So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
5
Put to death,
therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil
desire, and greed (which is idolatry). 6 On account of these the
wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. 7 These are the
ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. 8 But
now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and
abusive language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another,
seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices 10 and
have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge
according to the image of its creator. 11 In that renewal there is
no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian,
slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!
Year C
July 31-August 6
July 31, 2016
Title: Know Yourself
August 1, 2010
Cross~Wind
Ministries
Title: Know
Yourself?
Quote of the day:
For true success ask
yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now? —James
Allen.
To succeed in life,
you need two things: ignorance and confidence. —Mark Twain.
Striving for success
without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted. —
How many of the following blanks can
you fill in?
• Time you awoke
today ____
• Your heart rate
upon awaking ____
• Your blood
pressure upon awaking ____
• Your cholesterol
number ____
• The amount of time
you slept each night last week, on average ____
• The number of
minutes you exercised in the last 24 hours ____
• Your maximum heart
rate during the exercise ____
• The number of
calories you consumed yesterday ____
• How many
milligrams of caffeine you consumed yesterday ____
• How many
milligrams of various vitamins and minerals you took yesterday ____
• Your pain level
yesterday, on a scale of 1-10 ___
• Your mood today,
on a scale of 1-5 ____
These days, there is a good chance
that some of us can provide personal data on several of these questions,
including the one for info from a year ago. That is partly because personal
technology has now made collecting such numbers easy. Computers, iPhones,
pedometers, heart-rate monitors, blood-sugar meters, cyclometers and the like
not only make it simple to read our personal numbers but also to maintain a
record of them.
What seems to animate the “personal
metrics movement” is the ability to analyze such personal data in hope of
harvesting better personal results. Professional athletes have long tracked
such things as heart rate, metabolism, diet and other factors to improve their
performance. Now, ordinary people, you and I, can use tracking such information
to achieve weight loss, improvements in physical fitness, better performance in
our sports activities and so on.
I did not realize it at the time,
but Suzanne and I participated in all this. I have gone through times of
strictly controlling the amount of calories I consume during the week. I have
also started taking my heart rate after exercise. Suzanne has something called
“fitbit” that keeps track of her activity during the day and even how well she
is sleeping at night.
As Gary Wolf explained in Wired
magazine in 2009, in an article he entitled, “Know Yourself,”
“If you want new insights into yourself, you harness the power of
countless observations of small incidents of change — incidents that used to
vanish without a trace. And if you want to test an idea about human nature in
general, you aggregate those sets of individual observations into a population
study.”
I can imagine all of this applied to
faith as well. Just as we can now apply a number to pain, or figure out our
mood, I suppose someone has figured out a number to apply to faith. How is your
faith right now? Oh, I am five today, how about you? From what I know of John
Wesley and his “methodical” approach to spiritual formation, he would have
liked that approach.
Generally, as this article suggests,
I think it better to know yourself than not know yourself. “Know thyself,” is a
well-known phrase, inscribed in gold letters over the portico of the temple of
Apollo at Delphi in ancient Greece. Plato refers to it several times, and
encourages those who would listen to learn what it meant.
Just as famously, Shakespeare, in
Hamlet, has the phrase, “to thine own self be true.”
We human beings are very concerned
with the “self.”
The Bible has this concern as well,
but with a twist.
Passages like this can help us “know
ourselves” in our spiritual journey. Paul
can have difficult passages. This passage has some simplicity to it.
First, knowing yourself is worth
some time and energy.
The Wired article to which I
referred wrote of the importance of noticing little changes. In spiritual
formation, we think of this as keeping journal. Make little notes about
worship, your personal devotions, places where you sensed closeness or distance
from God, places where you responded well to family, friends, and work, and
where you did not, and so on. Part of the spiritual battle is acknowledging and
noticing what is happening in our lives.
Sometimes, a personality survey can
help us. The spiritual gifts inventory can assist you as well. Knowing yourself
is the first step toward making the changes in your life that you know you need
to make. I have heard too many people say, “That is just the way I am,” as if
we are helpless bystanders as to what is happening in our lives. No, we have
chosen to be “the way we are,” and we continue to make that choice.
