Pauls Epistle to Colossians (18)

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Put On....

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Well, let's turn to Colossians 3, please, and look at this epistle.
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Of course, I'm beginning to think now as to where we should move on after this.
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I have never preached verse -by -verse through 1 and 2 Thessalonians. I'm considering that, but we'll see.
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And so, again, we're working through this third chapter of Colossians. And last time we were together, two weeks ago, we stopped rather abruptly while addressing the paragraph of Colossians 3, verses 12 -17.
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And in this paragraph, Christians are instructed in practical ways on how they may put into practice their
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Christian faith. Very practical, very straightforward. And here, in your notes, you have a partial outline that we followed in this portion of the epistle.
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The Christian life in Christ, beginning with verse 5 of chapter 3. And there are four divisions.
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Things we're to put off, things we're to put on. And then, next Lord's Day, hopefully we'll begin the matter of being subject, what that means in families.
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And then, fourthly, a warning, watch and pray. And today, we'll continue with the matter of putting on.
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There are certain things we are to put on as Christians. I want to read the paragraph once again,
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Colossians 3, verses 12 -17. Put on, then,
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I like better the conjunction, therefore. Put on, therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the
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Lord has forgiven you, you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which, indeed, you were called in one body, and be thankful.
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Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
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And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the
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Father through him. Depending on how these words and phrases are organized, we could say there are at least 11 directives, or 11 commands, in this paragraph that we just read, and that we addressed two weeks ago.
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The first seven of these, put on, therefore, First, compassionate heart. Second, kindness. Fifth, patience.
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Sixth, bearing with one another, forgiving one another. And seventh, above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
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Well, let's now go on to the eighth command, which reads,
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And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which, indeed, you were called in one body.
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First, let's just deal with a textual variant that we have in the Greek texts. We have about 6 ,000
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Greek texts before the printing press that's available to us, either full or part of a text.
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The oldest is about three verses out of John's Gospel, dates back to about A .D.
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125. The oldest complete New Testament we have dates back to the early 4th century,
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Codex Sinaticus, which you can see in the London Museum, interestingly. And no two of those
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Greek texts are identical, because scribes would change things.
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Sometimes they did accidentally, making mistakes, because the eye fell on wrong words as they were copying, or sometimes it was a problem of the ear when they heard the text reading and they misspelled a word.
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But sometimes the scribes intentionally changed things, too. That's common in the synoptic
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Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Scribes commonly would conform one
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Gospel to read just like the other Gospel in order to make them harmonize. And so all
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Bible translators have to work through comparing textual variants to determine which one was most likely original with the
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Apostle Paul, say, here in Colossians. And if you read the modern translations next to one another, compared with the
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King James, say, New King James, you can see very clearly where the variant arises. And I've listed those translations of this verse before us.
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The English Standard Version, the ESV, Notice, by the way,
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I might point out, and be thankful is set forth as a separate sentence. NIV is very similar, and again a separate sentence, and be thankful.
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The New American Standard Version, the NAS, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you are called in one body.
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Notice it's a semicolon there, and be thankful. King James, however, reads,
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And let the peace of God, rather than the peace of Christ. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you are called in one body, and be thankful.
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Notice the semicolon, by the way, before that last clause, and be thankful. And then the
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New King James Version, of course, follows but modifies the language a little bit. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you are called in one body, and be thankful.
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Again, a semicolon at the end. And so, this difference in the Greek text occurred when a scribe copying the text at some time over the centuries, probably much later than the first century, changed either inadvertently or purposely the peace of Christ to the peace of God.
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Paul had probably originally written the peace of Christ. That was probably the original.
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The newer translations probably have that right. Now, in order to understand precisely what the
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Lord would have us understand of this verse, let's break it down into its basic parts. And so, we want to consider first the subject of the sentence, the predicate, and then we'll look at the clause at the end.
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So, there's really three parts to this command, to this sentence. So, let's first consider the subject of the verse, which is the expression, the peace of Christ.
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What is meant by this expression, peace of Christ? Well, the grammar itself can be interpreted in several ways.
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First, it could be speaking of the state of peace that Christ secured for his people between them and their
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God. We are at peace with God as Christians. A state of peace.
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All Christians are at peace with God through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, this is commonly referred to as objective peace between God and the believer.
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It's a state of peace. Through our Lord's life, death, and resurrection,
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God has brought us into a state of peace with the Father. This state of peace is the same for all true believers in Jesus Christ.
