Second, we should continually "set" our minds on the things of heaven (our spiritual blessings and hope, our Saviors desires, etc.) That is the meaning of all that seems good in the world's piety. God knows that the greatest need that the woman has is to know that she is loved, that she is loved supremely. When we were going through Ephesians, he said, "Obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Make sure that we're not making unreasonable demands upon them, taking away their humanness, causing discouragement. There are many nice shades in detail; but I have referred now to that which is the principal point whence the two lines of truth diverge. Do we look for such a happiness, and should we not set our affections upon that world, and live above this? But still there is growth supposed. For really you are dead to them, and that's the principal he is teaching. ( Matthew 11:30). You have seen the clouds gather in the sky and settle on the hills. But there is always a problem in the relationship of parent and child. In this passage Paul speaks of the things of which the Christian must divest himself, and in Colossians 3:12 he will continue the picture and speak of the things which the Christian must put on. Paul returned to his thought about the believers union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection (Colossians 2:9-15). But I must repeat that there is not a single apostle who so much as speaks of being justified by faith, except the apostle of the Gentiles. A blaze of light springs up among the hills; the storm ceases; the gloom is . In his autobiography, Memory to Memory, Sir Arnold Lunn has a chapter on Cyril Joad, the well-known philosopher, whom he knew well. There could be no fellowship in the ancient world between a slave and a free man. Circumcised and uncircumcised were drawn together in the one fellowship. To me to live is Christ,Philippians 1:21. There are no enemies so deadly as those who, having received enough truth to over-balance them and to abuse to their own self-exaltation, turn again, and would rend the church of God, wherein they learnt all that gives them power to be specially mischievous. As we have reason to love him whom we have not seen (1 Peter 1:8), so we may take the comfort of a happiness out of sight, and reserved in heaven for us. In view of the freedom that Christ has won for them, the Colossian believers must not listen to those who try to force them to obey the rules and regulations of the Israelite law. It is a spiritual kingdom for those who are living and walking after the Spirit, regardless of what you may say or affirm to be so. Occasions of sin must be avoided: the lusts of the flesh, and the love of the world; and covetousness, which is idolatry; love of present good, and of outward enjoyments. We need the positive as well as the negative; and as we have just had the latter, so the former now comes before us. In it is another kind of blessedness and glory; for it a new order of existence appears; and not least of all beings we ought to understand this difference. If the peace of Jesus Christ is the umpire in any man's heart, then, when feelings clash and we are pulled in two directions at the same time, the decision of Christ will keep us in the way of love and the Church will remain the one body it is meant to be. You're His servant. Everything which would keep him from fully obeying God and fully surrendering to Christ must be surgically excised. Luther himself said, "Spare the rod and spoil the child. He has annulled the power of him that had the power of death that word so terrible for the heart of man, and most surely foreign to the mind and heart of our God and Father, but a stern necessity that came in through rebellion. The apostle addresses the Colossian Christians in terms substantially similar to those which are addressed to the saints at Ephesus. 3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Or to come at it another way, the man whose life is dominated by the desire to get things has set up things in the place of God--and that precisely is idolatry. It was not so unmingled an address as where he views them simply as they were in Christ. And what a deliverance from self to see Christ in them! It becomes something which is entered into not merely for the convenience of the husband, but in order that both husband and wife may find a new joy and a new completeness in each other. Then come general injunctions. He uses the same line of thought in Romans 8:13: "If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live." 3:18-25 Wives, be submissive to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 209.]. That's not a wise thing to do. And now He is risen from the dead, the beginning of a new order of existence altogether; and as He is the Head, so the church is His body founded, indeed, on Christ, but on Him dead and risen. There is more said even here to maintain the full glory of Christ. They have undoubtedly taught that which is consistent with it and even supposes it. When Christ, who is our life, [Now, you see this is the key to it right here. He looks not at some advanced souls at Colosse, but at all the saints there. But the apostle meant not so much to administer consolation to these Colossian saints as to caution them. And as a rule, it is always what God is actually doing that is the urgently needed truth. There Jew or Gentile is all alike, and those who believe the gospel are by the Spirit united to Him as His body, Here the Gentiles in particular have Him in them, the pledge of their participating in His heavenly glory by and by. Therefore, we should not be guilty of these things. