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Putting Sin to Death and Putting on Christ (Colossians 3:5-14) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. So today's deep dive into the
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source material takes us into a realm that honestly makes a lot
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of modern people incredibly uncomfortable.
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Oh, without a doubt it is. It is definitely not a safe or
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easy topic by any means. No, it's really not.
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Because, you know, normally when we talk about a diagnosis, there
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is this expectation of like clinical precision.
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Right, like looking at an X-ray or some kind of scan.
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Spot on. Think about engineering or
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orthopedics. You break your arm, the X-ray
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shows that jagged white line on the bone and the doctor just
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points at the screen and says well there is the problem.
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It's visible. It's totally objective.
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Yeah, and oddly enough, it's comforting.
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I mean, we like things to be visible, right?
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To be neatly categorized, to be solvable with a physical splint
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or a straightforward surgery. We want a physical fix for a
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physical problem. But then you step into the realm
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of the human heart, into the spiritual condition of humanity,
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and suddenly that clinical X-ray machine just shatters.
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Yeah, it completely falls apart. You can't put the soul on an
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operating table. No, you can't.
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We look at the diagnostic landscape of the human soul and
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it is entirely murky. We try to treat behavioral
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symptoms without ever identifying the root disease.
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It is the absolute definition of diagnostic Muddy Waters.
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I mean, modern therapeutic methods often attempt to put
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this like superficial bandage on a condition that actually
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requires a total systemic transplant.
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Right, we want a quick fix. Exactly.
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We try to medicate the symptoms of human depravity rather than
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addressing the core hardware malfunction of the soul.
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Which is the core mission of our deep dive today.
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And I'm really glad you're sitting with us as the third
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person at this table, because we are going to look at a text that
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completely shatters that murky therapeutic landscape.
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We are digging into some heavy theology today.
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We really are. We are analyzing 2 extensive
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rigorous theological expositions of Colossians, chapter 3, verses
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5 through 14. Which is such a brilliant,
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intense passage of Scripture. It is.
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We are stripping away the modern psychological jargon to examine
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what it actually means to put sin to death, and conversely,
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what it means to put on the character of Christ.
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And we have to be clear upfront, the Apostle Paul does not offer
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a gentle self help remedy in this text.
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No, he really doesn't pull his punches.
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Not at all. He offers a decisive surgical
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strike against the natural inclinations of the human heart.
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It is violent, it is uncompromising and it is
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entirely countercultural. The contrast presented in these
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sources is just stark. I mean, think about the cultural
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mantra we hear every single day in advertisements, in movies,
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and, you know, across social media.
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It's everywhere. It is always some variation of
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express yourself, follow your heart, validate your internal
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desires. Right.
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The idea that your truth is found by looking inward.
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Spot on. But the sources point out that
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Christ issues a command that stands in direct opposition to
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that entire worldview. Christ says deny yourself.
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Which is the exact opposite of expressing yourself.
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Yeah, this text we are looking at is not about behavior
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modification, like trying to eat fewer carbs or waking up an hour
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earlier. It is about a radical shift in
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the category of humanity you belong to.
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But before we can even evaluate the specific commands given to
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this ancient church, we have to look at the specific people
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receiving those commands, right? Context is everything.
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Right and the historical situation they faced.
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Context dictates meaning, and the context of the Lycus River
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Valley in the 1st century provides the background for why
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these commands are so urgent. We are talking about the city of
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Colossae. Let me stop you there, because
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honestly, geographical context is usually where eyes start to
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glaze over. Fair enough.
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Yeah, history can feel a bit dry.
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Right. So why should someone living in
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the 21st century care about the economy or the geography of an
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ancient city in Asia Minor? Paint the picture of the city
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for us. What was the lived reality for a
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normal person waking up in Colosse?
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OK, so we are looking at the Lycus River Valley in Phrygia.
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That's part of the Roman province of Asia Minor, which
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aligns with modern day Turkey. OK, got it.
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It's it's roughly 100 miles east of Ephesus now.
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If you rewind the clock, a few centuries before this letter was
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written, Colasi had been a major, thriving metropolis.
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So it was a big deal back in the day.
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Huge. It sat right on a major trade
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route. It was wealthy, bustling and
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famous for very specific industry, which was a lucrative
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wool trade. Wool like making clothes and
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textiles. Yes.
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Specifically, they produced a highly sought after dark red
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wool known as Callosum. The dye used to make this wool
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was extracted from local resources and it created this
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luxury garment that was traded all over the known world.
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So it was a city built on commerce, luxury goods, and I
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imagine a massive influx of foreign wealth.
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Absolutely. It sounds like a 1st century
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equivalent of a modern fashion or tech hub where the entire
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local economy is propped up by 1 massive industry.
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Originally, yes. But economies shift, right?
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Trade rates change. They always do right.
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So by the time the Apostle Paul's writing this letter,
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which is around AD 60 to 62, the city had experienced a severe
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economic decline. Oh wow, so the boom was over.
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Completely. The neighboring cities of
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Laodicea and Hierapolis had grown massively, and they kind
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of siphoned off the trade and the wealth.
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Callus A was no longer the regional Titan it once was.
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So it became sort of a secondary town.
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Yeah, it was a community of households, tradesmen.
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There's a large population of transplanted Jews, Greek
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gentiles, slaves, masters, just a real mix.
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And they're all living under this heavy, suffocating pressure
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of Greco Roman Pagan culture, I assume.
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Yes, while also dealing with the economic insecurity of living in
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a city that was way past its prime.
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And what fascinates me about this specific letter is that
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Paul did not even plant this church.
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I mean, he had never even visited them.
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Right. The sources indicate the church
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was planted by Epifros. Epifros.
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Yeah, he was a native Colossian who had traveled down to Ephesus
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during the years Paul was preaching there.
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Epifrost heard the gospel, he was converted, and he took that
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message back up the valley to his hometown.
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So he essentially evangelized his own neighbors.
