- What Apostle Paul said about lust.
"Set your mind and keep focused habitually
on the things above, the heavenly things,
not on things that are on the earth,
which have only temporal value.
For you died to this world,
and your new real life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, appears,
then you also will appear with him in glory.
So put to death and deprive of power
the evil longings of your earthly body,
with its sensual self-centered instincts, immorality,
impurity, sinful passion, evil desire, and greed,
which is a kind of idolatry,
because it replaces your devotion to God.
Because of these sinful things,
the divine wrath of God
is coming on the sons of disobedience,
those who fail to listen
and who routinely and obstinate disregard God's precepts."
Colossians 3:2-6.
"Therefore put to death your members."
"Therefore" points back to our identification
with the risen and enthroned Lord Jesus.
Because we comprehend this reality,
we have the ability to put to death
the things in our lives
that conflict with our identity as followers of Jesus.
A popular Bible commentator said the verb "nekrosate",
meaning literally to make dead, is very strong.
It suggests that we are not simply to suppress
or control evil acts and attitudes,
and we are to wipe them out,
completely exterminate the old way of life.
"We put to death in the sense of denying these things,
and considering them dead to us and us dead to them.
To gratify any sensual appetite is to give it the very food
and nourishment by which it lives, thrives, and is active."
Clark.
There is importance in listing and naming these sins,
as Paul does in this section.
"It is far easier to drift into a sin
which one does not know by name,
than consciously to choose one
whose very title should be repugnant to a Christian."
Wright.
We then read these three terms.
"Fornication, uncleanness, passion and evil desire.
All of these manifestations refer to sexual transgressions.
A straightforward, yet sneaky form of greed,
covetousness is nothing less than an act of idolatry.
Covetousness can be extremely harmful
in several different ways, including the following.
First and foremost, it is idolatry in the sense
that it can only exist when a person thinks
of life consisting in things possessed,
rather than in righteous relationship to God.
It is also a sin against other people
because to fulfill the desire other people are wronged.
Finally, it is self-destructive
because these erroneous conceptions
and activities always react
upon the soul to bring about its own undoing.
Every godly man seeks his happiness in God.
The covets man seeks that in his money
which God alone can give.
Therefore, his covetousness is properly idolatry.
- None of the sins that are mentioned
are part of Jesus's way of life.
Instead, they're part of the way the world lives.
Every Christian is faced with a question.
Who will I identify with, the world or with Jesus?
The wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.
These sins invite the wrath of God.
Because the world treasures this kind of sinful lifestyle,
they don't come in humility to Jesus.
One sin is enough to send anyone to hell,
but there are levels of condemnation.
Matthew 23:14.
"Woe to you, scribes and pharisees,
hypocrites, because you swallow up widow's houses,
and to cover it up, you make long prayers,
therefore you will receive the greater condemnation."
James 2:10.
"For whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point,
he has become guilty of breaking all of it."
In part, the wrath of God comes
as God allows men to continue
in sinful and therefore self-destructive behavior.
Romans 1:24-32, Amplified Bible.
"Therefore, God gave them over
in the lust of their own hearts to sexual impurity,
so that their bodies would be dishonored among them
abandoning them to the degrading power of sin.
Because by choice, they exchange the truth of God for a lie,
and worship and served the creature,
rather than the creator who was blessed forever.
Amen.
and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,
or consider him worth knowing as their creator,
God gave them over
to a depraved mind to do things which are improper
and repulsive until they were filled, permeated, saturated,
with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil,
full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice
and mean spiritedness.
They are gossips, spreading rumors, slanderers,
haters of God, insolent, arrogant,
boastful, inventors of new forms of evil,
disobedient and disrespectful to parents,
without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving,
unmerciful, without pity.
Although they know God's righteous decree and his judgment,
that those who do such things deserve death,
yet they not only do them,
but they even enthusiastically approve
and tolerate others who practice them."
We read,
"In which you yourselves
once walked when you lived in them."
These sins may be a sign
that the world is currently rebelling against God,
but for Christians, they're in the past tense.
To put it more simply,
Christians should not live their lives
in the same manner as the sons of disobedience.
Sin is never a comfortable place to be
for a genuine follower of Christ.
Paul says that Christians once walked in these sins.
It is possible, though tragic,
that these sins should occasionally mark a Christian's life,
but they must not be a Christian's walk,
their manner of living.
When Jesus Christ entered Paul's life,
it ushered in a period of profound transformation.
When Christ comes into a person's life
he makes that person a new creation,
And Colossians chapter three walks us through
the profound changes that occur as a result.
Our personal hearts are radically affected.
Paul viewed new life in Christ as a life resurrected.
