A message on throwing off sins
“5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”
Shannon wants a fresh start. She’s doing a cleanse—getting rid of unwanted weight, unwanted toxins, unwanted junk in the closet; she’s getting rid of old resentments and bad habits. She wants to fill her life with what’s good not with dead weight.
This morning is about an even deeper cleanse. It’s about getting rid of something even more toxic than emotional baggage and something much uglier than old white shirts with armpit stains. This is a deep cleanse from sin. We’ve been studying fullness in Christ in Colossians. When you are full of Christ, you are too full for sins. That’s us and that’s the claim of this sermon: we are full of Christ—too full for sins.
We will study this in two points. First: get rid of sins. Second: the new humanity. First, in verses 5-10, get rid of sins. Second, in a much shorter point because its only one verse—verse 11 with the new humanity.
First: get rid of sins. Last week we made a big turn in Colossians. Before this turn, we studied what’s true. What’s true is that there is nothing better than Jesus and that God offers the fullness we crave in him. Now we are studying what to do about that.
What we do about this fullness in Christ is we do a cleanse. We are too full of Christ to allow any room for sins. What we have before us is a lengthy list of sins. Christ has dealt with “sin”—as in our sinful nature—on the cross. He put that to death. Now we must put our sins to death—the manifestations of sin in our life—our sins. You can imagine Jesus speaking to you from the cross. He gasps, “I’m dying for your sin. You need to die to your sins.” That’s what’s going on with verse 5, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature.” You died with Christ so put your sin to death. You are full in Christ and so you are way too full to keep any of that sin around. Shannon might toss out a broken waffle iron and old gym shorts. You and need to toss out sins.
Sins must be avoided. If you remember, the Colossian Christians were being pressured to activities because of Jewish traditions. Paul told them that sins were what needed to be given up. We’ve got a perfect example of that right now with Lent. Some people give up Facebook for Lent. Others give up meat on Fridays for Lent. They do so in appreciation for all that Christ has given up for them. That might be a helpful discipline, but it isn’t needed. What you really give up in appreciation for what Christ has given you up for you is your sins; do that for the forty days of Lent; do that for the other 325 days of each year every year; that’s verse 5, “put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”
Sexual immorality starts that list and it bleeds into the rest. It also starts Jesus’ list in Mark 7 and Paul’s lists in 1 Corinthians 6 and Galatians 5. It starts Peter’s list in 1 Peter 4. It doesn’t start all the vice lists in the New Testament, but it starts many of them and there are a number of reasons for that. One reason is that sexual immorality was incredibly pronounced the Gentile world. It’s like Las Vegas today. Sexual immorality is pronounced in Las Vegas. That’s why it’s called Sin City. It's not called Sin City because of the gambling. It’s called Sin City because of the sexual immorality. The phrase, “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” doesn’t refer to losing $1,000 at slots. It refers to debauchery. The Gentile culture of Paul’s day was like the culture of Las Vegas. It was notorious for sexual immorality. Paul would say, “you’ve left Las Vegas, and so what happens in Vegas does need to stay in Vegas. Leave it behind.”
The rest of this list of five— sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry—works its way inward. It starts with outward actions—sexual immorality—and moves toward the heart. To put this in the language of the Ten Commandments—don’t commit adultery with your neighbor’s wife and don’t do any coveting of your neighbor’s wife—from action to the heart. To put this in the language of Jesus, “everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Your goal is to get to the heart. Sexual immorality is just an outward manifestation of coveting—you want something that’s not yours. If she was yours, you wouldn’t need to look at her online. If they was yours, they would be your spouse.
So sexual immorality heads this list but what verse 6 says is true of all sins—those we will study this morning and those we won’t—“Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.”
Now we have a real problem with this wrath in our culture. We have a real problem with this judgment in our culture. That’s a bit hypocritical because we show wrath and judge wrongdoing regularly. Just think about filthy language, which Paul will talk about in a few minutes. If someone swears a blue streak in front of your kids, you will pull your kids aside and tell them, “that is no way to talk,” and you will pull that person aside and say, “that is no way to talk in front of my kids.” You’ve judged that manifestation of their sinful nature. The wrath of momma bear is upon that swearer and no one would have thought less of her.
