Streams of Living Water

Whenever someone comes to me and says, “I want to become a Christian”, if I feel that they are genuine, I tend to lead them through four steps – first, something to admit – that they are a sinner and need forgiveness; secondly, something to believe – that Jesus died on the cross to make the forgiveness of our sins possible. The fourth thing is something to do – to ask the Lord Jesus to forgive your sins and to commit yourself to Him. But the third thing is something to consider – I always tell them that being a Christian isn’t the easy option; it is not the road of least resistance – rather, it’s a life of self-denial and discipleship.
The major area in which the Christian life isn’t easy is in the area of actively, purposefully, saying goodbye to sin in our lives. We have been saved by grace in Jesus, and now, through the empowering grace of Jesus, we must aim to put any sin we find in ourselves to death. And that is the teaching of Colossians 3:5-11, where Paul now turns his attention to practical issues in the Christian life – namely, living holy lives from day to day.

I want to look at three things from this passage today: first, saying goodbye to sin is hard work; secondly, what are the sins we need to say goodbye to and then lastly, why should we say goodbye to sin.
[A] Saying Goodbye is Hard Work
There is a certain breed of Christianity which, over the years, has given rise to something known as ‘easy-believism’ or ‘cheap grace’. Although its proponents would never use such terms, what they are teaching and what they are living amounts to saying that now we are saved by believing in Christ, it doesn’t really matter how we live. We can, basically, live just like we used to before we came to know Jesus Christ. And so Brittany Spears can call herself a Christian and yet live a worse life than most non-Christians. To remain unchanged by salvation is not to be saved at all – because when Jesus comes into your life, He inevitably changes you – and if you are not changed, then it is a sign that you don’t have Jesus at all.
Over the last few weeks we have been considering the amazing things God has done for us in Christ Jesus – reconciling us to Himself, winning the victory for us, raising us to new life and giving us the promise of glory with Christ. We have criticised and pointed out the faults of the Colossian false teachers who so rigorously disciplined themselves in an attempt to subdue their sensual desires, because in their minds the world was an evil place to be shunned. We have seen that the Christian faith is first and foremost concerned not with our outer actions, but with our inner relationship to God through Christ. We have seen that outward restrictions do not deal with a sinful heart – it takes setting our minds on things above – setting our minds on Jesus – filling our minds with Him, not just emptying them of the rubbish of this world.
But, unruly children that we are, we try to wriggle free from the consequences of filling our minds with Christ Jesus – we try and say, ‘that’s enough’ – and of course, in one sense it is because salvation is through faith alone in Christ alone. But as it has been said before, the faith that saves is never alone – it is always accompanied by good works. If the wonder of Jesus fills our minds, surely we must, through His empowerment and strength, bring our behaviour and character into line with His.
This outward change and transformation is what Paul is now talking about – that outward change which must necessarily result from an inward change. And far from being easy, it is very hard to do and doesn’t come naturally to us as human beings. That’s why three times in Colossians 3:5-11, Paul commands us to do something – in vs. 5 ‘Put to death’, in vs. 8 ‘Put off’ and in vs. 9 ‘Do Not’. The apostle is showing us the outworking of the inward principle of grace in our lives – or in other words, this is what the man who has his mind filled with Christ will aspire to. And he will make every effort to bring his character and outward behaviour into line with the new life he now enjoys in Christ Jesus.
And this seriously hard work! The apostle Paul knew all about it – in 1 Corinthians 9:27 he tells us that ‘he disciplines his body’. Later on, he talks about the Christian life as being a battle in which we, as soldiers take our stand against the principalities and powers. The Christian is an athlete, straining towards the goal; a farmer, working hard to produce fruit; a wrestler agonising in the struggle. Saying goodbye to sin in our lives is a fight every Christian must be engaged in. We take commands and we, in dependence upon God’s promised strength, and having our minds filled with the expulsive power of a new affection – the mind filled with Christ, we determine to put them into practice. Are you fighting the good fight of faith? Are you disciplining yourself to bring your character and behaviour into line with who you are in Christ Jesus? Not in order to win salvation, but to work out your salvation and become more like Christ? There must be no ‘cheap grace’ – believing in Christ must make a difference or there is no belief in the first place.
[B] The Things we Say Goodbye To
The sins which Paul commands the Colossians, and by extension we also, to rid ourselves are composed of two sections of 5, with 1 in addition in the second section. The first group are concerned mainly with sexual sin, or sins of the heart, and the second group are concerned mainly with vocal sin, or sins of the mouth.
