Take a moment and think back
on your childhood. How you acted, what
you thought about certain things, or how mature you were. Now compare that to who you are now. Are there any differences? For most of us we can see how throughout our
lives we have grown in knowledge, experience, understanding, maturity, and in
many other areas. In Colossians we find
a call to exhibit this same growth in our spiritual lives, in our relationship with
Christ Jesus:
. . . you have
taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. –
Colossians 3:9b-10
As I read this passage what
stuck out to me was that in addition to the initial new self that we put on, we are being
renewed. This implies a continuous,
ongoing action. Our relationship with
Christ was not a onetime deal where we put on the new self and were in that moment at the relationship level with
Christ that He wanted us to remain at for our entire lives. Just as our parents and older siblings look
forward to a child's constant growth as they learn to walk, speak, reason,
etc., our Father looks forward to those milestones of constant growth in our relationship
with Him as well. Peter talks about this
in terms of moving from spiritual milk to meat in our understanding of God (1
Peter 2).
So how do we do this? How do we maintain this constant renewal?
Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly
loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and
patience. – Colossians 3:12
How often do you clothe
yourself? I'm really hoping you put
clothes on every day! So when Paul says
to clothe yourselves with compassion,
humility, gentleness and patience, I see it as something we are to do
daily. Again, this is not something we
can do one time and hope that it sticks for the rest of our lives. Just as our clothes, should we never change
them, begin to smell and grow old, our compassion, humility, gentleness, and
patience would grow stale without being refreshed and renewed daily. One way to renew these traits daily is
through encouragement through God's Word and dialogue with God through
prayer. Another way comes through
fellowship with other Christians:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you
teach and admonish one another with
all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in
your hearts to God. – Colossians 3:16
I love this verse! Did you notice the word pastor, preacher, or
leader in this verse? No! Why not?
Because this is the job of the Christian community and is not to be left
for our leaders alone. It requires the
participation of every member of the body of Christ to teach one another and to
come together to praise God and express our mutual thankfulness to Him for all
He has done in our lives. Consider
another of Paul's letters:
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he
who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. – Hebrews 10:23-24
We have the opportunity and
the honor of spurring one another on in good deeds, in worship, in service, in
knowledge, and, in turn, in spiritual growth as we support one another. Through prayer, the reading of God's Word,
and fellowship with other believers who are encouraging and supporting one
another as the body of Christ, we find ourselves being continually renewed in
the image of our Creator. Lest we grow
sidetracked in our own growth and become proud in what we have accomplished, Paul reminds us to constantly point to the
Lord as the One who makes possible this growth and all we do:
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it
all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
– Colossians 3:17
