The Struggle is Real


Colossians 3:1–17
1If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. 12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 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. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 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 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. 17 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.
We generally manage to trivialize the most important of concepts fairly regularly, not the least of which is our ongoing battle with the force of God versus the force of evil. Paul’s letter to Colossae is brilliant at stressing that battle without the faintest whiff of the trivial. This is vitally important and the struggle is real.

Colossians is a neatly divided letter. Chapters 1 and 2 are about Christ and His blood bought redemption of the creation that He made. Chapters 3 and 4 are centered on who we now become because of Christ’s work. His sacrificial death and miraculous resurrection change us completely. Our Baptism brings us into His redemptive work and we are never the same again.

Thus we come to a lengthy description of the sinful person versus the redeemed person. In theological terms, this is about sanctification. In chapters 1 and 2 Paul dealt with the reality of our justification through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. We had no part in that work. We are merely the recipients of His gracious action. Then we come to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and here we at least have a part in the drama. While our salvation in no way rests on our choices or actions, we do have a say in how we think, what we think about, and how we will live the lives we been given. We can live as God’s agents of grace or we can serve our flesh and the ways of evil.

Here again we come to the tension that is the Christian walk of faith. We cannot escape our sinful self this side of death. Our flesh is strapped to sinful decisions from the moment we are born. But – God has given us a way to make choices that are pleasing to Him. He washed us through the waters of Baptism and we are now able to think on godly ways, make godly choices, and serve Him by serving others. As the text would indicate, we are also capable of choosing the opposite path; the path of sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness , anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk. In the quiet of our own hearts we know that each of those words point straight to our own lives.

So while it might be trivialized by the culture the concept of good and evil constantly battling for our attention is grounded in truth. It is the struggle we all face every single day. But Paul gives us a tool. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. There is it. I can decide what I’m going to think about today. I can watch television that is not wholesome or worthwhile. I can read things that do not build up my spirit. I can look at things on the internet that bring me into a dark place. Or, I can fill my mind with Scriptures. I can surround myself with people who love the Lord. I can devise ways to serve the people around me for no other reason than that God loves them. And we are not left alone in this endeavor. The Holy Spirit is there to help us make those kinds of decisions. Putting on the “new self” is tough and we fail all the time. But it is not impossible and when we succeed, great things happen!

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