Colossians 3:12-17

Colossians 3 [NASB]
12So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;
13bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.
14Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.
16Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
17Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

This passage instructs Christians to ‘put on’ the new virtues fitting their position in Christ. We must not only cease to do the evil things we once did, but “we must learn to do well; not only not to hurt any, but to do what good we can to all”(Matthew Henry).

12So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;

Because God has chosen us, He has made us holy in His sight. We are holy- ‘set apart’ for the Lord and for His work and have been cleansed from all unrighteousness. With this in view, we are therefore beloved of God. What was true of God’s chosen people, Israel, can now be said of the believers in Colossae, and all those who are chosen of God. Paul therefore exhorts the believers to put on the following virtues:

Compassion – love for and mercy towards one another. Kindness – “Spirit imparted goodness of heart” (William Hendriksen). Humility – lowliness, having a correct estimate of oneself. Gentleness – a meekness of spirit, “the submissiveness under provocation, the willingness rather to suffer injury than to inflict it” (William Hendriksen). Patience – long-suffering in the face of adversity.

Luke 6 [NASB]
35"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.
36"Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Galations 5 [NASB]
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Matthew 11 [NASB]
29"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.

All of these virtues are characteristics of God which He displays to us in the work and person of Christ.

Romans 13 [NASB]
14But put on the Lord Jesus Christ...

If He has dealt with us in this way, so should we deal with those around us. Paul continues with further instructions:

13bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.

We need to (in the exercise of these virtues) bear with the short-comings of those around us, remembering that they are called to bear with our deficiencies. As not yet perfected and glorified there are many areas we fall short in, and so we need to be ready and willing to endure one another. When a brother sins against us we need to be ready to forgive them. This command of Paul is strikingly similar to the Lord’s Prayer.

Matthew 6 [NASB]
12'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors...
14"For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15"But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

We are called to forgive, because the Lord has already forgiven us our sins which are far weightier than any grievances we may have between ourselves. For more on this see the parable of the ungrateful slave of Matthew 18:21-35.

14Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

Jesus taught love for one another as the fulfilment of the second table of the Law. The love for our fellow believers which Paul speaks of here is the perfect bond of unity. Bruce interprets this as “the grace that binds all these other graces together”. Henriksen comments “love then is the bond of perfection in the sense that it is that which unites believers, causing them to move forward toward the goal of perfection”.

15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.

Knowing who Christ is and what He has accomplished for us, we must therefore let His peace rule - govern or direct us. As Matthew Henry points out “We are called to this peace, to peace with God as our privilege and peace with our brethren as our duty”. There is both a peace which we have before our Redeemer and Judge, and also a peace which governs our relationships with one another. If Christ’s peace rules our hearts, we will be enabled to bear with one another and forgive one another, because we are resting in the knowledge of Christ’s forgiveness for our sins. John Wesley points out that the cause and effect of this passage could also be reversed: “And then the peace of God shall rule in your hearts -Shall sway every temper, affection, thought, as the reward (so the Greek word implies) of your preceding love and obedience”. Either way we can apply this test to great advantage: “let the individual, therefore, constantly ask himself, “Will I have peace within if I do this or do that?” Let him be sure to be at peace with God, for only then can he expect to live in true harmony with his brothers” (William Hendriksen). A body made up of many members must be at peace with itself, must exhibit spiritual oneness.

Paul adds that we are to be thankful. This theme runs through the epistle (1:3, 12; 2:7; 3:15, 16, 17; 4:2). As we are thankful for what Christ has achieved we are enabled and empowered to do these things Paul is calling us to.

16Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

The peace of Christ can only rule in our hearts when the word of Christ is richly dwelling within us. This word should richly dwell - take residence, “be always ready and at hand to us in everything, and have its due influence and use” (Matthew Henry), bear much fruit. It should be read, believed, dwelt upon, it should be hidden in the hearts of the believers. For an example of right appreciation of the word see Psalm 119. As a result of this indwelling of the word we can with all wisdom teach and admonish one another. To admonish is to warn, stimulate, and encourage. We must do this in accordance with the rights and duties of our particular office, but note that all Christians are called to teach and admonish in some aspect even if they are not apostles as Paul was or teachers. One of the means of this teaching and admonishing in wisdom is the singing of God-glorifying songs. Let us not look down on this practice as less spiritual or necessary than other more “noble” pursuits. Spiritual songs “fix the interest upon the indwelling word of Christ and carry the attention away from the worldly cacophony” (William Hendriksen).

17Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

Paul gives us an overarching command to close this section. ‘In the name of’ refers to “in harmony with His revealed will, in subjection to His authority, in dependence on His power” (William Hendriksen). As Hendriksen gave a test for a decision based on the peace of Christ in verse 15, so F.F. Bruce gives the following: “When faced with a situation, the believer may well ask “Can I do this ‘in the name of the Lord Jesus’ whose reputation is at stake in the conduct of His known followers? Can I thank God the Father through Him for the opportunity of doing this thing?”” We can offer our thanks to God through Him because Christ has atoned for our sins, and now lives as our intermediary. Paul ends this section by pointing us back to the one and only, all-sufficient Saviour, Christ Jesus.


