Colossians 3 12 put on therefore
as the elect of God holy and beloved Bows of mercies kindness
humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering Paul told this church at Colossi
what to put off in verse 8 and And now, what to put on. And notice particularly, he tells
them this as the elect of God, as those whom God has chosen. Christ is all to us, and in all
of us, verse 11, by God's choice. You see that? Christ is all to
us and in all of us as the elect of God, because God, of Him are
you, in Christ Jesus, who has made unto us everything we need. Now he's talking in this passage
clearly about how we live. how we live. Now think about
this with me. Put on vows of mercies, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering. He's talking
about our manner in this life, how we treat one another, how
we treat people, our attitude. And he says this also is as the elect
of God. Who we are in this world and
how we live, that's by God's choice too. Listen to Ephesians
2, you're very familiar with this passage of scripture. We do this as the elect of God. This is important now. Not as somebody that's trying
to have our good outweigh our bad so we can go to heaven when
we die. We live this way as the elect of God. Ephesians 2.8,
for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. You see how we put on all these
things as the elect of God? It is God's choice and His ordination,
His causing, His bringing it to pass that we are this and
this way in this world. His workmanship created by Him
unto kindness, tenderheartedness, longsuffering, other things that
honor him and not the flesh. As the elect of God, not as those
who are better than other people or more well-informed and so
can do better and be better than them. As the elect of God, not
as those who are working toward a righteousness, but as those
who are righteous in Christ by his choice. That's key. by God's electing grace, we are
who we are. And if we're gonna be that and
act like it, it's gonna be God. It's gonna be because of him,
because of the work that he's wrought in us. And then he says, holy and beloved. Holy there means a most holy
thing, a saint. And remember this about that. The word holy doesn't describe
how we feel about something or someone, or our estimation of
that person or thing, especially if it's ourselves. It's not how we think of ourselves,
oh, I'm so holy. Holy is God's estimation. God
makes that call, whether something's holy or somebody's holy or not. You can't make somebody a saint
by a vote of stupid people. That's God's evaluation. Nothing else matters in the calculation
of what is holy and what is not. The God. That's how he considers us. Whether
we excel, I guess, in these things
or not. Whether he gives us a great degree
of grace in this or a lesser degree. of grace in this. Beloved. You see, that's what
election is. I always want to remind you of
this. Election was not eeny, meeny, miny, moe. It's so that
election, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand. God said, I love Jacob. He didn't say, well, that one,
no. He fell in love with Jacob. And another multitude of people
that no man can number. That's election. I love you. He chose us because he loved
us. But love it means to love dearly,
to be well pleased with. You see how this goes along with
as the elect of God, we're elect how? In Christ, we're chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world. And in Christ,
what did he say in his high priestly prayer in John 17? that he loves
us as he has loved his own son. That's beloved. And God is not well pleased,
he is not dearly loving his people because they do these things
and live this way. But as the elect of God, you
see, before We were born or had done any good or evil, He beloved
us. As the elect of God, we're beloved
of God. Not because we obey or live a
certain way. It's cause and effect. We're not beloved because we put on these things. We put
on these things. because we're beloved. Cause and effect. Bows, beloved,
put on bows. Now this word, it applies to
all the rest of the verse. All of these other things comes
from here. It means the seat of the tender affections of a
person. It's how we use the word heart.
from the heart. Put on a heart of these things. We changed it because the Valentine
cards that said, I love you with all my bowels, weren't selling
very well. So we changed it to heart. Mercies. This means pity and
compassion. Given a hoot. Is that plain enough? Do you give a hoot about anybody
but yourself? Do I? Caring about others. Listen to Philippians 2.1. If
there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of
love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
if any heart, heart of love and concern. Fulfill ye my joy, that
you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord,
of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife
or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind. Let each esteem other
better than themselves, Here's mercies. Look not every man on
his own things. We get so caught up in that,
don't we? Look not every man on his own things, but every
man also on the things of others. The things of others. Kindness. The Bible says a lot about being
kind. How many people though, just
be honest about this. It hurts to be honest about this,
doesn't it? How many people would you characterize
that way? If you had to describe somebody
to somebody else, you'd say, they're just so kind. That's sad when you start thinking
about it, isn't it? And I'll tell you this, you'll
never see a chapter in a theological book called the Doctrine of Kindness. You'll never see that. And yet
the scripture says so much about that, about being kind. In fact, The Lord says in 1 Corinthians
13 too, that though I understand all mysteries, though I read
the books of theological books that thick, and I've read them,
and I understand them, I know what they're saying, it's logical,
it makes good sense. But though I understand all mysteries
and all knowledge, and have not love, I'm nothing. So it's interesting
that you don't find that in those books, People that consider themselves
theologians, they're very good at splitting hairs, but they
don't major on this. And that's interesting considering
what our Lord said, that the knowledge is worthless without
the other. Humbleness of mind. That's something
that comes from the heart too, got to come from the heart. Do
you think about that? What do you think of yourself?
