Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.
Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.

• Colossians 3:1-25

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Colossians 3:1-3 ‘Death and Life’: ”Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God … ‘your life is hidden with Christ in God’ (Col. 3:1-3). And as we zealously press forward with all sound human understanding-and perhaps also with a lot of human wisdom, to fathom what then this ‘hidden with Christ in God’ could mean-there standing like a cherub with flashing sword is that other saying in the middle of the text: ‘you have died.’ It is eerie that where the talk is of the living God, this dying always stands in the middle. …
“To see death and life along one line-and indeed along the line of death-we could do this only if we could look with God’s own eyes. For us human beings, the differences between death and life are tremendously great- for God, they come together as one. For God, whether human beings live or die does not make them more or less; it does not make them nearer or farther. But if we should talk in human words and for human understanding about whether human beings live or die, and whether in God’s eyes human death may well be a continuation of life, then our text definitely urges us to consider the very opposite.”

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I Want to Live These Days with You, devotional compiled from several of his writings

Colossians 3:1-2 ‘the resurrection’: “The resurrection of our divine Lord from the dead is the cornerstone of Christian doctrine. Perhaps I might more accurately call it the keystone of the arch of Christianity, for if that fact could be disproved, the whole fabric of the gospel would fall to the ground. If Jesus Christ is not risen, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is also in vain ­ you are yet in your sins. It Christ is not risen, then they who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished; and we, ourselves, in missing so glorious a hope as that of resurrection, are of all men the most miserable! Because of the great importance of his resurrection, our Lord was pleased to give many infallible proofs of it, by appearing again and again in the midst of his followers.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Colossians 3:2 ‘Dreamers and Cloud Walkers’: “Remain true to the earth! Strive for what is on earth! For countless people that is a holy concern, and we understand their zeal. We understand the jealousy with which they want to chain together the plans and works and strivings of people on this earth. For, indeed, we are chained to this earth. It is the place where we stand or fall. We must account for what happens on earth. And woe to us Christians if we should be put to shame here. …
“Today powerful forces decide whether we Christians have enough strength to witness to the world, that we are not dreamers and cloud walkers, that we will not allow things to happen as they do now, that our faith is not really the opium that lets us be satisfied in the midst of an unjust world. Rather, precisely because we set our minds on things that are above and not on things that are on earth (Col. 3:2), we protest all the more stubbornly and purposefully on this earth-protest with word and deed in order to press on at any price. Then, does it have to be that Christianity, which once began in such a tremendously revolutionary fashion, is now conservative for all time? That every new movement must make its own way with­ out the church? That the church does not see what is actually happening until twenty years later? Does it really have to be that way?”

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I Want to Live These Days with You, devotional compiled from several of his writings

Colossians 3:2 ‘it matters’: “Does it matter if you get involved or not? It matters greatly-it matters to your character!
“Numerous needs and issues surround us. They summon us to stand up and be counted. While we will not be able to respond to all of them, the solution is not to respond to any of them! So let me ask you: When are you going to stand up, to stand alone, to answer the call of God in this hour?”

• Charles R. Swindoll, Bedside Blessings

Colossians 3:3 ‘without Christ, we gain nothing’: “Now remember the text again: ‘Hid with Christ in God’ (Colossians 3:3). If you gain the whole world and find not God in your own soul, what have you got? It’s worth nothing to you. Let’s search; let’s pray; let’s get still; let’s get quiet. Let’s learn the wonder of silence. Let’s learn the beauty, the secret of seeking after God. With our Bible open before us and our knees bent, all alone in humility and penitence, let us cry, ‘Only God, only God and God alone! Take the world but give me Jesus!’ Will you do that? We need it in the Church. We all need it. May God grant it in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