Second, from the perspective of the
Bible, there is a fly in the ointment.
As Jeremiah put it,
“The heart is devious above
all else; it is perverse — who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
“Devious” was what
the Old Testament character Jacob was when he cheated his brother out of his
birthright and then deceived his elderly and blind father. That is what our
hearts are like. “Perverse” means, “directed away from what is right or good.”
It means, obstinately persisting in an error or fault; wrongly self-willed or
stubborn.”
If we were to know ourselves, the
Bible would want to remind us that we are devious and perverse. We will even
lie to ourselves.
In fact, Paul reminds us that while
our baptism and faith in Christ is a death to a former way of life, we have to
keep putting that former way of life to death. While our faith and baptism mean
resurrection to new life, we need daily to put on that clothing.
Reinhold Niebuhr questioned how a
deepened understanding of corrupt inner motives could really save us. He called
that problem the “bondage of the will.” Most of us know that the first step to
recovery is admitting that you have a problem. Self-knowledge is a start, but
it is seldom a solution. The bondage of the will means that the part of us that
wants to do the right thing has an opponent in the part of us that wants to go
the other way.
Jeremiah called this spoiler a
perverse heart. Niebuhr called it the bondage of the will. Paul called it “whatever
in you [that] is earthly.” Here is the fly in the ointment.
Ecclesiastes 10:1:
“Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a foul odor; so a
little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.”
There is perversity
again.
Paul is quite clear in this passage.
Let us hear again his list.
5 Put to death,
therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil
desire, and greed (which is idolatry). 6 On account of these the
wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. 7 These are the
ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. 8 But
now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and
abusive language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another
M. Scott Peck has
written the book People of the Lie. All too often, we have developed our
persona, our personality, to cover up who we are to lie, not only “to one
another,” as Paul says here, but to ourselves. To know yourself truly is to
know that you just might be deceiving yourself at to your spiritual condition.
Are you separating yourself from
these things?
Know yourself. It is worth the time
and energy.
Yet, beware. A fly is in the
ointment.
Frankly, the only way I know to see
it, is to keep looking at Christ, to have that upward and outward look. We make
advances in our spiritual lives when we pay attention to the relationships (3:18-4:1)
we have with the rest of the Body of Christ, family, friends, and work. We resist
the social and cultural barriers and realize that Christ unites us all.
10 and have
clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge
according to the image of its creator. 11 In that renewal there is
no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian,
slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!
Then, in verses 12-17, we can remember that his new self will have more compassion,
kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. This new self will forgive, love,
and have the peace of Christ. This new self will “do everything in the name of
the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Paul is issuing a health warning
regarding certain types of spirituality. He will remind us than when we think
of our spiritual journey, we are not to think of it from an individualistic
perspective. Our journey is with others who seek to follow Christ. I like to go
to passages like this to test my spiritual life. Am I separating myself from
the things Paul identifies here? Are the earthly things Paul identifies here
still clinging to me in either attitude or behavior? On the positive side, is
the new self of which Paul writes becoming more part of the type of person I
am?
Apparently,
the false teachers displayed an interest in heavenly things. Paul builds on
that interest, but wants to re-direct it. They are to seek what is above. That
means union with Christ, rather than spiritual distractions. If they seek
heavenly things, it will make their life on this earth more full and beautiful.
Becoming a Christian is a life and death event. You die, uniting yourself with
Christ in his crucifixion. You have new life, uniting with Christ in the
newness of resurrection. Christ is our life, and never part from Christ. We
also find God in Christ alone. Our hope is not just individual redemption, for
Paul will remind us of a future in which all creation will find its redemption.
In the verses I am going to read, he will remind us of the things of earth to
which we must die. Both lists are disruptions of the community. The first list
will focus on the unhealthy expression of a beautiful gift God has given us,
that of our sexuality. We have turned something intended to bring joy and love
and turned it into something that brings pain. He will then have another list
where our anger and words disrupt relationships as well. Even though we die to
these things, we must still put earthly things to death on a daily basis. Paul
will conclude with the positive side of all this. They are to put the new self
that Christ will renew in the pattern of the image of God with which God
created us. The Christian life is nothing less than the fulfillment of what God
intended in creation. This new life breaks down the barriers we create socially,
culturally, and politically.
