Col

Col. 3:12-17

7/22/2007

“Chosen, Holy and Beloved”

Why did Paul write what he wrote in our passage? What was his purpose? His immediate purpose is easy to see. He wants God’s people to put to death what is earthly--sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry (v. 5). He wants God’s people to put away anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk (v. 8). He wants them not to lie to one another (v. 9). Instead, he wants God’s people to put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience (v. 12); He wants Christians to bear with one another and forgive each other (v. 13). He wants them to put on love above all these virtues (v. 14). He wants them to live in peace (v. 15). He wants them to build one another up with the Word of Christ (v. 16). He wants them to do everything in the name of Jesus Christ in thankfulness to God (v. 18).

Paul is not laying down these commands just as universal moral mandates. This is not to say that they are not universal moral mandates; they are. Not just Christians but all people are accountable to God to live in the way that is prescribed by these commands. All men will be judged according to what they have done against God’s standard, which includes these divine commands set forth in our passage. If we find this arrangement offensive, it only shows how rebellious we are. Should students complain that they have assignments and exams at school?

But Paul in this passage is not addressing all men. He is addressing particularly those who have been raised with Christ (v. 1), those who are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience…” (v. 12). The logic and force of Paul’s words are clear: whatever Paul commands in this passage cannot be separated from the identity of those, to whom these commands are directed. Why do we have to obey these commands and put on these characteristics? Because we are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved. If we ought to put off what we are called to put off and put on what we are called to put on, it is because of what God has done--God made us, who are no different and better than others, His chosen ones, holy and beloved. The reason and the motivation to obey these commands flow from what God made us to be, from our new identity as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved. We can say, then, that the motivation and the strength that we need to obey these commands depend on how well we really know who we are in Christ. And conversely, if our lives do not manifest these characteristics, it is because our knowledge of the foundation is deficient or defective: we may not know it well enough or we may think we know it well but really do not. For to truly know something in the biblical sense is to live by it. So, let us review who we are in Christ and the implications of our new identity, in the hopes that this will fill our deficiency in the knowledge of God’s word (if this is our problem); or correct what is defective in our knowledge of God’s word (if that is our problem).

Paul addresses us as “God’s chosen ones”. As you are aware, this is a title which was unique to Israel. This title has its origin particularly in the calling of Abraham (Gen. 12). This calling takes place against the background of the worldwide rebellion against God at the tower of Babel (Gen. 11). Abraham and his descendants were chosen and called by God to preserve the line of the Seed of the woman. Now this title, which was unique to Israel, is applied to the Christians who were once Gentiles in the flesh, to the Colossian Christians, to you and me. This is an indication that a new age has arrived, a new age which is radically different from the old age. In this new age, “there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free” (v. 11). Notice how comprehensive the changes are. They affect the religious, racial, social and economic--that is, all--spheres of this world. The changes that are brought about in this new age supplant and transcend those divisions of the old age. When people are divided over certain things and issues, it means that they are important issues to them--not necessarily that the issues are important in themselves but, at least, to the people involved. The issues or causes of division involve some deep things in the people. In this new age, God has chosen people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation to be His people, to be the citizens of the kingdom of heaven, transcending all the divisions and factions of the world. For we have been raised with Christ: we are God’s new creation!

What does it mean to be God’s chosen ones? The two adjectives that follow describe what it means quite well: holy and beloved.

To be chosen of God is to be holy--that is, to be set apart from the world unto God. God Himself is holy, set apart from everything else. The whole universe can be divided into two categories: God and everything and everyone else. For God alone is the Creator, uncreated, self-existent from eternity to eternity. He is a category all unto Himself. As He is set apart from everything else, God alone is holy in the most ultimate sense.

If anything or anybody is holy, it is because s/he or it is set apart unto this holy God. This meaning of holiness is most clearly demonstrated when we examine the furniture and utensils of the tabernacle. Of course, as inanimate objects, they do not have any moral capacity or accountability. However, they were deemed holy because they were set apart and set aside for the specific purpose, and exclusive use, of Israel’s sacrifice and worship of God; they could not be used for any other purposes. If you got a hold of some of these utensils and used them for cooking, you would be defiling these holy objects. That is what it means to be holy: that which is holy belongs to God exclusively and completely.

When Paul addresses Christians as God’s saints (“holy ones”, literally), that is what he means. We have been set apart from the world unto God. We are not our own; we are God’s own possession. We have never been our own: it is God who made us and He owns us as His creation. In this sense, everything and everyone belongs to Him by virtue of His creation. But those, whom God has chosen, belong to Him in a special way. They are set apart from the rest of the creation--from the rest of the fallen humanity--to be His special people. You own many things but not everything is equally important to you, is it? If there is a fire and you could bring out only a few things, you know which ones will be the first. That is what you are like to God as His chosen ones, set apart from the world. What a privilege!

