Colossians 3:12-14

Colossians 3:12-14  Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 

As joint heirs with Christ knowing Christ is all and is in all, we stand fully confident of God's grace and mercy through the works of his Son Jesus as dearly loved children in his household.  Therefore, as a harvest of the Spirit, we begin to live lives of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience--people see Jesus in us as we walk in the light of his love that binds his virtues together in us in perfect harmony.  We must recognize and appreciate our position in Christ to live victoriously over the flesh.  If we feel we still have a leading role to play in our salvation, we will go back to the law in order to feel safe with God.  Our role is choosing Christ, yielding to his will, and accepting his Lordship, not ruling our own lives through our own strength or depending upon a list of rules to keep us in line.  However, when we are judgmental and critical of ourselves because we don't always add up to God's righteousness, we tend to treat others similarly resulting in criticism, anger, and bitterness.  Rather than supporting others, praying for them, and loving unconditionally, we judge their actions and words with a lack of empathy and unforgiving hearts.  Our loved ones as well as people in the world will see us a judgmental and condemning rather than as people of grace and mercy.  Yet we all know that Jesus said people would know we are Christians by our love.  We know Jesus went about doing good and the only people He was really hard on were those with a religious spirit.  He called the Pharisees and teachers of the law hypocrites because they had a form of religion but lacked love for God and compassion for his people.  He said concerning them, But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.  They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.  (Matthew 23:3-4)  When we know who we are IN CHRIST, we are assured of our place in the family, knowing we our sons and daughters of the Most High God, our Abba Father.  IN CHRIST, nothing can separate us from our Father.  When we rest and abide in this security, we will begin to naturally and automatically satisfy the second of God's two cardinal laws that fulfill all other commandments in the law:  love your neighbor as yourself.  AS SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE MOST HIGH, WE ARE LITERALLY BATHED IN SELF-ESTEEM: WE LOVE OURSELVES BECAUSE HE LOVES US.  Such Love overflows as a mighty never-ending fountain.    

However, if we only receive this knowledge of God's perfect and complete sacrifice as a partial victory for our fleshly selves, we will continue to live under the dominion of the law, continually trying and failing to gain freedom through our human efforts.  If we fail to appreciate who Christ is in us, we will repeat the sins of the flesh and go through cycles of defeat, shame, and guilt.  We will never be good enough and always feel we have to do something more to be like Jesus.  But truly just as a biological examination of a cell in our body would reveal that it is a human cell, a cell of our spiritual being will reveal we are of Christ, for He has redeemed us and made us totally his by his shed blood.   We are part of HIS BODY.  He has made us whole, completely as He is in our souls.  Because of Christ, we have been set free to serve him out of love.  We are made WHOLE, COMPLETELY BY THE WORKS OF THE CROSS.  IT IS NOT OF OURSELVES, BUT IT IS BY THE GRACE OF GOD.  When we know who we are in Christ, we then can begin to really function in the total mileau of Christian love and service to him.  We will be less critical, condemning, and judgmental.  We will accept people as they are, rather than trying to change them through our words because we trust the Holy Spirit to perfect each brother and sister as we pray for each other in faith believing.  Only Christ can change a person from the inside out.  We can monitor and supervise people, but we will never change them completely as a new creature.  Only Christ does that.  When we begin to function in the Spirit as the body of Christ in Christian love and fellowship, building each other up, our environment will change from criticism to loving one another.  We will forgive as the Lord has forgiven us.  As Paul told the Ephesians: Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. . .Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.  Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.  From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.  (Ephesians 4:2-3 & 14-16)

If we never realize Christ has won the victory for us completely, we will always be captives to sin.  And the wages of sin is death in this life as well as the life to come.  Paul says, You, my brothers, were called to be free.  (Galatians 5:13)  If we know who we are IN CHRIST, our love for him will be great.  We will not want to betray his work in us.  The old sinful nature of sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like  (Galatians 5:19-21) will not be implanted with strong roots any longer in our daily lives.  Instead, we will walk in the freedom of the Spirit, forgiving others, putting on the love of God which binds all us together.  Knowing God's great love towards us, we love him with all our heart, soul, spirit and might, and we love our neighbor as ourselves.  He has paid the complete price for our salvation, and He has brought us into his family, holds us close to his heart.  Stand fast dear brothers and sisters of the faith.  Stand upon the Word, for God does not lie.  As Mom was finishing this breakfast, a familiar passage of scripture came to her mind and we want to close with these powerful words of faith.  If the enemy has been lying to you or telling you that you are unworthy of your calling or that you must prove your worth in some way to come back to Jesus, those are lies.  This is what the Lord says today: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,  because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.  And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.  (Romans 8:1-4)  Blessed be the name of the Lord most High!