Episode 315 - Christ is ALL

Colossians 3:5-11 is the subject of today's podcast.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:28

So uh I'm gonna I've oh I've already pushed the button. Oh you pushed already Yeah uh that music is our cue.

unknown 0:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

So I'm waiting for that on the air sign to come on. You know, we need an on the air sign. Wouldn't that be cute? Oh, that would be so good. Because, you know, there's no one here but us. No. So there's nobody to warn. Hey, we're recording here. Exactly. Don't come in here, but it would just be cool to have a neon on air. Yeah, wouldn't that? Yeah Wow, that that's major league right there. Well, you know, we're we're trying to get uh the podcast into space. Yeah. Well, you know, we just had some people go around the moon not too long ago. Exactly. And they didn't even listen.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Well, what we know of.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Well, we yeah, we need to get that message to them, the next astronauts that are going up. Hey, you need to listen to Two Brothers One Bible Podcasts. There you go. And if they don't, well, then they don't have to. Then they missed out. They miss out. That's right. But these people are not missing out because they're listening right now. They are listening right now, and we do appreciate that. Uh I'm Robert Wakefield. I'm Peter Sears. And welcome to Two Brothers One Bible Podcast, where we are in the book of Colossians. Uh we have really zooming through this uh first four verses, but good gracious, weren't they good? Oh, so they were so good. Yeah. And so we're gonna have a lofty goal of five through eleven in this episode. So, Peter, if you've got that in front of you, go ahead and read that.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

All right. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices, and put to put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge and in the image of its creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Syntian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Alright, so that is the word of the Lord. And so when we look at when we looked at verses one through four in our last podcast, uh that was really a spotlight on our identity.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Okay. And now in these next verses here, we're going to move to integrity because he's going to tell us what we must die to in order that new life can breathe in.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Yeah, it's it's more pragmatic. So he's talking about you know what's transpired spiritually. So how does that translate? What does that look like in our daily walk?

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Well, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

And that's what he he picks up in verse 5.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

And he does. In verse verse 5, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you. And that is the verb necrosate. Oh, look at you. All right, spoken like a true Greek, and it lead literally says, make it a corpse. Yep. Not to manage it, but to kill it.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Okay, so that's a key thing here. Yeah. Kill what he's about to do. And this is the first set of l lists that we're gonna see in this just this one chapter. Right. So what do you think about the uh the word make it a corpse? Make it a notch.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Yeah, I I wrote be fully dead. Full fully dead. Yeah, dead dead. Uh, you know, and Paul talks about this in Romans 12 when he says you're a living sacrifice, and that's the problem. You know, we're to live as dead people, dead to self, dead to our desires, our ambitions, our goals, our all those things, right? And to live for Christ. The problem is we keep coming back alive.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

You know, and how do we keep doing that? Uh if we're dead to it, how can we be alive to it? Yeah, and yeah, but yet we still do.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Well, I mean, there's so many things that tug on our heart. So we we see images on TV or we'll talk to people and go, oh, that that would be nice. You know. And and so we pursue these things that you know, and and you know, and we we kind of have a good lay of what's good and bad. And I think the challenge is not necessarily it's wrong, it's sinful. I think think some of the things we struggle with are good, but it's not glorifying God. Right, to give you an example. I I love to read books. Right. Okay, so I for me buying books is you know, I have to calm down. Well, then it's one thing to collect them, now you gotta read them. And so I could easily go from one work of fiction to another work of fiction to another work of fiction. But I I have to make sure I I say, okay, you're gonna read a book of fiction, but the next two or three books I read are something that's gonna help me. Right now I'm reading uh Chuck Swindahl's book on the life of Paul.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

And so I've gotta I've gotta feed that. I've got and sometimes it's just fun to kick out and just read something that's doesn't have any I don't have to think about it. Right, right. And so, you know, the same thing is true with our life. There's a lot of things that we can just do just just for fun. But we've gotta make sure we're living our life for him. That we're not just trying to please self.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Exactly. You know, it's interesting that you you br bring up the the reading thing. Uh that has for this is the third year in a row that we've read through the Bible. Yeah. Uh from start to finish. And we're doing the chronologically and stuff. I've got to tell you, that has been more meaningful in my life than than anything that I think I've ever done. Uh, because now not only do I look forward to spending time with with God in my reading, uh if I miss a day, yeah, my day's not the same. Right. Uh you know, there's just something missing. If I if I don't get into his word every day, I think, oh, this I've missed something all day today because I didn't start my day that way. Or end my day that way. Yeah. Whatever, which whatever works best for you. Right. But let me encourage all of our listeners to get into the word of God. And that's what this whole podcast is about.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Yeah. Well, and you I mean, you've got to make that a thing. And you know, and for you, uh, you know, we we talk about a morning quiet time, but for uh some people that's not what their thing. But there's a lot of things pressing our first thing in the morning. That's true. Some people want to go for their walk or for a run or they want to get an early tea time. And so there's a lot of things. Let's get that first before we start our work day, before we have to do this, and and the day gets away from us. Sure. We've got to make it a priority. Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