• A. W. Tozer, The Attributes of God I

Colossians 3:3 ‘Lost Thought’: ”’You have died’ (Col. 3:3), says the apostle, and he knows it well: if it is really true that our living or dying makes no difference before God, then our thinking also makes no difference. Then we could have a thousand thoughts about how much more beautiful and simple and edifying it would be to have a god with whom we could not get lost, yet these thousand thoughts would all be wrong. If it is true that we have died, then we must have this-that we have died-said to us by God himself. For a lost thought does not even know that it is lost. Neither the apostle Paul nor we would know anything of this line of death, this boundary, this lost condition, if God himself did not tell us about all of this. God himself talks with us. God himself comes to us. And God himself informs us that we are lost. When he does that, however, he whom we have lost is, of course, already with us, and we are the ones who have also long since been helped. Indeed, God makes fun of this, our whole lost condition, and triumphs over every­ thing that could separate us from him. His love has drawn us to him, and no worldly power can pull us out of his hand. This is the incomprehensibly wonderful thing that the apostle wants to say to us. He does not say, ‘You have died,’ to torment us or to plunge us into gloom, but solely because he can continue in the same breath: ‘and your life is hidden with Christ in God.’”

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I Want to Live These Days with You, devotional compiled from several of his writings

Colossians 3:5-6 ‘The Certainty of God’s Wrath’: “There is no question that the wrath of God will come upon all those who live as the old man or ‘old self’ (Greek, palaion anthropon) instead of as the ‘new self,’ who is born again by the work of Christ (Colossians 3:9-10). Those who are born again are the sons of light and the sons of day, not sons of the night and of darkness (1 Thessalonians 5:5). While the child of God has a new position in Christ, it is still possible for him to sin. Yet he can say no to sin (Romans 6:12-13) and is exhorted to ‘put on the new self’ (Colossians 3:10).
“Upon the lost, or the ‘sons of disobedience,’ ‘the wrath of God will come’ (Colossians 3:6). This wrath ‘is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in [by] unrighteousness’ (Romans 1:18). For those who live out sin as part of who they are, there is a judgment prophesied. Paul further writes in Romans, ‘We know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things’ (2:2). Wrath is being stored up for ‘the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God’ (verse 5). God will not only judge the acts of the lost but ‘according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus’ (verse 16).
“By contrast, those who are in Christ will be ‘justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus’ (3:24). They must put aside the works of the old self, such as ‘anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth’ (Colossians 3:8), and be renewed spiritually ‘to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him’ (verse 10). The final and ultimate renewal will happen when the believer is taken home to be with Christ in glory.”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Colossians 3:5 ‘Step One in defeating the earthly nature’: “God has already sentenced the earthly nature to death on the cross. When it manifests itself in us, we must treat it like a guilty prisoner under a death sentence. We are not to compromise with any of these practices. We are to put them away. That is step one.”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Colossians 3:8 ‘put off’: “A Gr. word used for taking off clothes (cf. Acts 7:58; Rom. 13:12–14; 1 Pet. 2:1). Like one who removes his dirty clothes at day’s end, believers must discard the filthy garments of their old, sinful lives. anger. A deep, smoldering bitterness; the settled heart attitude of an angry person (cf. Eph. 4:31; James 1:19, 20). wrath. Unlike God’s settled and righteous wrath (see … Rom. 1:18), this is a sudden outburst of sinful anger, usually the eruption that flows out of ‘anger’ (see … Gal. 5:20; cf. Luke 4:28; Acts 19:28; Eph. 4:31). malice. From the Gr. term that denotes general moral evil. Here it probably refers to the damage caused by evil speech (cf. 1 Pet. 2:1). blasphemy. The normal translation when this word refers to God. But here, since it refers to people, it is better translated ‘slander.’ To slander people, however, is to blaspheme God (James 3:9; cf. Matt. 5:22; James 3:10).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Colossians 3:9 ‘old man’: “The old, unregenerate self, originating in Adam (see … Rom. 5:12–14; 6:6; cf. Eph. 4:22).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Colossians 3:10 ‘regenerated’: “When you trust in Christ, you’re regenerated; you’re given a measure of the character of God, so that there is enough of the image restored that there can be quite a full measure of comparability. And that comparability allows God to draw feelingly near to a person. And it makes communion morally consistent.
“You can’t have communion where there is complete unlikeness. You may pet the head of a dog, but you can’t commune with the dog; there’s too great a dissimilarity of nature. In the same way, God cannot commune with a sinner because there is a violent unlikeness, a dissimilarity that makes communion impossible.
“But it says in Colossians 3:10, ‘Put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.’ That new man within you is the regenerated man-the new man who is you, started on your way toward Godlikeness. And there is enough of it there, even in the new convert, that God can commune without incongruity.
“God, being the God He is, can never commune with anything except His own likeness. And where there is no likeness there can be no fellowship between God and that unlike thing. The verse says we have ‘put on the new man.’ These Colossian Christians were not perfect by a long way, but they had put on the new man. The seed that was in them, the root of the matter, was in their hearts. They were regenerated so God could commune with His own image in them and see a little bit of His own face there and hold communion with His people. That’s why we can say, ‘Abba, Father’ (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6).”

