On To Perfection
Text: Col. 3:1-17
Introduction:
Max Lucado tells the story of Bob, who was born into the land of coats! His mother loved the color blue and made Bob’s first cost a lovely shade of blue. Every time she noticed her son in his lovely blue coat, she cheered, "Yes, Bob!" He felt good in his blue coat, but Bob had to grow up and go to work. So he put on his best blue coat and slipped out of the house, going to his new job. The people on the street saw him and began to yell, "Yuk, Yuk!" Their coats were yellow and they hated blue.
Into a store ducked Bob and bought a yellow coat, put it over his blue coat and continued on his way to work. The people cheered, "Yea! Bob!" Bob felt good in his yellow coat over his blue coat. He stepped into his bosses office to get his assignment for that first day. He sat waiting for this boss, who came in, looked at him and yelled, "Yuk!" Bob jumped up, took off the yellow coat and stood waiting for approval in his blue coat. The boss yelled, "Double Yuk! Bob. Here at work we wear green coats!" With that, Bob slipped back on the yellow coat, over the blue coat and put the green coat on top. "Yea! Bob!" said the boss. As he left for work, Bob felt good.
After work, Bob slipped off the green coat, put it under the yellow coat and walked proudly home. He opened the door, went inside, as his mother looked at him with a "Yuk" on her lips. Bob quickly changed coats, putting the lovely blue one on top. Mom whispered, "Yea! Bob!"
Bob got so good at changing coats until he became a popular man around town. He changed coats so swiftly until he had folks fooled into believing that whatever coat they had on, he had it on too. Bob loved hearing the crowd say, "Yea! Bob!" He couldn’t stand hearing "Yuk" Bob was elected mayor of the Town of Coats and had a faithful constituency. One day he heard a noise outside of his window and then heard a pounding on his door. The Yellow Coats brought in a man wearing no coat. "Kill him!" they cried, "he doesn’t fit in!" In his yellow coat, Bob said, "Leave him to me."
"Man, where is your coat?" he asked. The man said, "I wear no coat." Bob replied, "everybody wears a coat. What color do you choose?" The man responded the second time, "I wear no coat." By then the Green Coats had gathered under Bob’s window. Running to the window, his green coat on top, Bob yelled down to them, "I have it under control." The Green Coats shouted, "Kill him!" At this time his mother entered into the room, and Bob slipped his blue coat on top. "Bob, where is his blue coat?" Mother asked, The Man replied, "I don’t wear a coat." "Kill him," said Mother as she left Bob and the man alone.
"Man, said Bob, you have to wear a coat or they are going to kill you." "Bob," said the man, "you need to decide to stop wearing your different coats. Take them off, take them all off and let the world see who you truly are." "Take them off? Take them all off?" asked an incredulous Bob. The man said again, "Bob, you have to make a choice." As the crowd kept crying, "Kill him!" Bob washed his hands, opened the door and marched the man toward sure death. The man looked at Bob, with one final word, "Choose." Bob was left alone with his three coats and the questions ringing in his mind, "Take them off? Take them all off?"
Exposition:
Recap of why?
v.1 – Since… raised with Christ
Message is for the believer – previously talking about baptism as being buried and raised with Christ.
Things above – heavenly things rather than earthly
v.2 – heart… mind
Both our feelings and our intellect
v.3 – died, hidden with Christ
what we were – the natural man – is now dead. We no longer care for the world the way we did before our salvation. Our real life, our spiritual life, our life with Christ, is not visible to the world, it is hidden.
v.4 – appear
The hidden life will become apparent to all when Christ returns.
What to put off
v.5 – Therefore – see what its there for. A connection between two ideas, in this case, why we should be different and what should be different.
v.5 – put to death… earthly nature
Some things that belong to our old ways, things that are not in Christ’s image
v.7 – used to walk in these ways
Characteristics of our old life, of the world
v.8 – rid yourself
what was impossible without Christ becomes possible with Him.
v.8 – such as these
more things that we used to do. Example of Howard Adams
He was attacked in a burglary, spent several months in a coma. Disfigured and in constant pain, he chose to forgive his attacker. Through prayer and contact with the man who nearly killed him, the attacker was converted to Christianity and now regularly corresponds with his victim. They plan to remain in touch, possibly being baptized in Howard’s church.
v.9 – taken off the old self
like the coats in the story, the many faces we put on to please others, to act the way they act, think the way they think
v.10 – put on the new self
we’ll see those things in just a moment starting in v. 12
v.11 – Greek, Jew, … slave, free
distinctions made by humanity, not God. All who follow Jesus Christ are renewed in His image. Once again, the outward is distinguished from the inward.
What to put on
v.12 – Therefore
Another connection. Now that the old ways have been put off, here are the new ways of Christ to put on
v.12 to 14 – list of virtues
Again, what was once impossible is now possible because we are in Christ
v.15 – members of one body … peace
recalling v.11 that there are no longer distinctions, no barriers between us. The body lives at peace with itself. If it does not, we call it a disease and attempt to keep the body from warring with itself.
v.16 – dwell
make its home, live
v.16 – teach and admonish
Our work with each other. The reality that we will not live up to these virtues, that we will not put off all the things of this world. Need for sanctifying grace.
v.16 – sing … to God
Our worship is also to be filled with Christ’s word
v.17 – whatever you do
Everything. Home, work, school, grocery store, driving, even church.
Paul is describing a concept that was close to Wesley’s heart: Sanctifying grace. The grace that allows us to become more and more like Christ in our daily lives. One of three facets of grace.
We cannot clean up our lives enough to be acceptable to God. We can only come to him through his justifying grace. The grace that saves us. Without this grace we would be eternally separate from God.
Third facet is prevenient grace – grace before grace. The grace that makes us seek after God. Without this grace we would never know our need for God, we wouldn’t have that “God-shaped hole” in our hearts that innately drives us to seek out that something more in life.
Sanctifying grace is what keeps grace degenerating into what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls cheap grace – forgiveness without repentance. We move on into spiritual maturity, where we desire to be more like Christ. When we fail in this lofty goal – and we all will fail in one way or another – it is sanctifying grace that, in response to our repentance, steps in, dusts us off, sets us on our feet, and points us again on our way toward God.
Listen to this passage again, reading from The Message
There are many questions that each UM minister must answer as a part of his or her ordination. Among them are these two: “Are you going on to perfection?” and “Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?” One candidate resisted answering these questions when the bishop posed them. The bishop then asked the hesitant candidate, “If you aren’t going on to perfection then what ARE you going toward?”
That’s a good question for all of us to ask ourselves. What AM I going toward?
Today’s message is for believers, an encouragement from Paul to work out what Christ has worked into them. To try this without Christ is to undertake the impossible.
Closing encouragement:
What would happen, what could happen, if we truly took this to heart? Doing all in the name of Jesus, taking off all our coats instead of wearing our blue, or yellow, or green, or red one.
