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The Jew looked down on every other nation. The New Testament is unsparing in its condemnation of the gossiping tongues which poison truth. There is a present witness of the victory of Jesus. That may be putting bread on the table, but your life really is bound up in Jesus Christ. It does not present the Spirit of God as a person down here, though He is a person of course, but rather as characterizing the love. His grace has qualified us now for His glory: such, as far as this goes, is the clear meaning of the Holy Ghost. And to challenge that is to court problems. See the same thing in the famous seventy weeks of Daniel. There is scarce anything more offensive than a child who looks, talks, and acts the old man. Tradition never manifested the true God. These last three forbidden things have all to do with speech. So don't be deceived; don't let men deceive you. And now the apostle would recall them: "Walk in him, rooted and built up in him." The Christian will see things, not as they appear to men, but as they appear to God." Colossians Greeting. Constructively, to my mind, this points to the great sign of His death. Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. As Paul saw it, husbands have as great an obligation as wives; parents have just as binding a duty as children; masters have their responsibilities as much as slaves. Yet there were men not wanting then that denied him to be an apostle. Here we have the mingling, I apprehend, of natural man's philosophy, and religions man's tradition. They are not indeed to reign with Him: this was by no man and at no time promised to them. In the presence of God the social distinctions of the world become irrelevant. Since God raised us with Christ and we are already as good as seated with Him in heaven, we should "keep seeking" heavenly things. It is easy to distort the truth; an alteration in the tone of voice or an eloquent look will do it; and there are silences which can be as false and misleading as any words. Christianity brought mercy into this world. Occasions of sin must be avoided: the lusts of the flesh, and the love of the world; and covetousness, which is idolatry; love of present good, and of outward enjoyments. Atheism and Pantheism are the ultimate results of philosophy, and both in reality set. "Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. When Christ, who is our life, [Now, you see this is the key to it right here. "You must not only seek heaven, you must think heaven" (Lightfoot). Josephus uses it as a description of Isaac, the man who dug wells and gave them to others because he would not fight about them ( Genesis 26:17-25). To make laws to live by is the way of the worldly person, not the way of the Christian. As for the apostle he lays before them another point. The ceremonies of the law have no further use (16-17).Neither should Christians listen to those who want to show their superior knowledge by mixing their own philosophies with the gospel. It is in baptism rather than in Him. But here writes the lowly-minded apostle, in the full assurance that, though he had never seen them, or they him, it would be real and mutual gratification to know about one another from him who went between them. Philosophy is an idol of man or nature, a blind substitute for the knowledge of God. He has at one and the same time the strength and the sweetness of true gentleness. Moreover, worldly lusts, the members which are on the earth, earthly pleasures that are sinful, may be here meant. In point of time the world had grown comparatively old before Jesus appeared. Not to be a man pleaser, "Oh, the boss is coming. "And let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another." The Greek was the aristocrat of the ancient world and he knew it. (ii) There may well be a word play here which a Greek would recognize at once. The answer is important, for in it there is the whole Christian doctrine of work. Mortify them, kill them, suppress them, as weeds or vermin which spread and destroy all about them. First the apostle brings in all things as a whole, the universal creaturehood, earthly and heavenly; thus giving us an adequate notion of the perfect triumph of God at the time when it seemed as if Satan had completely succeeded through man against the counsels of God. We do not work for pay or for ambition or to satisfy an earthly master; we work so that we can take every task and offer it to Christ. If you look at the saints individually, He is the seal and the earnest. So then, as the chosen of God, dedicated and beloved, clothe yourself with a heart of pity, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience. How blessed! None could pretend that He had ever refused a single soul; none could say that they had gone empty away. I. Because He was the greatest, the best, the holiest? Here we see the other side Christ in or among you Gentiles, "the hope of glory." There is still another thought here. There was no provision for the aged. It makes a man grow continually in grace and knowledge until he reaches that which he was meant to be--manhood in the image of God. There was much that was blessed at Colosse; and the apostle loves to give full credit for it. How vain and perilous at least for themselves was the effort of the Colossians! Nor is this all. If a divine person was pleased to appear here below, and to bring in unimagined goodness and power, dealing with every need and every one with whom He came in contact, and who sought or even accepted His gracious action, it might have been supposed that man could not resist such unhesitating love and unmeasured power. It was not the Father, but the Godhead. 