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Spot on. Fast forward a few years and
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Epifrost visits Paul, who is, you know, sitting in chains in a
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Roman prison. He goes to give him a report on
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how the congregation is doing. So Paul is writing this letter
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from a state of total physical restriction.
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Yeah, he is absent in body, but he carries this immense
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Apostolic authority for this flock.
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But Epiphras did not travel all the way to Rome just to bring a
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positive, upbeat update. No, not at all.
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He brought news of a severe theological threat that was
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infiltrating the congregation. The sources call it the
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Colossian heresy, right? Yes, the Colossian heresy.
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My understanding is that the early church usually faced
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external persecution, like, you know, being thrown to lions or
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imprisoned. But this threat was entirely
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internal. What was spreading through the
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pews? It was incredibly toxic
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syncretism, and syncretism occurs when you blend different,
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often opposing belief systems together into a new hybrid
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religion. Like a spiritual buffet.
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Yes, exactly. The false teachers infiltrating
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the Colossian house churches were mixing an early nascent
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form of Gnosticism, stringent Jewish legalism, and localized
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Pagan mysticism. OK, I want to break each of
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those three ingredients down because mixing Gnosticism,
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Jewish law, and paganism sounds like an absolute theological
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train wreck. It was a total mess.
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Let's start with Gnosticism. How did that function in this
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local context? So early Gnosticism operated on
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a strict dualism. They believe that all matter.
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The physical world, the human body, the dirt, the trees was
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inherently evil. Wait.
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All physical matter was evil. Yes, everything physical.
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And conversely, they believed that all spirits was inherently
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good because they viewed the physical body as an evil prison.
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They taught that salvation was essentially an escape from the
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physical realm. OK, so how did they claim you
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could achieve this escape? To achieve it, you needed a
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secret elevated knowledge, which in Greek is called gnosis.
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Hence the name Gnosticism. Right, They claim the simple
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gospel of Christ crucified and risen was well, fine for the
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uninitiated beginners. Like a starter pack?
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Exactly a starter pack. But to truly ascend to the
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spiritual heights, you needed their secret passwords, their
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elevated insight. OK, so that is the Gnostic
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element, but how did the Jewish legalism factor in?
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Because you have Greeks talking about secret spiritual
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knowledge, but then you have people demanding strict
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adherence to ancient Hebrew calendars.
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The false teachers argued that Christ alone was insufficient
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for spiritual fullness. They demanded that Gentile
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believers observe strict Jewish Sabbaths, new moon festivals and
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stringent dietary laws. The whole do not handle, do not
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taste, do not touch mentality. Yes, they weaponize the Mosaic
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Law not as a tutor to lead people to Christ, but as a rigid
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checklist to attain that secret gnosis.
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And the third ingredient? The Pagan mysticism.
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This involved the worship of angels and severe bodily
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asceticism. Asceticism meaning like denying
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the body. Denying it, punishing it.
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Because they viewed the body he is evil.
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They believed you had to starve it and abuse it to demonstrate
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your spiritual superiority. They also sought out visions and
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mystical experiences with angelic beings, basically
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bypassing Christ the Mediator to interact directly with the
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spiritual realm. So they offered a spirituality
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that looked incredibly rigorous and impressive on the outside,
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but it completely undermined the supremacy of Jesus One. 100% it
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looked holy, but it was spiritually bankrupt.
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I am going to report impartially on what the sources claim here,
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because this is where the ancient history crashes
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violently into our modern context.
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Oh, absolutely. The sources argue that the
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modern Church faces the identical threats today, just
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wearing different names. For instance, the sources draw a
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Direct Line from ancient asceticism to Roman Catholic
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practices of penance. Right, the idea that physical
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actions can pay for spiritual debts.
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Yes, the idea that you can subdue the flesh or pay for sin
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through physical acts, rituals, or self denial.
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They also point to the New Apostolic Reformation, noting
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how that specific movement's pursuit of extra biblical
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visions, angelic encounters and new revelations directly mirrors
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the ancient Colossian pursuit of secret knowledge and mystical
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experiences. It is a very similar pattern.
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And they even call out pragmatic, seeker sensitive
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church movements that offer a quote UN quote crossless
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Christianity. The sources are basically saying
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that avoiding the hard truths of human depravity to draw a
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massive crowd is just another way of saying Christ's actual
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unvarnished message is insufficient.
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The authors are asserting that human nature has not changed an
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inch in 2000 years. Not one bit.
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The core issue, whether in the 1st century or the 21st century,
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is the human inclination to add to the finished work of Christ.
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The false teachers in Kasai were imposing these exhausting rules
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on the physical body while leaving the internal diseases of
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pride, anger and covetousness completely untouched.
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Right. They offered a religious system
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that looked holy to the neighbors but possessed no
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actual capacity to restrain the flesh.
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None whatsoever. You know, I look at the
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asceticism they practice starving the body, engaging in
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severe physical disciplines to achieve a spiritual high, and I
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see a direct secular parallel today.
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Oh really? Like what?
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Look at the extreme Wellness trends dominating social media
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right now. People engage in extreme
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biohacking, they go on radical dopamine fasts, they sit in
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freezing ice baths for hours, they eliminate every conceivable
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impurity from their diet, and they fly across the world for
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silent retreats. Oh yeah, the whole optimization
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culture. Exact.
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Now there's nothing wrong with being healthy obviously, but the
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underlying motivation for many is a modern form of asceticism.
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They are hyper regulating the physical body to cure an
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internal spiritual anxiety. They're trying to cure the soul
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with a physical routine. Yes.
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So let me play devil's advocate here.
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From a psychological standpoint, why does human nature
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consistently gravitate toward these man made rules and systems
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of secret knowledge rather than just resting in the grace of the
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gospel? Why do we want the checklist so
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badly? We want the checklist because
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the checklist gives us a metric for human pride.
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A metric for pride? OK, unpack that.
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If salvation or spiritual elite status or even total Wellness
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depends on my ability to maintain a pristine diet, or
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endure an ice bath longer than you, or fast for 40 days, or
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achieve A mystical vision, then I can boast about my
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achievements. I have a scoreboard.