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Same for you. Same for me. Same for everyone in Christ. And this is what Paul was writing about in Romans 5 .1.
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Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a state of peace.
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When Paul wrote of this peace between God and his people, he would have done so in accordance with the Old Testament idea and meaning of the
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Hebrew word for peace, shalom. And so, the idea of shalom is the rest,
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Sabbath rest perhaps, or peace, that will be experienced by those who have salvation. And so, the state of peace, or shalom, is what the
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Old Testament prophets declared would appear in the last days. And this church age is the last days.
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As one rightly said, a good commentator, Douglas Moo, he declared, the background defines for us what
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Paul means by peace with God. Not an inner sense of well -being or feeling at peace, which we might call the peace of God, but the outward situation of being in a relationship of peace with God.
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It's objective. It's outside of us. It has to do with fact, not your feeling.
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Before we came to Christ as our Lord and Savior, we were not at peace with God. This is only for Christians, true
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Christians. Our very beings were opposed to God. We were regarded by God as His enemies.
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And He was an enemy to us. We were opposed to His rule over us. That's why people crucified
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Jesus. They were opposed to His rule over them. But Christ, as the
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Prince of Peace, ended that hostility between God and His people. He gained peace for us by dying on the cross for us.
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And so that period of warfare or hostility came to an end for the believer in Jesus because of what
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Jesus did on the cross. And so Christ's death appeased God's wrath, propitiated
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God. God had wrath toward us. The triune God had wrath toward us.
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But through the death of Christ, that was appeased. And as a result, a state of peace was secured for believers.
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We read of this objective peace that Christ secured for His people, for example, in Colossians 121.
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So we considered it back in chapter 1. And you who are once alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works, yet now
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He has reconciled in the body of His death to present you holy, blameless, and above reproach in His sight.
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That describes the peace that we have with God through Christ. And so again, this objective peace, this state of peace, belongs only to those who have been reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ, for He alone is the basis and the bringer of this peace for sinners.
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And so when we come to understand what Paul's expression, the peace of Christ, means, one possibility is that it's speaking about this objective peace, this state of peace.
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However, there's a second alternative. In Paul's expression, the peace of Christ, it could be speaking, secondly, of the assurance of peace that Christ gives
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His people through His grace. This is different from the first idea, in that this is not objective, but rather subjective.
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In other words, this kind of peace is not a state between the Christian and God, but the Christian may feel or sense peace in his soul.
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And we often read of this subjective peace in the opening salutation, say, of an epistle.
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And I listed several, and there are more. 1 Thessalonians 1 .1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the
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Church of the Thessalonians, and God the Father, Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace from God our
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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not wishing for a state of peace for them.
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That's already theirs. He's wanting them to experience peace in their souls. And so that comes from God, from the
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Father, from the Lord Jesus. 1 Timothy 1. Paul, an apostle of Christ, Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our
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Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope to Timothy, a true son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our
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Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. Same idea. These three blessings are so important for every
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Christian. You need grace, you need mercy, and you need peace. And so they're often repeated in these opening salutations.
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Titus 1, verses 1 and following. Paul, a bondservant of God, and the acknowledgement of the truth, which accordeth with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which
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God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, but has in due time manifested his word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our
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Savior, to Titus, a true son in our common faith. That's a long introduction. Grace, mercy, and there it is, peace from God the
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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. All of these are examples of subjective peace, not objective.
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And then Philemon 1, verse 3, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus. And so, obviously, in each of these verses, the peace being addressed is a sense of well -being in the soul that God is pleased to give his people.
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And it's a wonderful blessing to have that peace. They guard your soul. Some do not.
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Sometimes it's intermitted. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. But it's interesting to me that Paul opens his epistles so frequently with this salutation because he saw it as an important need for Christians.
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You need the peace of God to guard your soul. You need to feel that peace, to know that peace. And so there's a subjective peace and there is an objective peace.
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Both are God's gifts to his people. Subjective peace is the awareness that the believer senses in his soul when he is at peace with God.
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Some people have an objective peace with God, but they don't know it. And so they're very troubled. They don't have the subjective peace.
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Subjective peace is what people feel. Because of their faith in Christ, we may sense peace or tranquility of soul, a settling of our guilty conscience respecting sin when we receive through faith our free and full pardon of sin due to the death and the resurrection of the
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Savior. And so we're secure. And if we're thinking and believing rightly, we feel ourselves to be secure.
