Colossians 3:5-11
I’ve become used to the church receiving anonymous letters. Most often they contain some word of alarm. It may be about a bill Congress is about to pass. The letter may be claim knowledge of a conspiracy at the heart of American government. Sometimes the writer may be attacking some leader who “isn’t what he appears to be;” it may tell me the President isn’t really an American citizen (it took several years to forge a birth certificate) or that Billy Graham is agent of Rome (the one in Italy, not Georgia). So, I was a little surprised last week when I received an anonymous letter with a rational, reasonable prayer request.
The letter pointed out that last year about this time there were several murders in the Columbus area. There were nine homicides in one two week period. The coming of the hot weather seemed to lead to an outbreak of violence. So, this anonymous Christian was encouraging churches to pray for a more peaceful, less violent summer.
We do seem to be living in an angry time.
When the economy is going through a tough time, people often succumb to anger. It happens at the work place as the stress and tension of facing possible job loss or failure puts people on edge. Men and women facing accumulating bills and financial stress often strike out verbally or even physically against their children or their spouses.
Not everyone who becomes angry will shoot up an office, restaurant, or shopping mall but anger is destructive all the same. And not just destructive against the objects of our anger. Western writer Louis L’Amour puts these words into a character’s mouth, "Anger is a killing thing: it kills the man who angers, for each rage leaves him less than he had been before - it takes something from him."
Anger can prompt us to lose control, to do something wrong in our rage.
Anger can worm its way into our souls and become resentment and bitterness. It can fill us with an unforgiving spirit. It can cause us to forget that we stand in the need of grace, to forget that we are capable of action that might prompt God to a righteous anger toward us, if he were not a God of great grace and persistent patience.
Paul knows the danger of anger. He knows that Christians are susceptible to the power of anger and he also knows we can overcome its power.
AS WE SEEK TO BE CHRISTLIKE
IN A SPIRITUALLY UNSYMPATHETIC CULTURE
WE ARE TO STRIP OURSELVES OF CONSUMING ANGER.
(8-9)
Of course, we aren’t always ready to admit our anger is wrong. Even in an age as obsessed with the sensual as ours seems to be, most Christians would say behavior like adultery is wrong. They might not be so quick to condemn the expressions of anger which Paul lists here.
Strangely, even those who aren’t especially inclined to pursue a Biblical lifestyle, know the danger of our angry age. Listen to this warning from a prominent social critic:
"I consider myself some sort of liberal, but I don't like where liberalism has gone in this country in the last twenty years. It's become mindless-medallion-wearing and placard-bearing. It's a cover also for a great deal of resentment and hatred, these terrible outbursts from people whose principles are affronted when you disagree with them."
Although he was writing about only one group Saul Bellow’s comments could apply to conservatives and many others as well.
The approving attitude toward revenge which dominated the Greco-Roman society would have created a real market for those tee-shirts that say, “I don’t get mad, I get even.”
But Paul calls the Colossian Christians to eradicate from their lives those things which marked their earlier lives, including those rampant emotions directed toward others.
1. anger--the fundamental emotion of negative feelings toward another. One commentator suggests that when this emotion is present, “the heart is like a roaring furnace.”
2. rage--your control is lost in rage. It is one thing to feel anger toward someone, it is another to lose all control of those feelings.
3. malice--the feelings feed the plotting of evil against the person. The word suggests Paul was not just talking about a momentary burst of emotion, like you feel when someone cuts you off in traffic. He had in mind feelings that were stoked and kept alive.
4. slander--the anger takes the form of words, particularly words which convey a false impression about the other person.
While a condemnation of what we would call swearing is contained in this phrase, it is primarily directed at abusive language which denigrates another.
5. The warning about lying (Do not lie to each other) may reflect a further progression of the anger. Slander becomes out and out lying. Kim and Patterson found that some 91% of Americans lie regularly. Many of those lies are born out of a desire to destroy the reputations of those with whom we are angry.
While the Bible recognizes a place for what we sometimes call “righteous indignation,” it warns that such anger can become twisted into personal vindictiveness.
When we Christians give way to such emotions we risk losing our credibility as witnesses.
While I was taking a seminar from a moderately well-known evangelist he proudly told of an incident which took place when he was leaving a Central American country following a crusade. A guard at the airport asked him to open his suitcase for inspection. The evangelist was incensed at being treated this way. So, he angrily opened his case and began emptying it. Even after the guard told him he could move on, this representative of Christ continued to elaborately lay out its contents—including his dirty underwear. While he thought he was putting a minor bureaucrat in his place, his anger only succeeded in embarrassing his missionary hosts and hurting the cause of Christ.
Can you imagine Christ behaving in such a manner?
With the example of Christ in mind, Paul tells the Colossians that they are to take such attitudes and strip them off like a filthy garment which no longer fits. That tee-shirt which say “I don’t get mad, I get even” is to be tossed aside for one which says, “I do get mad…but I’m learning to forgive.”
Keep this in mind. Paul was writing to a variety of people. He may have been writing to a slave whose back bore the marks of an unjust beating. Perhaps his words were written to a slave girl who had been abused and misused by her master. Maybe they were written to a man who had lost his job because he had aligned himself with the church. He may have been writing to a young woman whose Jewish parents had expelled her because she had embraced Jesus as the Messiah. To these men and women he said, “Lay aside your anger.”
