Change of Clothes – Colossians 3:5-11

I noticed something strange when I was first converted to Christ at the age of 16. Some sexual temptations I was experiencing vanished. I put away the use of profanity without a blink of the eye. I had a sudden passion for reading the Bible and a desire to lead a holy life. It took weeks for those strange new feelings to wear off. It was back to the battle with temptation and self-centeredness. I believe God had given me a taste of what He was doing in me and what He could do. He was caring for the Christian newborn baby me, giving me a leg up to protect and inspire me. But He wanted me to learn how to be holy, not just have it dropped on me. This is why Paul’s teaching was so helpful.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:5-11, ESV)

Paul had said that we died and our lives were hidden with Christ in God. Since we are dead we must put to death the sins in our lives, the sins which, if they characterize our lives demonstrate that we are under God’s wrath and when Jesus returns we will be judged as unbelievers. But these sins were a part of our past, were what controlled us then. Now we must put them away.

Paul does not give us a process for killing our sins except what he has already said, to focus our hearts on what is above, on Jesus. In fact, he says we have already in some sense put off the old life like a dirty set of clothes and have put on the new self, a clean set of clothes, a self that is being renewed in knowledge after the image of our Creator. Because He is doing this in our lives we are able to put to death or put away the evils in our hearts and habits.

This process does not favor any ethnic or social group. All are the same before Christ, who is everything. Old distinctions have no bearing on whether I can be holy before God. Using Jewish laws to get holy is meaningless for the Gentile. Circumcision plays no part in godliness. Having no social standing or even a fearsome one like the Scythians, means nothing. Being a slave or a free person makes no difference. We’re all being renewed if we have put our faith in Christ.

The sins Paul focuses on are first of all sexual. This area of our lives seems to be the one we always struggle with the most. In our modern parlance we might say it is the most addictive. There must be transformation here to evidence our salvation. Then Paul focuses on the anger that leads to malice and slander and obscenity. Then he speaks to lies that damage relationships. As believers we want to be like Jesus and so we want these sins to be a part of our past. We want to see them dead and instead live a new life that is like his. Seek the things above where Christ is. Go to him over and over if you want to see change.