1. Sins of the Heart – clearly, talking about sexual sin has never been popular in the church. Even the early church Father St. Chrysostom prefaced his comments on these verses by saying, “Forgive, O forgive! I have no wish to violate decency by discoursing upon such subjects, but I am compelled to do it.” I want to say a couple of things by way of introduction to the sins listed in vs. 5. First of all, a word about origins. We live in a relatively Victorian society, whereas the earliest Christians lived in extremely permissive societies, where prostitution, paedophilia and homosexuality were far more prevalent than they are today. Many of the early Christians had come from these backgrounds. They were no innocent roses – masters were permitted to legally sexually abuse their slaves. Secondly, a word about what Paul means when he begins vs. 5 by saying, ‘put to death therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature’. When he talks of those things which belong to our earthly nature, he is talking about those things which previously we had used to satisfy our own desires – we had offered them up to ourselves as God. But now, he is saying, it’s time to offer them up to God instead – for His pleasure and not yours. Previous to our coming to know Jesus, we had used our body for pleasure – that was it’s function; but Paul is saying that we are to put that attitude to death – no mercy – using our bodies merely for the satisfaction of our own sinful desires is to be squashed and destroyed. Thirdly, an introductory word about the order in which the list is presented – it begins with the open, most external member of the group – fornication and ends with what lies on the inside – idolatry. The external sin is sexual immorality, but that sexual immorality finds its source and motivation in the internal sin of covetousness and idolatry. Every external sinful act finds its origin in a sin in the heart. See the ruthlessness of Paul in taking all our sins back to the heart!
Let’s quickly go through the list we have before us in Colossians 3:5: Sexual Immorality, literally fornication or pornography, refers to any kind of illicit sexual intercourse outside of marriage (it may also refer to unnatural acts of sexual intercourse within marriage). For Paul to forbid such sexual immorality therefore includes him forbidding pre-marital sex, extra-marital sex, homosexual sex, paedophilia, incest, self-pleasure and the viewing of pornography. These acts were freely committed by the Colossians before they became Christians, but now they are Christ’s, they are to be completely different – pure and undefiled. Impurity is another way of talking about sexual immorality. Lust, or lustful passion, is the domination of your will by your desires and emotions. In the New Testament references, it always denotes shameful passions which lead to sexual excesses. Lust with reference to sexual thoughts dominating your mind, does not merely include thinking about illicit partners, but also sexual thoughts at inappropriate times. Evil desires is a further description of the sexual nature of the sins Paul is listing in vs. 5 – it is the complete domination of your mind, and the development of your will, by sinful, carnal desires.
Paul completes and summarises the list with ‘greed which is idolatry’. Greed, or covetousness, is a sin of the heart – a sin which basically says, “I wish God hadn’t made me as He has”, or, “I wish God had given me different life circumstances”, like for example, “I wish God had given me that wife and not the one I have”, or “I wish God would give me a wife instead of, at this stage, calling me to be single”. It’s greed, it’s covetousness – it’s putting another god upon the throne of our hearts – it is crowning the satisfaction of our own carnal desires king, rather than King Jesus – it is setting our minds on sexual desire rather than on the things above.
Again, forgive, forgive, I have no intention of violating decency – but this is the plain teaching of God’s Word. But before I leave this subject, just a word applying the message from last week to this topic of sexual sin which is idolatry. The first thing to say is that there is forgiveness available from the Lord Jesus Christ to cover all your sexual sins – the medieval church used to say that these sins were unforgivable, but they aren’t. The Colossians, who were enmeshed in this way of life found forgiveness in Christ, and so can you. The key to getting rid of lust is to set your mind on things above – to so fill your minds with Christ and to find all your satisfaction and delight in Him that there will be no room left for illicit sexual desire. God made sex to be enjoyed in a lifelong, monogamous, committed relationship with Christ as Head and King. Within that rubric, there is no need to find our carnal satisfaction outside of what God has so generously given us. And, if you struggle with that, as most people do, then find the strength to put your carnal desires to death by setting your minds on the wonder of knowing Christ Jesus.
2. Sins of the Mouth – the second group of vices listed in vs. 8 and 9 refer to sins which, in contrast to those listed in vs. 5, begin with the attitude of the heart – anger – and move out to the external, public exhibition of that attitude – ‘filthy language from your lips’. The message of this list nicely complements the message of vs. 5 – sins of the heart will eventually, but inevitably find expression in sinful acts. It is interesting to note, before we go on, that the list of vs. 8 has never been taken as seriously as the list of vs. 5 – and yet, at least in these lists, Paul treats them just as seriously as any other. It really isn’t OK for someone to be hate-filled and yet be sexually pure, just the same as it isn’t OK for someone to be sexually impure and yet completely honest about it.
