Have you noticed that people have a hard time getting along with one another? From squabbling over who’s foot is on whose side of the bed to quarreling over the checkbook, who left the water running, shoving and pushing, yelling and screaming, throwing things, kicking, smashing, hurting, and even killing. You see it in the grocery line, on the highway, in homes, on the baseball diamond. We do some pretty dumb things in our anger. Like punch holes in walls. I remember seeing a coach throw a whole barrel of bats and balls out onto the field. Bobby Knight threw chairs in his anger. Christian homes aren’t immune. Anger and bitterness lead to arguments and slander and divorces.
God has answers for your out-of-control reactions in Colossians 3. Verses 1-4 assure you, Christ is your life – keep seeking Him. Last week we looked at those sins of lust in vss. 5-7. This week God has something to say about how you react to others. When Adam sinned, he immediately had trouble in three relationships – with God, others, and himself. He ran, hid, covered, and blamed his brand new wife. “It’s that woman you gave me!” Shortly after this first couple had children, one angry brother killed the other. Before you know it the whole earth is filled with violence, and God sends a flood in judgment. Praise God, Jesus Christ came to not only bring peace between God and man, but to bring peace between His people. Last week God told us to be killing immoral sins. This week He commands us to…
PUT OFF THESE STINKY HABITS
Colossians 3:8-9 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,
I’m calling these stinky habits. When Jacob’s sons took revenge in their rage against the Shechemites, he said they made him “stink” in the eyes of the surrounding people (Genesis 34:30, KJV).
Before we look at six attitudes that make us stink before God and others, Paul introduces these sins with “but now,” contrasted to your life before. And he puts the responsibility on “You yourselves!” You are responsible for this. God will enable you by His Spirit and power, but God won’t do this for you. What’s the command? “Put them all aside.” Strip these nasty sin habits like you’d strip off your clothes after being sprayed by a skunk or you fell into a pile of cow manure. They are stinky habits that need to go.
Notice the word “all.” There isn’t room for allowing even one! God didn’t say, “Put off some of these.” No, God calls us to His standard of holiness even though He knows we’ll fall. Never try to wriggle out of any of these with, “That’s just the way I am” or “My dad had a temper too.” “I can’t help it.” Don’t blame others for your reactions: “She made me so angry!” No she didn’t. No one makes you get angry. You choose to be angry, especially with those closest to you or when you are in a place where you aren’t concerned about our reputation or image. This is proven by the famous phone call. Mom has just about lost it with yelling and screaming at the kids running wild, when suddenly her phone rings. As she answers, she instantly transforms into the nicest lady in town, “Hello. Oh yes, I‘m just fine!”
Here is the key to putting off stinky, sinful habits like anger. Rather than excusing or defending your reactions, admit your sinful anger and realize the transforming power of Jesus Christ. This is God’s renewal process. Put off these sin habits by being renewed in your mind at the center of your being. You may have had this sinful habit in your old life, but you don’t have to continue this way. Verses 12 and following will give us godly habits to put on. But first, let’s consider these stinky reactions in verses 8-9.
1. Anger is that inner, seething reaction when we don’t get what we want, or get what we don’t want. It can go from slight irritation to a smoldering resentment and long lasting bitterness. Someone said something, it hurt your feelings, cut you off, and you resent it. Sinful anger is really wounded pride. Do you resent anyone correcting? James 1:19-20 says, “Be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. The sinful, selfish anger of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.” And Ephesians 4:26 says “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger.” If you reacted with anger toward someone, confess it to God as sin and then go to the person and ask forgiveness.
2. Wrath is explosive anger often expressed with words, sometimes with physical violence. It is the unleashing of that seething anger in our hearts. The justice system talks about sudden heat, when anger is stirred to the point of irrational violence. Some people excuse their wrath with, “I blow up but get over it quickly.” That’s exactly what happened over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. That atomic bomb exploded in moments, but the destruction was horrendous. Wrathful explosions can be quickly over, but what a wake of devastation they can leave in their path. Vulnerable children run for cover from an angry mom or dad. We knew a man who was so prone to wrath everyone had to walk around on egg shells in fear they’d set him off. Are you this kind of person? Are people afraid to say something to you for fear you’ll go off?
3. Malice is that inner hatred that wishes evil would come to others. Malicious people refuse to forgive someone who offended them. Titus 3:3 describes malice as “hateful and hating one another.” “I can’t stand that person.” “I’ll never forgive him for what he did to me.” God has an answer for malice in Matthew 5:44, “Pray for your enemies, bless those who mistreat you!”
4. Slander is malice attacking other people’s character. Husbands and wives can engage in this, especially as they have become selfish and failed to nurture their relationship. They cut down their spouse with all kinds of cutting, sarcastic, and snarky words. This also happens every day in the public arena. It is glaringly obvious today. Malicious slander doesn’t care if the charge is true or not. James 3:6 says the tongue is little but destructive, full of deadly poison, set on fire by hell itself. God says slander stinks and needs to be ripped out of your heart.
5. Abusive speech out of your mouth. It may be dirty, shameful speech or attacking speech. The Amplified Version calls it “foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances.” That captures it well. It certainly includes any dirty, immoral talk. Notice “out of your mouth.” You can have control over what you say. The main battlefield is in our hearts and our thoughts. But even if you’ve lost it on the battlefield of your thoughts, make sure to keep it from flying out of your mouth. That tongue can quickly turn into a deadly sword.
