Growing in the peace of Christ – Colossians 3:5-4:2 at part of the turn

Sermon notes from week four of our series on the book of Colossians. This brings me all up-to-date. Growing in the Peace of Christ (3:5-4:2)

Personal Peace (3:5-8)
Peace on the Body of Christ (3:9-14)
Peace of Christ (3:15-17)
Peace with families (3:18-21)
Peace in business relationships (3:22-4:2)

Introduction

This gospel of peace, extends to our environment, the crisis in Darfur, the AIDS pandemic, violence in the middle east and every other crisis our planet faces.
But what how does that happen?
How do we see this come through?
Living like it matters

Personal Peace

Colossians 3:5-8

“Put to death therefore, whatever belongs to the 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 rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.”

Many people and many churches focus on one of these groups

So what we have is people, groups and even churches that grow one of two ways
- Some people are very strict about the first group. That are try to peek into everyone’s bedrooms to make sure that everything is on the up-and-up but at the same time go around gossiping about what everyone else is up to.
- Others, are so careful about being nice and protecting unity that they don’t confront physical immorality and no one offends anyone
Neither of these ways, we are taught is the way of Jesus.
Paul teaches us the the way of Jesus is a way that has ended both selfish indulgence and self-promotion.
On our own, we pursue what feels good to us, and we don’t mind put others down on the way to getting it.
The Jesus life says, “hold on” there is something better then serving yourself and making yourself look great.

Peace in the family of God

Colossians 3:9-11

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 Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

And Jesus says, because we don’t pursue selfish gain, we tell each other truth.
And truth is harder then we think it is. Truth is sometimes messy, sometime hurts, but we tell the truth because truth brings freedom and truth shows that we value the people around us a human beings created in the image of God.
Think of that, truth in difficult circumstance show an incredible respect for another person. A respect, that for a Christian, is rooted in the belief that the God of the universe loves and values the people that you interact with.
And this new found appreciation for the world around us is what being, “renewed in knowledge in the image of the Creator”.
And what does it mean – we are all the same and incredible valuable.
We divide, Jew and Greek, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free.
We divide by nationality, religion, class and caste.
The message of Jesus is that our divisions need not apply to His kingdom.
So if we say no to self promotion, no to self-advancement, no to self-superiority, what do we say “YES” to?

Colossians 3:12-14

12 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 whatever 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 all together in perfect unity.

Peace of Christ

Colossians 3:15-17

15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 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.

And so all this happens and it is all very theoretical. Very in your heart, you work it out stuff. But Paul gets detailed.

Peace with families and at work (3:18-21)

18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

21 Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.

22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything

4:1 Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair…

In light of everything we’ve studied today, Paul offers this advice to different groups of people. Why does he offer the advice he does?
I want to suggest today, that God knows the heart of people pretty well. He knows our strengths and he knows our weaknesses.
But the choice of words, leaves some awkwardness for us today.
- Should wives just do everything husbands say?
- Should children obey even when the rules are stupid?
- Should salves listen to masters when slavery is wrong?
These are tough questions and I want to try and deal with them quickly as an exercise in seeing how what God the peace of God looks like
Three verses I want to draw to your attention. Two of which we have already read.
- Colossians 3:11 says, “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”
- Colossians 3:12-14 says, “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 whatever 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 all together in perfect unity.”
- Ephesians 5:21 says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
And what see in these three passages is that Paul has already clearly said that everybody should be doing all the things that he mentions specifically here.
So does Paul like repeating himself, or do we need it to be repeated?
Here’s my take. God knows our hearts and He knows them better then we like to admit.
- Guys, do you ever have a hard time not being harsh? Are you known as being real gentle?
- Ladies, do you ever have a hard time not insisting on the last word? Do you always let things go?
- Sons and daughters, do you ever not want to do what you’re told?
- Guys again, do you ever like to show off?
- We all struggle with all of these things, but if we honest, most guys struggle with different things then girls. It’s the way we’re made. God more then anyone knows this.
- In your humility, search your heart, especially for the things pointed directly at you
Lastly, slaves.
- Colossians 3:11 has already said that in Christ there is no slave or free, but in Paul’s day, slavery still existed.
- As Christians we don’t ignore what is happening in the world even if it is evil.
- Some of the people who heard Paul’s letter were slaves, some were masters. That’s the way it was.
- Question:
- - As an employee do you ever resist what you are told?
  - Boss, are you ever tempted to take advantage of the people that work for you?
- Now, if Christian Master’s were hearing this letter, they may be getting an education. They may be rethinking the master-slave relationship entirely. They may be setting there slaves free, or raising them to the status of employee.
- The truth is the relationship between salve and master in Roman cities was a far different and even more complicated then what we think of today.
- There were actually several kinds of people. Citizens, freemen, barbarians, slaves
- The gospel rejects that form though.

Conclusion

The gospel brings:
- Personal Peace (3:5-8)
- Peace on the Body of Christ (3:9-14)
- Peace of Christ (3:15-17)
- Peace with families (3:18-21)
- Peace in business relationships (3:22-4:2)
We tend to make it about us, but it goes far, far past us.
It extends to through Christ to our church, our families, our workplaces.
It goes even farther then that.
This gospel of peace, extends to our environment, the crisis in Darfur, the AIDS pandemic, violence in the middle east and every other crisis our planet faces.
At the beginning of the book of Luke, the author describes a scene of some shepherds

Luke 28 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ[a] the Lord.