Let’s quickly run through the list of sins in vs. 8, because it is impossible in the time to go through each in detail. The first two – anger and rage are very similar characteristics, both leading to outbursts of temper. However, some people may be very angry people but never break out in a temper. But angry people always show it – not always in the alpha male shouting match, but even in psychosomatic illnesses involving energy levels and the digestion. Human anger and rage are both inner problems which manifest themselves in outer symptoms. And Paul says that we must rid ourselves of them – how? By filling our minds with the Christ of peace and love. Malice is an evil force that destroys fellowship between believers – it is an attitude which tries to deliberately harm others – perhaps not physically, but in some other way. Malice towards another will naturally lead to slander and filthy language – since slander and foul abusive language are the principle way human beings try to hurt other human beings – by destroying their reputations. Slander and foul language against other Christians is never acceptable – but when you hear it coming from someone else, or when you hear it coming from your own lips – remember that there is a sin under that sin – the principle sin is that of anger in the heart. Finally, Paul prohibits lying and deception to one another –rather we must be truthtellers, who can always be relied upon, in every situation, to tell the truth, whatever the cost to ourselves.
Avoid these things like the plague – destroy them in your life as though you were fighting a battle against a merciless foe – because it is kill or be killed. What will it be?
[C] Why We Say Goodbye
When we were young children, our parents sometimes told us to do something, or not to do something, but they didn’t explain why. Maybe they thought we were too young to understand. God doesn’t treat us like that – He always gives us reasons for saying goodbye to sin. In Colossians 3:5-11 Paul gives us six motivating reasons – we’re going to say goodbye to evil desires, greed, anger and hate –and all for these six reasons:
1. They are bringing forth God’s Wrath (vs. 6) – with reference particularly to the first list we looked at, in vs. 5, these things bring forth God’s wrath and anger. Now Paul isn’t saying here that God’s wrath is directed towards Christians – after all, Christ has taken away God’s wrath by bearing it all on our behalf – whatever sins they may be. But what he is saying is that speaking about God’s coming wrath to Christians is a solemn reminder of what would have happened to them if they had continued to live in their former pagan ways. Besides which, if we love someone, we avoid doing those things which anger them or they find offensive. If we love someone, but go out of our way to spite them, then quite simply, we really don’t love them at all. What does it say about us if we say we love God but do the very things He despises and is angry with?
2. They belong to our Past (vs. 7) – these sins listed in vs. 5 and 8 belong to the past – they characterised us before we came to know Christ – they belong to our past but now everything is new. If you come to church via the expressway you will notice the tall ship at Finnieston is still advertising for it’s hogmanay celebrations – “bring in the year on the tall ship” it says, “$40.00 per person”. But Hogmanay passed a month ago – but the ship still has a sign up basically saying that what is in the past is still true. Do you have a sign up in your life saying that what is past is still true of you – by your sins of the heart and of the mouth are you suggesting that you have never really come to know Jesus? Rather, relegate these things to the past and bring your life in line with who you now are in Christ.
3. They contradict who we now are (vs. – this is a re-iteration of the previous point. If we are now in Christ, and Christ is in us – for us to remain in sin is a contradiction – an anomaly. That’s why Paul says, “but now, put off”. Who we are now is not who we were before we came to know Jesus. The time has come now to be who we really are in Him – and that involves saying goodbye to the sins of the heart or the sins of the mouth. If you remain in them, then your behaviour is contradicting your profession and you become some kind of spiritual schizophrenic.
4. They don’t fit with what God is doing in us (vs. 10) – according to Paul, God has made all things new – its not that He is making us new, He has made us new creatures in Christ Jesus. Notice the past tense – it’s something that is complete – we have taken off the old and have put on the new. It’s already happened. This new self is being renewed day by day in knowledge in the image of its Creator. In other words, God is working within us to make us like Himself – and this involves us saying goodbye to the sins of the heart and the sins of the mouth. God never covets, never lies, never hates – if we would be like Him, we must not either. To stay in our sin is to suggest that God isn’t working us in at all.
5. They promote strife among Christians (vs. 11a) – The chief motive for avoiding sins of the mouth is given to us in vs. 11, where, in a masterful stroke of the pen, Paul destroys all the boundaries which once existed between different ethnic groupings and social classes. In Christ, there is no Greek nor Jew, uncircumcised and uncircumcised, Barbarian, Scythian, slave or free – all the major boundaries which divide one human being from another are destroyed. But now, by our sins of the mouth and of the heart, we erect these boundaries again. By hating a brother, what we are implicitly saying is that the brother we hate isn’t as valuable to God as we are – that he is somehow of lesser importance – that he is a different kind of Christian, when in fact there is only one kind of Christian. Sins of the mouth and heart divide one Christian from another. How much strife in the Christian church has been caused by greed and by wrong speech? The way we use our tongues is probably the single biggest agent of division in the church. Avoid division, and say goodbye to these sins.
6. They have nothing to do with Christ (vs. 11b) – ultimately, these sins bring no glory to Christ. Have you ever heard someone saying, “Glory to God in the Highest, because that Christian lied?” It is when we are different, when we do good works, that people will give thanks to our Father who is in heaven. If you want to bring great glory to Christ by your lifestyle, then say goodbye to sins of the heart and sins of the mouth.