In
verses 12-17, Paul will become specific in terms of what our clothing will look
like. compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience
- Bear with one another – forgive – love - peace of Christ – thankful- And whatever
you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.
In 3:18-4:1, he will discuss the ancient household. Such a household
usually had husband and wife, parents and children, and master and slave. The
slave was part of the household. A household might have 15-45 people in it. His
point is that your new life in Christ ought to affect your everyday life.
Today, we would discuss the love and partnership that bind husband and wife,
the care and instruction we give to our children, and the way we conduct
ourselves at work.
Colossians 3:1-11 (NRSV)
Colossians 3:1-4 moves from the negative notion of separation that Paul
discussed since 2:16 to a presentation of the positive notion of baptism and
union with Christ. The flow of thought from 2:16 continues here, only now
from the positive side. Once separated from the ascetic practices and from the
cosmic powers, one needs to unite to Christ. Paul makes a stark contrast between the former life of faithlessness
and the present life of faith. The former is "earthly" and the latter
is from "above." The mystery religions might promise the
knowledge of heaven but, to Paul, it was a false experience and hence no real
experience at all. The pastoral strategy, according to Andrew Lincoln, is
clear. Paul does not disparage their
concern for the heavenly realm. Instead, he attempts to redirect it. He sees an
antithesis and confrontation. As will be clear in the next section, to seek
what is above is not to be other-worldly, for this “seeking” will actually have
an effect upon how one lives.
A careful reader properly gets the
impression that the Christians were struggling to differentiate themselves. On
the one side, Hellenistic Jews stressed circumcision and "legal
demands" (2:14). On the other side, the Greco-Roman philosophical family
of mystery religions or pseudo-Christian sectarian groups worshiped angels,
dwelt in visions and who were "puffed up" with a pseudo-spirituality
that, to Paul, did not effect a transformation of one's being toward the
likeness of Jesus Christ (2:18).
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek
the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [They will have a lifestyle and faith expression that will separate them
from the syncretistic milieu of the surrounding culture. The formulaic
words "raised with Christ" follows the earlier "If with Christ
you died" (2:20). No doubt behind the "died, raised" pairing is
the traditional baptismal formula of dying and rising with Christ. Baptism
participates in the death and resurrection of Christ. Hence, Paul exhorts the
Colossians to remember their baptism and put on "the new self" (3:10)
which baptism brings. The change must pervade the whole nature of the person. It is both intellectual and practical,
removal to a new sphere of being. Thus,
they are to seek the things that are above, where Christ, seated at the right
hand of God, now is. Rather than a contrast with the earthly, Paul challenges
them to focus on the true spirituality in Christ.] 2 Set
your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, [The
new way of thinking affects not only the mind and spirit but directs the
expression of faith outwardly as well. The statement rejects Gnostic
asceticism. Paul exhorts them to allow Christ's freedom to control their
lives.] 3 for you have died, [Becoming a Christian is a
death-to-life event. The death occurred in baptism.] and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ["Hidden,"
buried out of sight to the world. The
world knows nothing of this new life, while the believer must know nothing of
the world. The hiddenness may be another
way to speak of death. This new life of
Christ might be hidden behind the fleshly visage and the day-to-day responsibilities,
but it was real and effective.] 4 When
Christ who is your life is revealed, [Paul promised that what was hidden at
present would be revealed in the future.] then
you also will be revealed with him in glory. [The revelation would show the
believer to be one with Christ. Jesus,
to Paul, is more than an example whom the believer chooses to follow; rather,
for Paul, baptism is a transformation event changing the person from the inside
out. Conversion is not a change in the flesh (circumcision), or a change of
mind (philosophy); instead, Christ brings mind and body together, for Christ
"is all and in all" (v. 11). As Barth puts it, to live with
Christ means to seek our life above, where it is real. We seek here and now,