God’s wrath is even purer than any mom’s. God has never lost His temper. He never gets pushed over the edge the way we do. His wrath is always presented as the proper response to sin. You deal with people swearing in front of your kids because you are a responsible parent. God’s wrath is Him dealing with sinning because He’s a responsible Creator.
He behaves this way because He’s holy. He’s set apart from sin and has nothing to do with it. That’s why we adore Him—there is none of our pettiness and perversity in Him. We need to get rid of anything that would provoke His wrath because we are being made holy like He is holy. Paul wrote this letter, “to the holy ones in Colossae,” as 1:2 puts it. This doesn’t mean we can safely dabble with sins because we know Jesus. This means that we need to put sins to death because the wrath of God is coming. “Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.” “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you,” as John Owen put it.
Since you belong to a holy God, you need to grow in holiness. Since you are full in Christ and of Christ, you need to get rid of sins; as verses 7-8 put it, “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,” and then we have another list of sins—this one dealing with harmful speech, “anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other.”
Sinful speech is right up there with sexual immorality on vice-lists. They often compete for the top spot. We’ve seen that sexual immorality was a pronounced sin in the Gentile world. Sinful speech is so often at the top because it is devastating to relationships. Words spoken in sin rip relationships apart—families, churches, and even the entire fabric of nations.”
Lies rip marriages apart. Lying can even be more devastating than sexual immorality. “If she would just admit she cheated on me, I could deal with that. We could move forward. We can’t do anything until she tells the truth, though—the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
Malicious talk rips nations apart. Demonizing every Democrat as a baby killer and every Republican as a heartless bigot is malicious. Whether it’s done to you or whether you are the one doing it, you can see what that’s doing to our nation.
Slander—the next one on the list—does the same. Who in their right mind would want to run for president in this country? You are just signing up to be slandered for the rest of your life. Who knows how many true public servants we’ve lost over the last few decades simply because they’ve taken a look at the landscape of this nation and said to themselves, “I don’t need to put up with that”? Who knows how many future police officers we’ve lost by the way that profession has been portrayed lately? A recent survey shows that hiring within police departments is down 5%, resignations are up 18% and retirements are up 45%. You can tie that to the way they’ve been spoken about and decisions made as a result. Slandering always has an effect, and that effect is a loss for the community.
Sins of speech destroy the social fabric of families, friendships, churches, and nations. It has no place among Christians; that’s Paul’s logic regarding sinful speech in verse 10, “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.”
Sins of speech had no place in that church in Colossae because they were now different than they were before they trusted Christ. They had taken off their old self and put on their new self as verse 10 puts it.
The old self delighted in slandering opponents and enemies, thought lying wasn’t great but was certainly useful, and had grown so desensitized to all sorts or immorality—like the proverbial a frog in the slowly heating pot. But that’s not you. If you belong to Jesus, your old self is dead so put it to death. Become who you are.
This isn’t about becoming someone new. Christ has already made you new. This is about becoming who you are. You’re not a liar so why lie? You’re not a malicious person, so why demonize those with whom you disagree? You’re not a sexually immoral person so why dabble in sexual immorality? You are a new self. These sins are now out of place in your life. Throw them out.
Since you are new, you are to be renewed; that’s what’s going on in verse 10, “you have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” You keep your new self new by knowing your Creator. You change by relationship.
Think about it in terms of little kids and friendships. “You like the Minnesota Twins. I guess I like the Minnesota Twins.” “Jack has some Avenger Legos. Can I get some Avenger Legos?” Little kids think their friends are great and so it’s no surprise that they want to be like someone they think is great. That’s how it works with knowing God. When you know Him, you know He’s great and that makes you want to become like Him. You want to be like God, which is to say you want to become godly. That’s how you are renewed in God’s image by knowing your Creator who made you in His image. That’s how Paul said it worked for the Colossians. That’s how it always works.