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Exactly. You have a scoreboard.
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You can look down on the uninitiated masses who haven't
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reached your level of enlightenment.
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But grace ruins the scoreboard. Grace shatters the scoreboard
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entirely. Grace tells the billionaire and
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the beggar that they are equally bankrupt, that their best moral
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efforts are filthy rags, and that they must rely entirely on
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the blood of a crucified Jewish Carpenter.
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Yeah, the human ego hates grace, because grace demands the
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absolute death of pride. Spot on.
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It leaves no room for boasting. Which brings us to the
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grammatical structure of Paul's letter.
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Since man made rules and asceticism failed to restrain
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the flesh, Paul has to provide the genuine solution.
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His solution is brilliant. The sources point out that his
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solution relies on the theological architecture of how
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he structured the document. The grammar itself carries the
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weight of a person's eternal soul.
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Yeah, you really cannot understand the commands of
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Colossians 3 without understanding the theology of
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Colossians 1 and 2. The sources highlight a specific
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pattern here. They emphasize a pattern Paul
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uses in almost all of his epistles, which is indicatives
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before imperatives. OK, this is a crucial concept
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for anyone listening. Explain the mechanics of those 2
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terms. What is an indicative and what
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is an imperative? Sure.
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So an indicative is a statement of reality.
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It declares a fact. It is not asking you to do
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anything, it is simply telling you what has already been done.
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So it's just stating what is true.
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Yes. In chapters one and two of this
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letter, Paul establishes the massive theological indicatives.
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He explains who Christ is as the image of the invisible God, his
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absolute supremacy over the cosmos, and what he accomplished
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through the shedding of his blood on the cross.
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He's laying the foundation. Right.
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Paul declares that believers have already been circumcised
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without hands, buried with Christ in baptism, and raised
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with him through faith. That is the indicative reality.
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The work is finished. OK.
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And then he shifts gears. Then, in chapters 3 and 4, Paul
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shifts his grammar. He moves to the imperatives.
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An imperative is a command. It is the instruction for how
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believers must behave. So the grammar of biblical
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ethics is always gospel first, gracious command second.
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Always. And the transition between those
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two halves of the letter hinges on one specific word in the
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Greek text. Yes, the Greek inferential
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conjunction out which translates to therefore.
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That's the word, yeah. Colossians 3.5 begins put to
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death. Therefore, that single
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conjunction is the bridge. It connects the violent command
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to kill sin directly back to the preceding verses.
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Right the verses which state for you have died and your life is
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hidden with Christ in God, let. Me make sure I am grasping the
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causality here because this is huge.
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You do not kill sin to earn a union with Christ.
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You kill Sin because you are already united to Him.
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That is the core of reformed theology right there.
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The ethics must always be rooted in redemptive theology.
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Because if you reverse the order.
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If you reverse the order, you destroy the Gospel entirely.
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The sources show how this grammatical structure dismantles
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2 massive opposing theological errors that have plagued the
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Church for centuries. Legalism and antinomianism.
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Let's define the psychological traps of both of those errors.
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Start with legalism. OK, legalism tells the soul that
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you're obedience earns your acceptance with God.
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It operates on a contract. A transactional relationship.
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Exactly. It says if I obey these rules,
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if I avoid these behaviors, then God is obligated to love me and
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bless me. It places the burden of
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salvation squarely on human performance.
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And on the flip side, you have antinomianism.
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Right, which literally translates to against the law.
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Antinonianism looks at grace and draws A terribly distorted
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conclusion. It abuses grace.
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It tells the soul that because we are saved by grace, obedience
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is basically unnecessary. It turns the grace of God into a
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license for sensuality. It says I am forgiven so it does
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not matter how I live. I want to try an analogy here to
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see if it captures the mechanics of this indicative and
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imperative dynamic. Go for it.
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Imagine a trauma hospital. Legalism is a doctor walking
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into the morgue, standing over a dead body and saying if you get
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up, run a mile and eat a healthy diet, I will give you a
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heartbeat. That's a grim picture, but yeah.
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It demands the action to earn the life which is impossible for
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a corpse now. Antinomianism is a doctor
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walking up to a patient who has just received a miraculous life
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saving heart transplant and saying you have a new heart now
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you're totally cured so just lie in this hospital bed for the
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rest of your life, eat junk food and never move your.
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And it's completely absurd. Right.
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The new heart was given so the person could live a vibrant
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life. But Paul's grammar, the
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indicative followed by the imperative, is the true gospel.
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The divine surgeon takes out the heart of stone, implants a heart
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of flesh, breathes life into the lungs, and then says, therefore
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because you are alive, get out of this bed and start walking.
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That captures the causality perfectly.
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You are commanding a living person to act in accordance with
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their new nature. You are not telling a corpse to
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walk, You are telling a resurrected man to stop wearing
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his grave clothes. But I have to push back on this
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from a, you know, a lived experience perspective.
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The tension between the indicative and the imperative
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creates immense daily friction. It really does.
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That's a battle. Because if I am a believer, Paul
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says you have died to sin. That is the indicative reality.
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But then he says put sin to death.
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If it is already dead, why am I killing it?
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It's a paradox, right? Yeah.
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How do you reconcile the fact that a believer is totally
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justified and united to Christ, yet still desires to engage in
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the very sins Paul lists here? You are hitting on the tension
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of the already and the not yet. The already and the not yet,
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yeah. To use a modern technological
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analogy, think of computer system.
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OK, I'm with you. The moment you are united to
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Christ, your core operating system is completely replaced.
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The old OS is wiped out. The new OS is installed.
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You are a new creation. So the core is fixed.
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Yes, but there are still thousands of corrupted files,
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legacy malware and old viruses stored on the hard drive from
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the previous system. I see the new operating system
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has to actively locate, quarantine and delete those
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corrupt files. The malware is no longer in
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charge of the computer, but it is still present and they're
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trying to execute its old code. That makes total sense.
