Col. 3:5-17
“Put Off and Put On”
We don’t like being told what to do, or what not to do. We
don’t mind people making suggestions and even giving us advice. But not orders.
Orders means that we have to obey them, often against our will and wishes. So orders don’t sit very well with rebellious sinners, even if the
orders come from God.
But orders and commands are not just about being told what
to do against our will. When you think about it, there is a large category of
orders, which are related to certain privileges that a person enjoys. For
example, when a student is told to study hard, it means that he has the
privilege to study in a classroom rather than work in a sweat shop. When a
worker is told to work hard, it means that he is no longer unemployed--oh, the
misery and anxiety of not having a job!--but has the privilege of having a job
and an opportunity to make a living. When a child is told to obey his parents,
it means that he is not an orphan but has the blessing of having parents who love
them and care for them. The same goes for the commands concerning the
husband-wife relationship.
We are in a section in this letter where commands abound. It
is certainly a tall order to obey these commands. If we are serious about them,
as we ought, their high demand is enough to depress us and throw us into a pit
of despair. But we cannot just get fixated on the demands they place on us. We
must never lose sight of the “why” of these commands. The why of these commands
are the privileges associated with them, the privileges that these commands
presuppose and remind us of. How successful we are in carrying them out depends
largely on not losing sight of those privileges. For those privileges are the
very reasons for observing them; they provide the motivation and strength to
obey these commands. Without them we cannot observe them. Even if we could, it
would only be a practice in futility, availing us nothing. But how blessed is
our condition when even the commands we must obey remind us of our privileges,
when the God who issues these commands has first showered us with many
privileges and blessings and provided us with all that we need to obey
willingly and gladly!
The commands in this section fall under two overarching
commands, one negative and one positive: to put off and to put on. Naturally,
Paul speaks of what needs to be put off and what needs to be put on.
·
We are to put to death what is earthly in us (v. 5); by contrast, we are to
keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right
hand of God--that is, to set our minds on the heavenly things, for there is
where Christ is seated now.
·
We are to put to death and set aside sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil
desires, covetousness, which is idolatry (v. 5), as well as anger, wrath,
malice, slander and obscene talk (v. 8); by contrast, we are to put on
compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another
and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other and above all
these love (vv. 12-14).
·
We have put off the old self and have put on the new self (vv. 9, 10).
Therefore, we are to put off the old self with its practices and put on the new
self with its practices.
As we consider these commands, we must recognize that what
is in view here is more than just our daily activity of changing clothes,
putting off the old ones and putting on the new ones. That is in view as well,
for sure. These commands deal with what we ought to do everyday, every moment.
But something more decisive and monumental is in view as well.
Imagine an orphan living on the street. An orphan is a child
who does not have any parent. This orphan had no parents, no relatives and no
real friends to speak of: he was all alone in the world without a soul who
cared for him. He lived on the street and begged for food. He was dirty. He was
smelly. Dirty and smelly rags covered him, barely.
One day the king was passing through the town with his grand
entourage. Everybody came out to see this rare spectacle, including the orphan.
And somehow the king’s eyes fell upon him and the king felt a great compassion
for him. He called him out of the crowd and declared, “From this day forth, you
shall be my son!”
Those words catapulted the orphan boy into a radically new
life. The king ordered his servants to bring him to the palace, wash him and
get him ready for his new life. His old, raggedy clothes would have to come off
and new clothes would be put on him. Is this simply what we do everyday when we
change our clothes? No! This particular change of clothes is truly monumental
in its significance! In this instance, putting off the raggedy clothes and
putting on the new clothes signified a radical change in the orphan’s life and
status! Even in an egalitarian society as ours, clothes still function as a
status symbol--according to how expensive and what brand they are. If so, can
you imagine the implication of taking off the dirty, smelly, raggedy rags of a
beggar and putting on the expensive, silky, royal garments of a prince?
A change much more radical even that is in view here in
these commands to put off and put on! For the reason we have to put off what we
have to put off and put on what we have to put on is that we have been raised
with Christ (3:1), that we who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of our flesh were made alive together with
Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead (2:13)! We were raised from the
dead, not in a metaphorical sense, not in the sense of turning a new leaf in
our life, but in a real, historical sense as we share in the real, historical
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! Think about what must have happened to
Lazarus when he was raised from the dead! When he came out of the tomb at the
command of Jesus, he was still all wrapped up with linen strips, the linen
strips that were used to wrap the corpse. Did he remain in the linen strips? Of
course not! Now that he was made alive by the life-giving power of Jesus
Christ, he took off the linen strips of the dead and put on the garments of the
living! Can you imagine what must have gone through Lazarus’ mind as he took
off the linen strips and put on his garments again?