1 Paul, a an apostle of Christ Jesus b by the will of God, and Timothy c our brother,. Colossians 3:1. Bear with one another, and, if anyone has a ground of complaint against someone else, forgive each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive each other. Who and what is the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption? Neither James nor Peter, neither John nor Jude, treat of justification before God by faith in Jesus. So the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. Love heavenly things; studythem; let your hearts be entirely engrossedby them. There was, there could be, no lack of the attractiveness of love and power in Him who went about doing good; yet miserable hearts did not turn to Him, save where the grace of God the Father drew them to the only adequate expression of Himself. It remains, however, that He is the first-born of all creation, because he is the Creator of all things, above or below, material or spiritual: "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible." He only is the constitutive power of the unity that we are exhorted to keep. This, then, shows Christ, in a certain sense, in the Gentiles here below; as, in the Ephesians, Christ is seen above and we in Him. In material science it is not so, in schools of doctrine it is not so: there is something altogether circumscribed, in known limits, and definite enough to satisfy the mind of man. You cannot live after your flesh and inherit the kingdom of God. Yet He has absolute peace, never broken or ruffled for an instant. While there is no doubt that which requires to be cut down or pruned on every side, there is a gradual development of divine life in the saints of God; and this, as being through the Spirit's use of the truth, by no means can be all at once. May the word of Christ dwell richly in you with all wisdom. Instead of letting the reins free now to run in the race of improving the world and bettering society, or any of the objects that occupy men as such, the saints of God should abstain altogether. The apostle, having described our privileges by Christ in the former part of the epistle, and our discharge from the yoke of the ceremonial law, comes here to press upon us our duty as inferred thence. The thoughts should be occupied about the things where Christ now dwells, where our final home is to be, where our great interests are. Every Christian is crucified unto the world, and the world is crucified unto him,Galatians 6:14. Hence it runs: "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven." You had such a good attitude. Now, as we had mentioned when we were going though Ephesians, God gave very simple rules for marriage. The way to right action is to appoint Jesus Christ as the arbiter between the conflicting emotions in our hearts; and if we accept his decisions, we cannot go wrong. It is somewhat startling at first sight to realize such a fact, but if it be a fact as I unqualifiedly assert is it not of great moment to understand it? Dean, "A Study of the Enthronement of Christ in Acts 2, 3" (Th.M. The wrath of God is simply the rule of the universe that a man will sow what he reaps and that no one ever escapes the consequences of his sin. For really you are dead to them, and that's the principal he is teaching. "You must not only seek heaven, you must think heaven" (Lightfoot). We don't want them to goof off and get mediocre grades in school. For instance, under Jewish law, a husband could divorce his wife for any cause, while a wife had no rights whatever in the initiation of divorce; and the only grounds on which a divorce might be awarded her were if her husband developed leprosy, became an apostate or ravished a virgin. The Christian will have all the desires of the new man gratified. "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth; for ye are dead.". It is rather "your mind;" for here, however important the state of the heart, it is a question simply of the whole bent and judgment. For the Christian the burst of temper and the long-lasting anger are alike forbidden. He is in effect saying that his Christianity must make him a better and more efficient slave. He looks not at some advanced souls at Colosse, but at all the saints there. Not only did he preach the one and teach the other (which the others no doubt did too), but he has committed to inspired writings the gospel as none other did; and he has, alone of all, brought out the church in the fullest way. Besides, Christ is the first-born of all creation. They might come for what they could get; but at length they would not have Him or anything He had to give on any terms. But the first characteristic result of Christ's work on the cross was the veil that shut up the holiest rent from top to bottom. They do it heartily; they do it with joyfulness. All the privileges and rights belonged to the parent and all the duties to the child. His master could thrash or brand or maim or even kill him at his caprice; he had not even the right of marriage. It is most true in its place; but it addresses rather the sense of responsibility than the communion of affections of the children of God. He who believes this would understand that it was still an unrevealed secret during Old Testament times. Colossians 1:24 and ends with these verses was written by Morgan thus: Nielson read the meaning of this to be: "In Jesus Christ are hid all the attributes of Deity." Guthrie's significant analysis of these two verses is: In his autobiography, Memory to Memory, Sir Arnold Lunn has a chapter on Cyril Joad, the well-known philosopher, whom he knew well. He puts off his old self and puts on a new self, just as the candidate for baptism puts off his old clothes and puts on the new white robe. Thus, even if there be not actually formal praise, the Lord looks for thankfulness of heart, as counting on love in everything. The children of Israel made a tragic mistake thinking, "Well, we are God's chosen people, and we can live like the nations around us." Further, this change is progressive. People will say, "How is it that on Monday you can be so happy; you're whistling. The treatment of the idiot and the simple-minded was unfeeling. T. K. Abbott points out how this passage shows in summary fashion the barriers which Christianity destroyed. He died this is the point here and therefore I am dead too. "You that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind," says he (for the full truth is brought before them as to their condition), "enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death." Such is the fruit of His word thus dwelling in us. When he was writing to the Philippians, he said, "For me to live is Christ" ( Php_1:21 ). For none of these reasons, though He was all this, and more. Such is His relationship to the church. It is not merely the life of a Christ that lived in this world, but the life of Him that was lifted up on the cross, and bore my sins there. More offensive than a child who looks, talks, and the apostle he lays before another! 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