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E4C: El Cerrito
Chinese Christian Church |
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10/28/2008 Tuesday Devotion: Read Colossians 3:5 to 3:17 10/29/2008 Wednesday Devotion: Read Colossians 3:18 to 4:1 10/30/2008 Thursday Devotion: Read Colossians 4:2 to 4:18
The Earthly Things and the New Life Memory Verse: Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Today, Paul teaches us that we have raging battles between the earthly things and the new life. The Earthly Things (vv. 5-9) Paul makes a list of the earthly things. Rooted inwardly are immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed. They are the invisible that drive our outward behaviors. When the desires arise or when they are not met, anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech, and lies naturally come out. Recent proposition 8 seems to generate this kind of behaviors. Supporters of the proposition have been accused of generating hate. Yet reading the newspaper, it is the opposition that is angry and harboring malice. They would shout at your face, steal your sign, or resort to vandalism by spray-painting “No to Prop 8” in the house of prop 8 supporters. Sadly, these behaviors are not limited to hot political issues. They sometimes show up at home, at our community, and at our workplace or school. In our surroundings, we let the passion rise and the love of Christ drop. Anger, abusive speech, and even malice come out of us. Let us repent of our sins. Let those of us who are truly saved resolve to kill that earthly body inside. How do we kill the earthly body? We have to deny feeding of the earthly body. Let me illustrate with a warfare scenario. On the one side of the warfare is the earthly body, and on the other side is the glorious body. When we act out the earthly behavior, we are in facts resupplying ammunitions and resources to it to attack the glorious body. When we act out the heavenly thoughts, we lend our body as the ammunitions and resources to attack the earthly body. This war may seem like it would go on forever, and we do not seem to win over the earthly body entirely, but Paul assures us that God will come one day and put an end to this war. God’s wrath will come against the earthly things (v. 6). We need to live with this recognition that the earthly things will be history and that we need to live according to the new things. The New Life (vv 10-17) To live with the heavenly thinking is to be renewed with the knowledge of Jesus (v. 10). We are renewed by dwelling on the word of God, exercising our thanksgiving to God, singing to God and to one another, and teaching and correcting one another (v. 16). Renewal is marked by three distinctive properties. The first is that we have a new heart (v. 12). This heart is one with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Exercise that new heart when people complain against you or when you feel like complaining. The second property is the love (v.14). Often people mistaken the main emphasis of Christian love is benevolent. The truth is that we have just been told to put away that earthly body and the earthly things. The central emphasis of Christian love is to exercise it toward brothers and sisters in Christ. Hold that love above all political agenda and all social connections. This love of the brother and sisters is the glue that holds us in unity. The last property is the peace. Peace is the belief that everything is working fine when nothing is going right. Peace is the faith that can see God is working amid turmoil and disaster. Peace overcomes our urgency, our helplessness, our fear, and our circumstance. Meditation: Have I given in to my circumstance and doubt the outcome of God’s will? Have I surrender to the earthly things? Give thanks to God because triumphs of the heavenly things would come. And start dwelling on the word of God, giving thanks, and singing. Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that the three properties of a renewed life be evident to you, other people, and me. I ask that in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Memory Verse: Colossians 3:25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.
