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Introduction: This morning we are in
Colossians 3:12-17 as we continue our study of the Believer’s
Profile. We are using the word profile in the sense of observable
characteristics. If you were to drive into the Bryants parking lot
and see an old VW van painted in pastel colors with big daisies and
peace signs all over it, what do you think the person driving it
would look like? You would assume that the man driving it would
have both a beard and a pony tail and be wearing a tie-dyed tee
shirt. This is called profiling - drawing a conclusion about a
person based on observable characteristics.
And believers should have a profile. The people in our
neighborhoods and communities and places of work ought to be able to
observe us and draw the conclusion that we are not like the rest of
the world. Paul tells us in this passage:
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.
Review: Last week we focused on the word
“put on” and saw that the word literally means “clothe yourself.”
That is why I am using the word “profile.” Clothing is external.
It is observable. It distinguishes one person from another. It
identifies us. And Paul’s point in this passage is that there are
behaviors and attitudes and characteristics we can “put on” that
will mark us as Christians.
And the reason we know these behaviors mark us as
Christians is because they are contrasted in this passage with the
behaviors and lifestyles of unsaved people. Let me show this to
you. Look with me at verse 5 in this chapter. “Therefore
consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality,
impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.”
The way this verse reads in Greek is “put to death therefore your
members which are on the earth . . . ,” and the word “put to death”
is the exact opposite of “put on” in verse 12. Look also at verse
8. “But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice,
slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.” The word “put
aside” in this verse is the opposite idea of “put on” in verse 12.
The whole point of this chapter is that when we get
saved, we are to get busy putting to death certain behaviors and
giving life to others. We are to get busy putting aside certain
practices and putting on others. And it is this process of putting
on and putting off that mark us as Christians and give us a
profile.
One thing I didn’t share with you last week was that
there is a tone of urgency in this passage. In English, if we want
to convey a sense of urgency in something we say, how do we do it?
By our tone of voice (Ex: two different ways of saying “run”). How
do we convey urgency when we are writing? Either by underlining, or
capitalizing, or punctuation like an exclamation point.
In Greek, urgency can be conveyed by verb tense
(illustrate the difference between past, present and future tense -
ran, am running, and will run). Now the verb Paul is using here
when he says “put on” is an imperative, or what we would call a
command. What tense should a command be in? You would think that a
command / imperative would be in the present or future tense, and
never in the past tense. You don’t command someone to do something
they are already doing (past tense).
But in Greek, that is how you convey urgency - you put
the command in the past tense. And the oddity of putting the
command in the past tense alerted the reader to the urgency of the
message. It is the equivalent of me saying to a group of people,
“RAN”! You would all look at me and say, “That is bad grammar -
the correct word is “run.” Which is true in English. But in Greek
it is good grammar. Bad English, good Greek!
We see this very same grammatical construction in Mt.
6:11 in the Lord’s Prayer when we read “give us this day our daily
bread.” The word “give us” is another one of these commands in the
past tense. That seems odd, doesn’t it? In English, we perceive it
as a simple request for God to meet our daily needs. But in Greek,
it is not only a command, it is a command that is in the past
tense. This is an urgent plea for God to sustain us and meet our
every daily need. It is an acknowledgment that we are absolutely
destitute without God’s daily intervention in our lives.
So my point here is that Paul’s command to “put on”
compassion, and kindness, and humility, and gentleness, and patience
is something that is of utmost importance. This is not optional.
This is what marks a person as having become a follower of
Christ.
Transition: Last week we talked all about
compassion (KJV - “bowels of mercy”). Compassion is different from
pity and sorrow for two reasons. First of all, it involves a
physiological reaction. That is the significance of the word
“bowels.” Secondly, biblical compassion involves an effort to
relieve the suffering. The word Paul uses for “mercy” in this verse
is not the typical word for mercy in the NT (e.g., “God, being
rich in mercy . . . in Eph. 2:4). This particular word, not
used very often, calls us to be involved actively in relieving the
distress of the person afflicted. The lexicon defines it as “a
motivating emotion.”
B. Kindness
Last week’s homework was to come up with a definition of
kindness. How did you do? Who has a definition of kindness that
does not have the word “kind” in the definition?
Let’s look at a verse that use this word that will give
us some insight into what it actually means. Romans 11:22.
“Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell,
severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His
kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.” This verse makes
a point of contrasting kindness with severity. That is why the best
way to define kindness is to understand it as the opposite of
severity.
Let me give you three point of application about
kindness.