• A. W. Tozer, The Attributes of God I

Colossians 3:12-14 ‘Step Two in defeating the earthly nature’: ”What does Paul mean? He is telling us that Christ already dwells in us. Since He lives within us, the challenge to us is simply to get ourselves out of His way and allow His life to be manifest in us. We are to allow these Christlike characteristics to bubble forth in our lives. His life in us will make them authentic not artificial.”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Colossians 3:13 ‘a spirit of love’: “What a model is set before us. How perfect is that spirit of love that we are to manifest!  Even as Christ forgave us, we are bidden to forgive others. What nobler pattern could have been chosen?  Your Lord himself stands before you. You remember how he forgave you all your trespasses.  And I am sure you will give earnest heed to his exhortation to forgive.  May the dovelike Spirit now brood over this assembly and create love in all our hearts.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Colossians 3:14 ‘being cordial’: “Being cordial starts with the heart, as I see it. It begins with the deep-seated belief that the other person is important, genuinely significant, deserving of my undivided attention, my unrivaled interest, if only for a few seconds. Encouraged by such a belief, I am prompted to be sensitive to that person’s feelings. If he is uneasy and self-conscious, cordiality alerts me to put him at ease. If she is shy, cordiality provides a relief. If he is bored, cordiality stimulates and invigorates him. If she is sad, cordiality brings cheer. What a needed and necessary virtue it is!”

• Charles R. Swindoll, Bedside Blessings

Colossians 3:15 ‘the peace of God’: “The Gr. word ‘peace’ here refers to both the call of God to salvation and consequent peace with Him (see … Rom. 5:1), and the attitude of rest or security (Phil. 4:7) believers have because of that eternal peace.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Colossians 3:16-17 ‘Richer by the Word’: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you. Whatever you say and do, in word or deed, do it all for the glory of God. Daily living. Each day, every day. Regardless of what you are called to do as an occupation.
“When I was coaching, I made a point to have regular Bible studies and chapels for our players and our staff. Tuesday was the coaches’ Bible study, and Friday was the team Bible study with the players. Many men met in smaller groups throughout the week to pray together. Game weekends always included a chapel service for which we would have a speaker come in and share a message from Scripture. Sometimes I would share. Sometimes another coach on our staff would share. And sometimes we would have a person we knew and trusted from outside our team and organization come in to share with us a word of direction and encouragement.
“Our hope in those settings, as should be the case with any Bible study or prayer group, was to continually plant the empowering and affirming message of Christ in the listeners’ hearts and then allow that message to work according to God’s purposes in each of them.
“To let the word of Christ dwell within them.”

