“Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13. Bear with each other and forgive what grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them together in perfect unity.”
Some people had come to Colossae and called that church away from the primacy of Jesus to legalism. (These people were commonly called "Judaizers," who taught that one had to become a Jew before becoming a Christian.) Paul is calling upon them to keep their focus on Christ. In our text verses, he is reminding them about the Christian lifestyle. This has not changed, and it is good advice for us. In verse 12, Paul called them to “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” A close look at these virtues will reveal that they are virtues practiced by Jesus in His sojourn on earth. We are called upon to be compassionate and kind. This seems simple, but if we will reflect on our feelings and reactions to other people, we will know that we need to work on these two virtues. Today people are becoming more and more callous towards each other. If we are not careful, we will be callous as well. I try to remind myself when I get in a “heated” situation that I must be compassionate and kind. All of Adam’s blood in me wants to strike back, but the blood of Christ that saved me reminds me to be compassionate and kind. (Paul didn’t promise that it would be easy.) This is where humility and gentleness (meekness) comes in. We have to remember that we are not out to win arguments or to lord it over people. Like Jesus, we are to be humble and gentle in our relationships with people. This does not mean that we lie on the ground and invite people to walk over us. What it means is that we are confident enough in our faith that we don’t have to “win” to feel good about ourselves. We are also urged to be patient with other people. To me this is the most difficult of the virtues listed here. We just need to remember that when we become impatient and argue, we have closed off our witness. This is how we should live if we want to be effective witnesses of Jesus. In verse 13, Paul told them “bear with each other and forgive what grievances you may have against one another.” We need to know that grievances are the most prominent of sins committed in churches. When we live in community with people, things happen that cause us to disagree, and, if we aren’t careful, we will form grievances. This is what causes churches to split. We are called upon to be better than that. This is what happens in the world all of the time, which a quick perusal of a newspaper will show us. It should be different in Christ’s church. Instead of holding grievances against each other, we should forgive one another. We seem to think that to forgive someone, against whom we hold grievances, will take something away from us. That is one of Satan’s great lies that keep our churches from being effective witnesses to our communities. Paul told them to “forgive as the Lord forgave you.” The Lord practiced grace on us and we are to practice grace on others. In verse 14, Paul told them, “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” If we don’t love people, we can’t practice the virtues mentioned in this text. When we love as God loves, we will be able to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patient. We will be able to forgive others instead of forming grievances. We need to check our love quotient, and see if we are living as we should live based on this text. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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