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When Paul says you have died, he means the dominion and the
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ruling authority of the old nature is broken.
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But when he says put to death, he means you must actively hunt
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down the remnants of that old malware and execute it.
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Which takes us directly into what the sources refer to as the
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graveyard. The graveyard, yes.
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Because the believer possesses this new operating system, they
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have to deal ruthlessly with the rotting remnants of their old
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life. We are looking at verses 5
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through 7 where Paul shifts into aggressive, violent language.
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He really does. He does not use therapeutic
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language here at all. The Greek verb he uses in verse
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5 is necrosite. It translates to put to death,
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execute, or mortify. Mortification is not a word we
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use often today. It sounds, I don't know,
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medieval. It sounds violent because the
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nature of sin is violent. Grammatically, Necrosite is an
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aorist active imperative. And what does that tense mean in
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Greek? The aorist tense in the
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imperatives mood denotes an action with a sense of urgency,
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decisiveness and finality. Paul is not advising the
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Colossian Church to merely manage their flaws.
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He's not telling them to put their sin in a timeout.
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No, he is not telling them to negotiate with their lusts, or
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put their sin on a leash, or send their covetousness to
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therapy. He is demanding a slaughter.
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The sources quote the 17th century Puritan theologian John
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Owen, who wrote an entire treatise on this concept.
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Owen famously stated be killing sin or it will be killing you.
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Be killing sin or it will be killing you.
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That frames sin as an active predator.
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It is absolutely a predator. It is not just a bad habit, it
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is something trying to destroy your soul.
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So what exactly is on the execution block in these verses?
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What is the malware we have to delete?
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Paul provides A5 fold list of sensual fleshly sins.
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He begins with cornea. Which is where we get the word
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pornography right. It is a broad Greek term that
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covers all forms of sexual immorality outside the covenant
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of marriage. Every sexual deviation from the
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Creator's design falls under this word.
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OK. What's next?
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Then he lists impurity, which refers to moral uncleanness,
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often the thoughts and intentions that lead to pornea.
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Next is passion, which in this context means a degrading,
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uncontrollable physical. Appetite like being driven
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entirely by your base urges. Yes, then evil desire, the
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fundamental craving for forbidden things, and finally
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the climax of the list, which is covetousness.
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I want to spend a significant amount of time on that last one,
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because covetousness is fascinating.
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Here. The text explicitly labels
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covetousness as idolatry. It does, very clearly.
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Why does Paul make that connection?
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Because usually when we hear the word idolatry, we think of
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ancient people bowing down to a carved wooden statue or a golden
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calf in the desert. We think of literal idols.
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Right We do not naturally associate wanting a neighbor's
21:48
car or desiring a higher salary or craving social status with
21:53
idolatry. We.
21:54
Fail to associate it because we misunderstand what worship
21:56
actually is. Covetousness is fundamentally a
21:59
worship disorder. A worship disorder.
22:02
I like that phrasing the. Lust for more, whether it is an
22:04
insatiable drive for money, power, physical pleasure, or
22:08
societal validation, is an internal demand that the created
22:12
thing take the place of the Creator.
22:14
So you are elevating a thing above God.
22:16
Precisely when a human heart is covetous, it is essentially
22:20
looking at that object of desire and saying you are my life.
22:24
I need you to feel secure. I need you to have value.
22:28
I cannot be happy unless I possess you.
22:31
And that is a direct rival to Christ.
22:33
Yes, because Paul has already established in verse 4 of this
22:36
chapter that Christ is the believer's life.
22:40
Therefore, covetousness is a direct treasonous rivalry
22:43
against Christ. It strips God of His rightful
22:46
place as the supreme Provider and satisfier, and enthrones a
22:50
temporary created object in His place.
22:52
That reframes the entire concept of ambition in our modern
22:55
society. I mean, we have normalized
22:57
covetousness to an alarming degree.
22:58
It's the water we swim in. In many ways, it is the
23:01
fundamental engine of Western capitalism.
23:03
The entire advertising industry is built on cultivating
23:06
covetousness. Convincing you that you lack
23:08
something essential for your happiness.
23:10
Right, and that purchasing their product will fill that void.
23:12
We call it drive or hustle, we reward it, but Paul calls it
23:15
idolatry. He calls it what it is.
23:17
And he follows this list with a sobering, terrifying warning.
23:21
In verse 6 he says that on account of these things, the
23:24
wrath of God is coming. And the sources are adamant that
23:27
the modern church cannot afford to soften, redefine or skip over
23:31
the wrath of God. People definitely want to skip
23:33
over. It they do.
23:34
But the wrath of God is not an unhinged emotional temper
23:38
tantrum. It is his settled, holy and
23:41
perfectly just opposition to evil.
23:44
It is a righteous anger. Yes, the warning of verse 6 is
23:47
necessary because professing believers can easily become numb
23:51
to the gravity of their own sin. They start to think of their
23:54
greed or their lust as minor personality quirks.
23:57
Just a little flaw. Right.
23:59
But Paul reminds them that the eschatological wrath of God is
24:02
coming upon the sons of disobedience specifically
24:04
because of these sensual sins and these hidden idolatries.
24:08
And to demonstrate how heavily infected the modern churches by
24:11
these ancient plagues, the sources bring in some staggering
24:14
data from the Barna group. The statistics are
24:16
heartbreaking. I'm going to report this
24:18
impartially as the sources present it.
24:21
They state that 75% of Christian men and 40% of Christian women
24:26
actively engage with pornography at some.
24:29
Level inside the church. Yes, we are not talking about
24:32
secular society. We are talking about individuals
24:34
sitting in the pews, partaking in communion and claiming union
24:37
with Christ. Those numbers represent a
24:40
catastrophic failure to execute the command of verse 5.
24:43
It's a failure to mortify. Exactly.
24:45
They prove that the heavy Greco Roman cultural pressures of
24:49
sexual immorality that the ancient faced are the exact same
24:53
pressures ravaging the modern conscience.
24:55
It hasn't changed. Not at all.
