Colossians 3:1-11

Colossians 3:1-11 (NRSV)

 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!

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 these verses, 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 3: 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, Paul 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 3:1-4 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 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.[1]

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. Further, 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 hides 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 promising that what hides in the present God would reveal 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). 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.  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.  We are concealed in Christ, but our lives remain our own, renewed in the reconciliation accomplished in Christ.  This passage stresses the security of the believer in Christ.  If our lives hide in Christ, they are not hid in our sin.[2] 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.  Paul developed the notion of the already and the Not Yet of salvation. In 2:12, 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.  The resurrection of the believer occurs at death. The biblical basis involves the promise to the thief on the cross. J. Ratzinger said that the existence with Christ inaugurated by faith is the start of resurrected life and therefore outlasts death.  In this passage, we find 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, does not express the totality of the New Testament witness to the resurrection of the dead.[3]

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. We can gain new insights into ourselves by harnessing the power of countless observations of small incidents of change that used to vanish without a trace.

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.

Of course, knowing yourself is better than not knowing 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. He encouraged 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.

Self-knowledge is certainly a good thing. Yet, we are not very good at knowing ourselves. If anything, we want to avoid genuine self-knowledge. In Christianity, however, a different type of problem presents us when in the matter of self-knowledge. Among the most important elements of baptism is that re-directs our attention away from self and toward Christ. Baptism means washing away the old and putting on the new. It identifies us with Christ, especially in his death and resurrection. Our lives are “hidden,” or “encrypted” with Christ in God. I know this may seem strange, but there seems to be a sense in which who we are will not reveal itself even to us until Christ comes. Our self-knowledge will always be partial. If we have identified our lives with Christ through faith, then in ways of which we are not fully aware, Christ is our life. Christian hope is for a future that will reveal who we are. In the mean time, Paul will urge us toward hearts and lives full of love.

In the spiritual journey, knowing yourself is worth the time and energy it will take. We might keep a journal. We can make little notes about worship, personal devotions, places where we sensed closeness or distance with God, places where we responded well (or not) to family, friends, and work. An important part of the spiritual battle we face is acknowledging and noticing what is happening in our lives. So many tools are readily available today, such as personality tests and spiritual gifts inventories. Knowing ourselves is the first step toward making the changes we know we need to make in our lives. We have likely said something like, “Well, that is just the way I am.” Granted, some truth resides in the statement. Yet, we are not helpless bystanders of our lives. We have made decisions in the past that makes us the way we are. Who we become in the future will be the result of choices we make today.  

In 3:5-11, 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. You need to die, before new life can begin. We come into this life as broken human beings. Our finitude will keep us guessing as to the right course of action. In fact, our situation is worse, for even if we are confident in the right course, we will choose what is wrong. Thus, we live our lives by mending the unique way in which we experience our brokenness. Paul is going to direct us to the transforming grace of God that hold the pieces together.[4] Paul then lists five vices to which we need to die.

First, fornication (πορνείαν), or sexual immorality 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.

Second, impurity (ἀκαθαρσίαν) or uncleanness 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.[5] 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.

Third, passion (πάθος), lust, inordinate desire, 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.[6]

Fourth, 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.

Fifth, greed (πλεονεξίαν) (which is idolatry). Covetousness 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.[7] 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.

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 would be a bit much to assume that every person who was not a Christian practiced these five vices. That is hardly the point. Of course, 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.^[8]

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—

Sixth, anger (ὀργήν), generally in Paul the anger or wrath of God, but here and in Ephesians 4:31 referring to the anger of people, often expressed as vengeance.

Seventh, 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.

Eighth, malice (κακίαν) occurring as well 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.[9]

Ninth, slander (βλασφημίαν) or blasphemy occurs in Ephesians 4:31 and I Timothy 6:4. It refers to speech that injures the reputation of another person.

Tenth, abusive language (αἰσχρολογίαν) from your mouth, a word that occurs only here in Paul, suggests filthy and obscene talk.

We expressed the "old life" 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 (ψεύδεσθε) to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices. Paul urges them not to lie 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 Pauling writings. Thus, he can urge his readers to put away their former lives and clothe themselves with the new self (Ephesians 4:24). 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. Having stripped off the old self, you ¹⁰ have clothed yourselves with the new self. "New nature" is not Christ but is the regenerate person formed after Christ. The new self is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. Paul refers to Genesis 1:26. We find a similar view in Ephesians 4:24, the new self arises according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 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.^[10] 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 Father fulfills the purpose of God for humanity at creation.^[11] However, 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 becomes clear, as we find here.^[12] Reformation teaching on 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.^[13] 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.^{[14] 11} In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian (barbaros). To the Greek, everyone who was not a Greek was a barbarian, those who spoke an unintelligible language.  It was an epithet of cultural inferiority. Scythian (Skuqhas) likewise, to the citizens of Colossae, the term "Scythian" was not complimentary. Further, Scythians are the lowest type of barbarian savages.  The Scythians were an ancient nomadic people who lived in a region of southeastern Europe and Asia. Of course, when focused upon renewal of humanity after the image of God, there is not slave and free. 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. Rather, Christ is all and in all! We learn that in this new condition, Paul does away with all barriers and rejects division into groups. 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. The reader of Paul will see a similarity with Galatians 3:27-28. Here, the emphasis is upon stripping off the old self with its evil ways and clothing oneself with the new self and its holy ways.

