Colossians 3:14,15
by Dr. Grant C. Richison
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Colossians 3:14
"But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection."
Love is the eighth, final and ultimate grace of the Christian life.
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"But above all these things"
God first priority for us is to put on love. Besides the other virtues,
put on love which is the last and best virtue. "Love" is the
garment that is to be "above all." This means over all. This
is the most important characteristic quality for the Christian. Let this
be the mark of distinction for the believer. This is the final garment
the believer is to put on. It binds all other garments together.
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"put on love"
The translators supply "put on" from the previous verse. The
emphasis is place on the word "love." Literally it reads, "And
above all these things, love." Love is the priority of all the graces
in this list. Love ties all other virtues together and is therefore the
most important grace (I Cor 13:13).
PRINCIPLE: Love is the outstanding mark of the Christian (John 13:34,35).
APPLICATION: If we do not love one another no one will know that we belong
to Jesus. An outstanding shortcoming of the saints is lack of love. Do
you have lack of love for fellow Christians? Why are you so critical of
others?
God does not ask us to agree with every other Christian but he does as us
to love them. We must learn to lovingly disagree. We can disagree without
becoming disagreeable. If we disagree without love then we project ourselves
out of the will of God. The price is too high. God will not use us.
Is love the priority grace of your life?
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"which is the bond of perfection"
The word "bond" means to bind together, to unite. In this context,
"bond" means a girdle. This is not the kind of girdle that redesigns
the individual that wears it!! In the first century both men and women wore
girdles. Among people of the Near East the final piece of dress was the
girdle or sash. This was a universal piece of clothing. This garment held
together all other pieces of clothing.
The "bond" was a broad belt that held all clothes in place. Every
soldier wore this broad belt to hold his clothes together and a scabbard
to hold his sword and other things. There he carried his rations and breastplate.
The "bond" or girdle was a foundational garment that holds all
garments together. Love holds everything together. Love binds all the
graces together and holds them in their proper place as a girdle. Love
ties the other graces together like a broad belt or girdle.
Love is unconditional acceptance of others. The Christian is "dearly
beloved" (v.12). As people loved by God, we love others. Since we
are dear to the heart of God our hearts should be dear toward others. We
should love like he loves. We are never more like God than when we forgive
someone who trespasses against us out of love.
A person who loves combines all characteristics of the Christian life together.
Without love, the characteristics of verses 12 and 13 cannot hold in place.
The girdle gave beauty and composure to all the graces. It also gave ease
of movement to perform necessary tasks of life.
"Perfection" is the state of perfection implying the process of
maturity. It notes a fulfillment, completion, perfection, an end accomplished
as the effect of that process (Heb. 7:11; Lk. 1:45). This word for perfection
stresses the actual accomplishment of the end in view (here; Heb. 6:1; Judges
9:16,19; Prov. 11:3; Jer. 2:2). This is maturity in thoughts and behavior
(Heb. 6:1). Love binds the characteristics of maturity together in harmony.
Love is the perfecting quality. It makes for maturity. It integrates
it altogether into a harmonious whole.
PRINCIPLE: Love gives unity to all characteristics of the Christian life
and is therefore the mark of maturity.
APPLICATION: How does love tie together such a grace as forgiveness? As
long as we have a bitter spirit, an unforgiving spirit, we are out of harmony
with God. God will disqualify us from spiritual work. God cannot do spiritual
work with unspiritual people. If a grudge, grievance or rankling feeling
lurk in our hearts, we do not love (James 3:14).
We cannot nurse a grudge and love at the same time. That is why love ties
forgiveness into our lives. Granted, someone snubbed you. Sure, someone
hurt you. We are still at fault because forgiveness is not forthcoming.
Love will cause us to forgive.
God does not call upon us to love with our own anemic, synthetic, saccharine,
imitation love. He calls upon us to love with his love, out of his love.