To come to the Father and just spend time with him. Spend time with him. So that's what this uh this verse five is talking about. It's putting to put to death anything that is that's earthly inside of you. Yeah. And then if we go into this list, so let's let's look at this list here. Uh the first one is uh sexual immorality. Uh and again, that's just any misuse uh of God's gift of sexuality.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

You know, I I think the easiest, politest way to put it is when we make people objects, then we're not seeing them as God sees them. Oh, that's true. Good point. God sees every person as someone he loves and Jesus died for. Right. And if we're looking at them in a different way, then we're marring the image of God in them.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Boy, that that's really good. Thanks. Did you just come up with that? That's really, really good. So that's the first one that he mentioned is sexual immorality. And then he talks about impurity, which is it's a moral uncleanliness, if you will. Yeah. Um it's just it's and when you think of things that are not pure, and the impurities, you know, you want to get the impurities out. Right. I used to be a jeweler. Yeah. And one of the things that we would do is we would heat up gold and make it a liquid form to make these gold nuggets. And it was so neat to see all the impurities come out of it. Right. Uh to keep that gold together. And we gotta burn that stuff out. Yep. And it's just the simple moral uncleanliness uh is impurity. Talk about uh passion. What do you think he's talking about?

SPEAKER_01 9:05

It goes back to your cheeseburger. You know, you could it says lust or passions, uh, it's it's these appetites. And and the problem is from the early pages of Genesis, God put all these appetites in us. And there's nothing wrong with a sexual appetite. The problem is when we feed that sexual appetite not in the confines of what God intended. Exactly. So there's nothing wrong with us having having hunger, but it's gluttony. It's it's when we get four plates full. You know, that's so that's the problem, and that's the problem with all these fleshly things. When we allow them to just be untamed and wild, sure, then we're following the pursuits of the flesh, not the pursuits of the spirit.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

It it's interesting you mentioned that because when I've read this, passion is uncontrolled desire, yeah, is what that is. Yeah. So then it goes on to say uh evil desire. Uh that cr and these are cravings that bend the heart away from God. Yes. And so when you think of when you think of evil desire and it's taking you away from God, no wonder Paul's talking about we gotta put these things to death.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Yeah, you know, it goes back to what I said about reading fiction. If if I just had a steady diet of that, well, you'd say, well, that's not evil, but it's not glorifying God either. That's correct. So, you know, I can I can read the whole Hobbit series and have a wonderful time, but how did that edify my relationship with God? Right. You know, and and so you could say, well, there's good spiritual stuff, but it's not the point. You know, if I read Spurgeon instead, you know, now it's like, oh my goodness, you know, I'm convicted and uh and I'm challenged and I'm inspired, and so I have to be careful, and we all do. What do we put in our minds? What do we focus on in our heart? And so that's what Paul's talking about here.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

Okay, that's so good. And then the last one he uh talks about is uh covetousness, which is simply the hunger for more and more and more.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Yeah, and I like that he says it's it's idolatry. That he says, what that is, is you just worshiping whatever you want.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

And has replaced God with this object or this thing or whatever you're doing. Yeah, he's pretty blunt. He's really laying it on the line, uh calling it uh idolatry. You know, we talked about at the beginning of this verse that that it's uh making it a a corpse, not managing it. This guy wrote this as an illustration. He said it's like growing a garden while leaving a patch of poison ivy untouched. Oh wow. You don't manage poison ivy, right? You uproot it. There you go. And so that's what that's the image that he is given to right here in this first in this first part of verse five.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Uh it's put to death, therefore.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

All right. Yeah. So we're gonna shoot on to verse six. Okay. Uh on account of these, uh, the wrath of God is coming. And Paul reminds him that this sin is just not just it's not unhealthy, it's destructive. Yeah. It can, it can actually it can actually take you away from him. Yeah. And so I think uh I think that's uh really an important part. It kind of joins verse five that if you're gonna not gonna put these things to death, the wrath of God is coming.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

All right. So I want to make sure we're clear on this, because you could say, okay, I've I've been saved, I I know I've got a place in heaven, I know I'm I'm going to heaven, and so why am I concerned about the wrath of God? Well, all that's true. We are saved, and so we're not in fear of losing our salvation. However, when we stand before God, our objective is to be as pure as we can. So here's what I wrote down for an illustration. Okay. It's like handing your wife your cell phone.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Right. Look at it, look at at conversations, look at what I've been looking at, just here. And that's the way I want to stand before God. It's like, and he already knows. He knows what's on my cell phone. He knows what's in my heart, he knows what's in my mind, he knows what I'm thinking, he knows why I think those things. And so it's not a matter of why do we think we can be secretive? And so God's gonna have, you know, he's gonna say, you know, I'm a little disappointed there.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Yeah, you know, you kind of miss the mark on that one. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And so that's what he's talking about in verse six. I love that illustration. Yeah. Uh because that's, you know, like you said, he already knows. Yeah. But to to to approach him and be as pure as you possibly can, that's pretty good. And I think that's what leads to verse seven. Uh, in these, you two once walked when you were living in them. So he's saying he's laying the groundwork, says, Listen, this used to be you. Yeah. It's not you now. Yeah, stop doing it. Yeah. Put it to death. Um, and and and and I think it's important here too to mention that Paul's not shaming them. No. He's just simply reminding them that the transformation they went through is real. Yeah. It's not this is not something that is superficial or anything. They really went through a transformation just like us.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Yeah, so here's what he's he's getting to, and and he'll bear it out in other places he writes. So what happens is when we say, I want all my sin forgiven by the blood of Christ, when he atoned for it on the cross, and then we keep in the sinful pattern, what we're literally doing is putting Christ back on the cross. Oh, yeah, and cr crucify him again.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