What do you think of yourself? You know, it's hard to hide that. It's pretty easy to know what
somebody thinks about themselves. And remember, this is a state
of your heart. It's not just about you saying
the things that you think will make people think you're humble.
so they'll think highly of you. That's kind of twisted, isn't
it? If your point of being humble is to make people think highly
of you, you kind of got it backwards. That's the opposite of humility.
Remember always that in this thing of Christ being all, and
of us being the elect of God, as the elect of God do these
things, be these things, act this way. And in that, in election
and in Christ being all, boasting is excluded. That's on purpose. God did it that way on purpose.
the electing love and grace of God excludes boasting. Faith
is not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. The fruit of the
Spirit is faith and other things, lest any man should boast. And so our behavior as the elect
of God, should exclude boasting. Not a voluntary humility. We
just talked about this recently in Colossians 2.18 in our study
in Colossians. In the last, in the previous
chapter from this one. Not a calculated and premeditated
humility. but just a natural condition
of your heart, your new heart from God. And then meekness or gentleness. Not cold, not just matter of
fact, you know, as so many people are. And again, I think of what
Paul said, knowledge puffeth up. Just knowledge without love? Just a head knowledge? Like the
Corinthians had? It tends to make sinners cold
and matter of fact. These are the facts, take them
or leave them, and I don't care whether you take them or leave
them. In fact, they almost seem to prefer people don't agree
with them, so they'll have something to argue about. Meekness, gentleness. How many people would you characterize
that way? And this is a very close companion
of humility. Turn with me to Galatians six,
please. Galatians chapter six. Meekness and gentleness is a
close companion. humility And I want us to see
that see both together in Galatians 6 1 Brethren if a man be overtaken
in a fault Ye which are spiritual restore such in one in the spirit
of meekness and You know, this world's religion, what they call
somebody so spiritual, you know, they don't smoke or drink or
go to R-rated movies. They won't even go to a restaurant
that serves alcohol. They're so spiritual. They're
mean as a snake. They look down on everybody that
does drink and smoke and mess up. and do stupid stuff. God says spiritual is sympathizing
with somebody that sins. It's being a help to somebody
that's hurting or that's confused or that's weak, whose faith maybe is weak A fault means you didn't do the
right thing. Imagine that, sinners not doing
the right thing. Bear ye one another's burdens.
And look back, I missed a little important part there. Considering
thyself, lest thou also be tested. How are you gonna hold up if
God tests your faith? or your righteousness. And bear you one another's burdens
and so fulfill the law of Christ. You don't fulfill the law of
Christ by keeping the moral law. You fulfill the law of Christ
by giving a hoot about somebody besides yourself. I'm preaching
to myself now and caring enough that your heart is with them
and you do whatever you have to for them to restore them,
to lift them up. And here's where the humility
comes in. For if you think you're something, and you just happen to be nothing, then you've deceived yourself. Boy. The doctrine of gentleness. I have never seen that one in
a book. The only reason that a person,
and this is from what we just read now, the only reason, remember
our verse in Proverbs, only by pride cometh strife. The only reason a person wouldn't
deal this way with others and being kind and gentle and restorative with a desire to see them healed
and encouraged and lifted up is because he thinks too much
of himself. That's the only reason you wouldn't
be that way. Long suffering. Boy, we know so little about
these things, but we can see from the word of God, can't we?
how far short we fall. And we can ask God, Lord, I wanna be like you. I
wanna be like you. All suffering, patience, endurance,
slowness to avenge a wrong. That's what that is. And the
next word goes right with this also for bearing one another. That means to endure one another.
That means it's not so pleasant to have anything to do with you,
but I'm gonna have something to do with you anyway, because
I love you. You know that relationships don't
just exist for what you can get out of them. We understand that. Enduring one another. Well, I need, may God surround
me with people that will endure me. The only reason for it's
love, that's the only reason you'd put up with somebody. And there are though, I'll tell
you this, the only way that I can just
have no use for somebody is if I just don't love them. And right
or wrong, there are people that I've got no use for. How about
you? Any of y'all? I just got no use for them. You
know why that is? They're just not my favorite people. It's connected, isn't it? If
you're gonna endure somebody. Some people I just can't endure.