Inevitably we will not approve of other people. If we love with the love
God has given us, a love based on the Word of God, we can love unlovely
people. This is a love formed by God's Word. It will help us love others
who do not see things the way we do.
Colossians 3:15
"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you
were called in one body; and be thankful."
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"And let the peace of God"
The better manuscripts translate "the peace of God" with "the
peace of Christ." If we know Christ's peace, we know that God accepts
us by his grace. This knowledge gives us a disposition of peace. The
more the person and work of Christ dominate our thinking, the greater peace
the Christian will have in himself. Gratitude for what Christ has done
produces harmony of soul.
"Peace" in the Bible has more to do with the ideas of harmony,
blessing, welfare of being or inner prosperity. There is a harmony of soul
that comes from Christ. The peace of Christ steels our hearts against fretfulness
and anxiety (Isa 26:3).
If we worry enough we can have mental collapse, mental exhaustion, a nervous
breakdown. The peace of Christ is tailor-made for our minds and hearts
(Jn 14:17; 16:33; 20:21; Rom 14:17; 15:13; Gal 5:22,23; Phil 4:6,7). We
can worry ourselves into an early grave. God's remedy is his own peace.
His peace is internal tranquility in the midst of external turbulence.
God's peace will enable us to sit down on the inside. It will enable us
to come to rest. We will experience freedom from agitation and concern.
We will not become exercised about everything.
PRINCIPLE: Harmony of soul comes from an understand of the person and work
of Christ.
APPLICATION: We may say, "It is my temperament to worry; I am just
made that way." God's peace will enable us to relax on the inside.
We fret. We let circumstances or people or both to get under our skin.
"She gets into my hair." "He gets under my skin."
When we worry, we take our case out of the hands of the Lord (Ps 37:1;
Heb 13:20; II Thes. 3:16; I Thes 5:23). By that, we declare that we know
better than he does how to handle our problems. We say in effect, "I
am smarter than God. I know how to handle my problems better than he does.
I am going to work my way out of this problem."
Every problem we have ever had the Lord has been faithful (I Cor. 10:13).
In every dilemma, in every problem that we have faced, he has been faithful.
After the problem we say, "What a fool I was for worrying."
We waste so much time worry when we could put it in the hands of God. Yet
it takes a toll on our nervous system.
An understanding of the sovereignty of God in our problem brings harmony
of soul.
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"rule in your hearts"
To "rule" is an athletic term meaning to act as an umpire. In
ancient Greece the umpire presided over the Olympic games and the Isthmian
games. He discerned the athlete's qualification to take part in the games.
He determined whether the winner violated any rules during the contest.
He enforced the rules and awarded the prizes.
The Christian is to let the peace of Christ arbitrate or decide all matters
in his heart. The peace of Christ should direct, control or rule in our
hearts. This peace gives us correct judgment and decision when we let God's
rule govern our lives. If we let Christ's peace rule and govern it will
produce peace in our hearts.
Baseball players are fully aware of that man in black standing behind the
catcher. He rules the game; he calls the plays and presides over the game.
He calls balls and strikes. He knows where the strike zone is. God wants
our hearts to act like an umpire.
The human spirit that feeds upon the Word of God calls the balls and strikes
of the believer's life. The umpire is the human spirit filled with the
Word of God. This allows the believer to operate with discernment. When
a believer operates with discernment he has the peace of Christ.
PRINCIPLE: The peace of Christ derived from the Word of God arbitrates or
decides all matters in the heart of the believer.
APPLICATION: One of the outstanding sins of the Christian is worry. We
worry needlessly. Worry does no good. We know we should not worry; we
know it will not help the situation yet we persist in our worry. Some of
us worry about everything: big, medium or small. We apparently enjoy it.
Why pray when you can worry? We worry about things that will never happen.
We worry that they might happen. Some of us worry about things that never
happened! We try to justify our worry with the rationalization that "Everyone
does it."