not in this here and now and not on this earth. Think of it as the true life of the Christian is this exalted
life. He says that our lives are with
Christ, and never apart from Him, never at all independently of Him, never at
all in and for itself. Humanity never exists in oneself. The Christian is the
very last to cling to existing in oneself. Humanity exists in Jesus Christ and
in Christ alone. Humanity also finds God in Christ and in Christ alone. He stresses that we are concealed in Christ,
but that our lives remain our own, renewed in the reconciliation accomplished
in Christ. He thinks this passage
stresses the security of the believer in Christ. He also says that if our lives are hid in
Christ, they are not hid in our sin. Pannenberg discusses the notion that
Christian hope is not just individual hope in God but hope for the world, for
the rule of God, and only in this context hope for one’s own salvation. In
1:13-14, God’s saving plan, the divine mystery now revealed, consists of the
fact that “Christ is in you, the hope of glory.” The Messiah of the people of God is also the Savior of the world of
nations. Therefore, Christ is not only the hope for this or that individual,
but also the riches of the glory of the divine plan of salvation among the
peoples. In 2:12-13, only by union with the Messiah Jesus as this takes
place in baptism gives individuals a part in this glory, which we also see in
verse 4. Pannenberg discusses the notion
in Paul of the already and the Not Yet of salvation. In 2:12, he notes that
Colossians is bold enough to describe the resurrection of the baptized as a
reality that is present already. Yet, the
tension with the future of salvation is still present when Colossians 3:3-4
still says that that the new life of believers still has a hidden quality, with
Christ in God, to whom God has exalted Christ. He discusses the idea that the resurrection
of the believer occurs at death. The biblical basis involves the promise to the
thief on the cross. He refers to J. Ratzinger, who said that the existence with
Christ inaugurated by faith is the start of resurrected life and therefore
outlasts death. Pannenberg points to
3:1-4 as biblical support for this notion. God has already raised the baptized
with Christ. Naturally, we must add that this life will appear only with the
return of Christ as said in verse 4. The thesis of a resurrection in death,
which according to verse 1 occurs even at baptism, Pannenberg warns, does not
express the totality of the New Testament witness to the resurrection of the
dead.]
[Paul will now offer a series of ethical exhortations. The first set
of exhortations has a link to the position of his opposition, according to
Andrew Lincoln. The paraenesis includes
a collection of sententiae, or
ethical sentences, common among Hellenistic philosophers. They gave rules of
conduct for daily life. In 3:5, 8, 12, the list of vices and virtues come from
the same sources, as do the household rules in 3:18-4:1. In
Colossians 3:5-11, the theme is putting to death that which is of earth. What
the Gnostics sought in checking sensual indulgence the gospel will gain, not
through ordinances, but through Christ.
He commands believers to kill what is carnal. Everyone has an old nature and a new
nature. One must lay the old nature.]
5 Put
to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly:
[Five vices]
fornication, [Fornication or sexual
immorality (πορνείαν) is part of the list of vices in which Paul says is
incompatible with the kingdom of God. He uses it eight times, often with the next
word in this list. It seemed to refer to prostitution in its early history, but
came to mean, by the time of the New Testament, any sexual experiences outside of marriage, and in particular adultery.
He uses the word in I Thessalonians 4:3, Galatians 5:19, several times in I
Corinthians (5:1, 6:13, 6:18, 7:2), II Corinthians 12:21, and Ephesians 5:3.]
impurity, [Impurity or uncleanness (ἀκαθαρσίαν)
originally referred to the form of impurity that would not allow one to offer
sacrifices or enter the temple. However, by the time of the New Testament, it
referred to moral impurity that excludes
people from fellowship with God. Paul adopts it as a general description of
alienation from God in which heathenism finds itself. Sexual immorality is an
expression of the nature of the unregenerate person whose action arises out of
natural desires.[1]
He also uses it in I Thessalonians 2:3, 4:7, Romans 1:24, 6:19, II Corinthians
12:21, Galatians 5:19, Ephesians 4:19, 5:3.]
passion, [Passion, lust, inordinate
desire (πάθος) was a word the Greeks could use in either a good or a bad sense,
as in Aristotle, Ethics, 2, 416.