But how do we do it? There are a few things we can do. When you seek to overcome the problem of anger, it may help to keep these guidelines in mind:
1. Begin by admitting anger is a choice. Have you ever heard a child make an excuse for striking out at a playmate by saying, “He made me mad?” Maybe you’ve pointed out that the friend doesn’t have that kind of power. Yet, we sometimes make the same excuses. If we are really mature, we know our anger is a choice.
2. Guard against allowing anger at a situation becoming anger at a person. Sometimes when we are angry at a situation, a policy, a state of affairs, we try to put a face on the problem—we personalize it. So we look for a person to blame, to be the object of our anger. This can be unfair and unwise.
3. Don’t make your happiness, contentment, or sense of self-worth dependent on others. When they fail, as they will, you may become outraged and vindictive. They have disappointed you and caused you pain, so they have to pay. It’s a self-defeating way to live.
4. Try to be truly humble. In Romans 12, Paul urged his readers: “Don’t think of yourselves more highly than you ought to think.” Sometimes we get angry because we think we should be exempt from the hassles of life. We shouldn’t be caught in traffic jams. What we want should never be on back order. At a restaurant our meal should never be late, overcooked, undercooked, or poorly seasoned. When we face these common problems, we get angry. A dose of humility is a good antidote to that behavior.
5. Learn to verbalize your anger respectfully, honestly, and constructively. Use clear, unembellished statements that begin with “I,” not “you.” Something like, “I feel worried when you don’t let me know you’re going to be late.” Not, “When you don’t call, it proves you’re a selfish pig.”
Okay, we all know this—but sometimes we just say the wrong thing. We spit fuel onto the fire.
But that can be said about all of these guidelines. We know they contain good advice but we don’t live up to them. We let our anger get the upper hand.
Once again, Paul seems to be asking the impossible.
How do we deal with a temper with a low flash-point? How do we keep the memory of a past hurt from continuing to manifest itself in seething anger toward the world at large?
In our hearts we know the only way we will be able to lay aside such anger, would be to somehow manage our anger as Christ would.
This reality brings us to the key point Paul is making, whether he’s talking about our sexuality or our anger.
AS WE SEEK TO BE CHRISTLIKE
IN A SPIRITUALLY UNSYMPATHETIC CULTURE
WE MUST OPEN OURSELVES TO
A TRANSFORMING RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
(9b-11)
Paul comes to the heart of his challenge to the Colossians. He wants them to know that Jesus Christ has ushered them into a relationship with God that will so transform them they will be able to live with integrity in the midst of their culture.
The spiritual reality of what happened in Christ ought to lead to changed behavior. It demands our cooperation but our efforts alone will not be sufficient. We need God’s own help.
God’s work in us accomplishes more than merely "turning over a new leaf"; God’s work in us produces Christlikeness.
The esoteric knowledge offered by the false teachers actually made individuals less like Christ (because it filled them with pride and haughtiness). True God-given knowledge (which is knowledge born out of a relationship) makes them more like Christ.
This transforming relationship, which begins the moment we trust Christ, is the birthright of every believer. In this process we move ever closer to becoming what we are. We possess a “new self” and through God’s Spirit we are able to live like it.
The term for this process is “sanctification,” that doctrine which reminds impatient believers that even though we become saints in an instant it takes time to become saintly.
While the false teachers who were stalking the Colossian church taught that God had his “favorites” Paul reminds his readers that this relationship may be experienced by all who trust Christ. He confirms this by pointing to the kinds of people who were on that road to Christlikeness.
Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian,
Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Certainly Paul is saying there no basis for racial pride in what God has done for us. We are all products of God's great grace and the trophies of God’s grace come from every ethnic, social, and economic grouping.
Let’s look at just one example. Paul mentions the Scythians. Who were they?
Paul is referring to a group of people who, in the 7th century BC, invaded Asia and the Fertile Crescent, including Palestine. They were known for “their violence and their arrogance.” Tertullian reported that they drank the blood of the first enemy killed in battle, that they made bowls of skulls and napkins of scalps. Josephus wrote: “The Scythians delight in murdering people and are little better than wild beasts.” Several translations render the word as “savages.”
Paul is saying that even such persons as these may be redeemed and remade by the power of God’s Spirit.
To appreciate the impact of what Paul wrote, imagine him writing a letter to remind us that the most fanatic members of Al Qaeda can be transformed into those whose manner and behavior is like Christ’s.
Now, imagine that friend, neighbor, or relative you’ve been praying for. Have you come to a point of wondering if they are beyond the reach by God’s grace? Have you begun to doubt if even God’s Spirit could transform them?
Or, perhaps you’ve begun to wonder if you will ever have final victory over those temptations which keep you from living your Christian life with integrity.
Put aside those doubts. If you’ve opened your life to him, God is constantly at work to transform you.
We have the assurance that "Christ is everything in all of you" (NET). He is our source of hope and salvation, there is no other. He will transform us, even in the midst of our culture, if we open our lives to him.
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If we open our lives to the transforming power of God we will become more and more like Christ.
Are you frustrated as you struggle to live with spiritual integrity? Don’t depend on your own strength and resolve. Allow God to do his work in you.
Have you postponed professing your faith in Christ because you believe you must change your own life? You’re taking on an impossible task. Open yourself to let God mold you to be like Christ.
