ThinkOnIt...A Call to Godly Living

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Colossians 3:12-15 NKJV

This verse is chalked full of godly living, isn’t it. Thankfully, we don’t have to try to live this way on our power. Can you imagine how exhausting it would be to do all these things by our own effort? Christ, who not only forgave us, gave us eternal life with the Father, but also gave to us His Holy Spirit to bring about this kind of living from within us.

Look at the first verse. Paul starts out by building up the Colossian’s confidence with say “the elect of God” and “holy and beloved”. That’s where we need to start too. It’s all about what God’s done, not was we’ve done. God has chosen us. Jesus confirmed this in John 15:16 when He said “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” He has adopted us into His family according to Ephesians 1:5 “having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself”. Also in Ephesians 1:4-6 it is written that we are to be holy and blameless before Him and accepted in the Beloved.

Next we see Paul using that action phrase again “put on”. All of these things mentioned here are to be put on, much like we’d put on a piece of clothing. First you decide what you want to wear and then you put it on. That’s what we do with these. We decide we will walk by the Spirit and we consciously decide to offer tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other. This is not something that happens overnight, but it is in the process of putting these on, that we grow in Christ’s character every day.

Above all these things, we are asked to put on love, which is the bond of perfection. God is love. 1 John 4:18 tells us “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” With God there is no torment, only perfect love. His love endures forever. The more we grasp God’s love, the more we display God’s love in our lives.

Paul continues with “let the peace of God rule in your heart”. Have you experienced the peace of God in your life? I have from time to time. It’s a most wonderful peacefulness, calmness, serenity and almost unexplainable event. For me I have yet to learn how to maintain that peace. It’s comes and goes, but that’s only an indicator for me that my focus is constantly shifting from God to other things. When my focus is on other things, the peace slips away. Philippians 4:6-8 teaches us to “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Let us be thankful and remember we are all one body. We were made to need each other. Therefore, let us not forsake meeting together as Hebrews 10:24-25 tell us: “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”