• Tony Dungy, Uncommon Life – Daily Challenge (excerpt from devotion for 12 November)

Colossians 3:16 ‘the word of Christ’: “Remember that Christ himself is the Word of God, and also remember that the Scriptures are the word of the Word. They are ‘the word of Christ.’ I think they will be all the sweeter to us if we realize they speak to us of Christ, that he is the sum and substance of them, that they direct us to Christ. Remember, also, that the Scriptures do, in effect, come to us from Christ. Every promise of this blessed book is a promise of Christ, ‘For every one of God’s promises is “Yes” in him. Therefore, through him we also say “Amen” to the glory of God’ (2Co 1:20). They all come to us through Christ; God speaks them to us through him as the mediator. Indeed, we may regard the whole of the sacred Scriptures, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, as being ‘the word of Christ.’”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Colossians 3:17 ‘work – a form of worship’: “Have you seen the painting The Angelus by Jean-Francois Millet? It portrays two peasants praying in their field. A church steeple sits on the horizon, and a light falls from heaven. The rays do not fall on the church, however. They don’t fall on the bowed heads of the man and woman. The rays of the sun fall on the wheelbarrow and the pitchfork at the couple’s feet.
“God’s eyes fall on the work of our hands. Our Wednesdays matter to him as much as our Sundays. He blurs the secular and sacred. One stay-at-home mom keeps this sign over her kitchen sink: ‘Divine tasks performed here, daily.’ An executive hung this plaque in her office: ‘My desk is my altar.’ Both are correct. With God, our work matters as much as our worship. Indeed, work can be worship. “

• Max Lucado, Next Door Savior

Colossians 3:18-24 ‘The Reward of an Inheritance’: “Here, Paul addresses the social and moral conduct of the Christians in the church at Colossae. What he says is applicable to all believers for all time. Paul is concerned that wives be subject to their husbands (Colossians 3:18), that husbands be loving to their wives (verse 19), that children be obedient to their parents (verse 20), and finally, that fathers be fair with their children (verse 21).”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Colossians 3:18-22, 4:1 ‘instructions to show God’s love in your life’: ”Paul goes on to list certain specific areas in which these characteristics are to show forth in our lives.“

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Colossians 3:18 ‘submit’: “See … Eph. 5:22, 23. The Gr. verb means ‘to subject oneself,’ which denotes willingly putting oneself under someone or something (cf. Luke 2:51; 10:17, 20; Rom. 8:7; 13:1, 5; 1 Cor. 15:27, 28; Eph. 1:22).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Colossians 3:19 ‘love’: “See … Eph. 5:25–29. This is a call for the highest form of love which is rendered selflessly (cf. Gen. 24:67; Eph. 5:22–28; 1 Pet. 3:7). be bitter. The form of this Gr. verb is better translated ‘stop being bitter,’ or ‘do not have the habit of being bitter.’ Husbands must not be harsh or angrily resentful toward their wives.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Colossians 3:20 ‘in all things’: “See … Eph. 6:1–3. The only limit on a child’s obedience is when parents demand something contrary to God’s Word. For example, some children will act contrary to their parents’ wishes even in coming to Christ (cf. Luke 12:51–53; 14:26).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Colossians 3:21 ‘What Fathers Should Know Best’: ”My father was always a part of my life, always involved in what his kids were doing. And though I doubt I’ve done that for my kids as well as he did for his, I’ve tried to follow his example. I strongly believe in the importance of a father’s role.
“I worry about the vacuum left in our culture by absentee fathers. I know the obstacles can be enormous; a lot of men are divorced or have jobs that keep them on the road much of the time. It’s hard to balance meeting the family’s financial needs with meeting their emotional needs. I’ve had a lot of conversations with men recently, asking about how to determine God’s will for them in balancing jobs that provide for the family with responsibility to be around and involved with the parenting. As you know, I struggled with this for a few years myself.
“And even when a man is in the home, he can become an ‘absentee father’ by turning his kids over to the TV set or video games, or to, other people. The children often get the leftovers of dad’s time. His goals are often good-to advance a career or to enjoy a social life. But an even better goal-to support and encourage his kids or simply be there at bedtime-goes unmet.
“Those of us who are fathers need to be careful to not become absentee dads-at any level, whether by being away from home too much or by being unavailable when we’re there. Too many kids, especially young men and boys, are growing up without a male role model in the house. Our society often equates fatherhood with financial support, but it’s so much more. A father’s relationship with his daughter strongly influences her relationships with men, her sexual behavior, and her marriage. And a father’s relationship with his son strongly influences how the son behaves as a man. He learns to be a good husband and father by observing his own father.
“If you’re a father, be there for your children. There is no better way to make a mark in this world, to shape the next generation, and to leave a lasting legacy than to show love and acceptance to your own kids. Be there as much as you can. “