What a powerful illustration of what is true of us in Jesus
Christ, of what these commands in our passage are about! We are not just
talking about changing some old, bad habits and replacing them with new, good
habits, modifying our behaviors here and there! By commanding us to put off and
put on, God is telling us what has really happened to us and who we are now in
Jesus Christ! Something so profound and radical has happened to us that what we
have had on all our life no longer becomes us, is no longer worthy of us. God
has made us alive and He is telling us whatever we have had on, whatever we
have prided ourselves in, is nothing better than the linen strips for the dead!
What is it that we have to put off? What we have to put off
(or, put to death) is what is earthly. Literally, v. 5
reads, “Put to death therefore your members [that is, your limbs or body parts]
that are upon the earth….” Paul seems to mean by this
whatever part of our body, which is engaged in the list of sins, which follows
(sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is
idolatry). This is a similar expression to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the
Mount: “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For
it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be
thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and
throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that
your whole body go into hell” (Matt.
But what must be put off is not limited to these sinful
behaviors and words and thoughts. Paul has already commanded us not to set our
minds on the things that are on earth but to seek the things that are above,
where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (3:1, 2). Thus he makes a
distinction between what is on earth and what is above, what is earthly and what is heavenly. We must put off what is earthly and put on what is heavenly.
Why? Because, as we said, we have been
raised with Jesus Christ. It means that we did not just turn a new leaf
in our life; we have been really, truly and spiritually transferred out of this
world into the world to come. This is a true deliverance (
We are to put off what is earthly
and put on what is heavenly. What is heavenly--it is implied--is what is free
of the coming wrath of God, what is eternal and everlasting; free from
corruption and decay and destruction. For it is where Christ is, seated at the
right hand of God. There are no tears, no sorrows, no mourning, no death but
everlasting joy, peace and life eternal.
We must not lose sight of this cosmic, new creation motif
even when we consider the old self and the new self that must be put off and
put on, respectively. What exactly are the old self and the new self? We cannot
deny the personal aspect of these terms. After all, Paul is talking about the
old self and the new self! But the transition from the old self
to the new self cannot be viewed purely on individual terms, in terms of our
individual, moral renovation. For, as we examine the commands in our passage,
we see the parallel between what is earthly and the
old self, on the one hand, and what is heavenly and the new self, on the other.
So then, all the commands in our passage can be summarized this way: we are to
put off the old self with its practices, that which is
earthly in us; on the other hand, we are to put on the new self, that which is
heavenly.
Add to this the relationship between the new self/man and
the image of God: “and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in
knowledge after the image of its creator” (v. 10). It is clear that the new
self has a lot to do with renewing and (eventually) perfecting the image of God
in us. If the image of God must be renewed and perfected, it is of course
because of the Fall. But what does it mean to have the
image of God renewed in us? We realize that it means more than restoring the
original, pristine condition of Adam before the Fall.
As is obvious, Adam was, even before the Fall, liable
to fall. Our hope cannot lie in being restored to that condition. God’s good
and kind goal for us cannot be to place us back into that condition again. No!
His ultimate goal for us is far greater than bringing us back into the Garden
of Eden, where the tree of the knowledge of good and evil stood alongside the
tree of life!
The new self, which is being
renewed after the image of its creator, is heavenly in origin and nature. What
is heavenly is eternal and everlasting--that is, impervious to destruction and
corruption. What is in view is much more than the renovation of the first
creation. What is in view here is nothing less than a cosmic, new creation! God
will replace this first creation--temporary in nature, subjected to futility
and in bondage to corruption--with a new creation--eternal and heavenly in
nature, free from its bondage to decay and death, free from futility and
meaninglessness!
The fact that we are called to, and we can, put on the new
self, that which is heavenly, means that the kingdom of heaven has already
arrived in Jesus Christ--not yet fully, because we still have to put off the
old self. But “the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining”
(1 John 2:8), declares John. “The old has passed away; behold, the new has
come,” declares Paul (2 Cor.
Our moral decisions are not about choosing between right and
wrong according to some abstract or practical or pragmatic or personal
principles. What undergirds the commands in our
passage is essentially the choice between that which is heavenly and that which
is earthly.
Take a look at the list: sexual immorality, impurity,
passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
·
What does sexual immorality consist of? The Greek word used here is pornei,a (porneia). You can see that the word “pornography”
comes from this Greek word. But its meaning is not limited to the modern
definition of pornography. It is rather a comprehensive term, whose meanings
range from prostitution and fornication to unchastity.
