Coming of age in the 70’s meant that I had to endure many trials. Each decade brings its own decadence, but few periods of history seem to be more saturated with such strangeness. Mood rings were necessary to know what we were feeling. Pet Rocks made money for their inventor and fools of their owners. The music? Disco. Enough said. And the clothes that went along with that dancing beat – leisure suits. When I was 16 and seeking to determine my own fashion taste I thought it necessary to buy a leisure suit. It was, of course, pure polyester, that most unnatural of fibers, lime green with a shirt of matching hues and a very, very wide collar. I was the height of fashion. But yet I was only proving the insight made 150 years before by Thoreau who said, "Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new." We strive to be fashionable, holding to the old adage that the clothes make the man. While the poodle skirt is long gone, the Nehru jacket is a museum piece, and the Preppy look beckons another time, there is one fashion statement that will never change. There are clothes that we all need that will never go out of style. When Paul describes the Christian life he often makes use of a clothing metaphor to describe what the Christian life is to be like. There are certain clothes we remove and others we put on. The importance of clothing goes back to the Fall, when our first parents rejected God’s commands and shame took over when they saw their nakedness. Fig leaves became the first fashion statement, a statement of seeking to deal with one’s own sins, rather than seeking God’s help. "Clothes make the man," Mark Twain noted. "Naked people have little or no influence on society." God had another plan. He would provide them with what they needed. In Genesis 3, following his curse, he provides for them animal skins to replace their own attempts to make themselves presentable. Our passage outlines what the well-dressed Christian is to wear. Our clothes are to reflect our faith. In Colossians 3 Paul describes how the good news of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection will affect us. In verse 10 we are told to put off and in verse 12 we are to put on.
During this month we are reexamining Cornerstone’s vision statement as a reminder of what we believe God would have us be and do. The first week was a reminder that we must realize the centrality of the gospel. The good news of Christ’s work for us must never escape our notice. Last week, the second corner described what our response to the gospel was to be: worship. As the first two reflect our attitude towards God, the next two points outline our response to those around us. This morning we will examine the third corner of our vision statement, that God calls people to Cornerstone Church to: Relate this life-changing message to the Cornerstone community. Our clothes reflect our calling [verse 12a] Verse 12 sets the context for us, taking us back to the first 11 verses. Christ’s resurrection is our resurrection as well, so that the way we did things before no longer applies to us today. The anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language must be gone. The old self has died with Christ; it must be taken off and the new self put on. So Paul begins in verse 12 with therefore. The clothes he is about to list reflect these truths. Our clothes reflect our ownership, our status before God. The descriptive list is taken as a whole. We cannot separate one from the other, as God’s choice of us, his declaration that we are holy, and that we are loved are the foundation of how we are to live. The terms here point back to Deuteronomy 7:7 where God’s affection and God’s election go hand in hand. Rather than a cold determinism, election is but another term for God’s love of us. Just as election and love go hand in hand, so holy reflects God’s ownership of us. Holy is not first a description of lifestyle, but of relationship. To be holy is to be set apart; it is a mark of ownership. God assures us that, as we are his people, we are then set apart for his service. This depends not on our goodness, but on his grace; not on our lovable-ness, but on his love. This is the starting point for Cornerstone’s vision – that God calls us. This will affect the way we live. We are not independent of God or others. We start with God’s work in us, God’s electing grace. The qualities listed are not the means by which we seek to please God; rather they are evidences of God’s pleasure at work in us. That we are chosen does not eliminate our responsibility to one another; it heightens it. We are here not because we have made a decision, but because of God’s choice. Given that choice, we have no reason to behave in a manner that does not reflect his goodness to us. Our clothes reflect our Savior [verses 12b-14] Paul lists what we put on. This is not a grocery list of pleasant virtues; it reflects what Christ has done for us. The lifestyle we are to live pictures the gospel we profess to believe. Compassion: The single word in the NIV is a translation of the phrase "hearts of pity", or more literally "bowels of mercy". The ancients considered the viscera, the internal organs, as the seat of the emotional life, the gut feeling, we’d say. In Luke 6:36 we are reminded to be merciful, (same root: oiktrimos) as your heavenly Father is merciful. We are to reflect God’s compassion. When you see someone in need, do you see an interruption to your day, a drain on your resources – or are you inwardly moved to help? This is not guilt moving you, but the deep desire to mimic the gospel and wear your faith in your life. Kindness: This is compassion resulting in aid. Not just a pleasant smile, but a response of support to someone who needs help. This word was used to describe that lovely quality