Colossians 3:8-17 (KJV) But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek not Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in youir hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”
Things to put off or take off:
1. Anger: Which means Indignation leading to vengeance. Do we remember what Paul says in his letter to those in Rome? Listen to these verses: Romans 12:17-21 (KJV) “Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. There fore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head Be not over come of evil, but overcome evil with good.” There are several places where GOD says that vengeance is HIS, here is one place where Paul could have got this saying from, listen to what the Bible says in Deuteronomy 32:35 (KJV) “To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is a hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.” Don’t try to steal GOD’s wrath, or try to play GOD by taking revenge on someone who has done you wrong, or spitefully treated you. The scripture I just read from Romans did not say to ask GOD to dump hot coals on the head of those that do you wrong, but to return their EVIL doings with your GOOD things that you do for them. Let GOD take the revenge, we just keep on loving them that do us wrong. But now you can only do this when you live are living a victorious life while you are “RISEN WITH CHRIST”.
2. Wrath: This word is similiar to our first word “ANGER” but it is actually when you let that anger in you, remain there and kindle it up like you would a fire in a stove or a fire outside where you are burning leaves or brush, you don’t get rid of the anger but let it stay within you and cause you to seethe or simmer with indignation that builds into a fierceness, with you allowing it to cause you to try to repay “evil for evil”. Please keep that type of anger and wrath away from you, put it off of you and out of your life.
3. Malice: This word is from the Greek word (kay cos) and means “BADNESS” that is subject to “DEPRAVITY” or active “MALIGNITY” or “TROUBLE”, and it doesn’t have to come just from anger but being in state of mind and letting that remain in you and drive you to all kinds of “WICKEDNESS”, because you really open the door for satan. We know that sin “lieth at the door” or could be translated “croucheth at the door” ready to pounce upon you, according to Genesis the 4th chapter and the 7th verse, and if you continue to harbor this malice in you, satan will come right through that open door and raise all kinds of “HAVOC” with your life. If you continue to stir up that type of attitude within you, if you keep poking at it and provoking it, YOU WILL FALL. Let it go, put it away form you and then replace it with the LOVE OF GOD there inside of you and you will do the right thing.
4. Blasphemy: Here Blasphemy means vilification(especially) against GOD, railing against GOD and blaming everything on HIM, because HE let you do something. How wrong, and heartbreaking to GOD, who “LOVES YOU WITH AN EVERLASTING LOVE”.
5. Filthy Communication out of your mouth: Or what you might say is “TAME THE TONGUE”. James, the LORD’s brother talks about the damage and hurt that the tongue came cause or create. In the book of James, well, let me read it to us so that I will be sure to get it right. You can turn with me in your Bibles to James 3:5-11 (KJV) and I’ll be reading out of the King James Version, “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of HELL. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?” No wonder GOD’s WORD says in James 1:19(KJV) “…be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:” listen please, brothers and sisters you can’t unspeak something, once you have spoken something cruel or hurtful, those words have already done their damage, make sure your mind and heart are in gear and in sync with one another before you say it!
6. Lie not to one another: The Greek word simply means to “utter an untruth” to “deceive by falsehood”. Be careful, very careful, and let GOD guide your words, put your statement on trial before you say it. Let’s always remember that GOD’s HOLY WORD says that “satan is a liar and the father of it”. Let LOVE motivate your statements and words and they will always be right.
After the Apostle Paul names these 6 things that we should undress our selves of, that we should put away out of our lives, far away from our lives, he uses a phrase, or a combination of Greek words, to further explain himself, listen to the last part of verse 9 of Chapter 3 of Colossians (KJV) “….seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds…” This comes from the Greek word (apo) which means the “COMPLETE CESSATION OF”, and let me interject here, not just to lay something aside where you maybe able to pick it back up and use it again, but to completely obliterate it from your life, to destroy it by making it unusable. and another Greek word (ek-duo); which means to totally divest oneself wholly from something, or that is to put off from you forever. Now of course you have heard me say this before. When you are “BORN AGAIN” you have to RENEW your life, by putting off the “OLD WAYS” and learn to do and use the “NEW WAYS”. Paul says in the 10th verse of our TEXT that we have “…put on the new man, which is renewed in the knowledge after the image of him that created him:…” Who was it that “BORNED YOU ANEW” who was it that made a “NEW MAN” out of you, and of course that person was JESUS of NAZARETH, the CHRIST. So then we can look at the IMAGE that JESUS “PAINTED” as HE lived HIS life here on earth, and always remember that we paint a picture with our CHRISTIAN LIVES, so PAINT it TRUE, make people know that JESUS has really saved you and changed you. We can see the INTEGRITY, the COMPASSION, the LOVE, the continuous EFFORTS that HE showed in HIS life to HELP others and minister to their needs. How are we renewed, we are completely RENOVATED, by the KNOWLEDGE that JESUS not only taught but lived for all to see.