We can say that Paul uses this term to include all “unlawful” sexual
intercourse, all forms of sexual perversion, whatever misses the mark of what
God ordained sex to be.
·
What is impurity? It is the result of sexual immorality. Something in us is
defiled in a profoundest way when we engage in sexual immorality. So Paul says in 1 Cor. 6:18, “Flee
from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the
body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” A profound
loss occurs in sexual immorality--the destruction and degradation of the image
of God in man.
·
Passion here is another word for lust. When we lust after someone, we objectify
him/her merely as an instrument for pleasure. There is no respect involved.
·
evil desire and covetousness are more general terms.
You can see here that Paul has in mind not just the acts of
sexual immorality but also what goes on in our mind and all that we do to one
another to arouse lust and immoral thoughts. But we must keep in mind that even
the sweetest love story in this world falls under the category of “what is
earthly” if it is not redeemed in Christ. For it too perishes away.
The list we find in our passage is not just about some
selective, bad behaviors. It represents the mindset, which absolutizes
the happiness and pleasures of this world; the mindset which says that we must
have it now and here; the earthly-mindedness which determines one’s happiness
according to the standard of this world!
What about the other list--anger, wrath, malice, slander and
obscene talk? Don’t these things represent our impatience with God’s eternal,
sovereign plan? Do they not represent the mindset that absolutizes
the here and the now, our own will?
If God can say “No!” to what we ask for and we must say we
must have it, we are committing idolatry. Even the most beautiful and noblest
things in the world--we must view them in the light of our eternal life in
heaven. For we have been raised with Christ. Yes, even they are good gifts from
God. But in the light of eternity, they are merely things that pass away. If
God can say no--if the God who gave His only begotten Son for our redemption can
say no--if God does not allow something in your life, it is only because they
are dispensable, unnecessary. For the God, who did not spare even His only
begotten Son, is utterly incapable of withholding
anything that is truly good and needful! We are called to agree with God’s
assessment concerning what we have and don’t have. That is possible only with
heavenly-mindedness.
Think about the primacy of the heavenly things. Think about
what happened when the four good friends brought their paralytic friend to
Jesus. This paralytic man is lying down in front of Jesus. The reason for his
presence there is obvious: to be healed by Jesus. And Jesus’
response? “Your sins are forgiven!” What? Doesn’t Jesus see the misery
of his condition? Doesn’t Jesus see the sense of utter helplessness, of the
total disconnect between this man’s mind and his body; the sense of shame and
humiliation of having to depend on others for everything? Does Jesus not see in
this man a lifetime of shame and humiliation, misery and pain? But Jesus says,
“Your sins are forgiven!” Why? Not because He does not see but because He sees,
because He sees fully. For the miseries of his paralytic condition was nothing
in comparison to those of his spiritual condition. For, even if he were healed,
even if he were to be made an Olympic athlete, the healthiest and handsomest
man, he would be the most miserable person of all if his spiritual condition is
death. So before He heals the man, Jesus says, “Your sins are forgiven!” Jesus
knew what was primary.
Do you agree with Jesus? Do you see the spiritual reality as
those who have been raised with Christ? Can you rejoice in the joy of your
salvation in the midst of all that you do not yet have? Can you look at the
most powerful man in the world with genuine pity if he does not have Christ?
For he will eventually die and lose everything he has. But you have been raised
with Christ!
We don’t like orders. But can you imagine what it would be
like for an orphan to be adopted--someone who has been exploited by others his
whole life; someone, whose only experience of someone’s touch has been the
fists and the palms that struck him and slapped him? Finally his hand is in his
father’s gentle hand, warm and secure in the gentle yet firm grip of his
father. “Obey your parents!” How sweet those words must be to this orphan boy!
What a privilege it is to have parents to obey!
“Put off the old self with its practices and put on the new
self!” Something so radical, something so profound, has happened to you that what
you have on, what you have had on for all your life, no longer becomes you: you
must put it off. Even the noblest of this world is but rubbish in comparison to
the surpassing glory of what you posses in Jesus Christ! Put it off gladly,
then! For the new self you are called to put on is nothing less than Jesus
Christ Himself, the true image of the invisible God! And the day is coming when
you won’t need to put off the old self any more. For it will be off you forever
and you shall shine with eternal glory as you will be clothed with Christ
forever more! As we look forward to that day, let us be diligent to put off
what is not worthy of those who are predestined for such glory!
© Copyright 2007 by Jeong Woo "James" Lee
All Rights Reserved.