Rejecting such social divisions as having ultimate significance makes an important philosophical statement as well. I want to invite you to consider an analogy. Our experience of the beautiful transcends social groupings. Regardless of the color of skin, religious group, economic class, or gender, we have an eye for beauty. In fact, we have an eye for beauty in the formation of rocks, trees, animals, or the beach. Our experience of the good, moral, or ethical transcends our social divisions. This means that evil does not reside in a race, a religion, or an economic class. We cannot deal with evil by projecting the actuality of evil upon a group different from our group. We can only deal with evil when we realize how close it is to us. It resides in our hearts. This means that the true does not reside in any social, religious, or economic group. In fact, truth may appear in surprising ways and places. Of course, for the Christian, Christ is the truth (John 14:6). A proper reading of scripture, in line with the tradition of the church, will bring us to an encounter with truth. Some religions at particular historical moments will have a clearer grasp of truth than does the church in the same historical moment. In fact, secularity will have a grasp of some portions of truth in ways the church will need to learn. If Christ is all and in all, then this means Christ transcends arbitrary human divisions. Such openness to beauty, goodness, and truth takes us beyond cultural and economic division. It takes us beyond political ideology. The way many people approach the tribe of their political ideology embeds them firmly in a closed circle of “us” and casts evil and the lie upon “them.” Paul is inviting us to consider a grand vision that takes us beyond the simple us vs. them and participate in the universal human concern for beauty, goodness, and truth.

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 one assumes the Judeo-Christian heritage 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.

Paul is suggesting that if our lives truly belong to Christ, we need to mean becoming quite specific as to the form of life we adopt. We must die to an “earthly” way of life. He does not allow that statement to remain an empty abstraction that we can fill up with any meaning we want. The earthly way of life refers to the way we fulfill the wonderful gift of sexual desire, which means putting away sexual practices like fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, as well as greed. It refers to the way use the wonderful gift of language, which means putting away anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive language, and lying. Generally, the rabbis and Greek philosophers of his time would have agreed with Paul. Respect for our bodies and respect for other people would seem to be the decent thing to do. Yet, the motivation we find here is important. Putting aside such behavior will free us for genuine self-renewal. With all our modern emphasis upon self, whether with self-esteem or self-knowledge, we run the risk of knowing ourselves in a shallow way. We know ourselves, but in comparison to what? I would suggest we know ourselves better as we know Christ better.

Spiritual formation in the Christian tradition will say that in our journey of self-knowledge, we find a fly in the ointment. The heart is devious and perverse, so who can understand it (Jeremiah 17:9)? Jacob was devious when he cheated his brother out of his birthright and then deceived his elderly and blind father. Our hearts are like that. A perverse heart directs itself away from what is right and good. It persists in an error or fault. A perverse heart is wrongly self-willed and stubborn. We will lie to ourselves about who we are. The first step in recovery from an addiction is admitting that we have a problem. Self-knowledge is a start, but seldom a solution. Christian self-knowledge, derived from our turn in faith toward Christ, acknowledges the bondage of our will. A part of us wants to do the right thing, but another part of us desires the other way. A piece of ancient wisdom says that dead flies make the ointment of the perfume give off foul odor, and a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor (Ecclesiastes 10:1).

In our turn toward Christ with faith, symbolized in our baptism, we die to a certain way of life. Yet, we must also keep putting that former way of life to death. Our resurrection to new life means we must keep putting on that new clothing. Paul does have many passages in his writings that are difficult to understand. This passage is not one of them. Paul is quite simple as he directs us to a transformed life. We are “people of the lie” (M. Scott Peck). We lie to self as well as others as to who we are. Are we in the process of separating ourselves from the things Paul lists here? If we keep looking to Christ with the rest of the Body of Christ, we resist the temptation from culture to move a different direction. In 3:12-17, the direction is that of love.

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[1] Andrew Lincoln

[2] Barth, Church Dogmatics

[3] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology,

[4] Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue. -Eugene O'Neill, quoted by Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies (New York: Anchor Books, 1999), 112.

[5] (Hauck, TDNT, Volume III, 429)

[6] (Michaelis, TDNT, 928)

[7] (Delling, TDNT, Volume III, 291)

[8] Barth (Church Dogmatics III.4 [55.1] 347)

[9] (Grundmann, Volume III, 271)

[10] (Adv. Haer. 5.12.14)

[11] Pannenberg, (Systematic Theology, Volume 2, 220, Volume 3, 236)

[12] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology  volume 3, 200)

[13] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3,  211)

[14] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 213)