Jump Start # 126
Colossians 3:8-10 “But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with it’s evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.”
The gospel changes a person, inside and out. It’s the inside that is the hardest to change. Attitudes, thinking and just the way we’ve always reacted are old habits that are often hard to kill. This is what Paul is dealing with here. The readers of this letter, Colossians, were N.T. Christians. They had been saved by the grace of Jesus Christ. They were obedient in baptism and were walking with Christ. But they still needed some fine tuning. It was time to take out the “old wiring” and put in some “new wiring.”
Paul’s list of things to put aside aren’t pretty—sin never is. He identifies six sins. These sins are three pronged. First, they are attitudes that begin in our hearts. Next, they reflect our behavior toward other people. A person doesn’t “slander” them self, they slander someone else. The same goes for lying, wrath, malice, abusive speech and anger. Finally, these are expressed in explosive outburst of our tongue. We tell someone off. We give them a piece of our mind. We blow up. We rip into them. We give them a verbal tongue lashing. The experience is ugly. The words used are cutting and hard. The tone is generally loud. Blood pressure rises. Often the recipient counter attacks. A verbal war takes place. Each person launching more destructive verbal bombs upon the other. Back and forth it goes until one has had enough and leaves. Sometimes fist fights break out. Sometimes a person gets fired. Sometimes a person walks out of the house and doesn’t come back. Nasty words, mean spirits, ugly tones—I expect we have all witnessed these before. Some of us may have been on the receiving end of these—from an out of control boss, from an angry teenager, an abusive parent, a controlling mate and on the list goes. For some, these words describe your home life growing up—how sad! For some, this is your marriage—even worse!
The apostle tells us to put them aside—all of them. No excuse. If someone unloads their temper on you unfairly, this does not give you the right to fall back to this behavior. Righteous people must remain righteous. It is times like this that your light really shines. Human nature wants to defend self. Human nature wants to get even. Human nature fights. We are not being governed by human nature anymore. We go by a higher calling, the nature of Christ.
These words, these attitudes and these reactions are all a matter of choice. The Christian chooses not to participate in this behavior. Turning the other check, and treating others the way you would like to be treated are the banners that the Christian marches under.
The world is angry. Music today is angry. Movies are violent. People yell. Christians must be different. It’s hard. But we must. It’s hard to have an screaming, ugly argument when one side refuses to participate. What should I do when someone gets ugly. Pray. Walk away. Tell them you’ll discuss this when they are calmer. Paul’s words are not addressed to the receivers of abuse but the givers of it. Don’t be guilty of these things. And when it happens, don’t talk about people in a bad way, that’s slander!
Peter reminds us that when Jesus was reviled He uttered no threats in return. He is our example. It is His steps that we follow, not the world’s.
Roger