of wine that has mellowed with age, having lost its harshness and bitterness. Kindness attributes honor to the other person, and looks out for their needs. Kindness is at the heart of showing mercy. It takes the internal response we have to a need and then fills that need. Kindness is at the heart of what Christ did for us. Humility: If kindness is a Christlike attitude towards others, humility is a Christlike attitude towards oneself. It means the refusal to demand one’s own rights. Paul contrasts this humility with that which was exhibited by false teachers in Colossians 2:23. True humility is that which is lived out by Jesus, who in Matthew 11:29 tells us that he is gentle and humble in heart. What is your attitude toward others? Do you convey a dress of superiority, of self-achievement, that you have attained a better standing socially, perhaps theologically? Gentleness: This is the opposite of a harshness that seeks one’s own way above all others. Gentleness is a strength that is able to accommodate another’s weakness. The gentle person does not need to demand his or her own way. In the ancient world meekness was seen as a weakness; it was servile, cringing self-abasement. What radically overturned this misperception was the incarnation. God taking on flesh for us is the greatest picture of gentleness. Patience: Everyone is patient, even if it is only for a second. But the term here demands more than just counting to ten. The old translation may be best: longsuffering. This is endurance of wrong and exasperating conduct on the part of others without flying into a rage or passionately desiring vengeance. This leads into the next verse. Forgiveness: Now the list becomes rather practical: bear with others, forgive grievances. The clothing we are to wear sets aside one’s natural reaction towards odd or difficult people. Old feuds or new tangles are not to be fed upon. Forgiveness marks our lives as those forgiven, and in turn as those who will forgive others. Again, our clothes reflect the gospel. When the first missionaries came to Alberta, Canada, a young chief of the Cree Indians named Maskepetoon savagely opposed them. But he responded to the gospel and accepted Christ. Shortly afterwards, a member of the Blackfoot tribe killed his father. Maskepetoon rode into the village where the murderer lived and demanded that he be brought before him. Confronting the guilty man, he said, "You have killed my father, so now you must be my father. You shall ride my best horse and wear my best clothes." In utter amazement and remorse his enemy exclaimed, "Now you have killed me!" He meant, of course, that the hate in his own heart had been completely erased by the forgiveness and kindness of the Indian chief. (Today in the Word, November 10, 1993)To bear with each other means to put up with those who rub us the wrong way. This is more than being cordial to jerks; it is being vulnerable to being hurt again and again. Love: The final garment to put on is love, which holds the rest in place. This is the outer garment, covering the rest, or the pin that holds them all together. In the ancient world of togas, holding the flowing robes together was vital. The bond that was used could clasp the clothes properly. Without that final clasp, the rest would be useless. In Colossians 2:19 the word is translated as "ligament", the necessary element in our body that holds bones and muscles together.The centrality of love must be such a part of our character that no one would guess that anything but love would be a part of our lives, and that our motives would not be suspect. This list of virtues is not random niceties that we should perform, but they illustrate what we might call gospel virtues. It is all well and good to talk about the power of the gospel to transform lives, but how does that affect the way I interact with people I don’t really like? Old prayer: To live above with saints we love, oh that would be glory, But to live below with saints we know, well that’s another story! The first week I laid out a challenge by asking you what is the present value of the cross. How does the gospel equip you to live today? Here an answer can be found. The gospel, the good news that our sins are forgiven through Christ’s death in our place, is to so structure our lives that we recognize that we must come back to the cross for every part of our existence. Like the air we breathe, to separate ourselves from the gospel is to cease to function as a Christian. The gospel is lived out in the context of others as noted by the words used: each other, one another, the body. The problem is that we are so often self-absorbed. Like a cartoon vacuum that sucks up everything in its path, including itself, we live a ridiculous life, ignoring the clothing God has laid out for us. Our clothes are woven by the Gospel [verses 15-17] It is all well and good to say that these are the clothes we must wear, but how do we do it? I may look good in an Armani suit, but I can’t afford one. It does me little good to consider it. The answer to these gospel clothes, the means by which we relate the gospel to those around us by living lives that reflect the truth of Christ’s death for us, is found in verses 15-17. You should know me well enough and you should understand the gospel well enough to know that it would do us no good if we stop at verse 14 and say, "Go out there and be compassionate, kind, etc." Those clothes God gives us to wear are woven for us and provided for us as we believe the gospel. The means by which we put them on is simply by looking to Christ to provide all we need to live the life he commands us to live. Our life of faith is summarized in two phrases:The Peace of Christ determines how we should respond. What is the peace of Christ? Before Jesus left he