Colossians 3:11-17, “Christ is All, and in All”

Ken MacLeod

Colossians • Sermon • Submitted 22 days ago • Presented 21 days ago

Titles of Jesus Christ

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Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, Congo and Rwanda and Burundi, North Korea and everyone else. How will the world be united in peace, love, and harmony?

Verse 11 provides the context for verses 12-17.

Colossians 3:11 (ESV)

Colossians 3:11 ESV

Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

This is a vision of the new creation that should be seen in the church. But really it is a broad, sweeping statement about Jesus Christ. He is all and in all. Is Christ all in all in my life, in the life of the church? What difference would it make if He was?

This letter Paul wrote to the new believers in Colossae is his encouragement to hold fast to the gospel. The gospel is that God is overcoming evil, sin, brokenness in us and in our world through Jesus Christ, righteous, crucified, risen, reigning, returning. God, in Christ, is bringing about a new creation. You can be made new in Christ, just as He will make our whole world new again.

When that happens, Paul says, God will unite all things in Christ. Christ is all, and in all.

Paul has been helping us understand the implications of the gospel, that if you are a believer in Christ, your life dominated by self is dead and gone. Your new life is in Christ. Your primary imperative now is that you would participate in the life of Christ. We put to death evil desires attached to your old life, like taking off old, filthy, rotten clothes you don’t need any more. (Or more like shedding your old skin.) And today, we focus on what you put on, the qualities of Christ.

Today, we will see that if we live according to who we are in Christ, our lives will make Jesus known to others.

Know Who You Are

Have you ever seen a spy movie or a thriller in which someone has to adopt a new identity? Someone hands them new clothes and accessories, maybe a pair of glasses. And as they do this, they begin to tell them about their new identity. “Your name is John Smith. You are from Cleveland, Ohio. You work in IT (no one’s ever a roofer). You are a father of three…” In the same way, Paul as he hands us things to put on also tells us about our new identity.

Colossians 3:12 (ESV)

Colossians 3:12 ESV

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,

The reality of our new creation as a believer in Jesus Christ is that you are one of God’s chosen ones. Paul defines what is means to be the chosen ones as being holy and beloved.

Some Christian traditions focus on holiness. We are set apart for God’s kingdom and His purposes, to be salt and light in the world, and we should live pure lives. Some focus on the love of God. We should rest in the unconditional and unearned love of God the Father for us. Paul puts these together. To make sure we understand how these two work together, we should start with a question we don’t need to fully answer now.

If you tell someone they are holy, isn’t there a danger they won’t grow in love? If you tell someone that God loves them unconditionally, just as they are, isn’t there a danger they won’t grow in holiness? How does the gospel of Jesus help us understand how these work together?

Jesus has the fullness of two qualities that we might try to separate. He is full of grace and truth. He is wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove. He is strong and kind. Jesus is the Holy One of God, and God’s beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. He is holy and beloved.

We are not holy because we do more holy things than others. We are holy, set apart in purpose and purity, in the holiness of Jesus Christ. We are not beloved because we have earned God’s love. God has loved us in Jesus Christ. Christ is all.

Christians are the people who have learned that we are only holy because He is holy and He shares that holiness with us. In Christ, I am holy. Christians are the people who have learned to know the love of God in Jesus Christ. Jesus died for us when we were enemies of God, and lives for us to make us friends and adopted children. Christ is all, and in all. The gospel gives me my identity in Christ.

How do holiness and love work together?

If you were to make a list of qualities that align with holiness, what would they be?

Compare that to Paul’s list: compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. These qualities can be practiced by anyone, whether they know Jesus or not. But they take on their fullness, or they are made holy, in someone who has learned the love of God for them. When you understand what you have been forgiven by the Lord Jesus, your compassion and kindness and patience grow.

Colossians 3:13 (ESV)

Colossians 3:13 ESV

bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

A Christian is a person who understands just what we have been forgiven by the Lord Jesus. We are made holy because He has forgiven me our many sins because He loves us. So, we must forgive. It’s not optional for us. We don’t get to pick and choose who we forgive, who we bear with, the people who deserve our compassion or kindness. We didn’t deserve it. God has set apart the believer in Jesus as an ambassador of forgiveness in Jesus’ name. We are not made holy because we don’t sin. We are made holy by the love of God in Christ, that He would forgive my sins.

So, if we are to live in our identity in Christ, there is one quality that unites them all.

Put on Love

In the “Lord of the Rings”, there were many rings of power, but one ring to bind them all. And that ring was wielded by the smallest and weakest of creatures, the hobbit. I don’t know if Tolkien meant it to be, but it’s a picture of the Christian life. If Christ is in me, I may be small, weak, and insignificant. I may be a truck driver and a father of three, living in a town most people in the world have never heard of. But I wield a great power. I have Christ in me, who clothes me in love.