Now, that we have put all of this away from us, what are we going to put in it’s place? Here it is, the things we need to do, so please listen to the 12th verse of our text: “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;” and then Paul reiterates where they should come from, of course he uses the word “BOWLES” which means the “INWARD AFFECTIONS THAT ARE SALTED OR FILLED WITH TENDER MERCIES“.
You might say how can I do that, how can I be that type of person, the only way is to “STAY FILLED WITH THE LOVE OF GOD“.
Colossians 3:13-16 (KJV) says: “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts,” May I interject here, who rules my heart, who rules your heart? Now continuing on with our scripture “to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with the grace in your hearts to the Lord.” So let me quickly number these “things we should do”
1: Forbear one another: The actual meaning is “to hold oneself up against” that is, in our “country bumpkin” jargon we would say “put up with”, sometimes we just have to “put up with” “one another” because no one is the same as someone else and we all have some different idiosyncraises or some quirks in our behavior that others might not have, so we just look over them, so that we can work together in HARMONY and LOVE.
2: Forgive one another: Paul kind of adds to this thing that we are to do, by saying “even as Christ forgave us”. Jesus forgave us of lot things and ways that we had because “HE LOVED US” and of course the Bible tells us to “LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS CHRIST LOVED US”. We know also that if we do not forgive others their trespasses, JESUS taught that we would not get our trespasses forgiven. There’s not really anything complicated about that, and we shouldn’t have a problem with doing it, if we LOVE as JESUS LOVED.
3: Put on CHARITY (LOVE): One of the first things I taught on Wednesday was 1 Corinthians 13 (KJV): Known as the LOVE CHAPTER, of course you already knew this verse and it’s teaching, but sometimes we need to go back to the fundamental teachings again, again and again. LOVE is the driving force of CHRISTIANITY, without LOVE, true AGAPE LOVE, we are NOTHING are WE HAVE NOTHING, our words of WITNESS, our words of WORSHIP, and our WORD’S to a lost and dying WORLD mean nothing, they are just as a “sounding brass” or “tinkling cymbal”. Let’s keep that “AGAPE’ LOVE OF GOD” forever strong in our HEARTS’ so that we WORK for the LORD as HE wants to work for HIM!
4. Let’s dress ourselves with KINDNESS for everyone. The word KINDNESS means “MORAL EXCELLENCE” we claim to be MORAL in our lives, don’t we know that it is IMMORAL not to be KIND to EVERYONE. We like to think of “IMMORALITY” as “ADULTERY” as “DRUNKENNESS” as “IDOLATRY” and those are IMMORALITIES but also so is the LACK OF “AGAPE’ LOVE”, IMMORAL and not acceptable in the sight of GOD! Do we, do I reach out and strive for that “MORAL EXCELLENCE” or do we just “SETTLE” for “second best”
5. HUMBLENESS of MIND: Which of course means, modesty, lowliness of mind, not of a haughty mind.
6. Meekness: Which is humility with gentleness, meekness does not mean WEAKNESS, but being GENTLE with others as you are being HUMBLE. Paul also says to do all that you do in “the NAME of the LORD”, not doing something so that you can be “NOTICED” but that JESUS, JESUS, JESUS can be noticed or “lifted up”.
7. Long Suffering: Which is being “lovingly PATIENT”! as GOD is alway LONG SUFFERING, or PATIENT with us, if HE wasn’t we would not stand a chance while on our JOURNEY down here. We fail him so much, in our lives but he “LOVINGLY” corrects us and uses us for HIS GLORY!
8. Thankful: Now, just because you get a day off from work and eat some turkey and dressing, don’t mean you are being thankful to GOD, and I’ll say very quickly “they ain’t nothing wrong with TURKEY and DRESSING! But the word THANKFUL means being “SO GRATEFUL” to GOD for all that HE has done for you and also for the all the things HE hasn’t done to you, when you let the FLESH rise up in you. As we continue to “WALK WITH AND FOR HIM” he is always with us to STRENGTHEN, PROTECT, AND GUIDE US.
There are many other things that I haven’t mentioned here that we need to dress ourselves up with, or “PUT ON” so just look at CHRIST’s life and be like HIM, and you’ll be fine. So, are you wondering or thinking, how can I do all of these things. Look quickly at the 16th verse of our text, and we will find out how we can do these things. Read along with me or just listen attentively “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the LORD.” I know that I have been a little long with this sermon, but I want to do one more thing. May I ask you this morning, where do we normally do all of these things? Now, I’ll answer my own question here and say “IN CHURCH SERVICES” and of course we are not to just do it, exclusivly, in “CHURCH SERVICES”. But, I can’t think of a time that we haven’t done these things in our “CHURCH SERVICES”. That being said, let’s each one of us take every opportunity we have to come to the “HOUSE OF GOD” and do these things. So if you are still wearing some of those things you should have already “PUT OFF” or if you haven’t “PUT ON” some of those things you should have “PUT ON”. Choose this day to complete those things in your Christian life.