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And so again, in the introductions to his epistles, Paul frequently expressed a desire for his readers to receive or experience the peace from God our
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Father and the Lord Jesus. Paul wanted them to experience this subjective peace. The awareness that all was well between them and God.
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All disciples of Jesus Christ may enjoy this subjective peace with God. But again, not all
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Christians do. But they may. Philippians 4, 6, and 7 describe this subjective peace.
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In nothing be anxious, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto
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God. And the peace of God, this is subjective peace, that passes all understanding.
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I mean, if it was dependent on understanding, there wouldn't be peace. You'd go screaming into the night, right?
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But this peace is beyond understanding, thankfully. It doesn't add up. But God gives a peace even in very difficult times.
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When others would be distressed and freaking out, there's a calmness that the Lord gives his people.
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The peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. And so this subjective peace is very important.
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Again, objective peace is in the realm of fact, however, not feeling. As believers in Jesus Christ, nothing can change our status with God.
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Whether you feel it or not is immaterial. For God is always at peace with his people in Christ.
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But subjective peace is in the realm of feeling. And any number of factors may influence or affect one's sense of peace.
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It increases or diminishes. Sometimes it's very great, and there's a sense of calmness, even in the most difficult of circumstances.
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And then other times, you can have a little bit of trouble, and you're greatly troubled in soul, because you do not have this subjective peace.
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And so the ones who are in the state of peace, objective peace, are the ones who have access to this subjective peace, the peace of God that guards the heart.
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And again, Romans 5 .1 speaks of this peace that we have.
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This was secured, of course, through the death of Jesus. He made peace by the blood of his cross.
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Top of page 4 in your notes. Now, this blessing of peace can only be appreciated fully when we consider the state of the non -believer who is not at peace with God.
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The non -disciple of Jesus Christ. Of course, we live in a world in which people will allow you to believe in any kind of God you like.
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But if you say you believe God is a God of wrath against those who are outside of Jesus Christ, look out.
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That will not be received. Paul declared, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ. But what about those who are not justified through faith in Jesus Christ?
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Well, the fact is, they don't have peace with God. If they have a sense of subjective peace, they are deluding themselves.
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If they don't have objective peace, they cannot have true subjective peace from God. For the wrath of God abides on them, whether they understand it or not or believe it or not.
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John 3 .36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life. He who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
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Think about that. The wrath of God abiding on a soul. Anyone, everyone outside of Jesus Christ, that is their condition.
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That is their objective state. People who are outside of Jesus Christ are not in a state of peace with God.
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There exists a state of war between God and them. And that is the way it is in the world today.
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King Jesus is on His throne, and the people of the world who refuse to acknowledge Him as Lord are at war with Him and with them.
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And He always wins His battles, doesn't He? Jonathan Edwards wrote of their dreadful condition in his sermon entitled
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Natural Men in a Dreadful Condition. He had a way with words. They are not only without God, but the wrath of God abides upon them.
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There is no peace between God and them, but God is angry with them every day. He is not only angry with them, but that to a dreadful degree.
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There is a fire kindled in God's anger. It burns like fire. Wrath abides on them, which, if it should be executed, would plunge them into the lowest hell and make them miserable there to all eternity.
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That is the teaching of the Bible. Edwards just had the audacity and clarity to make it clear.
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They have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger. God says they began to sin.
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He has been provoked by them every day, ever since they exercised any reason. And He is provoked by them more and more every hour.
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The flame of His wrath is continually burning. There are many now in hell that never provoke
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God more than they, nor so much as many of them. Wherever they go, they go about with the dreadful wrath of God abiding on them.
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They eat and drink and sleep under wrath. How dreadful a condition, therefore, are they in!
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It is the most awful thing for the creature to have the wrath of its Creator abiding on him. The wrath of God is a thing infinitely dreadful.
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Compared to the wrath, how dreadful is it to be under the wrath of the
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First Being, the Being of Beings, the Great Creator and Mighty Possessor of Heaven and Earth.
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How dreadful is it for the creature in whom he lives and moves and who is everywhere present and without whom he cannot move a step nor draw a breath.
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Natural men, inasmuch as they are under wrath, are under a curse. God's wrath and curse are continually upon them.
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They can have no reasonable comfort and therefore in any of their enjoyments, for they do not know, but they are given them in wrath and shall be curses to them and not blessings.
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As it is said in Job 18 .15, brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.