There is of course a moral dimension to the idea of holiness. It is impossible to think of someone being holy without also assuming a high moral standard which characterizes his life. But this moral dimension, we can say, is secondary to the idea of being set apart unto God. A holy person is holy first and foremost because he is set apart unto a holy God. If a holy person is morally upright, it is because the God, to whom he belongs, is a righteous and upright God. The moral excellence, which ought to characterize God’s holy people, is important because it is a reflection of their intimate union with the holy and righteous God.

So then, to be chosen by God is an amazing privilege. But as you can see, there is another dimension to being chosen by God, which heightens even more this sense of privilege. In v. 12, the adjective “holy” is followed by another one, “beloved”. To be chosen by God is to be set apart unto Him, to belong to Him wholly and exclusively, as His holy saints. But that is not all: it is to belong to Him wholly and exclusively as His beloved. You see, God’s election is not a cold, impersonal choice like the process of drawing the winning lottery numbers. God chose you to love you, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish through all eternity. Touching and moving are the words coming out of your beloved’s mouth, “I take you to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part!” Yet how we all fail to live up to the promise, so often and at times so miserably! Even if we manage to keep it going till the end, there is still the end--death comes without fail to part us from our loved ones! If so, what greater fortune and blessing can we have than to have the almighty God set His love on us, to set His infinite, eternal and almighty love on you and me? If God should determine with His eternal and unchangeable and irrevocable will that He should love us with all of His heart, soul, mind and strength(!), what shall we fear! If God should be our Shepherd, our Good Shepherd, what shall we lack? What greater fortune can we find than this love of God, directed to us and set on us?

But how do we become God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved? Do we have anything that should compel God to choose us? Is there anything in us that can attract the attention and affection of a perfect and holy God? Do we not rather deserve His condemnation and wrath for all our sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire and covetousness; our anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk and lies? And of course, there is nothing we can do to earn God’s favor. For even all our good deeds are defiled with our sinfulness: they are like filthy rags before the holy and perfect God.

If we can’t be God’s chosen ones on our own, we need help from outside of ourselves. If we are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, it is only because of Jesus Christ, with whom our life is hidden in God (v. 3), who is our life (v. 4). He is the preeminently chosen One (1 Pet. 2:4, 6), the holy One (John 6:69; Acts 4:27, 30, etc.) and the Beloved Son of God, with whom God is well-pleased (Matt. 3:17; Eph. 1:6, etc.). It is in our union with Him, and only in our union with Him, that we are made God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved!

But this union could not have occurred naturally. What does a sinner have in common with a holy God? And how can a sinner be an object of the favor and love of a holy God? Such a relationship would be impossible without getting rid of all that hinders our union with God, impossible without our Savior Jesus Christ, impossible without His sin-purging death and His righteousness-imparting life of perfect righteousness. Think about why Christ, the holy and beloved Son of God, was chosen. He was chosen as our Redeemer. Under God’s justice, no redemption is possible without the ransom. So Jesus was chosen; He was called on to pay the price of our redemption with His own dear life! He was chosen by His Father to lay down His life for our salvation!

Did you hear what I just said? I’m sure that many of you have heard it hundreds of times. But did you hear it with your ears or with your heart? Did it do anything for you? Did it do anything to you--this amazing fact that the Son of God laid down His life for your redemption? Did you hear it as you hear--or ignore--the pleas for your donation on the radio or on TV? Or did you hear it as you long to be heard when you share something deeply important to you with your loved one? What can be more urgent and important for us than this, to hear with all of our heart and soul, that Jesus died for us to save us from eternal damnation? What topic in all of literature and philosophy, what headline in all of the media, deserve our most intense interest and our utmost attention more than this, the simple yet profound message of God’s love for us sinners? What delicious whisper of a lover can compare with the sweetness of this good news? What assurance of a surgeon can compare with the assurance of Christ’s self-giving love? “Jesus, the very thought of thee / With sweetness fills my breast; / But sweeter far thy face to see / And in thy presence rest.”

In preparing for this message, my prayer has been, and is now, both for myself and for you all, that the doctrine of Christ’s substitutionary atonement will not be just a cold formula we memorize for a school quiz. I pray, both for myself and for you, that the impact and import of this simple Gospel message would not fade away and lose its warm glow in our hearts but rather grow and deepen as the days go by. For the wellbeing and success of our Christian obedience depends on it. The amazing grace of God is the only proper motivation for all that we do as God’s people. God may discipline us, at times harshly, for our wayward, rebellious, stubborn ways. And as sinful sinners, nothing gets our attention like tragic losses and hardships, the rod of God’s discipline! Even then, our motivation for obedience should never be the fear of the stinging rod of discipline; rather, it should be the love of our heavenly Father, whose loving hand it is that holds the rod of discipline. God wants us to be motivated by His grace and love, not by His rod of chastisement. Can you understand His heart?