Colossians 3:14 (ESV)

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Love is the most powerful force in the universe. It is inherently compelling. When we consider the fact that God is love, and in the end He binds everything together in perfect harmony in Jesus Christ (Christ is all and in all), we see His agenda for our lives. Actually if we translated this sentence literally, it would read

Colossians 3:14 (ESV)

And above all these is love, which is the bond of perfection (completeness).

How much of my life is spent in dealing with differences? We are so good at telling people how we are distinct from “others”. We argue with people who don’t see things our way. We can talk all day long about things that divide us. We love to complain.

What practical application of love can we derive from verses 12-14?

Where are the people who will cloth themselves in love and speak the truth patiently and with kindness; who will choose not to complain but forgive; who will demonstrate compassion for the “others” and invite them to our table to bind them to us and to Christ? And let Him correct them, change them, recreate and restore them? Maybe we need to be better at letting Jesus be the Christ.

In fact, we need a full surrender to Jesus Christ. When we are fully surrendered to Jesus Christ as Lord, He can work in us and through us. This is where Paul goes next.

Let Jesus Rule In You

We preach the gospel that Jesus Christ is Lord and King with all authority in heaven and earth and power over life and death, therefore repent and believe this good news. Then we run around trying to fix everyone and everything for Him. We get filled with anxiety and anger and we give in to the fear that the world is going to hell. And we don’t live in the truth of the gospel. The unseen qualities inside will usually determine what people see on the outside.

If Christ is all, and we are putting on His attributes, then the inside should match the outside, so that Christ is in all. Paul

Colossians 3:15 (ESV)

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

If I am living according to the gospel of Jesus, I recognize what He has done for me. He has forgiven me, given me new life, leads me in truth. He is the way to the Father. I have so much to be thankful for. Let that gospel give you peace. The gospel is a message of victory and hope. Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death. They don’t rule in us any more. So, let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. This is your calling.

Who or what rules in your heart? Have we fully surrendered to Jesus Christ in such a way that I have total peace with God, with other, with myself, and with creation?

Paul says you were called (2nd person plural passive tense) to this “in one body”. I, as an American Christian, can easily focus on the calling I have, the relationship with God that I have, the Christian life that I live. But the reality is, I wasn’t the only one He called. We were called together. Maybe if I thought a little more about how I can help you live in the peace of Christ, I would be more surrendered to His peace myself.

And be thankful.

Another way we surrender to Christ is

Colossians 3:16 (ESV)

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.

I have so many things I want to say. In fact, when you’re talking, I’m mostly thinking about what I will say next. How different would our relationships be if I only opened my mouth to let the words of Jesus out? And this “word of Christ” is really a shorthand for the gospel. Paul’s talking about gospel conversations. Starting inside you. How much time to you spend meditating on and preaching the gospel to yourself? How richly does it dwell in you? Is it alive in you, bursting to be let out?

He lists all the ways it can happen and all the benefits. Teaching and admonishing, growing in wisdom. Singing psalms and hymns and songs about life in Christ that uplift the spirit and encourage and comfort.

How have you seen this work in your life?

And be thankful.

So, those are the passive ways we surrender to Christ, to let Him be all and in all. And then, finally Paul gets to the doing.

Colossians 3:17 (ESV)

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

What does this mean? What would our world look like if everyone who said they were a Christian lived like this?

How many of my deeds and words are said and done on Jesus’ behalf? How many of my words and actions demonstrate that Jesus is Lord?

And be thankful.

Do you see how Jesus Christ permeates our whole life as a Christian? Christ is all and in all. He has called us to join God’s chosen people. He makes us holy, set apart for His purposes. He has demonstrated that I am God’s beloved. It is the qualities of Jesus that we put on as a demonstration of our life in Him. Most of all His love. His peace rules our hearts. His word is living and active in us. This is when He will work through us in the lives of others. We will grow in unity and strength and in a powerful testimony of the gospel of Jesus, which will change the world. Thank God.

Communion

Questions for Discussion

What are you celebrating this week? What is challenging for you this week?

What gives your life consistency?

What is the good news in our passage this week? What does it tell us about Jesus?

What does it tell us about ourselves?

Does this picture of Christ’s qualities in the life of the church match the reality we see around us? What are some good examples, and what are some areas in which we could grow?

In what ways does love bind everything together in perfect harmony (verse 14)? What is the practical application for us?

What would a church look like if it was made up of people who let the peace of Christ rule in their hearts?

What part does giving thanks play in our growth in Christ-likeness?

What is the purpose of letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly, according to verse 16?

In what ways can we grow in applying verse 17? What would be different about our work or school life, our relationships, and our church if we did this?