All Paul Fall #3: Colossians
This is Part 3 of a 13-part series of brief reflections on the letters of Paul. These reflections are part of the Saturday Morning Prayer service for St. Stephen’s Episcopal Cathedral’s Facebook Live Ministry.
Therefore, if you were raised with Christ, look for the things that are above where Christ is sitting at God’s right side. Think about the things above and not things on earth. You died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
Colossians 3:1-10 (Common English Bible)
So put to death the parts of your life that belong to the earth, such as sexual immorality, moral corruption, lust, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). The wrath of God is coming upon disobedient people because of these things. You used to live this way, when you were alive to these things.
But now set aside these things, such as anger, rage, malice, slander, and obscene language. Don’t lie to each other. Take off the old human nature with its practices and put on the new nature, which is renewed in knowledge by conforming to the image of the one who created it.
Living as a Christian.
Paul’s letter to the Colossians can be thought of as a letter of instruction to those who have converted to faith in Christ. It answers the question: “What do I do now?” Some people believed then — as many do today — that a Christian need do nothing more than confess a faith in Christ. Paul disagrees.
You have died and been raised.
Paul makes the surprising argument here that baptized believers have died and started a new life. We can still see this reflect in our own baptismal rites — the priest blesses the water saying
In it, we are buried with Christ in his death. By it, we share in his resurrection.
The Book of Common Prayer, page 306.
For Paul, when a person is baptized, that means the end of an old life and the beginning of a new life.
Your behavior should match your status.
And so, he teaches that baptized believers need to “put on” this new life, this new nature. Stop engaging in sinful and destructive behaviors! Paul is not saying that believers “earn” their salvation by being righteous, but he does want believers to start acting righteously as a response to God’s gift of salvation.
Restoring the Image of God.
Paul even goes so far as to suggest that baptism confers on us a new self that is renewed in “the image of God.” This harkens back to Genesis, where humankind is created in the image of God. Paul believes that the New Life that JEsus offers us through baptism is a means of restoring the goodness of the world that God intended in Genesis. Paul doesn’t want his people to squander this git by reverting to the same behaviors that separated humanity from God in the first place.