24:57
Our society may rebrand these behaviors as personal freedom or
25:00
sexual liberation or natural appetites, but the Apostolic
25:04
text defines them as earthly, idolatrous and worthy of divine
25:08
judgement. What really stands out to me
25:09
here is the psychological progression in Paul's list.
25:11
He does not just throw 5 random sins together.
25:14
No, there is a clear order to it.
25:16
He moves from outward visible actions down into invisible
25:20
internal. He starts with pornea, which is
25:23
the physical act of sexual immorality.
25:26
Then he moves to impurity and passion, which are the internal
25:29
drives, and he finally lands on covetousness, the foundational
25:33
idol of the heart. He's drilling down.
25:36
He is tracking the sin backward to its origin.
25:39
It is like tracing a hacker's IP address through a dozen dummy
25:43
servers until you finally locate the master computer.
25:46
That is the diagnostic genius of biblical counseling right there.
25:50
External behavior is always the fruit.
25:52
The internal affection is the root.
25:54
Fruit and root. If an individual is engaging in
25:56
outward sexual immorality or aggressive corporate greed, that
26:00
behavior did not materialize out of thin air.
26:02
It sprouted from a secret desire and evil passion.
26:05
And that passion came from somewhere too, yes.
26:08
It grew from a foundational belief that God is not
26:10
sufficient to provide joy, which is the definition of
26:12
covetousness. If you only attempt to modify
26:15
the outward behavior without locating the idolatrous belief
26:18
feeding it, you will fail. Because it's just behavior
26:20
modification. Exactly.
26:22
The behavior will just mute, take and reappear somewhere
26:25
else. You have to trace the outward
26:26
action back down to the dark soil of the heart and execute
26:30
the idol you find buried there. Locate the idol and execute it.
26:33
That is the daily warfare of the believer.
26:36
But the text does not stop at internal desires, because
26:40
internal idolatry inevitably breeds external relational
26:43
fracture. Sin always bleeds on to other
26:45
people. Always a heart obsessed with
26:48
itself will naturally destroy the people around it, so the
26:51
execution of hidden lust must be followed by the stripping away
26:54
of social hostility. Let's look at the next
26:57
progression in verses 8 through 11.
26:59
Paul shifts his metaphor here. He moves from the violent
27:02
language of the executioner to the language of the wardrobe.
27:05
The wardrobe, the governing verb, changes to an heiress
27:07
middle imperative, which is apophis.
27:10
This literally means to put away or to strip off, evoking the
27:14
imagery of taking off filthy, rotting, foul smelling garments.
27:18
So what are the filthy garments we are commanded to strip off?
27:21
He provides a second five fold list, this time targeting the
27:24
sins of the tongue and the temper.
27:27
He begins with Orga, which is a deep seated smoldering anger.
27:31
Smoldering anger. Yes, is the resentment that you
27:34
nurse over time. Then he lists Thymos, which is
27:37
sudden explosive outbursts of wrath.
27:40
Let's pause on those two words because they manifest so
27:43
differently in real life. Very differently.
27:45
Orga is the passive aggressive text message, the silent
27:48
treatment, the quiet plotting against a Co worker.
27:51
But Thymos is the screaming match in the parking lot, the
27:54
sudden loss of control. Both are destructive, but they
27:57
operate on different fuses. Spot on.
27:59
And he follows those with malice, which is the deliberate
28:02
evil disposition that actually wishes harm or ruin upon someone
28:05
else. That's a dark.
28:07
One it is then slander, which is using speech to destroy another
28:10
person's reputation, and finally obscene talk and lying to one
28:14
another. It seems incredibly easy for
28:16
modern churchgoers to vehemently condemn the sensual sins from
28:19
the previous list, the sexual immorality and the passion,
28:22
while completely tolerating or even defending the social sins
28:26
in this second list. Oh, absolutely.
28:29
The sources highlight the sheer hypocrisy of a church culture
28:33
that demands theological orthodoxy but tolerates malice
28:37
among its members. A man might boast about having
28:40
perfectly sound doctrine. He might be able to articulate
28:44
the nuances of justification, But he cuts his wife and
28:47
children to pieces with cruel, impatient speech.
28:50
Out of the flip side. Right.
28:52
A woman might pride herself on her moral purity, but she uses
28:56
it as a cloak to slander and gossip about her brothers and
28:59
sisters in the faith. Paul is making it clear that the
29:02
tongue reveals the unmortified flesh just as surely as the body
29:06
does. Obscene speech, uncontrolled
29:09
temper and lying are entirely incompatible with the God of
29:12
Truth. You cannot claim the new
29:14
hardware while running the old malicious software.
29:16
And what is it the theological reasoning for stripping off
29:19
these social sins? Why do we have to stop lying to
29:22
one another? The reasoning is grounded in the
29:24
indicative reality found in verses 9 and 10.
29:27
Believers must stop lying because they have put off the
29:29
old Adam, the old self, and have put on the new man.
29:32
The new creation. Yes, this new man is undergoing
29:36
A continuous, ongoing renewal. The Greek word is anakinumanon
29:40
in true knowledge after the image of the Creator.
29:43
The word anakinumanon suggests a process.
29:46
It is a process. Yeah, it is not an instant
29:48
perfection. It is a total reconstruction of
29:50
human identity over time. Exactly, Cindy face the image of
29:54
God in humanity. It marred the original design,
29:57
but Christ, who is the perfect image of the invisible God, is
30:01
actively restoring and renewing His people.
30:03
You strip off the old garments of anger and slander because
30:07
they literally do not fit your new nature.
30:09
They belong to a dead man. And this new nature obliterates
30:12
all the old earthly categories we use to divide and elevate
30:15
ourselves. I really want to look closely at
30:17
verse 11 because it outlines A radical societal shift that
30:20
would have sounded like madness to the ancient world.
30:22
It was a bombshell text. Paul says that in this new
30:25
humanity there is no Greek and Jew, circumcised and
30:29
uncircumcised, barbarian, Sithian, slave or free.