We all need to memorize Ephesians 4:29, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Unwholesome is the Greek word sapros – rotten, stinky, garbage words. God gave us tongues to praise Him and build up others, not tear them down. Psalm 141:3, “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.” Christ is Lord over your mouth, tongue, and your heart. Honor Him with your words.
6. Lying to one another. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “Lying is the most prominent and the most common characteristic of the life of sin.” We lie outright, or just cloud the truth. We try to make people think we’re more than we are or we know more than we do. We deny when we are really guilty. Some people are so habituated to lie, they don’t realize when they are lying. Psalm 58:3 says it starts right there in the delivery room. We speak lies from the womb. Children need to be trained to tell the truth. Teach them that it takes only one lie to cause others to mistrust them and then not believe them when they do tell the truth. Teach them it is wrong to cheat. They cannot be allowed to cheat just to win the game. Original sin was birthed by a lie: “You certainly shall not die” (Genesis 3:4). Satan thrives on lies. He is the great deceiver. God says we who belong to Christ must be committed to telling the truth.
GOD’S PROCESS OF SPIRITUAL RENEWAL
Col 3:9-11 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him– 11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.
Paul’s main point here is that in and through Christ we can get the victory over immoral or selfish sins like anger and wrath. The old self (man) you laid aside is who you were before you came to Christ. It’s your old unregenerate man in Adam. That’s who you were, where you lived, and how you practiced. When you came to Christ through the cross, you became a new man, a new creation in Christ.
“But if I’m a new man in Christ, why am I still struggling with these immoral or reacting sins?” That old man left his influence in your life, known as the flesh and your body. Romans 8:23 says your body is not yet redeemed. So you’re a new man with an old body and the fleshly desires of that body are still alive and kicking. That’s what Paul means in Romans 7 when he says, “In my inner man I love the law of God, but there’s that law of sin in my members that keeps trying to mess up my life for God.” He ends Romans 4 with, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Christ!” So as a new man in Christ, keep stripping off any old man nasty, stinky reactions. They grieve the Spirit of God within you.
The renewal principle
So how does this renewal process work? You can’t renew your own heart. That is God’s work. God is at work in you to will and do of His good pleasure. But it is also your work at the same time. You are to aggressively work by prayerfully applying the Word to your life as God exposes your filthy moral sins and stinky sinful reactions to others. Notice three important issues in verses 10-11.
1. “Being renewed” This inner renewal is a continual process until you get to heaven. Romans 12:2 says you are to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You don’t naturally think right. Your thinking is like a warped arrow; it never hits God’s target. Your mind needs to be renewed by the Word and the Spirit. Ephesians 4:23 describes the exact same thing, “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”
Be renewed where? In the spirit of your mind. It is in your motivations and determinations that God is at work in His people. Do you realize that? God is at work in your mind right now! He is calling you to mind renewal, to think His way. How do you do that?
2. “Being renewed to a true knowledge.” You are being renewed through the true and effective knowledge (epignosis) of Christ. John 8:31-32, “If you continue in My Word…you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” There is no spiritual growth apart from the knowledge of God through His Word. That’s why 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says all the Bible is given to thoroughly prepare us to serve Him! That’s why we study the Word! Not just to fill our empty heads with Bible stories about far away and long ago, but to learn how it applies to you and me right here, now, and on Monday mornings as you sit in on that meeting, and as you work through some family issues in the evening, and when someone says something that really hurts your feelings.
Being renewed to a true knowledge means you spend time with Him, praying to Him, meditating on His Word, pondering how to apply His truth to your life. You aren’t just conforming to rules; you’re being transformed by the power of God in your heart. You want to grow in knowing Him and obeying His Word. You want to throw off the stinky words and attitudes and replace them with that beautiful fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control!
3. “According to the image of the One who created him.”
Romans 8:29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
You are being renewed toward an incredible standard of the image of Christ. This is the very goal of your life. Remember, you were born in Adam’s fallen image. But now you’ve been created anew in Christ; you have put on Christ. God planned from eternity past to make His Son the head of a race of chosen people whom He would save and then renew to become just like His Son for all eternity.
Christ is for all kinds of people, and indwells all His people
But who qualifies for this glorious life, this amazing future face to face with Christ, transformed into His image or likeness? It doesn’t matter what your human status is – vs. 11. Whether you are a sophisticated Roman or Greek or Jew or a crude barbarian or even worse, a Scythian does not matter. Who you are humanly isn’t the issue. Christ breaks through all these ethnic and social barriers. He is able to take the lowest of humanity, save them, and begin this great process of renewing them to the image of Christ. This was one of the amazing things about the early church. Slaves and masters sat side by side worshiping Christ together. In one case in the third century a free lady named Perpetua and her slave Felicity died together for their faith in Christ, refusing to deny Him to escape martyrdom.
John Paton saw God save cannibals and make them godly Christians. David Brainerd saw God save savage Indians and turn them into praying Indians in the forests of eastern Pennsylvania. David Livingstone saw God save souls in darkest Africa. Elizabeth Elliott saw God save her husband’s murderers among the Auca Indian tribe. This is the story of Christ for all kinds of people.
And you and I have seen God save and transform us, turning us from self-worshippers into worshippers of Jesus Christ. We’re still in His renewal process, stinky reactions still slip out, but glorification is coming. Right now our goal every day is to please Him and become more like Christ. Has He saved you? Is God transforming you from the inside out? Have you repented of going your own way? Have you put your faith and trust in Christ who died and rose again for sinners like us?