• Tony Dungy, Uncommon Life – Daily Challenge (excerpt from devotion for 29 May)

Colossians 3:23-24 ‘Working for the Boss’: “When I was a player with the Pittsburgh Steelers, we were blessed not only to have men who were great players on our team, but also men with a strong faith in Christ, who tried to do everything to honor and glorify God. To them, He was their ultimate Coach.
“And things were different within our team as a result. They wanted to please Coach Noll, but they answered to a higher standard. And when I became their position coach a couple of years later, even though I was much younger than them, rather than taking advantage of the situation, they worked harder than ever. They were working for the Lord.
“I wonder what would happen if we began to think that way about our work. I suspect our passion for what we were doing would change drastically if we felt God was in charge. I suspect our potential would be enhanced, discovered, and sharpened. Think about all of those gifts, abilities, and talents we have or are just discovering.
“Imagine how good we would be if God were fine-tuning and coaching us to perform and use them even more!
“Our purpose might take on a clearer focus as we see things we can do differently and things we should be doing to help others.
“Our platform-our opportunities to influence and add value to the lives of others-would expand as others were drawn to our new and positive outlook.
“But wait! Isn’t God already our boss? Isn’t He the one we ultimately should be answering to each day? Isn’t God the one who has given us the gifts, abilities, and talents to use at work, home, and in other settings? Isn’t He the voice of encouragement in our lives? And doesn’t He offer direction and guidance through His Word and through others?
“God is your boss! You’ve got to love that!”

• Tony Dungy, Uncommon Life – Daily Challenge (excerpt from devotion for 15 October)

My Thoughts

Paul exhorts us to set our hearts above, and our minds above.  We are to strive to be more like Christ every day, and setting our hearts and minds above – keeping our eyes on Jesus – is the means to accomplish that goal.

We are to put to death the lust, greed, and idolatry for all three are idolatry.  In Colossians 3:8, Paul mentions several bad things we should be putting to death within us.  These things hold us back.

But in Colossians 3:12, he tells us to put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  We are to forgive as Jesus forgave us.  We are to seek unity.  In love, and showing the attributes Paul suggests, it is much easier to seek unity.

We are to praise God and worship Him in psalms, hymns, and songs of the Spirit.  We are to show gratitude.  Since psalms and hymns are synonymous, this distinction may be in hymns that are not canonized in Scripture where the psalms are.  I know some churches that only sing the psalms, but some psalms have a variety of tunes for the psalm.  I remember singing a psalm at my niece’s wedding to the tune of Amazing Grace.  With some of the psalms slightly modified to get the meter correct, they can be adaptable to music with that meter.  There will be more on this in the Sunday mini-series using Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, psalms.  But with this redundancy, hymns could be added over the centuries as we see in modern hymnbooks.  And the songs of the Spirit of Paul’s day might have been what we call worship songs, songs designed for a higher connection with God using repetition and a single theme.

Paul ends this chapter with a shortened version of what he said in Ephesians 5-6.  He uses the same order.  He speaks to wives, then husbands, then children, then fathers, and finally slaves.  He goes into less detail with wives and husbands but uses the central theme of wives submitting and husbands loving.  The advice to fathers is to not frustrate the child.  Maybe not set the goal too high.  Maybe set the goal on a graduating scale so that one success breeds higher success – doing the same thing with our children that God does with us.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

Colossians 3: 1. We get all too used to ‘earthly nature’ clothing. Which aspect of your old nature feels like a comfortable old T-shirt to you now? Why is it difficult to shed or remove?
“2. With what piece of Christ’s wardrobe would you like to replace it? Which aspect of Christ’s character do you need to clothe yourself with, in relation to your husband or wife? Your parents or children? Your employer or employees?
“3. How can your small group help with your clothing selection?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

Colossians 3 has one set of questions.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.