30:32
To the 1st century ear, that list was explosive.
30:35
It dismantles every conceivable human boundary.
30:38
He hits them all. He pairs ethnic divisions Greek
30:41
and Jew, religious divisions, circumcised and uncircumcised,
30:46
cultural divisions, barbarian and civian and economic class
30:50
divisions, slave and free. Most listeners might not grasp
30:54
the weight of the word Scythian in this list.
30:57
Who were the Scythians and why is their inclusion here so
31:00
radical? So the Scythians were nomadic
31:02
tribes. From the EUR Asian steps to the
31:05
civilized Greco Roman world, the Scythians were considered the
31:08
absolute bottom of the evolutionary barrel.
31:10
Just total savages in their eyes.
31:12
Right. Ancient historians like
31:13
Herodotus described them as bloodthirsty savages who drank
31:16
the blood of their enemies and used their scalps as napkins.
31:20
The Greeks used the word Scythian as the ultimate insult
31:23
for someone entirely devoid of culture or civilization.
31:26
Yet Paul declares that in Christ, Asythian stands on the
31:29
exact same level ground as a highly educated, wealthy,
31:33
philosophically trained Greek. All of those earthly tribal
31:37
categories lose their defining authority.
31:39
Now I need to impartially report on a claim made in the source
31:42
material regarding this verse and modern sociological
31:45
frameworks. OK, let's hear it.
31:46
The sources assert that this specific text completely
31:49
dismantles the core tenets of critical race theory and
31:52
intersectionality. According to the sources, those
31:55
modern frameworks seek to divide people into distinct camps of
31:58
oppressors and oppressed, assigning fundamental identity
32:01
and moral value based on lines of race, historical class, and
32:05
social standing. But the sources argue that Paul
32:07
is completely rejecting that worldviewer by stating that true
32:10
identity in the church is exclusively defined by the
32:13
phrase at the end of verse 11. Christ is all and in all, the
32:17
sources claim. This means our core identity
32:19
must be rooted in Christ alone, not in our fleshly heritage, our
32:23
skin color, or our societal status.
32:26
That is the theological and sociological argument.
32:28
The source is present. By declaring that Christ is all
32:31
and in all, Paul is establishing that Christ is the sum, the
32:35
center, and the defining reality of the new community.
32:37
It is a totally new basis for identity.
32:40
Yes, it does not mean those earthly distinctions evaporate
32:43
in the physical world. I mean, a slave still had to
32:46
work, a Greek still spoke Greek. But it means those distinctions
32:50
hold absolutely 0 weight in determining one's spiritual
32:53
standing, value or authority within the new creation.
32:57
I am trying to envision the staggering social dynamic of
33:01
this letter actually being read aloud for the very first time.
33:05
Imagine a house church gathered in Colisee.
33:08
Picture of the. Room.
33:09
Right on one side of the small room you have Flemin, who was a
33:13
wealthy slave owner and an influential member of that
33:15
specific city. And standing in the very same
33:17
room is an SMS who was Philemon's runaway slave.
33:21
A man who had likely stolen from him.
33:22
Yeah, a runaway who had stolen from him, but who had recently
33:25
been converted under Paul's ministry in Rome and sent back.
33:29
They are listening to this letter being read together.
33:31
How does a text like this force a total re evaluation of how
33:34
they view one another? It shatters the worldly
33:36
hierarchy completely. Philomon cannot look at an SMS
33:40
and say you are merely my property.
33:42
I hold superior status. Because Christ is all and in
33:45
all. Exactly.
33:47
And an Ismus cannot look at Philomon merely as an earthly
33:50
oppressor to be hated. When they hear the words here,
33:54
there is not slave or free. They're forced to recognize each
33:57
other as brothers. They have to partake in the
33:59
bread and the wine at the same table.
34:02
The old garments of malice and societal superiority have to be
34:05
stripped off. It forces us today to look at
34:08
the people sitting across the aisle from us in the pews,
34:12
people of different ethnicities, different political
34:14
affiliations, different tax brackets, and acknowledge that
34:17
if Christ is their life and Christ is my life, that we
34:20
shared a bond that is infinitely thicker than anything the world
34:23
uses to divide. Us.
34:24
It is a completely different way of existing.
34:26
It defies tribalism. Which leads us to the next phase
34:30
of Paul's instruction. Because having stripped off the
34:33
rotting garments of the old creation, the believer cannot
34:36
just remain unclothed in a moral vacuum.
34:38
Right, you can't be spiritually naked.
34:40
They have to dress according to their new citizenship.
34:42
Let's examine verses 12 through 14.
34:45
Paul begins verse 12 by reminding them of their supreme
34:47
identity. He addresses them as God's
34:49
chosen ones, holy and beloved. That immediately brings up the
34:53
doctrine of election. Unconditional election is a
34:56
concept that causes a lot of friction for people.
34:58
How does Paul use it here? Often people view the doctrine
35:02
of unconditional election as a cold, abstract philosophical
35:06
puzzle, or even worse, as a justification for spiritual
35:09
laziness. Like I'm chosen so I don't have
35:12
to do anything. Right, They think if God chose
35:15
me before the foundation of the world, I do not have to put any
35:18
effort into my sanctification. But Paul uses election as the
35:23
supreme motivation for holy living.
35:25
He flips it. He totally flips it.
35:27
He does not say clothe yourselves with these virtues so
35:30
that God might eventually notice you, choose you, and love you.
35:33
That is legalism. We talked about that earlier.
35:36
Right. Instead, he says, because you
35:38
are already chosen, set apart, and deeply loved by God despite
35:42
your total depravity. Dress like it.
35:44
Bear the family like this. The ethical action flows
35:47
directly from the absolute security of the divine identity.
35:51
So what are the specific garments of grace we are
35:53
commanded to put on? Paul provides A fivefold catalog
35:56
of virtues to contrast the fivefold lists of sins.
36:01
First sponge no Otermo, which literally translates to bowels
36:05
of compassion. Bowels of compassion.