Politics are on everyone’s mind in this election season. To some, it may even define our faith at this moment. Nevertheless, Paul assures us that living a Christian life is defined by practical matters—the relationship between spouses, between parent and children, and between bosses and employees. The focal point of this section begins with v. 17, “whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” Let’s learn how to handle the intimate relationship in our Christian walk. Wives and Husband (vv. 18-19) Wives and husbands need to appreciate one another with the conviction that we are put together by God. Often we focus on our own needs and neglect to see that God puts our mate there to serve Him. With service in mind, Paul admonishes the wives to submit to their husbands and the husbands to love their wives. Love is expressed both ways but in unequal terms. Mature adults know that we do not want equal terms. For example, No men who wear shorts want their legs shaved, and women sure want to have nothing to do with the men’s carefree attitude toward dirty things. Likewise, emotional connections for men and women are different. A healthy emotional connection means respect from wives to the husbands and love with gentleness from the husbands to wives. In all, we submit to one another out of reverence for the Lord Jesus (Eph 5:21). Children and Father (vv. 20-21) In the power structure of home, children are always subservient to the parents. But that is not the premise for Paul to admonish the children to obey the parents. Paul emphasizes that pleasing the Lord is the utmost priority of the children. Since God puts the parents as an authority figure at this time in their life, they need to need to follow the instruction of the parents to please the Lord. Likewise, father is admonished to not abuse their authority. Why father? Men are usually not the gentle spirit and often see struggles as battles. Parents need to be an authority at home but must safeguard themselves from creating harsh environments. The continual pressure to excel or the strict insensitive rules would exasperate the children from forming a self-motivated desire to change for the better. Slaves and Masters (vv. 22-4:1) The modern version of this passage is employees and bosses. The mere difference is time. Whereas a salve is 24/7, employees have a set time during the day. Here employees are encouraged to obey the bosses in sincerity in all things. Moreover, the work needs to be done with all our heart because the reward comes not from earth but from heaven (NIV translation). Equally important is that bosses need to realize that they are a steward to God. The bosses do not own the material possession and treasure but are given the responsibility by God to manage them wisely. Therefore, bosses need to treat the employees fairly and justly. The work allotted to be finished needs to be consistent with the work hour. Meditation: Serving others at home or at the work place is a new dimension to honor God as the ultimate authority in my life. Moreover, this relational servitude is our modern day altar that all Christians need to offer ourselves to God. Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, let me lift up your name in my daily interaction with people that I am intimate with. I ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Memory Verse: Colossians 4:2 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
At the end of this epistle, Paul shows us three ways that a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ would show in their testimony. Through Prayer (vv. 2-4) Strange but true is the fact that the testimony of a Christian begins with prayer. Prayer is the testimony of our faithfulness in carrying out what is entrusted to us. It speaks to no one but the most important figure. After all, if we believe God is the mover of everything, we must go to Him first before anyone else. We have already seen how Paul poured his life into prayer. He said he prayed without ceasing for the believers. We too need to imitate him, and the first task of any work should be praying. I want to mention three of the many particular things that Paul says we should carry in our prayer. The first is a thanksgiving attitude. Too often we pray without power because we do not have a heart of gratitude. We go to God in misery and ask without even thinking of and giving thanks for the great things that He has done in our life. If we were God, we probably would have been turned off by such ungrateful people. The second thing we carry is the burden for the evangelism. We need to pray for the door to be open to speak to people. The great mystery of God is not that He needs us to pray to open door, but He is willing to let us participate in the process of evangelism by our petition and our speaking. It is purely His grace and His blessings to use us in the process of evangelism. Lastly, we carry in our prayer our genuine dependence on God instead of our ability. When Paul, the best thinker of his time, asks for the clarity of speech, he shows us the dependence on God. He said in 1Corinthian that he depends on God to accomplish the preaching of the gospel. Through Conducts and Speech (vv. 5-6) Our outward testimony is shown in our handling of people. Here Paul admonishes us to have wisdom when we talk to outsiders. We show our wisdom when we handle life with peace and joy. We need to share what happen in our life and to bring a good testimony to outsiders. We also need to speak with grace. Paul describes grace as being seasoned with salt. In other words, when we speak, we bring tastes to their life or make them comfortable. It is a feeling that they remember long after it is over. Through Fellowship (vv. 7-18) Last but not the least is the testimony of our sweet fellowship. The distance and time is not a problem for the bonds between Paul and the other believers. That long epilogue in the epistle about the people and the situation shows us the intimacy they share. And the numerous greetings show the affection toward one another. Jesus said people know that we are His disciples because of our love for one another. Let me strive to bring out that testimony when we meet or when we are not present with one another.
Meditation: Testimonies listed here are great examples for all of us. We need to be mindful in practicing them. Whether we are alone, with outsiders, or with our fellow believers, we need to be mindful to live a life of testifying our renewed life.
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing me into the kingdom of your Son. Please make me a great witness of your wonderful love to my friends, family, and even strangers. I ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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