However, in Paul, I Thessalonians 4:5 and Romans 1:26, the use is negative and
related to sexuality. In Romans, it refers to the scandalous vices of
homosexuality. When used with “impurity” as the more general term, this word is
for the depiction of sexual perversion,
denoting erotic passion, especially given this context.[2]]
evil desire, [Evil desire (ἐπιθυμίαν κακήν)
occurs also in I Thessalonians 2:17, 4:5, Galatians 5:16, 5:24, Romans 1:24,
6:12, 7:7, 7:8, 13:14, Philippians 1:23, Ephesians 2:3, 4:22, and the Pastoral
Epistles (I Timothy 6:9, II Timothy 2:22, 3:6, 4:3, Titus 2:12, 3:3). Desire
itself can be either neutral or good, but it often has the connotation of
evil.]
and greed (which is idolatry). [Covetousness or greed
(πλεονεξίαν) occurs in I Thessalonians 2:5, Romans 1:29, II Corinthians 9:5,
Ephesians 4:19, 5:3. It refers to a greedy desire
to have more, such as in avarice. The fact that Paul emphasizes that
coveting is idolatry may show the depth of the battle with possessions.[3]
For others, the word does not modify "greed" specifically, but Paul
adds it at the end of the sentence to sum up the whole list generally. For me,
this does not seem the natural reading of the text. Anything that is not about
worshiping God, the Father of Jesus, and grounding life in the present but
hidden spirit of the risen Lord, is idolatry and is worthy of God's wrath. As we find in Matthew 6:24, “No one can
serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or
be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
Paul gives a call to determination to have done with former ways of behaving,
based on baptism.]
[Barth discusses this passage in the context of respect for this life.
Paul describes in formulaic terms the characteristics of the former faithless
life and exhorts the believer not to act like that. In Paul's letters the list
of depravities as descriptive of the life before faith is a common addition. It
is a bit much to assume that every person who was not a Christian practiced
"fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed" (v. 5).
Certainly, there were righteous Jews and monogamous Greeks. However, sweeping
with a broad brush does have its rhetorical effect. It is probable that in Paul's day, as in ours, sex saturated the
culture. Sins of the body do not change in the passage of centuries. More
specifically, some mystery religions swept the participant up in passions of
sexual frenzy. These would have no place in Christian worship, and therefore
Paul specifies the sexual excesses.[4]]
6 On
account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. [Paul refers to future judgment.] 7 These are the ways you also
once followed, when you were living that life.[We find a second list of five vices. This
list focuses on language and behavior that disrupts human fellowship.]
8 But
now you must get rid of all such things—
anger, [Anger (ὀργήν) generally in
Paul is the anger or wrath of God, but here and in Ephesians 4:31 it refers to
the anger of people, often expressed as vengeance.]
wrath, [Wrath (θυμόν) refers to the
emotion that wells up within, often expressing itself as anger. We find it in
Galatians 5:20, Romans 2:8, II Corinthians 12:20, and Ephesians 4:31.]
malice, [Malice (κακίαν) occurs in I
Corinthians 5:8, 14:20, Romans 1:29, Ephesians 4:31, and Titus 3:3. It suggests
ill will or desire to injure. It disrupts human fellowship, and therefore
entering the Christian community means throwing off this behavior (Grundmann,
Volume III, 271).]
slander, [Slander or blasphemy
(βλασφημίαν) occurs in Ephesians 4:31 and I Timothy 6:4. It refers to speech that
injures the reputation of another person.]
and abusive language from your
mouth. [Abusive language, filthy talk, obscene talk (αἰσχρολογίαν)
occurs only here.]
[The "old life"
was expressed verbally and emotionally in these terms. Paul offers a formulaic
rhetorical list that contrasts the inner motivation of the old life with the
inner power of the new life. The focus is uncharitableness. Certainly, however,
Paul wishes the community of Christians to be gentle and truthful with each
other. The errors of the past suggest the obligations of the present. Paul likes to contrast "then" and
"now."]