36:07
That's a very physical description.
36:09
The ancients viewed the bowels, the gut, as the seat of deep
36:13
emotion. It points to a deep, visceral
36:16
affection for others. It is feeling the misery of
36:18
another person in your own stomach.
36:20
Like a gut wrenching. Empathy, yes.
36:22
Second is kindness, which is a sweet disposition that actually
36:25
takes action for another's good. Third is humility, the conscious
36:29
refusal of self exaltation. 4th is meekness and 5th as patients,
36:34
the ability to endure provocation, annoyance, and
36:37
mistreatment without retaliating.
36:38
I really want to challenge a massive cultural assumption
36:41
regarding that 4th virtue, meekness.
36:43
Oh, meekness is so misunderstood.
36:45
It is in our hyper competitive modern western culture, meekness
36:48
is almost universally equated with weakness.
36:51
It is seen as being a doormat, letting people walk all over
36:54
you, lacking a spine. How do the sources redefine and
36:57
reframe meekness for us? The sources clarify that
37:00
biblical meekness is the exact opposite of weakness.
37:04
It is immense strength submitted entirely to divine control.
37:08
Immense strength under control. Let me use an analogy.
37:11
Think of a nuclear reactor. Inside the core, you have a
37:14
staggering, almost incomprehensible amount of heat
37:17
and energy. If that energy is uncontrolled,
37:20
if the core is exposed, you have a catastrophic meltdown that
37:23
destroys everything around it. Just total destruction.
37:27
Right. That uncontrolled meltdown is
37:29
the sin of Thymos, the explosive wrath we talked about earlier.
37:32
But a functional nuclear reactor uses graphite control rods.
37:37
These rods are inserted into the core to absorb the neutrons and
37:40
regulate the reaction. So the power is still there.
37:43
The energy as well. There it is still immensely
37:45
powerful, but it is harnessed, controlled and submitted to a
37:48
design allowing it to provide light and power to an entire
37:51
city. That is a brilliant reframing.
37:53
Meekness is the control rod. It is having the capacity to
37:57
retaliate, having the intellectual or physical
37:59
strength to crush an opponent, but choosing to restrain that
38:02
force out of submission to God's Providence.
38:05
Meekness, strength under control.
38:07
It is the restraint of power, not the absence of it.
38:10
And we really need that restrained strength for the
38:12
specific action Paul commands next in verse 13.
38:15
Yes, the action of dealing with other people.
38:18
He uses participial phrases to dictate how these virtues
38:21
actually function. When 2 sinners bump into each
38:24
other in the real world, he says, we must be bearing with
38:27
one another and forgiving each other.
38:29
The Greek word for forgiving here is charisma annoy.
38:33
It is derived from the root word charis, which means grace.
38:37
So Paul is literally telling us to grace one another.
38:40
Race one another. And he sets an absolute
38:43
unyielding standard for this action.
38:46
As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
38:50
Let's dig into the mechanics of that standard.
38:52
How does using Christ's atonement as the baseline for
38:55
interpersonal forgiveness totally alter the way a
38:57
congregation handling daily grievances?
38:59
Because human forgiveness usually comes with a whole lot
39:01
of fine print. It alters it completely because
39:04
it removes our right to set our own terms for forgiveness.
39:06
So I'll say more about that. In the flesh, if I base my
39:09
forgiveness on how sorry the other person is, or how much
39:13
they have compensated me for the offense, or how much they
39:15
grovel, my forgiveness will always be shallow, delayed, and
39:19
conditional. I remain the judge.
39:21
You hold all the cards. Right.
39:23
But Paul commands us to look at the Lord's forgiveness.
39:26
How did the Lord forgive you? Did he wait for you to perfectly
39:29
compensate him for your rebellion?
39:32
No, He forgave an immeasurable debt of cosmic treason.
39:36
He absorbed the cost himself through the shedding of his own
39:39
blood on the cross. He paid the debt you owed.
39:42
So when a congregation uses the cross as the baseline.
39:46
They realize that holding a bitter grudge against a fellow
39:49
believer is supreme hypocrisy. It is functionally denying the
39:53
magnitude of the grace you yourself received.
39:55
In the parable of the unforgiving servant, Jesus makes
39:58
it clear you cannot be forgiven a 10,000 talent debt by the king
40:02
and then choke your fellow servant over $20 debt.
40:06
You grace others because you have been radically, impossibly
40:08
graced. And what is the capstone to all
40:10
of this? What holds this new wardrobe
40:12
together so it doesn't just fall apart when tested?
40:15
Verse 14 says And above all these, put on love, which binds
40:19
everything together in perfect harmony.
40:23
The Greek word is a gapy. So love is like the overcoat.
40:26
Love is the overcoat. It is the ligament that unites
40:29
all the other virtues. Without a gape of love, your
40:33
humility can easily mutate into self pity.
40:36
Your patience can become passive aggression.
40:38
Your kindness can become manipulative.
40:40
Love is the covenantal bond that seeks the highest spiritual good
40:44
of the brethren before God. So we have walked through the
40:48
graveyard of mortification, we have stripped off the filthy
40:50
rags of malice and anger, and we have put on the new wardrobe of
40:54
compassion, meekness and forgiving love.
40:56
It's a total overhaul. It is, which naturally brings up
40:59
the question of execution. We are looking at this
41:02
overwhelming list of commands. Kill your secret sins.
41:04
Stop lying. Forgive everyone who wrongs you
41:06
exactly as Christ forgave you. If I am listening to this, I am
41:09
thinking how is any of this actually possible?
41:11
Where do the strength come? From, yeah, Where do we find the
41:14
capacity to execute this without just collapsing under the weight
41:17
of the demands? If you try to accomplish this
41:19
list through sheer human willpower, you will end up in
41:23
one of two places. You will either collapse into
41:25
total despair because you realize you cannot do it, or you
41:28
will morph into a self-righteous Pharisee pretending you have
41:32
done it while hiding your secret sins.
41:34
Both are terrible options. Right.
