New Community

SERMON MANUSCRIPT

Audio Recording

New Community

Sermon Manuscript

[Read Colossians 3:12-17]

There are many different ways to destroy Christian community. It can be destroyed through the slow slide away from doctrinal fidelity and the embrace of our own ideas and opinions. It can be destroyed by ignoring sin and looking the other way and allowing sinfulness to run rampant and destroy the church community. But there’s another way that you can destroy Christian community that is much more subtle. It can be destroyed by making a subtle shift in the way we understand Christian spiritual maturity. 

What makes someone a mature, Christian believer? How do you measure that? Is it measured by how often they attend church, or how often they read their bible, or how often they fast or have visions? There’s a temptation to say, “Yeah, that’s how we measure Christian maturity” but that’s not quite right. Of course, someone who is a mature Christian is attending church regularly, is reading their bible regularly, and is practicing various spiritual disciplines regularly. However, that’s how we measure spiritual maturity because those are all external things. 

Here’s why we don’t measure spiritual maturity this way—based on external things. I can tell you in one word—the Pharisees. The Pharisees measured spiritual maturity based on a whole host of external things—they measured it based on spiritual disciplines, attendance at the temple, and knowledge of the Bible. Based on the external markers the Pharisees would have been the maturest of the mature—the elite—yet Jesus said they were whitewashed tombs full of dead bones. They were not only immature, but they were dead. There was no spiritual life in them. 

This is what happens when churches begin to measure spiritual maturity based on external things. Not only does it cause a bunch of people to “fake it” and practice a variety of external things, but it also causes there to be a hierarchy in the church. You have the elite members of the church who do all of the things, then you have the middle-class who are pretty good, and then you have those who are the lowest rung of church society. Then, as soon as you have this sort of hierarchy formed in a church, then pride creeps in and divisions begin to happen and the community is slowly destroyed.

This can happen in a variety of more subtle ways. Let me give you one quick example. Once people begin to see themselves as the “elite” members of a congregation, they also begin to think that they are the only ones who know how a church should function or operate. I mean, nobody else really understands… So, they begin to take a “my way or the highway” approach to the church and try to shape the church in their own image—or into the image they think it should be. They stop caring about what anyone else thinks or says (because those people don’t know what they’re talking about) and keep pushing in a singular direction or pushing on a singular issue. You can see how that reveals pride, sows and causes division, and will eventually destroy a community. 

Paul is writing this morning’s passage to address those very temptations and issues. If you remember what I said a number of weeks ago, there is some false teaching happening in the Colossian church. It’s a false teaching that is focused more on external practices and measurements and is causing some problems like I mentioned. It’s causing some hierarchies in the church, which have led to some division in the church. Paul is writing this portion of the letter to address these issues. 

He begins by building on last week’s passage and pointing out the reality of the situation. He says, “…as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved…” (Colossians 3:12, ESV). This is who they are now. If you remember last week, it was about the fact that they had died to their old self and had been raised to new life in Jesus Christ and have put on that new self. Well, that new self is someone who is chosen by God, someone who is beloved by God, and who is made holy by God. That IS the new self that they’ve put on in Jesus Christ. 

Now, when people read this, they typically think about this in individualistic terms. I’m chosen, beloved, and made holy by God—which is true. However, Paul is talking about all of this in the context of the community. That’s why Paul begins by saying, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved… (Colossians 3:12, ESV). The command to “put on” is in the second person plural. So, he’s saying, “Y’all need to put these things on. Y’all are God’s chosen people, holy and loved by him.” He’s talking about this more from a community, collective standpoint. 

This is really important because when we’re drawn into Jesus Christ through faith, we’re also drawn into the Body of Jesus Christ through faith. You could also say that when we’re drawn into fellowship with Jesus Christ through faith, we’re also drawn into fellowship with other believers at the same time. We read this in Ephesians, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” (Ephesians 2:13–16, ESV). Notice that it talks about how salvation draws us into Christ AND into the Christian community. It’s a really important reminder that there is no individual Christianity—it’s always done in the midst of a community. 