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How can they take any comfort in their food or in their possessions when they do not know, but all are given them to fit them for the slaughter?
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That is the direct approach. But those that come to Jesus Christ are at peace.
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This condition or state is changed instantaneously to the one who humbles himself and trusts himself to Jesus as God's source of forgiveness of sins and life.
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Now again our verse reads, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you are called in one body.
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That's a command, kind of a softened command, let this be the case.
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The question we need to answer however is this, is Paul referring to the objective peace that we have with God or is
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Paul referring to the subjective peace that God gives his people? In other words, was
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Paul saying, let the peace that you have between you and God govern your attitude and actions toward other
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Christians? This would be the understanding of peace if it was objective peace.
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Or rather, is the Apostle telling Christians they should be governed by the sense of peace they experience within their souls?
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And I would suspect this is how most of us understand this verse. In other words, when
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Paul wrote, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, you go through each day, now do
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I have peace about this? If so, I'll do it. If I don't have peace about it,
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I won't do it. In other words, you're looking for a subjective peace within yourself in order to make a determination as to what's right or wrong or to what course of action to take.
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And so is Paul referring to subjective peace as a guide for living? Or is he talking about an objective peace as a guide for living?
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It makes a big difference. Well, how do we make this determination?
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Well, the answer is to consider the larger context. Because the context will always tell you whether it's objective or subjective.
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And so we saw the subject, the peace of Christ, now let's look at the predicate of the sentence, the verbal aspect of the sentence.
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And let the peace of Christ, and here it is, rule in your hearts. The idea of rule is that you set up, actually the original
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Greek word carried the idea of let it be an umpire to your soul. Let the peace of Christ rule.
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And so the verb rule speaks of the standard by which one governs oneself. The rule by which one assesses matters is the standard he has established in his thinking.
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And so the apostles say the Christian, or Christians, are to have the peace of Christ govern them or rule over them.
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The peace of God is to be, or the peace of Christ rather, is to be the umpire of their souls that inform them and motivate them with regard to their relationship with one another.
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And so, if we're to consider the two possible meanings of the peace of Christ as a rule that governs us, then
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Paul is either saying, first, let your experience or feeling of peace be a standard by which you live.
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If you feel peace about it, then go ahead and do it. If you don't feel peace about it, then
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God is leading you not to do it. Paul is either setting forth that kind of principle, subjective peace, or rather he would be saying, secondly, let the peace that Christ has secured for you be a governing force in the way that you live.
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This would be objective peace in which we stand before God. If the first is the correct understanding of Paul's words, then it would suggest that the
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Christian should ask himself when making decisions in this life, do I have peace, the peace of Christ, in doing this?
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If not, then the action should be avoided. And although I am somewhat sympathetic with this understanding,
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I have reservation whether or not this is correct understanding of what Paul is saying. I don't think he's saying that, but most people take that verse that way.
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For one thing, to rely or look upon one's feelings, even if it's a sense of peace, is so subjective that it really is not a good standard by which you can determine what right and wrong is.
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I can tell you stories of some bizarre things that people do and have done, and they felt peace about it.
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And they'll tell you so. They'll justify themselves. Well, I had peace about it, so I know it was
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God's will. The fact is, fallen people can justify their actions by claiming they have peace about the matter, even when they are clearly violating clear instruction and direction of Holy Scripture.
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Subjective peace is not a standard of rule for making decisions. That opens the door to mysticism, which we have hit on so many times.
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That's not historic Christianity. So I would argue the second explanation is the one that Paul intended for his readers to understand and embrace.
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The peace that God has secured for you should be the governing rule of your behavior and your relationships with your
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Christian brethren. And I believe that this understanding becomes very clear when we consider the next portion of the sentence, the third portion.
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We looked at the subject and the predicate. Now let's look at the clause. And for you grammarian nuts,
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I know you're out there, it's a relative clause. It gives further information about the noun.
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And by the way, in the English text, it opens with the phrase, in which, that's a relative pronoun.
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And in Greek, you don't have it so much in English, but in Greek, you have masculine and feminine and neuter nouns and pronouns.
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And here you have a feminine pronoun, in which. And so it clearly is referring to peace.
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Okay? It's not referring to rule. It's not referring to hearts. It's referring to peace. This peace in which you have been called in one body.
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That's important. And so in this clause, to which indeed you were called in one body, makes it clear that the apostle was not speaking of a subjective peace in your heart as a rule for your behavior.
