New Love: Colossians 3.12-15 (ESV)

 

The series we’re in is about a new you.  How can we get different results than we have in the past?  We are thinking about what it means to be made new.  As a church, how to we do things together in a way that pleases God and is healthy?  We want you to be taking good care of yourself.  We have disagreements at home and with fellow church members sometimes.  Paul is addressing disagreements in this passage.  We are opinionated people.  We don’t agree on all things.  What’s the best peanut butter?  Is crunchy better or is creamy? Some disagreements are more serious and we can find ourselves in a power struggle.  This is happening in our nation.  They key to being healthy is right here in this text. 

Two weeks ago in my sermon I talked about Jesus being seated at the right hand of the Father.  We can choose to set our minds on Heaven.  We can have a new way of thinking.  Jesus is the center of power in the universe.  Jesus has all power regardless of people who claim power.  How do we have peace?  How do we settle disagreements?  How did Jesus handle these?

In John 3:16 we see God’s way of handling power.  God’s demonstration of power is through God’s son.  God sent Jesus.  God gave up His power to redeem us and reconcile us.  Love is the way forward.  Love is how we settle disagreements.  We struggle to have good emotional and spiritual health.  In Colossians 3:12-15 we are back to the “keep” side of things we talked about last week, the things we want to keep in our lives, the things that will bless us.  The most important part is understanding you are loved.

You are loved.

That statement is individual.  It’s easy to look at it as a theory.  In your own heart, do you feel the love of God?  Do you know in your heart you are loved?  God wants us to know deep down within us that we are loved.

                    ¹²Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved

We have a foundation for love.  We have a call to put on the attributes of God.  We are deeply loved.  God has chosen to set His love on you.  This is a love that is different than anything the world knows.  It’s difficult to love the world.  It’s like we are walking on ice, sliding around.  We have to be careful because our foundation isn’t as firm. If we don’t feel loved it’s harder to love other people.  Paul is saying he wants us to know we are chosen by God and loved by God.  The Jews were saying these new believers were not a part of God’s family.  In Deuteronomy 7:6-8 it says about the same thing.  Paul’s referring to Deuteronomy.  The Israelites have left Egypt and are wandering in the desert.  It doesn’t look hopeful. 

God has set His love on you.  The words we need in 2021 as we face the challenges we have in our lives is God has set His love on us.

Love, we say we love pizza and games, but we have conditions.  We don’t love rotten pizza.  We love things if they suit us.  The word used for love here is a word to describe the love that only comes from God.  You cannot even take this love off of you!  You are loved!  Know that the greatest demonstration of this love is that Jesus went to the cross for you.  That is love.  God loves you deeply.  This is why we are called to love other people.

Love other people.

This love is unique. It’s the kind of love God has placed on us. Few people have experienced unconditional love, the kind of love God gives us, a love that transforms the world. John 13:35 says, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  This is what the world is longing for. 

14And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Love is a permanent bond that keeps everything together.  Plato, a philosopher, said that it’s the law that holds everything together.  Laws by themselves cannot hold society together.  This is a tremendous word.  We cannot solve all the world’s problems but as we think about our homes and our workplaces we know what can make our hearts healthy is love.  We are in tough times.  Love can bind us all together.

Oil and water do not mix.  If you put them together they separate, so how do you join them together?  It’s called emulsifying.  We learn this when we bake.  If we forget to add the eggs what we bake falls apart.  The eggs hold it all together.  What people need is love. 

At the end of verse 14, “in perfect harmony” means completeness.  No other power can hold us together!  Legal codes will not make us love one another.  The love of God will restore relationships. 

What does love look like?

Let’s take a look at five attributes that we can hold onto to make us look more like Jesus:

            ¹²Put on then…compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, ¹³bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 

Compassion means to have a sensitivity towards the needs of others.  Every time I try to open those thin plastic bags in the grocery store I struggle.  I can stand there for what seems like forever trying to get it open.  It takes me a long time. When someone is struggling we have compassion on them.  Paul is speaking about the people we have close relationships with.  Maybe someone you know is struggling right now and you feel compassion for them?

Kindness is an action towards another person.  God has treated us with great kindness so we are kind to others.

Humility is how we think about ourselves or having the heart of a servant.  The Greeks saw humility as a weakness.  That’s very similar to our culture as well.  The most powerful person, Jesus, humbled Himself.  Jesus calls us to humility.

Meekness is a demonstration of gentleness.  Sometimes we are right and we want the other person to know we are right.  The call here is to be gentle in restoring people.  We still need to do the tasks we were made to do.

Patience – when someone’s wronged us or hurt us, the call to patience is giving space for God to work in someone’s life.  Patience gives space for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives and in the other person’s life.  This gives time for the grace of God to work in the other person.  We see this in our own lives as well.

And in verse 13, bearing with one another means we are not unleashing on someone else.  We hold back.  We all need forgiveness. We are all going to be on both sides of forgiveness.  We will need to be forgiven and we will need to forgive someone.  A healthy church forgives even when someone is wrong.  The world just writes people off.  God has set His love on us.  There’s a strong word at the end of verse 13.  “as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.”  This is a strong statement.  Paul isn’t saying that sometimes it’s a good idea to forgive.  He says you must.  If we understand God’s forgiveness and grace we are more ready and willing to forgive others.  We don’t understand the power of forgiveness.  What does all this do?  It brings peace.

Choose peace.

                    ¹⁵And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

Peace is the word shalom in the Old Testament.  It’s to have a quiet disposition as we walk with Jesus.  We are to let it rule in our hearts.  The word ‘rule’ is a judicial word used for judging a contest or a race.  You’re the one who awards the medal or chooses who crossed the line first and second.  Determine in your heart you will be guided by peace.  Peace is a choice.  Do you want peace in your life?  It’s a choice to say that peace will rule in your life.  We are called to this.

This is an invitation to allow the peace of God to rule in our church life and in our individual lives.  We are loved by God with an everlasting love.  We are being restored.  Let inner peace guide you in your decision making and relationships.  We belong in the body of Christ. God has chosen us.  We can love others and forgive others.  Can you ask yourself, “Do I really know I am loved by God?”  This is why Jesus came.  Jesus wants you to know the love of God.  Can you say, “I want this kind of love and peace in my life?” 

Lord, we confess we are not always loving.  Change our hearts.  Let us feel the depth of that love.  May we choose to live in peace.  In Jesus name, Amen.

Will you commit your life to God today?

This sermon is by Dr. Scotty Carpenter.  Sermon Notes are taken, transcribed and posted by Jeni Martin Johnson.