put on

Colossians 3:10-16

10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 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. 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.

This is not a guilt trip by Paul trying to get the Colossians and us to just try harder and not sin. Putting off the old self and putting on the new self is down to being “renewed in knowledge after the image of it’s (our) creator”. It’s Jesus making us more like Him through us knowing more of Him (see part 1). It’s not about desperately trying to not lie so that Jesus will be impressed with us. Instead, it’s recognising our dependence on Him and that he walks with us, helping us to live a life not dominated by lying. 

We need to take these lists of what to "put off" and what to "put on" seriously, and allow the Holy Spirit to challenge us through them. But we shouldn't turn them into legalism or religion, thinking  “I’ve got to do this to be accepted by Jesus”. You are already accepted and forgiven. Paul explains it in v12, describing them/us as "God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved”. So as we are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, we should ... This is a lot different from "to be God’s chosen ones, you need to do ...". We are loved by God. We’re not trying to do these things so that God will love us, we’re doing them because He loves us.

make a corpse out of it

Colossians 3:5-9

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In 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. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 

While we used to do the things listed in this passage, we should now, as Christians, put them away, put them to death. "Putting these things away" or "putting them to death" is strong language. The greek words used can be translated as "mortify" or "make a corpse of...". That doesn’t mean flirt but just don’t touch, it doesn’t mean lie as long as it’s not something really important that’s going to hurt someone, it doesn’t mean only take revenge on someone if they really deserve it, it doesn’t mean only gossiping about people when your with your best friend rather than with anyone who’ll listen. That's not making a corpse out of those things. Putting them to death means we’ve got to keep as far away as possible, not indulging them and then trying to stop before we go “too far”. If we’re doing that, we’ve already gone too far.

the whole thing

Colossians 3:1-4

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

Jesus didn’t just die, He was also resurrected. We have been raised with Him to now live a full and abundant life as He intends for us, not just aimlessly living our lives, pursuing that house, job, person as we were before. Setting our minds on things above rather than things on the earth is not ignoring the world around us and becoming super-spiritual hermits. It is living our lives recognising that Jesus is involved everywhere – at church, at work, at home, everywhere. Our life is not divided into secular and sacred chunks, everything is spiritual. We haven’t been saved for it to have a limited impact on what we do on a Sunday, our entire lives are hidden, enveloped in God (v3). Everything we do: work or rest, sleeping, talking – every conversation – has something to do with Jesus. Paul says here that Christ is our life – not just a part of it, not even the most important part – He is our life.

ticking the boxes

Colossians 2:20-23

20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations – 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22(referring to things that all perish as they are used) – according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

Why are we so keen to build up banks of rules as Christians? Is it because it makes us appear good in comparison to someone else – the appearance of wisdom? Is it because it makes us feel like we are paying something back to God – self made religion? Is it because we think we need to be punished because we were sinners – asceticism and severity to the body? We are not good in comparison to anyone else, we cannot pay God back even a fraction of what we owe, and we don’t need to be punished. Jesus dealt with all of that on the cross.  Paul says these things are of “no value” in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Has trying hard to follow lists of regulations ever resulted in someone overcoming sin? Did it make the Pharisees righteous? The only thing that can do that is Jesus.

It’s possible for me to say grace before every meal but not eat it with a thankful heart. It’s possible for me to not drink, use all the right words, not smoke, turn up to every meeting, not have a tattoo, and look like the model Christian – but be living a selfish life where I’m not surrendered to Jesus and I’m worshipping myself instead of Him. Do we want a church full of people who tick all of our boxes on what a Christian should look like? Instead, let's concentrate on the heart. Pray that that person would know more of God, not that they would dress a bit smarter for church on Sunday!

stay attached to the head

Colossians 2:18-19
18 Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

This passage deals with some more ways that we might be looking to Jesus plus something else to help us. We don’t need Jesus plus self denial of pleasure or enjoyment in order to “transcend” this world (asceticism). We don’t need extra information from angels. Angels are created beings who aren’t there to be worshipped – they worship Jesus (see Revelation)! Why direct our worship to anything other than Jesus? Anything else is setting our sights too low. God given visions are good, but obsessing about them about visions and focussing on them rather than the Bible is not. Feelings and emotions (the sensuous mind) are involved in our relationship and our worship of God but they are only part of it. Getting emotional and “feeling” something during worship or prayer is not the ultimate goal. Knowing more of Jesus and becoming more like Him is the goal.

Jesus is the Head of the body (the church) and we need to be fixed firmly to Jesus in whatever we do, not disconnected from the Head, running off down our own paths with good intentions but replacing Him with something else, whatever that thing is (asceticism, angel worship, visions, the sensuous mind). The only way the church can grow, numerically and spiritually, is by getting its nourishment from Jesus. He holds the body together.

shadows

Colossians 2:16-17

14 Therefore, let no one pass judgement on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Tthe Old Testament is full of instructions about food and festivals (among other things). The people are told which animals and clean and unclean for food.  The new moon festival refers to the first day of the month when they were required to bring their sacrifices and burnt offerings to the Lord. The Sabbath was a day of rest when they weren’t allowed to do any work. 

All these things were set up by God but they were meant to put the attention on to Him, not to themselves become little "gods" to be served.  In Isaiah 1:13-14 God says:
"Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them."

The people were doing things that God had told them to do but He says that he hates them! It’s obviously possible to follow the rules but completely miss the point. Paul is drawing attention to the fact that all those things are just a shadow, the substance is Jesus.
                                                                                                   
Things that may have been designed to glorify Jesus can end up taking His place.Worship Jesus, not the shadow