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The words again to which refer to peace. The expression in one body refers to the church, which in this context is the local church of Colossae.
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Paul was saying that the fact that God has called the entire church into a state of peace, that this should govern or rule our hearts.
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In other words, this should govern how we relate to one another within the church. You're at peace with God, you ought to be at peace with one another.
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That's all Paul is saying. Paul is simply urging the brethren in the church of Colossae to govern themselves with the reality of their corporate peace that they enjoy with God through Jesus Christ.
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And so this is not a verse, a prescription for, you know, I feel at peace at this so I'm going to do it.
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It's God's will. It's not being taught here. It's saying because you and I have peace with God and we as a body of believers have peace with God through Jesus Christ, we ought to be characterized by peace among ourselves.
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That should be our standard and our motivation. The standard that rules us should be our motivation and our desire, our design.
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Reformation Study Bible reflects this understanding in its footnote. In its practice of love, forgiveness, and graciousness, the
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Christian community, in other words the church, is to showcase of the reconciliation
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Christ has brought to the universe and to individual sinners. There it is. We're to display or showcase the peace that God has brought to us, to Christ.
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And so verse 15 is not instruction for how an individual makes personal determination of the will of God as he looks for a sense of peace in his soul as the rule.
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No, it's speaking of the state of peace that Christ has secured for his church. And this state of peace should be a standard which governs us.
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We should seek and purpose to be at peace and live in peace with one another in the church because it was this peace to which indeed you were called in one body.
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And that's why that clause, you cannot take that clause and interpret the verse in a subjective manner.
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Matthew Henry stated the matter well also. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts. That is,
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God's being at peace with you and the comfortable sense of his acceptance in favor or disposition to peace among yourselves, a peaceable spirit that keeps the peace and makes peace.
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This is called the peace of God because it is of his working in all who are his.
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The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace. Let this peace rule in your heart. In other words, prevail and govern there or as an umpire decide all matters of difference among you to which you are called in one body.
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We are called to this peace, to peace with God as our privilege and peace with our brethren as our duty.
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Being united in one body, we're called to be at peace one with another as the members of the natural body for which we are in particular.
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And that's exactly right. Similarly, John Calvin wrote,
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He gives the name of the peace of God to that which God has established among us. See, he's not talking about a feeling that you have.
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He's talking about an actual state of things that God has established. And he says it will appear from what follows.
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He would have it reign in our hearts. He employs, however, a very appropriate metaphor for as among wrestlers, he who has vanquished all the others carries off the palm, so he would have the peace of God be superior to all our carnal affections which often hurry us on to contentions, disagreements, quarrels, and secret grudges.
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He accordingly prohibits us from giving loose reins to corrupt affections of this kind as, however, it's difficult to restrain them.
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He points out also the remedy that the peace of God may carry the victory because it must be a bridle by which carnal affections may be restrained.
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Hence, he says, in our hearts because we constantly feel their great conflicts while the flesh lusteth against the
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Spirit. The clause to which you're called intimates what manner of peace this is, that unity which
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Christ has consecrated among us under his own direction, for God has reconciled us to himself in Christ.
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And with this view that we may live in entire harmony among ourselves, he adds, in our one body, meaning by this, that we cannot be in a state of agreement with God otherwise than by being united among ourselves as members of one body.
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Now, I think I mentioned a little farther on, I think we'll probably get to it, but I might mention it here because it comes to mind. We tend to individualize things.
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Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts and so we think, I'm to let the peace of Christ rule in my heart.
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But Paul is talking to the church, not to you as an individual. The your hearts is plural.
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He's talking to the people in the church. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.
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The church is not instruction to you as an individual to determine the will of God. It's instruction to the church to live in harmony and peace with one another.
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F .F. Bruce, I really like him, in his typical manner, set the matter before his readers in a clear and concise way.
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Let the peace of Christ arbitrate in your hearts, he says. When hostile forces have to be kept at bay, the peace of God garrisons the believer's heart, as in Philippians 4 .7.
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But here the mutual relations of fellow members of the body of Christ are in view. See, he's not talking to you as a
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Christian, he's talking to us as a church. Where differences threaten to spring up among them, the peace of Christ must be accepted as arbitrator.
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For if the members are subject to him, Christ, the peace which he imparts must regulate their relations with one another.
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It was not to strife but to peace that God called them in the unity of the body of Christ. In a healthy body, harmony prevails amongst its various parts.
