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Introduction: One of the more
controversial weapons in the war against terror is the concept of
profiling. If you’re not familiar with this practice, it’s when you
look at a person’s external characteristics and make a judgment
about him. For instance, a man with a long beard wearing a flowing
robe and a turban, flying with a one-way ticket from Saudi Arabia
to JFK and carrying no luggage is going to get more attention from
immigration officials that a beardless, Caucasian man dressed in a
business suit flying round trip on the same airplane.
If we had a visitor here this
morning and he was wearing a bandanna around his head, had a long,
full beard, was wearing a sleeveless black tee shirt with a skull
and crossbones on it, was covered with tattoos, and was wearing big
leather boots and a wallet with one of those long silver chains
attached to his belt, we would have just cause for thinking he was
probably a biker. The old word was “stereotype.” The politically
correct word is “profiling.”
What about Christians? Should we
have a profile? I’m not asking if someone should be able to look at
us coming down the ramp of an airplane and identify us as
Christians, but should there be certain characteristics about us
that mark us, or identify us as believers? Should a casual observer
be able to watch us for a little while and reasonably conclude that
we have been born again? Absolutely. And the list of what a
Believer is to look like is found in Colossians 3:12-17.
Transition: Let’s
look at this passage and see the believer’s profile.
And so, as those who have been chosen of God,
holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility,
gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another,
and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone;
just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 14 And
beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect
bond of unity. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in
your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be
thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within
you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you
do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
Transition: The way
I am going to have us look at this passage is to see two things.
First of all, we are going to see “who I am,” and then we are going
to see “what I should look like.”
I. Who I Am
A. I Am Hand-picked
“And so, as those who have been
chosen of God, holy and beloved.” There are three words in this
verse that tell us a little bit about who we are, and I want to call
your attention first of all to the word “chosen,” - “we have been
chosen of God.” The Bible is very clear about this. For
instance, in 2 Thessalonians 2:13 we read “But we
should always give thanks to God for you, bbrethren
beloved by the Lord, because cGod has chosen you
1from the beginning dfor salvation 2ethrough
sanctification 3by the Spirit and faith in the truth. In
2 Timothy 2:10 we see “For this reason
aI endure all things for bthe sake of those
who are chosen, cthat they also may obtain the
dsalvation which is in eChrist Jesus and
with it feternal glory. In Titus 1:1,
we read, “Paul, aa bond-servant of God, and an bapostle
of Jesus Christ, 1for the faith of those chosen of
God and dthe knowledge of the truth which is eaccording
to godliness.”
Now the point I want to make here
doesn’t have anything to do with the debate over whether we choose
God or God chooses us for salvation. I believe God’s Word teaches
both truths and that when we get to heaven we’ll understand how they
work together even though down here on earth they seem to contradict
each other.[1]
But the point I want to make is that by virtue of your salvation,
you have been hand-picked by God. How many of you are familiar with
the concept of the “Special Forces” in our military? The Navy has
the SEALs, the Army has the Rangers, and I am sure the other
branches have their own special forces, but these special forces are
men who are hand picked from the masses of other soldiers. And I
believe there is a legitimate sense of pride in making it through
the grueling process of becoming a special forces. These men stand
a little taller and may even walk with a little swagger in their
step because they are the hand-picked, elite armed forces of the
United States of America. And we need to understand that as
believers, we have been chosen from among the masses to carry out
God’s work here on earth.
Transition: But
“who I am” doesn’t stop with being “chosen.” Paul goes on in this
verse to tell us we have been set apart from the crowd. Look at the
next word Paul uses to describe us, we are also “holy.”
B. I Am Set Apart
The word “holy” doesn’t always
mean “pious.” That is usually how we perceive the word. It means
“dedicated” or “consecrated to God.” It has the idea of being set
apart from the common. Let’s go back to our illustration of the
special forces. Why do these groups even exist? Because there are
highly sensitive, critically important jobs to do that demand
personnel who are above average. The special forces are dedicated
to the most dangerous of missions. They are consecrated, or set
apart, in the sense that they don’t do guard duty at the gate of
some military base in the US or work in kitchen.
As believers, Paul is telling us
in this verse that we are “set apart” for a special task. Matt.
5:13 tells us that we are the “salt of the earth.” That
means we are to have a preserving influence. Matt. 5:14 tells
us that we are the “light of the world.” That means we are to have
an illuminating influence on the world. Mark 16:15 says we
are “to go into all the world and preach the gospel to all
creation.” We are to preserve a decaying world,
illumine a dark world, and evangelize a
lost world. That is the task of the believer.
The application I want to make
here is this. Salvation is much more than simply securing your
eternal destiny. Some people get saved, give a big sigh of relief,
and then sit down and wait for the Lord to return. That scenario
doesn’t fit with the concept of being chosen and set apart. That
kind of an understanding of who you are isn’t consistent with Paul’s
picture of the believer. We have been given a job to do.
Transition: The
third element of “who I am” is that I am also “beloved.”
C. I Am Loved
When I think about love, I see
different kinds of love. For instance, there is a natural love.
This would be the love a mother has for her birth child, and her
loved is fueled by her natural link to that child. She carried it
for nine months and even risked her life to give birth to it.
Children by nature love their parents. Their parents care for them
and protect them, and there is a natural love between them.
There is another kind of love we
see in humanity, and that is a love based simply on choice. For
instance, parents who adopt love their adopted children. And their
love for that adopted child is just as strong as that of a birth
parent for his birth child, but his love is a choice. It is a
decision to love. There isn’t a genetic, or natural link. And in
my estimation, this kind of love is actually more noble than the
natural love because it involves the will not the emotions.
The point I want to make here is
that when Paul says we are “beloved,” he is referring to a love that
is based on evaluation and choice, not the kind of natural love you
would see between a mother and her newborn infant. It is a love
that is a matter of will and action. This is why the Bible refers
to our salvation in terms of adoption. Romans 8:15
“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear
again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by
which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" Galatians 4:5-6
“in order that He might redeem those who were under 1the
Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son
into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" Ephesians 1:5
“He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus
Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.”
Now the reason Paul uses this
particular word for love is because there is not a natural
connection between God and man. In fact, when we consider the
natural state of man the Bible tells us in Eph. 2:3 that we
are “by nature children of wrath.” In other words, by virtue
of our humanness and fallenness, we are entirely and justly
deserving of the wrath of God. In our natural state, there is
nothing about us that is appealing to God. There is nothing about
us that makes God want or desire us. The picture the Old Testament
uses is that of a discarded fetus, covered with blood lying by the
side of the road. That is the picture of unregenerate humanity.
But God evaluates the situation and makes a choice to exercise
love. And so He picks us up, and cleans us up, and adopts us. We
are beloved.
Summary: The point
I am making this morning as we consider the believer’s profile is
that before we can appreciate what we are supposed to look like, we
really need to get a clear picture of who we are. Tomorrow morning
when you get up and go about your day, remember who you are. You
are not a commoner. You are not defeated. You are not alone in
this world as an unloved orphan. You can hold your head high and
even have a bit of a swagger in your step because as Christians, we
are hand-picked by God and set apart to carry out His work here on
earth. And the amazing thing is that we were chosen and set apart
and beloved not because of our intrinsic worth or value, but simply
because God in His mercy chose to save us.
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