I also want to point out one of the characteristics of that community. He says we’re, “…God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved…” (Colossians 3:12, ESV). I want to look at the word “holy” for a bit because it can mean a variety of things. In some ways we naturally think of “holy” referring to something that is pure and untainted by sin—which is kinda true. However, “holy” really refers to something that is set apart from everything else. We call God “holy” because he is so pure and righteous and “other” that he is completely set apart from anything in all of creation. Now, when we’re called “holy” that’s not the same with us, however, it carries a similar connotation. The connotation is that the community of Christian believers are set apart from the rest of the world. I have liked the phrasing of the Christian community being a contrast community in the midst of the world. We’re a community that does things differently because we’re God’s chosen people, holy and beloved. We don’t act the same way as other worldly communities. There’s something different here—and people should notice. 

That’s also why Paul gives this list of attributes that we are to put on. This isn’t a legalistic thing, but an identity thing. There’s a difference. A legalistic thing would say, “If you want to be part of this family, you need to do these things.” That’s about earning your way into the family. Yet, that’s not what Paul is doing here. Rather, he’s saying, “Since you are already part of the family—God’s chosen, holy, and loved people—this is how you live now. This is how we do things in our family.” 

So he says, “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.” (Colossians 3:12–13, ESV). Now, in some ways, this is a list of attributes of what it looks like for us—as a community—to live as God’s people in the world. I don’t want to spend time going through each of these attributes. Instead, I want you to see how they are all connected. Some say that all of these attributes center on the idea of bearing with one another, and others say these attributes center on the idea of forgiving one another. I could go either way, but if I had to choose, I would choose forgiving one another since this is at the core of the Christian faith and we’re told that we are to forgive each other AS Jesus has forgiven us. 

This is at the core of what it means to be in Christian community—it’s at the core of what makes the Christian community a contrast community in the world. We live as people who are forgiven by Jesus Christ. And when we’re honest with ourselves, we realize that Christ didn’t just have to forgive us for a little offense, but he forgave a massive debt that hung over our head and our life. He forgave a debt that we could never pay. That leaves us no excuse to refuse to forgive someone else because their debt against you is minuscule in relation to your debt toward Christ. So, as someone who has been forgiven an unpayable debt, you willingly and joyfully forgive in this community. It’s central to everything we do. 

Notice how that is connected to the other traits. If you center your life on being someone who forgives, you can see how a compassionate heart is at the core of who you are. You can see how kindness will play a role and humility. You can see how being quick to forgive allows you to be patient and to bear with one another. They all center around this idea of being someone who forgives because they’ve been forgiven. Or, I should say, it all centers around being a community of believers who forgive because they’ve been forgiven. 

Now, the hard truth in all of this is that the opposite is also possibly true. What if you notice that you’re beginning to lack kindness and compassion in your life (or in this congregation), or that you are lacking patience with other believers, or finding it hard to bear with each other? It may mean that you are not forgiving as the Lord has forgiven you. It may mean that you’ve underestimated the level of forgiveness you’ve received from Jesus Christ and it’s infecting the community—spreading like a virus. The answer then is to do what you always do when you recognize sin in your life—Repent and Believe. 

Eventually, Paul sums this all with a familiar statement, “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” (Colossians 3:14, ESV). So, he tells us that it’s all about love really. If the Christian community is going to be set apart from the rest of the world—distinct—it needs to be characterized by love. That is what will bind everything together. Love will lead to kind and compassionate hearts. Love will lead toward humility and patience. Love will free you to bear with one another and forgive one another. 

This shouldn’t surprise us because Jesus sums everything up with love. Remember Jesus’ response when the lawyer asked, “"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:36-40). What is the summary of the whole bible? Love God and Love neighbor. Love. 

Now, of course, I always have to take a little detour and talk about what love is and what it means, because we’ve got this all messed up in our current cultural situation and it often infects the church. The vast majority of people limit love to some warm fuzzy feeling they have or to butterflies in their stomach. They limit it purely to the emotions. Yet, it’s more than that. We read this, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” (1 John 3:16, ESV). Love also requires action. We know love because Jesus laid down his life for us. And because we love our neighbors, we will also lay down our life for them. This doesn’t mean emotions are not involved, but it means that there’s much more going on here. This is why Paul says that love ties it all together. Because when we are willing to lay down our lives for the Christian community, then we are kind and compassionate and patient and forbearing and forgiving.