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Christians who've been reconciled to God, who have peace with him through Christ, should naturally manifest peace with one another.
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Strife is the inevitable result when men are out of touch with him, who is the one source of true peace.
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But there is no reason why those who have accepted the peace which Christ established by his death on the cross should have any other than peaceful relations among themselves.
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So this is very important. You see how Paul is giving instruction to the church, not to an individual
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Christian. And yet that's how it's commonly understood. And so the bottom line is this.
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Colossians 3 .15 is not advocating a subjective sense of peace to be the determiner of how you should live.
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It is saying that the peace that Christ has secured for his church should be a governing principle in the relationships of his people within the church.
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We're at peace with God through Christ. We ought to be at peace with one another in Christ. And that's what
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Paul is advocating. Amen. Well, let's go to number nine.
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And be thankful. In my opinion, the ESV, English Standard Version, once again fails to serve us rightly.
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There is no perfect translation. Some are better than others. And the ESV is a good translation. But it sets forth this command as a separate sentence.
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And be thankful. It does include the conjunction, the word and. And so there is a loose connection.
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It's not entirely detached. But it is somewhat detached from what went before. And it shouldn't be.
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It's really in the same sentence as what we just considered. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts as a church.
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And be thankful. They go together. Again, Paul had just set forth the importance of the peace of Christ to be the ruling principle that governs our relationship with one another.
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A thankful man will be a cooperative man, relating well with others who have received freely the abundance of mercy and grace of God.
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And so we can call on Matthew and Henry again, who tied this command to what went before. There's a connection here.
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It's not just another command separate from what went before. To preserve in us this peaceful or peaceable disposition, we must be thankful.
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How can you best promote peace within the church? Well, let the peace of God, the state of peace, be a governing principle.
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But also be thankful. Thankful people will be a cooperative people.
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The work of thanksgiving to God is such a sweet and pleasant work. It will help to make us sweet and pleasant towards all men.
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Instead of envying one another upon account of any particular favor and excellence, be thankful for His mercies which are common in all of you.
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And that's right. And by the way, I included about two or three pages at the end of your notes.
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We're not going to read it. I wish I could have had time to do so. Thomas Watson's wonderful little setting forth of a thankful man.
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I took it from the Godly Man's Pictures book. And it's in your notes at the end. I hope you take time to read it.
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Well, let's look at the tenth command in the last minutes that we have.
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Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
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It is the word of Christ which is to inform our thinking, guide our actions, and inspire our hearts.
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Now, we may read that expression, word of Christ, and immediately assume it's referring to the
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Holy Scriptures, the Bible. And certainly that's true of the Bible. The Bible, God's word, should dwell in each of us richly.
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But Paul is directing his reader specifically to the message of Jesus Christ, the word of Christ.
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Let that dwell within you richly. There are a lot of people that give themselves over to the
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Bible, but it's not truly Christ -centered. And you go to churches and you can hear the
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Bible taught and preached. And you wonder where Christ comes into the picture at all.
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Let the truth of Jesus Christ dwell in you richly, we might say. Paul is advocating.
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What is it to have the word of Christ dwell in you richly? Well, again, let's remember the context.
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Paul is giving instruction to the church at Colossae to a body of believers. He was not giving instruction to you as an individual
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Christian, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. He's writing to the church, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
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That's important. Again, we tend to individualize
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Scripture. Asking the question first and foremost, what does it mean to me? And as Americans, and as New England Americans, we are prone to do that.
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What's in it for me? What does it say to me? But when
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Paul wrote, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, the you in this verse is plural, not singular. He's not talking to you as a
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Christian, he's talking to you as a church. And so he's talking about how the word of Christ needs to be dwelling richly within a congregation of believers.
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Within the church. That's the instruction. And we desire this command would be realized in our church.
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We want the word of Christ to dwell in our church richly. We desire to exalt
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Christ. We desire to have the word of Christ. That is every truth regarding Christ set before us and proclaimed by us to one another and to the world in which we live.
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And so we do not desire just to have the word of Christ dwell in us, but rather we desire the word of Christ would dwell within us richly.
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How may this be realized in our church? Well, it's set before us quite clearly in verse 16.
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After the initial main clause, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, we have three words, actually participles, that declares the manner by which we can have the word of Christ dwell in us richly.
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So how as a church can we have this word of Christ dwelling within us, within our midst, in a rich manner?
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First, the word of Christ may dwell in our church richly by teaching one another in all wisdom.