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God ( Colossians 3:2-3 ). As to the Jewish rites and feasts that some were endeavouring to re-impose, take for an instance the Sabbath, which is the stronger, because it was from the beginning of the first man, yet unfallen, and of course long before the Jewish people. Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve [are a servant of] the Lord Christ ( Colossians 3:24 ). You had such a good attitude. The significant thing is that every one of these three words originally belonged, as it were, to the Jews. He belonged to God's chosen people and the other nations were fit only to be fuel for the fires of hell. It presented to us the person of Him who was to reconcile; in itself it was thus a most important step towards the reconciliation; but, in fact, there was no reconciliation yet for a solitary soul: the cross of Christ wrought it all. require us to pronounce on evil ways in order to look into this evil doctrine or that; but the apostle speaks now of the saints in their ordinary and normal manner. Then he gives a specimen of these: "Touch not; taste not; handle not." And then, as he gives this long list of things, parallel list here, he said that, "They which do such things are deserving death" ( Romans 1:32 ). The first two chapters present Christ's person and work and the last two His peace and presence. Christians must put off slander and foul talk and they must not lie to one another. And what was to be done? Set your affections on things above,. For unless the affections are set on them, they will never be sought after in a proper manner. There might be a word of God which was not in the same way the word of Christ. The first 2 chapters present Christ as our Lord, Chapter 3 presents Christ as our Life and Chapter 4 presents Christ as our Love. He applies the truth to the case in hand after this: "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven us all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us." The fundamental effect of this Christian teaching is that marriage becomes a partnership. But there is a contrary danger. It was the experience of the early Christians that the very act of baptism wrapped a man round with Christ. There is death and burial of all we were; but there is here at least resurrection with Christ death and resurrection. So, in spiritual things, the mere taking up and repeating thoughts, deep and high but unproved experience, cannot be the fruit of the Spirit of God's teaching. "He is the head of all principality and power: in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh [for so it runs] by the circumcision of Christ: buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen.". She trusts my judgment; she trusts my wisdom. Commentary on Colossians 3:5-11 (Read Colossians 3:5-11) It is our duty to mortify our members which incline to the things of the world. Man, what can I do for her today; she's such a doll. There was no class under ban, nor was any individual refused the beams of its heavenly light. 1. Your Hidden Life Now; perhaps this could be the subtitle of the letter to the Colossians. Let us take the cases one by one and look at them in the light of this new principle. So don't be deceived; don't let men deceive you. in the singularly energetic language of the Spirit of God here called the members of the man. They were endeavouring to strike an alliance between Christ and the world. In the next place, we have the apostle's prayer: "For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and growing by the knowledge of God." Such a man finds life and all that it means in music, in sport, in work, as the case may be. Have a mind all of whose thoughts are fixed on the things which are above, not upon the things on earth. But our Lord is the Christ who condemned the first man, Fallen humanity by Him was detected and judged root and branch. So, says he, "being fruitful in every good work, and growing (not exactly in, but) by the knowledge of God." In the ancient world children were very much under the domination of their parents. Three positional things are said in Colossians 3:1 about this eternal Son of God and Christ (Messiah) who entered history, died, and rose: (1) He is above: "Seek the things that are above, where Christ is.". But now the work is done, and the atonement is accepted before that new life is given me in Him risen. So, we're called to thanksgiving; we're called to the peace of God. "You must not only seek heaven, you must think heaven" (Lightfoot). Thus we should hold Him fast, not only in other respects, but in this special relation of "Head.". Tradition never manifested the true God. Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord ( Colossians 3:20 ). He divested himself of one kind of life and put on another. Knowledge and faith make a soul rich. He explains this duty (Colossians 3:2; Colossians 3:2): Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. 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