I don't wanna hear it. Somebody that's lied to me, especially
more than once. I don't wanna hear from you. But our text is the converse
of that. If I love you, I'll put up with a whole lot
and you will too. Love covereth a multitude of
sins. I've been looking for a word
that's an aspect of love that we don't think about very often,
but it's integral to what love is, and I believe it's contained
in our text. I'm just not sure there's a word
for it. I'm talking about the fact that
when you fall in love with someone, You're invested in them. And
that word's not enough, I know that. But you're invested, you sign
yourself up as someone you love. You're volunteering
for sorrow, aren't you? You're volunteering for pain.
You're volunteering for misery. You commit yourself even to reproach
if necessary. Maybe great expense in time and
resources if necessary. There's a responsibility involved.
It's a voluntary one. It's one that you commit yourself
to willingly, but It's just as necessary as if you had not volunteered
for it. You're no longer just involved
in that which affects you, but you're fully involved in everything
that affects them. You see what I mean by that?
Can you think of a word for it? I don't think there is one. If
they have a problem, you have a problem. You're signing up for that when
you fall in love. with them. If they hurt, you
hurt. That's involved in love, isn't
it? We don't think about that that
much. You're gonna hurt. And I'll tell you this, if you
love somebody and they hurt, you may even hurt more than them. If they lose, you lose. Really. If they die, you may not die
in the same way they did, but you're so connected to them that
nothing can ever be the same again, if you lose them. And it's not that it has to be bad,
that sounds depressing, I know that's, You see, though, that there can
probably never be a word for this, and there's a lot more
to it. And speaking of that connection, I deliberately focused on the
hard part first. But what those who love know
is that all the pain, all the sadness, all of the brokenheartedness
and misery that may come because of that love, for no other reason
than that love, is worth every second of it. Simply because you love it. The object of your love brings
you so much joy that the joy overshadows and overcomes the
sorrow. Because of Christ, the sorrow
that we have in this life is not the same as others who have
no sorrow, no hope in Him, and sorrow without that hope that's
in Christ. But we do sorrow. But the one that you love shines
so bright in your eyes that the darkness that sometimes comes is a small
thing. Our Lord Jesus Christ counted
even the sorrow and horror and darkness of the cross, a small
thing, for the joy that was set before
him. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, we for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising shame, and is set down at the
right hand of the throne of God. That's the definition of love
in the scripture. That God loved us and sent his
son to be our sin offering. The word despising in that verse,
he despised the shame. That word despising means to
disdain and think little or nothing of. That's the definition. We think so much of little things. And he thought nothing Of what
it took to redeem us to himself. Is it even possible to consider
rightly? How God so loved us? And he signed himself up willingly. No man took his life from him.
He laid it down of himself. He volunteered for the pain. He volunteered for the sorrow.
Sorrow so exceeding great that his very heart's blood flowed
from the pores of his brow. And all of that sorrow was mine.
When you're thinking about being long-suffering and tender and
gentle with others, Think about what that even is. It is our savior. All of that sorrow was mine.
He bore my griefs and carried my sorrows. And love, love alone now is the
bond. Look at verse 14 in our text. And above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. We'll talk about these other
things in this passage in our next lesson, Lord willing. But
think about this, love being the bond. that which binds all of these
other things together into one. That which makes all of these
various things that we've talked about this morning, one thing
is love. It's all one thing. They come
together, they're a bundle and they're bound by your love. or whoever it is you're gentle
with and long-suffering toward. Forgiving, that's next in verse
13, in forgiving one another. It says if you have a quarrel
with somebody, It's interesting how we feel about forgiveness.
Forgiveness is such a wonderful thing until you really have to
forgive somebody. There's no need to forgive unless
there's a quarrel. So love is the bond of perfectness,
maturity. And to see love, to know the
meaning of the word, to have some understanding of love, you've got to look away from
yourself. That's clear in all of this, isn't it? You have to
look all the way to the Lord Jesus Christ and what
he did for us on Calvary. To him who's so loved that he
gave himself. And there's more than one reason
why looking to Him would cause us to love. You see, His love is the cause
of our love. Not only does Christ crucified
teach us what love is, but Christ crucified would understood
rightly if it took the blood of God's
Son to redeem my soul. But how in the world can I have
a quarrel with anybody else? How can I ever think of myself
more highly than I ought to think? So God help us. We pray often,
Lord, teach us to love one another more. Teach us to love you more. And that's the prayer of our
heart this morning. Let's pray together.