This shows you why Jesus is the model. You know what God would do in your situation by watching Jesus. He is God and he is the perfectly godlike/godly human. Imitating him is what your new self is all about. Imitating Christ, part of our vision statement, is what it’s all about. Can you imagine Jesus acting out sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, or greed? If he did, what would that do to your view of him? Then don’t make peace with those sins in you. You can’t imagine him slandering or using filthy language or lying. That means that you can’t give any quarter to any of that in you because he is the picture of you new self.
He is the pattern of what you are becoming. Isn’t that great? The clearest picture you have of who you truly are is Jesus. That’s your fullness. You have it made. Don’t throw it away for sins. Throw the sins away.
Christ is the fullness of everyone trusts in him. That’s our final point: the new humanity. Anyone can put on this new self. It’s equally available to the most caring coach who ever lived as it is to the most hardened criminal in the Iowa State Penitentiary. It’s equally available to the most dutiful father as it is to the most absentee father. This is because, as we’ve seen, it’s not something that any of them can make happen. A dutiful father is just as unable to become new as an absentee father. A caring coach is just as unable to become new as a hardened inmate. It requires a miracle for any of them to become new just like it required a miracle for any of us to become new. We’ve studied this miracle. It was the soul surgery Jesus performed on us by his death and resurrection. That’s what makes us new. This newness cuts across divisions; verse 11, “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”
Jesus could fill Gentiles just as easily as he could fill Jesus. This was important because, as you might remember, the Colossian Gentiles were being pressured to become Jews. “You need to be like us and do it our way,” is so often at play in groups. Paul was saying that the Gentiles didn’t need to become like the Jews and the Jews didn’t need to become like the Gentiles. They both needed to become like Christ—“Christ is all, and is in all,” as Paul ended this with a mic drop.
Paul pointed out the ethnic, religious, cultural, and class differences—the same differences that fill the news today. Greek or Jew was an ethnic difference. Each thought they were better than the other. In fact, they were both equally lost without Christ as the book of Acts makes clear. Circumcised or uncircumcised was a religious difference. Growing up in the right religion didn’t make anyone new and growing up outside of the right religion didn’t prevent anyone from becoming new.
Barbarian or Scythian was a cultural difference. This one is not a contrast. Greek or Jew is a contrast; the goal was to point out what’s different. Barbarian or Scythian is a difference of degrees. The barbarians were considered uncivilized. The Scythians, who lived north of the Black Sea, were considered, “the epitome of unrefinement and savagery,” as one scholar put it. They were more barbaric than the barbarians. One of Paul’s contemporaries said they were, “little better than wild beasts.” They were the butt of all kinds of jokes in the comedies of the day. That’s not how Jesus thought of them. He thought they needed him no less and no more than the religious, cultured Jews who were mocking him as he died.
Slave or free was a class difference. Under Roman law, free people had many rights that slaves didn’t. Under Christ, they were equal. Those differences didn’t matter in the church. That’s one of the reasons Christianity spread like fire in a dry field on a windy day in the Roman Empire. These people felt like they were somebody. They were somebody. They were someone to God. They were someone new.
Now notice that these differences weren’t denied. Jews didn’t suddenly become Greeks. Scythians didn’t suddenly start reading French literature. The church wasn’t a melting pot in which everyone was mixed together and differences were denied. It was a mosaic in which every piece—every person and their differences—trusting and obeying God added to the beauty of the whole.
That’s us. I’m not you. You are not me. I don’t need to be you and you don’t need to be me. The church is not like milk. It’s not homogenized. There can be different types within this jug. There ought to be.
There is only uniformity and that’s the last words of this verse, “Christ is all, and is in all.” Jesus didn’t die so that I could become like you. He died so that I could become like him. He didn’t die so that you could become like me. He died so that you could become like him. He is the fullness. It’s our sins that needs to go. That’s the deep cleanse. Amen.