41:36
The entire passage points directly away from human effort
41:39
and points to the Savior. The mortification of sin and the
41:43
cultivation of virtue are only possible because of the believer
41:46
spiritual union with Christ. Breakdown how Christ fulfills
41:50
the specific demands of this passage in all of his offices.
41:53
The sources outline this beautifully using the historic
41:56
threefold office of Christ, Prophet, Priest and King.
42:00
Let's start with Prophet. As our prophet, Christ set the
42:03
absolute standard of divine truth, His Word acting like A2
42:07
edged sword exposes the hidden idolatry, the covetousness and
42:11
the anger that we try to justify.
42:13
He reveals the diagnosis. He shows us the X-ray.
42:15
Yes, as our priest, he shed his own blood to absorb the
42:20
terrifying wrath of God mentioned back in verse 6.
42:23
He satisfied divine justice perfectly so that we are no
42:26
longer under condemnation. He cleanses us from the pornea
42:30
and malice. And as king.
42:31
As our King, he commands the absolute allegiance of our
42:35
hearts. He demands that we execute the
42:37
remnants of the Old Kingdom operating within us, and He
42:39
supplies the spirit to actually accomplish it.
42:42
The sources also draw a fascinating theological contrast
42:45
between the first atom and the last atom.
42:47
Regarding this passage, can you explain that connection and the
42:51
mechanics of federal headship? Yes, federal headship is the
42:54
idea that a single representative acts on behalf of
42:57
an entire group. OK, the first atom, the
42:59
historical atom in the Garden of Eden, was our first
43:01
representative. When he rebelled against God, he
43:03
plunged all of humanity into the sins of verses 5:00 and 8:00.
43:07
Because of his failure, we are born into a state of total
43:10
depravity, naturally inclined toward covetousness, anger, and
43:14
lying. We inherit his nature.
43:16
We wear the filthy rotting rags of the first Adam, but Christ
43:19
comes as the last Adam. He is the perfect image of the
43:23
invisible God. He obeyed the law perfectly
43:25
where Adam disobeyed. He resisted the temptation of
43:28
the devil where mankind fell. He succeeded where Adam failed.
43:32
Entirely, And as the last Adam he imputes, he credits his
43:36
perfect righteousness to the believers while taking their sin
43:39
upon himself. Because we are united to the
43:42
last Adam, we are given the capacity to actually put on the
43:46
virtues of verses 12 through 14. We were transferring our lineage
43:50
from the bankrupt estate of the first atom to the victorious
43:54
infinite wealth of the last atom.
43:55
That is such a clarifying theological lens.
43:58
Let me summarize the entire movement of the text as we have
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analyzed it. Paul drags the reader out of the
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comfortable therapeutic illusions of modern culture.
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He wakes us up. He really does.
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He takes us into the graveyard and hands us a sword, commanding
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us to ruthlessly execute our secret sensual sins.
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Then he pulls us out of the graveyard and tells us to strip
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off the filthy garments of our anger, malice and lying.
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And then comes the new clothing. Right.
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Finally, He leads us into the wardrobe of the new creation,
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wrapping us in the heavy royal garments of compassion, meekness
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and forgiving love, and the entire progression is only made
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possible by the blood of the Cross.
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That is the exact trajectory of the passage, and it leaves us
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with immense tangible, practical applications for the Church
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today. Let's summarize those direct
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applications drawn by the sources.
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How does this hit the ground on a Tuesday morning?
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First, there is the absolute necessity for believers to
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declare total, unyielding war on secret sins.
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You cannot claim union with Christ while comfortably
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harboring a secret habit of pornography or nursing a hidden
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bitter grudge against a family member.
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The malware has to be deleted. It has to go.
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Second, there is the call for Christian households to model
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this self sacrificing love and gentle spirit.
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Husbands, wives and children must interact through the lens
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of grace, not the harsh, explosive wrath of the flesh.
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And the third application. 3rd The absolute refusal to hold
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grudges within the church body. The standard of forgiveness is
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the cross. Therefore, willful unforgiveness
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is rebellion against the King. And there is one final catalyst
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for purity mentioned in the sources that we really need to
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touch on. It is the anticipation of
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Christ's return. Yes, back in verse 4, Paul
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promises that when Christ appears, believers will appear
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with Him in glory. So looking forward changes how
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we act right now. The sources tie this to the
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blessed hope of Christ's premillennial return.
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The realization that Christ could split the sky at any
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moment, that the King is returning to judge the living
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and the dead, serves as the ultimate catalyst for purity
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today. It creates an urgency.
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You do not want to be found sleeping in the filthy garments
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of the old creation when the Lord of Glory arrives.
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Eschatology fuels ethics. That is a staggering reality to
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keep front and center in our minds.
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As we wrap up this deep dive, I want to circle back to where we
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started. We open by talking about how
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much we like a clear medical diagnosis, like an X-ray showing
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a broken bone. We want a clean binary solution.
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What the Apostle Paul has done in Colossians 3 is hand us the
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ultimate spiritual X-ray. He cuts through the murky,
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therapeutic, Muddy Waters of our modern culture.
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He doesn't offer a bandage for our self esteem.
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He demands A surgical strike against our depravity.
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He identifies the disease precisely, idolatry and fleshly
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corruption, and he points us to the only cure, which is our
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union with the crucified and risen Christ.
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Which brings us to a final provocative thought for you, the
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listener, to sit with long after this audio ends.
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It builds on what we discussed earlier.
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When the thing we are secretly worshipping is at risk of being
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taken away from us. We lash out with the malice, the
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orgee, and the thymos described in verse 8.
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The wrath comes out when the idol is touched.
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Exactly. So I want you to ask yourself,
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what is your greatest source of frustration right now?
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What is the specific thing making you the most angry, the
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most anxious, or the most bitter?
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Look closely at that frustration.
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Trace it backward to its root, because it might just reveal
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what you are secretly worshipping instead of Christ.
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Let that question linger. Thank you for joining us at the
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table today on Reformed Thinking.