"Neither regulation nor reformation
can usurp the resurrection dynamic
required to explain the radical changes that Christ brings."
Given such a resurrection,
our call is to seek those things which are above.
Why? Because we were previously dead in sin,
we are now alive.
Our identity is in Him.
Christ has a profound impact on our moral habits.
Paul draws a parallel
between the radical transformation that occurs
in the life of a Christian,
and the transition from wearing rags to robes.
To begin, Christian's strip themselves of their filthy rags,
representing our former lives and moral behaviors.
Before we were rescued,
we were subjugated by our previous behaviors.
Putting an old way of life put to death,
means discarding it as if it were already dead.
Paul lists distinct vices we are to put to death.
These vices fit into two categories
and cover everyday life's broad scope.
Sinful actions, fornication, uncleanness, passion,
evil desire, covetousness, idolatry,
sinful attitudes, anger, wrath, malice,
blasphemy, filthy communication and lying.
Christians must never make these garments
part of their moral wardrobe.
Next, Christians put on the virtues of the new life.
The new clothes Christ provides are also listed
in two broad categories.
Heart of compassion,
which means mercy ruling the life of the believer.
Kindness, which means goodness of heart,
a sweet disposition,
seeing our neighbor's welfare is as important as our own.
Christ-like responses.
Humility, which means modest appraisal of self.
The focus is on giving up our rights for the sake of others.
Meekness, which means quiet, yet rock-solid strength.
Long suffering, which means ability to put up
with difficult people.
Forbearance, which means putting up
with things we find distasteful.
Forgiveness, means offering to others
what our Lord freely and graciously offers to us.
Love, which means the moral color
which saturates every other garment in the Christian closet.
When Christ enters our lives, all things become new.
God's peace is to rule in our heart.
Whatever the subject at hand
the Apostle Paul is ready to place Christ ahead of all.
For him to think of life is to think of Christ.
This included the matter of lust.
He said, "For to me to live is Christ.
He is my source of joy,
my reason to live, and to die is gain,
for I will be with him in eternity."
When Jesus Christ came into Paul's life,
radical changes took place.
Colossians chapter three walks us through
the radical changes Christ makes
when he enters a person's life,
making that person a new creation.
Colossians 3:2-5, Amplified Bible.
"Set your mind and keep focused habitually
on the things above, the heavenly things,
not on the things that are on the earth,
which have only temporal value.
For you died to this world,
and your new real life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ who is our life appears,
then you will also appear with him in glory,
so put to death and deprive of power
the evil longings of your earthly body,
with its sensual self-centered instincts,
immorality, impurity, sinful passion,
evil desire, and greed, which is a kind of idolatry,
because it replaces your devotion to God."
We read, "If then you were raised with Christ."
Paul begins a section in which he will focus
on practical Christian living,
with a clear understanding that practical Christian living
is built on the foundation of theological truth.
In other words, theological truth is the foundation
upon which practical Christian living is built.
Because we are confident
in the reality of Jesus's resurrection from the dead,
our identification with him becomes real.
It is only because we were raised with Christ
that we can seek those things which are above.
Paul uses the act of baptism
to illustrate the spiritual reality
of being raised with Christ in Colossians 2:12,
where the concept of being raised with Christ
is first presented.
"Now that we have been brought up in the Christian faith,
we should behave in a certain way,
because it is fitting for us."
We read the phrase, "Set your mind on things above."
The best Christian living
comes from minds that are fixed on heaven.
They realize that their lives are now hidden
with Christ and God.
And since Jesus is enthroned in Heaven,
their thoughts and hearts are connected to Heaven also.
The believer is to seek the things above.
The word "Seek" marks aspiration, desire, and passion.
"In order to seek these things,
the mind must be set on them."
Morgan.
"Love heavenly things, study them.
Let your hearts be entirely engrossed by them.
Now that you are converted to God,
act in reference to heavenly things,
as he did formally in reference to those of earth."
Clark.
Earthly things are not all evil, but some of them are.
"Even things harmless in themselves become harmful,
if permitted to take the place that should be reserved
for the things above."
Vaughn.
The battle begins in the mind.
Paul argues that since we have a new position,
we need to get a new perspective.
Permanent change and improvement always happen
from the inside out.
Consider Paul's prescription for self-discipline.
Number one, remember your identity.
We must focus first on our position in Christ.
It all starts there.
Number two, renew your thought life.
We must focus our minds on things above.
We must raise new internal standards.
Number three, recognize your old life is dead.
Change doesn't happen
if we maintain any way to return to old patterns.
Number four, release past habits.
We must put off the old
like taking off a worn out set of clothes.
Number five, replace them with new ones.
We get rid of old habits
only when we substitute new habits for them.