We are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved in Jesus Christ; therefore, we must have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry…; anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk and lies. Because we are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved in Jesus Christ, we must put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience.

Pay a special attention to what we must put on, especially in terms of what they are not. They are not special gifts and abilities, celebrity and accolades, wealth and social position. What we must put on does not require special abilities or academic degrees. Anyone--regardless of their social position, intellectual ability, financial and social background and looks--can put on the qualities listed: compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. But these characteristics are what count in the kingdom of God; they are what please God! No matter how we may be looked on by the world, we can be great in the kingdom of God if we put on these things.

But these are not some general moral qualities that people try to cultivate through their moral philosophy and religious convictions. As long as our sin problem is not resolved, all our efforts are profaned by our sinful arrogance that our efforts are good enough. The characteristics that we are called to put on are rooted and flow from Jesus Christ. So we read, for example, in v. 13, “as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” Remember also that we must put on these things because we are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved. We saw how this amazing reality is true of us only because of Jesus Christ.

Anyone who is united with Christ Jesus can, and must, exhibit and bear these qualities. For it is by these very attributes of Christ that we have been saved.

Remember the feeling of disgust when you read the parable of the ungrateful servant? He was forgiven of millions of dollars by the king but he refused to forgive his fellow servant of several thousand dollars. What is more despicable than an ungrateful person, the dog that bites the hand that feeds it? Christ had to forgive us because we had to be forgiven--we needed to be forgiven because we sinned against Him, badly and greatly: we were guilty and condemned. The people we must forgive by definition have sinned against us; they have done something bad and horrible to us, something despicable, maybe. How can we forgive such people? Because of Jesus Christ and His radical forgiveness of all of our horrible and shameful sins, again and again and again, seventy times seven and more! This radical forgiveness of Christ not only enables us to forgive but obligates us and compels us to do so!

This flows into everything else as well, doesn’t it? If we are to put on compassion, isn’t it because we have been showered with Christ’s compassion?

“Never a trial that He is not there, / Never a burden that He doth not bear, / Never a sorrow that He doth not share, / Moment by moment, I’m under His care…. // Never a heartache, and never a groan, / Never a teardrop and never a moan; / Never a danger but there on the throne, / Moment by moment He thinks of His own…. // Never a weakness that He doth not feel, / Never a sickness that He cannot heal; / Moment by moment, in woe or in weal, / Jesus my Savior, abides with me still….”

Oh, how compassionate is our Lord! But let us not forget that these are only extra bonuses. For all these things would not matter if our sins are not forgiven, if we have no hope of eternal life. What greater proof of Christ’s compassion can we have or need than the cross of Jesus Christ? And who are the people in your life, who need your compassion today, who need your forgiveness, who need your encouraging words and deeds, who need your prayer? Even those who are like what we were to Christ--rebellious sinners.

What kind of kindness, humility, meekness and patience do we need to put on? Those of Christ! How kind and patient Christ is with us! Surely, “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities” (Ps. 103:10)! If He dealt with us according to what our sins deserve, what would happen? Even if you are going through God’s chastisement for your sins, do you think that that is all your sins deserve? Even when He chastises you, it is with His love that He does so.

And what about His humility and meekness? Can we see His humility and meekness with which He bore our misery, shame and punishment and refuse to be humble and meek? “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Pet. 2:21-23). If so, how we need to bear with one another with all compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, especially as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ! Oh, how we need to love one another, not only because we are loved by Christ’s love (and thus obligated to love) but also because our brothers and sisters are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved! Can we treat with hatred and jealousy, with contempt and indifference, those who are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved? And do we uphold the peace of Christ, which He established among us with His own precious blood (Eph. 2:14)?

Are you convicted, as I am, by the force of this simple, inescapable logic? Do we think that we know all that we need to know, do we think that we know enough, of what we need to know as Christians? Should we not repent of our complacency, our lack of resolve and dedication to learn and grow in the Word of God, to put to practice what we know? If we are convicted of these things, I hope it is because we have been reminded of the goodness of the Lord. And if that is the case, we will not despair despite of our miserable failures. We will be raised by the same love of Christ to live by faith, to begin to put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other as Christ has forgiven you.

How do you measure the value and power of what you read in our passage? If you know truly what this passage says, your life will be radically transformed! For simply being familiar with the words is not true knowledge. Hold on to this word and live in it, by it and through it!

Paul’s immediate purpose was to call us to do these things--to put off what is earthly and to put on what is heavenly. But his ultimate purpose was to give all praise and glory and honor to God, who has done a marvelous thing for us--to make us His chosen ones, holy and beloved--and who will complete the good work He has begun in us. On that day, to our wonder and amazement, we shall see one another perfected in the image of Christ and shine through all eternity as God’s glorious trophies, testifying to His wonderful work of redemption.