Believers are to reflect Christlike character in their daily lives. This is a Bible study teaching for “The Gospel Lived” on Colossians 3:1-17 from the “Explore the Bible” series from Lifeway.
Good morning, today our lesson is on Colossians chapter 3, and the title of the lesson is “The Gospel Lived.”
So as we think about that, what is the Gospel? The word used in the New Testament in Greek is evangelion, which means “Good news” or a “good telling.” The word that evangelion is translated into English is an Anglo-Saxon word which means “god-spell” or “good story.[1]”
What is this “good news,” “good telling,” or “good story?”
It is the announcement that the solution to man’s problem, his separation from God, has arrived and is freely available to anyone who is willing to received this free gift. In Ephesians chapter 1, Paul explains God’s good plan:
4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
9 God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.[2]
God created the world and man to be in communion with him. This is what we were created and meant to be … to be in fellowship with him. God is perfectly righteous and perfectly just. As John writes in 1 John 1:5, God is not both good and bad and he is not the author of both good and evil … he is “light and there is no darkness in him.”
When Adam and Eve choose to know both good and evil, they were choosing to know what life was like without God. Since he is perfectly good, evil is his absence. It cannot be where he is. When God told them that they would “die” in Genesis 2:17, he was telling them that the thing they were created as: a triparte being made of mind, body, and spirit, would no longer be. They were no longer in communion and fellowship with God and their spirit was not what it once was. It is the spirit that gives life, without the connection to our Source of life, our mind becomes corrupted. The fall of man and the corruption that followed did not just affect Adam and Eve, it affected their descendants and the world around them. None of us are an island to ourselves. Like Adam and Eve, our actions have impact on those around us and on generations that follow.
The Good News is that the way of reconciliation and restoration to what we were originally meant to be … being in fellowship with our heavenly father … has come.
God has made a way for us to be in right relationship with him with Christ’s atonement on the cross. What is required of us to be a part of that Good News? Paul breaks it down simply in Romans 10:
9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.[3]
So we speak our faith that we believe in Jesus as Lord, and we believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead. Two parts: saying we do and believing. We know that there are many people who say they believe in Jesus. They make confessions of faith all the time and the church makes annual reports about the numbers of people baptized and confessions of faith. That’s one part of it, but according to Paul, that’s not the whole part.
What does it mean to believe in your heart?
I did an interview with an author named Donald Williams a few months ago about his book 95 Theses for a New Reformation. There is a section in his book where he talks about what Biblical writers meant when they referred to “the heart.” They weren’t just talking about a warm fuzzy idea. I’m going to play the clip where he explains it.
“Believe in your heart,” means your whole self. We shouldn’t have a church persona, and a work persona, and a home persona. Every single aspect of our lives should reflect Christ. And that is what Colossians 3 is about.
We follow a perfectly good and righteous God who has made a way for us to be in fellowship with him through Christ. The reason we Christ had to make that sacrifice in the first place was because of our wrong thoughts, actions, and attitudes. This is the God who told the Israelites, “You must be holy because I am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2, Leviticus 20:7, Leviticus 20:26, Leviticus 21:8, Exodus 19:6, 1 Peter 1:16, 1 Thessalonians 4:7)
Has God changed? No he has not. He still cannot be less perfect than he is. He cannot be in communion with sin and the sinful. God hasn’t changed, he has made a way for us to be changed.
The writer of Hebrews explains it this way in Hebrews 10:14:
For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.
We have been made perfect. Past tense. This is the moment of justification, when we are born again. But we are being made holy, present participle. This is sanctification, and it is ongoing.
Our spirit is born again when we confess Jesus as Lord, but our mind, will, and emotions are transformed by the working of the Holy Spirit. Paul writes in Romans 12
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.[4]
God didn’t save us to give us a pass to do whatever we want whenever we want. He saved us to be in fellowship with him. What Paul wrote to the Romans in that passage is the same thing he is telling the Colossians in chapter 3.
Colossians 3
3 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.
When we made Jesus the Lord of our life, we were saying that we want to follow him, to be his people, to be part of his kingdom. That doesn’t mean that the things of this world aren’t important … they are … they just are the most important thing. Our priorities should be different.
I watched a sermon once by Robert Morris, and he said he had a friend who used to go around and say, “That’ll burn. That’ll burn.” What he meant by that was, whatever the thing was that he was referring to would burn … it wouldn’t be in eternity. Your house? That will burn. Your car? That will burn Your career or education? That will burn. Your political party or country club membership? That won’t even burn, they just won’t even be relevant.
The only eternal thing, the thing that will last, are the people around you. We are you investing your treasure.
5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. 6 Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming.
I think it’s always important to remember to whom these letters were written. As least in the U.S. church, we tend to point fingers at those outside and use the Bible to tell them what they’re doing wrong. Paul wasn’t writing to outsiders. He was writing to insiders. The people outside the church haven’t signed up for the Christian walk … if you’re in the church, you’re saying you have. He says the same thing in 1 Corinthians 5
9 When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. 10 But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that. 11 I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people.
12 It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. 13 God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.[5]”
Same thing right? But we seem to get it backwards so often. We judge those outside the church and give those inside a pass. But let’s continue on in Colossians 3
7 You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. 8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. 10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. 11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.
12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.
16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
What Paul has been talking about in this chapter is what it looks like if we really believed what we say we believe. Do we really believe in our heart … our whole self … what we say we do.
After Hurricane Harvey, I was talking to someone whose home had been flooded in the Conroe release. If you remember, by Monday, the rain had pretty much stopped and I think most of us thought we were good. But water was rising in Conroe. Just as a side note if you follow Bob Rehak’s blog, reduceflooding.com, you might have read that it’s come out in the court documents that the reservoir still had three feet of capacity when they let loose on us. They didn’t have to release how and when they did, they chose to.[6]
The lady received a phone call from a family member who lived in Conroe who told her that she’d better get out because “Conroe takes care of its own.”
She could have delayed, like some of the people who wouldn’t leave in Galveston when Hurricane Ike was coming, but she believed her relative, and so her family packed up and left their house so they weren’t there when the water hit.
When we really believe something, our actions reflect those beliefs.
This Bible lesson was originally taught by Carla Alvarez on November 14, 2021 in the Kingdom Citizen Bible study Class at the Second Baptist North campus in Kingwood, Texas.
Endnotes
[1] “Gospel | Definition, History, & Facts,” Britannica, accessed November 13, 2021, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gospel-New-Testament.
[2] Ephesians 1:4-11 NLT
[3] Romans 10:9-10. NLT
[4] Romans 12:1-2 NIV
[5] 1 Corinthians 5:9-12 NLT
[6] https://reduceflooding.com/2020/06/11/what-happened-downstream-during-harvey-as-lake-conroe-released-79000-cfs/