Then he goes on to talk about peace. He says, “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.” (Colossians 3:15, ESV). Again, this is one of those passages that is typically understood from an individualistic point of view. Most people read this and say, “Oh, the peace of Christ is supposed to rule in my heart”—which is true, however, that’s not fully the case. To think of this in the individualistic sense doesn’t make sense in the context because the reason they are supposed to let the peace of Christ rule in their hearts is because they’ve been called into one body. So, how would that apply to you as an individual? It only makes sense to understand this as being a community reality. He’s telling the Body of Christ—the Christian Community—that they need to let the peace of Christ rule in the community—and not division—because they’ve been called into one body.

There’s actually a beautiful image in this passage. The greek word for “rule” actually means something like an umpire or a referee. Even back then, they had umpires and referees overseeing their contests, making sure that people were following the rules, making sure people stayed within the bounds of the game. The image is that the peace of Christ needs to be the referee of the Christian community. The peace of Christ needs to be the umpire when disputes come up or conflict arises. It’s because they are called into one body—unity isn’t optional. 

He goes on to add another layer to all of this. He 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.” (Colossians 3:16, ESV). Again, this is obviously true about individuals—that individually we are to have the word of Christ dwelling in us richly. However, the point of this passage is that the word of Christ is to dwell in the community of believers richly or abundantly. As God’s people living as a contrast community in the world, we should be known for being a loving people, a peaceful people, and a people who are saturated in the word of Christ. Everyone should recognize this about us. 

He points out that the word of Christ should dwell in us so abundantly that it overflows in a couple ways. First he says that the word of Christ should overflow to the point that we’re “…teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom…” (Colossians 3:16, ESV). The Word of Christ should be such a part of this community that it naturally flows out as we talk to each other and hang out. We will be naturally teaching each other new things from the Word, or teaching each other ways to apply the word in new situations we face. The word of Christ should be so abundant in the life of this congregation that we’re naturally correcting and admonishing one another according to the word of Christ. We’re naturally saying things like, “That’s not how God’s people live and act in the world because he told us…” And we should be so filled with the word of Christ that we will do all of this with wisdom—not beating people over the head with the bible, but not ignoring things either. Because we’re so filled with the word of Christ we will know when to speak and when to listen, which means we’ll do it with wisdom.

Second he says that the word of Christ should overflow to the point that we’re “…singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (Colossians 3:16, ESV). The word of Christ should overflow from our hearts not only in conversations and teaching, but also in song. This not only means that the songs we sing in church should be the overflow of the word of Christ, but the point is that the word of Christ is not only an intellectual thing—it’s not just about teaching and correcting. It hits something else inside of us that causes us to want to sing his praises. 

Ultimately, all of this is summed up by the final verse, “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 3:17, ESV). This is his way of saying, “Since you are God’s people—chosen, holy, and loved—don’t forget that applies to every aspect of your life.” This applies to you in everything you do and in everything you say. You are a representative of him. So, keep this in mind at all times in everything you do.  

Of course this applies to what you do and say in your workplace or at the grocery store or in your home, but the very specific point he’s making here is that this also refers to the way we function as a Christian community. This needs to be the overarching, governing principle of everything we do in this congregation. It needs to be the center of every decision, every dispute, every potential conflict—are we speaking and acting in a way that properly represents Jesus Christ? Are we speaking and acting in a way that is in line with who we are now—God’s chosen people, holy and beloved?

I just want to end with the reminder not to make this about external practices—but about internal transformation or your heart. This passage is not about simply doing all of these things but it’s about your heart being changed to the point where you’re characterized by these things. It’s about living into our new identity—through the power of the Holy Spirit—as God’s people, holy and beloved. A people who love one another, forgive one another, who let the peace of Christ rule in their community, who are filled to overflowing with the word of Christ, and who honor and glorify him in everything they say and do.