These are but a few short thoughts on a huge section of Scripture, I pray that they may spur you on to put these verses into practice. God bless, Taliah.

Humility and Humiliation

Many a time while reading the Word, God impresses upon me how contrary He is to the wisdom of the world (1 Corinthians 1:20) and my own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). One such passage that jumped out at me these past weeks talks about pride and humility. It seems to me that these words have taken on very different definitions in our present culture of individualism and self-love. Yet we need to refocus our perspectives, shed the old man for the new. Here is my thoughts and reflections on this verse.

And whosoever shall exalt himself shall beabased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. (Matthew 23:12)

Christ firstly speaks of the person who "shall exalt himself." The word exalt, Hupsoo, is related to the word altitude and has the idea of height. According to Strongs, to exalt is to lift up to the heights. The man or woman who lifts up themselves is filled with pride. They are guilty of self-exaltation. They promote themselves and promotes their own agenda. They are full of their own importance. Two prime examples from the Word are Satan and Nebuchadnezzar.

Lets take a quick look at the story of Satan's fall in Isaiah 14:12-15. Notice all the "I will’s"?

I will ascend into heaven… (vs.13)
I will exalt my throne… (vs.13)
I will sit also upon the mount… (vs.13)
I will ascend above the heights… (vs.14)
I will be like the most High."  (vs.14)

In his pride, he exalted himself. Only what he wanted was important. Nothing else mattered.

Another example is Nebuchadnezzar. He walks in his palace in Babylon and says, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" (Daniel 4:30). Again, his thoughts are totally filled with himself and his accomplishments.

These may be extreme examples, allowing us to remove ourselves from the picture saying, "I do not have that kind of pride; I know that all glory belongs to the Lord." In the New Testament letters Paul brings it home when describing his fellow labourers, "For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's" (Philippians 2:21). Thankfully, he does give Timothy as an exception so their is hope yet can we think ourselves 'naturally' better than the general rule of the apostolic age? If most of Paul's companions selfishly sought their own good above the cause of Jesus Christ, how can we think ourselves any better. Look at the greed, selfishness and pride of the modern church - We speak against others in order to exalt ourselves: we respond in anger when someone else is given an honor we think we should have received: we compare, criticize and contend with others who are also serving the Lord: we are quick to judge others yet glacially slow in judging ourselves. It is time to judge the pride in our own hearts.

In the next part of the this verse Jesus teaches us that the man who exalts himself will be abased. The word abase, Tapeinoo, comes from the root word, Tapeinos (commonly translated as base) meaning not rising far from the ground. To abase means to lower or bring down to the bottom. Colloquially we use the word humiliation. The second half of the verse will use the word humility but what's the difference?

Humility is self-abasement and it is primarily done before God. Humiliation is divine-abasement and it is done before all. One who is humiliated suffers what many Asian cultures refer to as losing face - a serious situation indeed. He is shamed before all.It is important to note that humiliation is a direct result of haughtiness. He is brought down to the ground because he lifted himself up. Other scriptures support this dichotomy:

Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath: and behold every one that is proud, and abase him. (Job 40:11)

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18)

God's wisdom is so different to that of the world's. If we exalt ourselves, God will bring us down. Self-promotion is not God’s way and those exalting themselves cannot accomplish His will. 

In the second contrasting section of this verse, Jesus talks about the man "that shall humble himself." Humility is found first of all in the way we think of ourselves and others. A humble man thinks of God and others first and himself last. He carries the burdens of others but he does not expect anyone else to carry his burden (Galatians 6:2,5). He expects not to be ministered unto, but to minister to others (Matthew 20:28) The man who humbles himself "shall be exalted". Self-exaltation comes before divine-abasement. But divine-exaltation is the result of self-abasement. This is further supported in other scriptural passages;

The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility. (Proverbs 15:33)

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. (James 4:10)

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time (1Peter 5:6)

What glory to be exalted by God! Why would you seek the glory and praise of man when you can have the eternal glory of God? What is a moment of glory in this world compared to the riches available in Christ? Biblical humility is the opposite of selfishness; it is selflessness. It is not a hatred or embarrassment of self, which are both still focused on self. It is a removing of self from conscious thought. It is a life so lost in pleasing God that there is no time and no need to please self. Pleasing God brings full satisfaction beyond anything this selfish world can offer. Christian humility is a losing of self in God and in others. God and His will is our focus. This is the servant’s heart. This is the disciple’s calling. 

"He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). 

Please pray with me that this may ever be so in our lives. 

I hope this has been of some encouragement to you and has wet your appetite to seek out God's Word for all that pertains unto life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).

Looking forward to our lovely blushing bride-to-be's post next week :)