promised to send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter and Counselor. In John 14:27, which was read earlier, it says: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you." The work of the Holy Spirit in the midst of God’s people is to provide the reality of the gospel, which is to be at work in our lives. This peace is ours through justification. Romans 5:1 reminds us of this tremendous benefit of the gospel, that we have peace with God. But that peace has interpersonal effects. The gospel is not just about a good internal feeling. In Ephesians 2:14 the work of Christ on the cross has resulted in the removal of the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile. What does it mean to have peace rule? The command here "rule" literally means to act as an umpire. In baseball the man in the black suit behind the catcher is the final arbiter. He remains unruffled when his calls are challenged and unperturbed if the manager kicks dust on his shoes. When faced with difficult people, when it is hard to deal with those people – the peace of Christ must be the final judge. Go back to the truth of the gospel, to your standing before God, that your are declared just, that God is for you, so no one that really matters will ever be against you. When people are big and God seems so small – the value of the cross at that moment is tremendous. If you have ever had to forgive a tremendous hurt, you know how critical it is to have a clear understanding of how God in Christ has forgiven you. Knowing the peace that is between you and God, and the necessary consequence of peace with those around you – it is only then that you fully put the gospel into practice. Peace is our calling. The peace here is not an inward, individual peace of mind that accompanies humble, confident trust in God’s love, but a peace that characterizes the community, the body as a whole. One body here is a simple metaphor, the church being understood as a single living organism whose members must act in harmony. An evidence of our election, of God’s love at work in our lives, is then peace. Not the perfect tranquility, the complete stillness – but the constant return to the gospel. The Word of Christ directs us how to respond. We are pointed to the peace of Christ through his word. The gospel must be at home in us, not as a periodic guest, occasionally brought out like a visitor for a brief stay. For God’s Word to dwell in us so that we can have the necessary peace, so that we can be well clothed with the gospel, demands that we are comfortable with the Word. This word must dwell richly. The church is to be stocked with good teaching as a palace is filled with treasures. More than just being familiar with it, we must be saturated by the Word, spending time reading, studying, and memorizing. How do we receive this word that gives peace? The word dwells in us through instruction. It must be taught, that is, our church must be Word-centered. We will not intuitively know how to live; we must be instructed. We must hear it even when it is painful. To admonish literally means to speak to the mind. These are those pointed times when we are shown our sin and then pointed to the cross. All of this must be in the context of wisdom. This is not about sharing your thoughts, but rather about directing another person’s attention to Christ. The word dwells in us through celebration. It should come as no surprise that we find ourselves back on the topic of worship once again. There is a constant flow between receiving the truth of the gospel and responding with worship. The list here is not so much of clearly identifiable musical forms, but it shows the full-orbed nature of the music. There are a variety of ways in which music will teach us, encourage us, and guide us in better knowing our Savior. How do we make this work? How can we clothe ourselves with the gospel? Community is critical. None of this is possible without other people. It is not enough to be content with realizing the need for the gospel and responding in worship. The cycle is not complete until you relate this life-changing message to others. It is with pressure that a lump of coal becomes a diamond; so with you and I, unless we are finding opportunities to show compassion, kindness, etc. to others, the gospel will sink in us like a rock. It will be cold and distant, a theory, a tidbit of theology. Growth groups are provided to enable you to find those opportunities. Several from our congregation went to a conference on mercy ministries last February and I hope we may begin to implement some fresh ideas in our congregation to allow both word and deed to have an important place in our church. God’s Word is central. This is the foundation for the rest. If God’s Word is not a part of your daily diet, you’ll starve. It is not enough just to care for others and to try to love them. If you do so without the foundation of the gospel you are like Adam, trying to cover yourself with fig leaves. For this reason at Cornerstone we seek to incorporate God’s Word with its focus on the centrality of Christ in all we do and say. Scripture alone is not just a buzzword for us, but a guiding principle for how we are to live. Thankfulness is crucial. Notice how this is repeated again and again: in verse 15 – "be thankful", in verse 16 – "with gratitude in your hearts" (literally with grace in your hearts), and in verse 17 as the cover to all we do – giving thanks to God the Father by means of Jesus Christ. This is not something we can program, not something we can orchestrate. It comes only as the gospel begins to settle deep within you. That comes not only by agreeing with the creed, affirming what is true, but by clothing yourself with the gospel and allowing God’s grace to be at work in your life today. |
