…”  In other words, if you think that was hard, now you need to put off, rid yourself of, and lay aside the following.

The list from verse 8 divides itself into anger/reactionary type sins and language sins. Notice how the progression intensifies.

Anger-Pent up frustrations that lead to aggression

                Wrath-(rage)-outbursts of temper

        Malice-A combination of anger and wrath that        reaches a point that often demonstrates itself in injury to others. Developing a vicious spirit towards someone

Slander-using words to injure others

                Filthy communication-ugly, offensive, abrasive talk

(Bible Knowledge Commentary,  Expositor’s Bible Commentary, and Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words)

The way in which we react to circumstances and the language we use everyday should be ‘outfits’ that match who we are in Christ (verses 1-4).  Paul admonishes that the ‘outfits’ listed above do not do so! So, we are told to get rid of them!  We need to clean them out of our closet.

The sad thing is that the sensual sins we cleaned out of our closet last time (verse 5) are obviously looked upon with strong distaste, while the attitude/language sins of verse 8 are often overlooked and ‘justified’. Sometimes we think maybe we should keep some of those ‘outfits’ just in case. 

But, as mentioned above, Paul increases his emphasis and states, "BUT NOW you need to rid yourself of these outfits as well."

As an interesting side note, the Bible Knowledge Commentary mentions that the phrase ‘put off’, or ‘rid yourself’ was also used as a common idiom, “throw it off like a dirty shirt”.

As we continue to look into our heart closet, we now have this section to go through and clean it out too! 

HMM? I think some of our closets are getting pretty bare!

Debbie