I think that was Hebrews, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So why why are we going to keep that old self living when it's crucifying Christ all over again? And so that's he and he's a little fired up here. That's why he goes into verse eight.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

He goes into verse eight. But now you must put them all away. And here's another list. It this the the Greek word for the the verb there is apothe.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

Which means take off like a filthy garment. Yes. Uh Did I say that right? You did. Yeah. Yeah. Well, this second lift uh list rather, uh, it's shifting from desires that we read before to relational type sins. So let's let's look at these uh Well, let's talk a little more about your Greek word.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Okay. So when there's an A in front of it, it is saying un or not. Okay. Oh, okay. And when you've got is if you see in the the middle of that word, it's it's got the root for God. So it's not spiritual things.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

It's not oh okay. Yeah, no, I I don't learn that today. I did not know that. So if it's got an A in front of it, it's not. Yeah. Anti. Anti. Oh, that's where we get anti from. Yeah.

unknown 16:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Well, here's a letter A. Anger. Yeah. Don't do it. No. Yeah. Uh that's uh this guy wrote that anger is simmering hostility, which, you know, that's that's really good. Simmering. I think that's good. Uh talk about what he means when he talks about wrath.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Well, yeah, I've got the word rage. Uh it's anything we feed. You know, we we tend to stoke the fire. You know, we want to perpetuate. If I'm mad at somebody, I gotta keep reminding why I'm mad at them. And sometimes we forget the root, what what was the origin of that? Right. But I'm still mad at them.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

But I'm still mad at it.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

That's what he's talking about.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Okay. Then he talks about malice, which is uh ill will for someone else. Uh uh slander is the next one, which is just it's just talking about someone that tears them down. Yeah. And and so slander, and then he finally talks about uh obscene talk, which is just abusive language.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

Yeah, and sometimes, you know, as Christians, we're a little subtle on this. We like innuendos. And so we're we're not being that bad, but we're being playful.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Exactly. It don't work. No, it doesn't work. No, it doesn't work at all.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

God's not chuckling at our off sense of humor.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

No. And you know, and and he's telling us to put these things away. So first of all, we are we're killing this, and now we're putting this uh you've got to put these these uh habits away. Yeah. Uh because these these are the sins that destroy a community, if you really can destroy a church.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Right. Which is what he's saying in verse 9, Robert. Yeah. When he says, do not lie to each other, he's saying stop pretending to be what you're not. Exactly. You know, be honest. You know, and that we man, we get to, you know, church, uh we we leave the house, you know, we're we're in a hurry, and the kids aren't ready, and we we fuss in the car, and then we put it in park, and it's like, put on your happy faces. Yeah, good morning, brother so-and-so. Like Tennessee Island, you know, here we are, everything smiles, smile. Or let's just be honest. Right. You know, we have good days and bad days. Just be honest. Why are you lying to your brothers and sisters in Christ?

SPEAKER_00 18:24

If you're hurting, you're hurting. Yeah. It's just, and it says there, uh, you know, do not lie to one another. Lying is the ultimate community breaker. Yes. I mean, it really is. Really is. Uh, verse 10, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Yeah. That new self is not a costume, it's a new creation.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

And when he says knowledge, he says perfect knowledge. It's it's that fullness of knowing who God is. And then ultimately we're restored to being the image, the new creation that God intended way back in the garden, just as Adam and Eve were.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Wow. And that is so good. And then let's see if we can get to verse 11. Sure. What do you think? Let's do it. Uh here there's neither uh not Greek or Jew, but Christ is all and in all. Yeah. Uh he lists these identity markers of the ancient world. Sure. He's done this before. Division points. Uh ethnics and religious and whatever, the social, whatever it is. And um, he's just saying that we have a new community. These are gone away. Yeah. We have a new community, and Christ is in all. He's the center of everything. Amen. And and Christ is the all, he's the unifying presence.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

That's right. Yeah. No more divisions, all unity because of what Jesus has done for us.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

That is so true. So Christ is all. I think he is the center. I think that's what we'll call this episode. I like it. You like that? I do. Okay, so I'm gonna write that down so I don't forget. Okay. So thank you so much. We did it. We got through the those six verses. Wow, that was a struggle. It was, it was. But we gotta die now. Uh I'm Robert Dwakefield. I'm Peter, and thank you so much for listening to today's episode of the Two Ruby 1 Bible Podcast. Uh, we really do appreciate it. Share it with all your friends and may God bless you.