Last night I attended my wife’s bible study with three other women. They are slowly making their way through a study on Colossians that I’ve written. Verse by verse, they draw out repeated words, author’s logic, main themes, response of original readers, timeless truths, and applications. They are eating it up. But the main thing all of them have found out through the epistle to the Colossians is that Paul is one repetitive guy. Exactly!
The same theme is explained from every angle in chapters 1-2: The Gospel causes growth- not spiritual discipline or labor. Only the gospel has the power to transform people’s lives. And last night, as they studied chapter 3, the story was no different.
3:1-17 is really one of the most profound pieces of writ on sanctification through the gospel that I have ever come across in Paul’s writings. It is short and profound.
In 3:1-4, Paul sets up the theme of the section. “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above…For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
3:5-11 includes a big list of things not to do. “sexual immorality, impurity, list, evil desires”, etc.
3:12-14 includes a big list of things we should do. “Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility…bear with each other and forgive…” etc.
And then, in 3:15-17 Paul tells us exactly how to do these things. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, be thankful, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, sing psalms with gratitude in your hearts, giving thanks to God.”
What’s so amazing about this passage is how Paul synopsizes the entire Christian life. We begin with the realization that we are united with Christ through grace, and that the old self is gone. We realize the great truth of the gospel. Then we allow that truth to work in us by watching the old self slowly die and the new self come to life. And this happens through the same thing that started this whole process- remembering the gospel. This remembrance fuels a great fire of thankfulness and gratefulness. When we rehearse the gospel, we are swept away in a flood of worship, and this worship allows and causes us to live in loving response- not in order to earn God’s acceptance but because we already have it.
Beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, I wrote a poem. Don’t judge me…I still spit and scratch from time to time.
A patient etherized on a table
No blood, no pulse
Cold skin, frozen bone and joints
And you bid me open my eyes?
More than that, you ask me to rise and run?
But how?
How to form these ashes into
Something untouched by flame
How to stand under the weight of depravity
How to beat the current of these
Million lusts and vanities
How to make these dry bleached bones
Dance upon your will
By Thanks
And the sweet worship fills my veins,
A pulse, a shock, the heart begins to beat
A blink, a twitch, movement and mobility
Lungs breathe deep and let fly a melody
Worship brings life, and You cause both
Worship, not this weak flat impulse
Where I press into You
But Worship, this dynamic force, where
I find you pushing me along
And these less wild lovers flee into the sand
As the great tide of glory
Surrounds and bathes
The substance of how
The source of motivation
Worship makes me rise
And I am helpless before its waves
Not work, not strain, not wearied bended back
But floating buoyant in Your love
No thirst, no cold
Only warm satisfaction and the glorious shore
Growing nearer in the current
Of Thanks.