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It's not that hard, is it? We are to be teaching one another. And this isn't just instruction from the pulpit to the congregation.
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This is one another. This should characterize us, teaching one another.
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But teaching needs to be done in wisdom, properly discerning the occasion, the need, and the manner in which instruction is imparted.
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And then secondarily, the word of Christ may dwell in our church richly by admonishing one another in wisdom.
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To admonish is to correct, and perhaps that includes the occasional rebuke of one another in the church when strong exhortation is necessary.
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And of course here you can certainly see the need to admonish in all wisdom. Otherwise you're going to tear things up, right?
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You need to be wise in how you confront people. The aim of course is to restore and to assist another in growing or correct one overtaken in a fault.
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And so this necessitates admonishing in all wisdom. And then the third way in which the word of Christ can dwell in our church richly is by singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
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Some attempt to distinguish sharply between these three words. Different kinds of music. I've read that that's not best, not advisable.
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But if there is a distinction, one might say the psalms refer to the psalms of the Old Testament. Hymns, those composed by early
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Christians. And then spiritual songs may have been spontaneous, unpremeditated words sung in the spirit, which seems to be suggested in some places.
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And then the Apostle describes the manner in which our church is to sing before the Lord. We are to do so with thankfulness in our hearts to God.
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And by the way, once Paul started mentioning that word thankful, he starts repeating it.
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And be thankful, in the previous verse, and now here, he adds, you know, with thankfulness in your hearts.
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And then in the next verse, it's the third occasion he mentions Thanksgiving. Once he got on that, he kept repeating it.
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Thanksgiving should permeate our souls and should be expressed by us in our worship and before one another as well.
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Expressing thanksgiving to God. And then the last command, and we'll close.
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Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the
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Father through him. We live for our Lord Jesus. It's not just a standard of morality or attempting to have a good fellowship with one another.
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We're living for Christ. And so everything is in the name of the Lord Jesus as we give thanks to God the
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Father through him. All we do should be done with a desire and design to please him, to make him known, to lead people to regard him as highly or more so if possible than we regard him even now.
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And so here we have a principle with which a Christian can broadly apply across all in spiritual decisions.
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And here are the words again of F .F. Bruce. And here's the standard for conduct which is much better than looking to see if you have peace in your heart or not.
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Listen to what Bruce wrote. When the 20th century, and he was back in the mid 20th century, when the 20th century
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Christian is confronted by a moral issue, he may not find in the Bible any explicit word of Christ relating to its particular details, but he can ask himself, what is the
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Christian thing to do here? Can I do this without compromising my
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Christian confession? Can I do it, that is to say, in the name of the Lord Jesus, for his reputation is at stake in the lives and conduct of his known followers?
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And can I thank God the Father through him that he has given me the opportunity to do this thing? And notice
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Bruce points out the repeated emphasis on thanksgiving is noteworthy. He repeated it three times in those last three verses.
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Questions like these honestly faced will commonly provide sure ethical guidance and special regulations.
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It is not so easy to get around so comprehensive a statement of Christian duty as this verse supplies.
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In New Testament and Old Testament alike, it's insisted that our relation to God embraces and controls the whole of life, and not only those occasions which are sometimes described as religious in a narrower sense of the term.
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And so there's a good standard for ethics and assessment of matters. As a
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Christian, can I do this? Can I glorify Jesus in this? Can I thank the
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Lord Jesus? Can I thank God the Father for allowing me and enabling me to do this? You follow those principles and you're going to find yourself to be a holy person before long.
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As the Lord enables us. Our Father, we thank you for your word.
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And we thank you for the instruction that it gives us. And we pray that it would be realized, our
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Father, among us as brothers and sisters in Christ. We pray, Father, that this peace that we have with you through our
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Lord Jesus would be a governing principle, an arbitrator, a rule, an umpire that will enable us, our
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Lord, to assess our relationships with one another and set before us, Lord, a goal and desire for one another that we might manifest in our relationships this peace that we enjoy with you.
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Help us in this. We do pray, Lord, that you enable us to have the word of Christ dwelling among us richly as a congregation and that we would bear faithful and full witness of Christ within our region in these days in which you've called us.
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And we pray that you'd help each of us, our Father and our church collectively that whatever we do in word or deed, that we would do everything in the name of the
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Lord Jesus giving thanks to you, the Father, through him. For it is in Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen. Well, let's turn in our hymnals, please.