There is a divine remedy for worry (Philippians 4:6,7). This is a fringe
benefit of having the "peace of Christ." We can let the peace
of Christ referee in our hearts. Who is in charge of the game? Who is
in charge of our hearts? The referee of the peace of Christ.
Every time we worry, we doubt God. That is a sin. God wants to free us
from carking, corroding care. He wants us to understand from the Word of
God the provision God made for us in Christ.
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"to which also you were called "
God calls us to peace. This is our calling. This is personal peace, not
peace between nations. This peace is a calmness of soul even though great
trial is pressing upon us.
The peace of Christ should be the arbitrating factor in our souls because
God has called us to peace. God has called us into a life of Christ whereby
he blesses us by who and what Christ is.
"To which" is literally "into which." At a point of
time God called us into the body of Christ whereby he graces us with the
blessings of positional truth. At the point of our salvation God provides
everything we need for the Christian life.
"Called" doubles for the idea of election. At a point of time
God enters us into union with Christ. Jesus Christ is the key to our election.
From eternity God elected him to deal with the problems of the human race
(Eph. 1:4,5). One of the things God does for us at our salvation is to
place us into a status whereby we share his election.
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"in one body"
The one body simply recognizes that all believers are in the church. They
are all in the body of Christ. The body is a technical term for all believers
in the church age. Here the body indicates action and service. Every believer
is in full time Christian service.
PRINCIPLE: God has called us to peace.
APPLICATION: It is obvious that Christians do not possess their possessions.
We do not experience the peace that God wants to give us. Yet this is
our calling. It is of no use to say, "But if you knew my wife, she
is so horrible." "If you knew my boss, he is a monster."
Circumstances do not play a part in the peace of God.
In spite of obstacles, the peace of Christ is adequate. Therefore, there
is no justification for statements such as "If you knew the pressure
I am under at work all day" or, "If you knew the kind of relatives
I have to deal with."
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"and be thankful"
The Greek says "become thankful." It does not mean to "be"
something; it means to become something that we were not before. "Become"
indicates that the Colossians were not thankful before this challenge from
Paul.
Every believer should have an attitude of thanksgiving no matter what happens.
Adversity is a test to see whether we are a slave to our circumstances
or whether the circumstances are a slave to us. If we have inner joy where
all systems are go, then there is no disaster, failure, problem or catastrophe
for which we could not be thankful.
The peace of Christ enables us to be thankful for everything. The plan
of God converts everything into blessing. This is the normal Christian
life. It is abnormal to fall apart, to live in a state of panic, to sublimate.
The plan of God stabilizes our orientation in life.
Thankfulness occurs throughout the Word of God. Why? The Christian knows
that he neither earns nor deserves anything from God. Everything we have
is of God's grace. We do not deserve food on the table or the roof over
our heads. They are both gifts from God.
Thankfulness relates to our capacity of soul. A person with little capacity
of soul has little capacity to give God thanks. If we do not appreciate
fully the work of Christ, how can we give thanks properly for it? The key
to thanksgiving is the ability to understand the blessings God has bestowed
upon us.
PRINCIPLE: Adversity is a test of our soul to see whether we are free from
the circumstances of life.
APPLICATION: When God asks us to give thanks he is not asking us to pray
about it. He does not say "Try to be thankful." He says, "Become
thankful" (Ps. 92:1; 106:1; I Thes. 5:18). We have a solid foundation
for giving thanks because he has done so much for us (Eph 5:20).
A common complaint among parents is that their children do not show appreciation
for what they have been given. When we recall our childhood, we did not
appreciate our parents either. Children today are no different. They are
not thankful for what they have. Children have little capacity to understand
what their parents have done for them. God can say, "My children do
not appreciate what I have done for them. They seldom give thanks for what
they have." This is an issue of our maturity in Christ.
In your daily devotions, do you make it a practice to give thanks to God
every day? God wants us to say, "Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul,
for making me whole, for sustaining me every day."
Copyright © 1995, Dr. Grant Richison. All rights reserved.
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