1. Rom. 3:12 - Kindness is not something we are born with.
“All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There
is none who does good, There is not even one.” What was
interesting to me as I was studying this matter of kindness is that
the word “good” in this verse is the exact same word as “kindness”
in Col. 3:12. Kindness is not something we are born with. The
Bible says, “there is none who does good.”
Sometimes we think kindness is a personality trait.
Some are born with it and some are born without it in the same way
that some people are born with an optimistic outlook on life and
others are born with a pessimistic outlook on life. Its just your
personality. That isn’t true according to the Bible. The Bible
says, “there is none who does good.”
This reemphasizes my point last week that none of these
five character traits come to us naturally. Remember the three “D”
words?
Deliberate choice - your clothes don’t
mysteriously make their way out of the closet and drape themselves
on you, you deliberately choose what you wear
Determined activity - you were born naked,
that is your natural condition. When we put on clothes, we
are reversing nature. All of these activities we are to put on are
contrary to human nature, and we have to determine to do it
Daily focus - all of these activities
require a lifelong effort, we have to get dressed every day
Kindness is not something that comes naturally to us. The Bible
says none of are born with it. That is our natural condition. We
have to determine to be kind.
2. 2 Cor. 6:1-6 - A lack of kindness discredits your claim to
Christianity
In this chapter, Paul is giving us an account of his
ministry as an apostle, and verse three tells us that one of his
objectives was to make sure he didn’t do anything to discredit his
claim to apostleship. “Giving no cause for offense in anything,
in order that the ministry be not discredited.” Then if you
drop down to verse six, he starts giving a list of the personal
traits that marked his ministry - “in purity, in knowledge, in
patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love.”
His point is that if he were impure, people would doubt his claim to
Christianity. Or if he were impatient, people could challenge his
claim to being a Christian. Or if he were unkind, people could say,
“You are no different from us.” A lack of kindness discredits our
claim to Christianity.
Let me show you another passage that makes this point.
Luke 7:36-47
36 Now
one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he
went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 37
When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned
that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an
alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him
at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then
she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on
them. [This was a tremendous act of sacrificial kindness]
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he
said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is
touching him and what kind of woman she is-- that she is a sinner."
40 Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell
you." "Tell me, teacher," he said. 41 "Two men owed
money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, {41
A denarius was a coin worth about a day's wages.} and the other
fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back,
so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him
more?" 43 Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the
bigger debt canceled." "You have judged correctly," Jesus said.
44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do
you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any
water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them
with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this
woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.
46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured
perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many
sins have been forgiven-- for she loved much. But he who has been
forgiven little loves little."
When I see a person who is unkind, I wonder if he
has experienced the kindness that God demonstrated in saving us.
That is the point Jesus is making to Simon in this story. A lack of
kindness discredits your claim to Christianity.
3. Titus 3:4&5 - Kindness was one of the motivating emotions
behind God’s saving us
When we think about why God saved us, we usually think along the
lines of God’s love for us (“For God so loved the world
. . .”), or His grace being demonstrated toward us (“For
by grace are you saved . . .”). But we don’t usually think
about our salvation from the perspective that God was motivated by
kindness to save us.
But look with me at Titus 3:4&5. “But when
the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,
5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have
done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of
regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” Our English
Bibles separate the words kindness and love by putting
the phrase “God our Savior” between them, but in the Greek it reads,
“but when the kindness and the love of God our Savior appeared,
he saved us.” Our salvation is just as much an act of kindness
as it is an act of love on God’s part.
Look over at Ephesians 2:4-8. “But God, being rich
in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5
even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together
with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised
us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in
Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the ages to come He
might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us
in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
Here is another passage that links our salvation not
only to God’s love, and His grace, and His mercy, but also to His
kindness.
And the application we can make from this is that
kindness has salvific potential. I read an account of a group of
Christian POW’s who even though they were themselves nearly starving
to death, once a week they would fast and give their meager rations
to other prisoners. Can you imagine the testimony that act of
kindness conveyed? And I would imagine that there are men in heaven
today because they saw in a practical way the difference Christ
makes in a person’s life and wanted that difference for themselves.
There are accounts of groups of Christians in Roman
times being thrown into the arenas to be fed to hungry lions, and
the elderly Christians in the group running up to the lions and
throwing themselves to the lions in hopes that the lion’s appetites
would be satisfied and thus spare the younger Christians. And the
authorities has to stop doing this because so many of the spectators
were getting saved as they observed the sacrificial kindness of
these elderly saints of God. Kindness has salvafic potential.
And isn’t that a good thought to take with us this
week? My act of kindness just may be what God uses to bring this
neighbor to salvation. My act of kindness just might be what breaks
down this coworkers last barrier to receiving Jesus as his Savior.
“And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put
on a heart of . . . kindness.” |