9 Do not lie to one another, seeing
that you have stripped off the old self with its practices [Paul urges them not to lie
(ψεύδεσθε) to each other. In other uses by Paul, he tells the recipients of his
letters that he is not lying to them. He is not deceiving them. This was a
practice of the old self, and now. Paul uses the imagery of putting on the new
life as if a set of new clothes. This is a common theme in Paul.
Ephesians 4:24
22
You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and
deluded by its lusts, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and
to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of
God in true righteousness and holiness.
No doubt in Paul's age, as
in ours, distinctive dress codes differentiated one group from another, and so
stripping down and wearing something new was a powerful metaphor of the effective
change of faith. Paul is urging them to act upon their baptismal
confession. "Old nature" and
"new nature" are collective terms.
There is an old order of existence with its own habits, inclination,
goals, but he calls them to a new humanity that is alive to God. Paul may base this new teaching upon early
catechal instruction.] 10
and have clothed yourselves with the new self, ["New nature" is
not Christ but is the regenerate person formed after Christ.] which
is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.
[It refers to Genesis 1:26, we a similar view in Ephesians 4:24, quoted above.
With Christ, transformation of mind and body, inner motivation and outer
expression, is the objective, a transformation that includes renewal in the
likeness and image of God that derives from creation. Hence, in Christ, we
become the people God intended us to be. Irenaeus, basing his argument on
3:9-10, distinguished between Christ as original and Adam as copy, while also
interpreting likeness as linking the copy to the original. As Adam the copy was
related to the original, the divine likeness acquired the meaning of a destiny,
or goal, which one achieve by way of assimilation to the original in the
process of moral striving.[5]
Pannenberg will say that the image of the second Adam that all are meant to
bear is that of the creator in the sense of Genesis 1:26, after which we are
now to be renewed or refashioned. This includes righteousness, the basis of for
which now is the manifestation of new and incorruptible life in the
resurrection of Jesus. The point is that our acceptance into the filial
relation of Jesus to the Faster fulfills the purpose of God for humanity at
creation.[6]
However, he stresses that only the ecstatic structure of faith enables Paul to
suggest the renewal after the pattern of Christ in which our destiny to be the
image of God is manifested, as in verse 10.[7]
In discussing some of the history of this passage, he refers to Reformation
teaching the divine likeness of our first parents included the idea of an
original righteousness, but added that we are to see in renewal through Jesus
Christ a restoration of this original relationship with God. In contrast, it
gave less prominence to the line of thinking in Irenaeus that viewed the incarnation
as a fulfillment transcending our first weakness. The stronger the emphasis on
our original perfection, the deeper was the fall from it through sin.[8]
His point is that we cannot find support in scripture for the view that our
first parents possessed perfect knowledge and holiness. One should not infer
such a conclusion based on this passage.[9]]
11 In that renewal there is no
longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian
[To the Greek, everyone who was not a Greek was a barbarian. barbaros are those who spoke an
unintelligible language. It was an
epithet of cultural inferiority.], Scythian, [Likewise, to the citizens
of Colossae, the term "Scythian" was not complimentary. ekuthas are the lowest type of barbarian
savages. The Scythians were an ancient
nomadic people who lived in a region of southeastern Europe and Asia.] slave
and free; but Christ is all and in all! [We learn that in this new
condition, Paul does away with all barriers and rejects division into groups.
Paul offers the usual pairs of Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised,
slave and free. However, in this list Paul adds "barbarian" and
"Scythian." Christ has obliterated these distinctions. In the new
order, the old distinctions pass away. Paul is very specific: the new life in
Christ breaks down all cultural and social barriers. The outsider becomes part
of the new community, for Christ assumes priority over all distinctions and
separations. The challenge for the reader today is to consider whom Paul might
add to this list.]
[This passage challenges
the follower of Christ today to consider how her or his life is different
because one has put on the new life of Christ. Paul was writing to a community
that was struggling to maintain its identity apart from the dominant culture of
the day. Nevertheless, questions arise today when the Judeo-Christian heritage
is assumed to be the dominant culture, and when groups of people - dismissed by
this dominant culture - turn out to be the very people that Jesus would want to
include.]
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