Slaves = Employees?

This week we will study Colossians 3:17 - 4:1, a passage dealing with various relationships. One critical question we must decide: is it legitimate to see a parallel between masters-slaves and employers-employees?

We’ll discuss that this week.

Anxiety and the Fight for Faith

To cap off our three week discussion on how to put off the dirty garments of sin and put on the pure garments of grace, I offered the following strategy, by way of example, that I use to fight against anxiety and for faith in my life.

Here are a list of truths I bring to mind with some select verse references:

Meditate on the bigness of God, who is capable of solving any problem.
-Psalm 66:5
-Jeremiah. 32:27
-Psalm 116:7

Think about how God brought about this problem on your behalf in order to do good to you, to challenge you to trust him, and to conform you into the image of his Son.
-Romans 8:28, 32
-Psalm 118:4-9

Meditate on how God loves to give you grace when you need it and how he loves to offer himself to you as refuge and help because it displays his worth and sufficiency.
-Lamentations 3:22-23
-Psalm 62:8

Lean on him, trusting not in your own understanding, and in prayer, cast your anxieties on him, acknowledging your sinfulness, insufficiency, and pride for trying to take on anxieties in your own strength. Ask to be nearer to him, strengthened, steadfast. Ask that he would show himself to be mighty and that he would take your anxieties away.
-Proverbs 3:5-6
-1 Peter 5:6-7
-Isaiah 41:10; 43:1-2

Know that your anxiety may be a long-term struggle. It is part of the corruption brought about by the fall of Adam. Let it cause you to hate sin in your life all the more. Long for the day the new Adam, Jesus Christ, will come to take you to an eternal dwelling where there is no sin and no anxiety. Realize that God might not take away your anxiety and that it may remain with you. It is your ally, if it humbles you, causes you to be more prayerful, and brings about Christ-likeness in you. So, thank God for this thorn and turn this enemy into your help-mate in glorifying God.
-Psalm 28:7

If you struggle and continually fall short, it proves that you are a good candidate for more grace.
-1 Corinthians 15:10
-Psalm 42:5

The Meaning of Spirit-Filled

Why is “being filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18) the same as “letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col. 3:16)?

We will see why this coming week (July 8) as we complete “Put on the New Self” (Colossians 3:9-17)

Get Dressed

This week we take a look at the second half of the “getting dressed” word picture in Colossians 3:5-16. Previously, we talked about stripping away sin (”put to death therefore what is earthly in you”). This week we start a two-week series on “putting on” the new self.

Even so, I’m still trying to come around last week’s passage (Col. 3:5-9) and find challenging the following quote by Stephen Charnock (read during class last week):

All sin is founded in a secret atheism. . . All the wicked inclinations in the heart. . . are sparks from this latent fire; the language of everyone of these is, “I would be a Lord to myself, and would not have a God superior to me.” In sins of omission we own not God, in neglecting to perform what he enjoins; in sins of commission we set up some lust in the place of God, and pay to that the homage which is due to our Maker. . . We deny his sovereignty when we violate his laws. . . Every sin invades the rights of God, and strips him of one or other of his perfections. . . Every sin is a kind of cursing God in the heart; an aim at the destruction of the being of God; not actually, but virtually. . . A man in every sin aims to set up his own will as his rule, and his own glory as the end of his actions against the will and glory of God. (The Existence and Attributes of God [reprint, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979], 1:93-94) Stephen Charnock (Puritan)

Self-flagellation Won’t Work. What Will?

“Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” (John Owens)

But don’t do it this way (*caution* see below). It won’t work.

This may have “an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but [it is] of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” -Col 2:23

So how do you stop the indulgence of the flesh?

We begin our answer to that question this week and, Lord willing, the following two weeks as we work through Colossians 3:5-17 verse-by-verse. Actually, we began the answer last week in 3:1-4 as we explored the connection between setting our hearts and minds on things above and fighting sin. More to come in class. . .

*Link goes to Alpha & Omega Ministries. Caution: link contains images that contain blood from a Muslim ritual.

Slaying and Stripping

We are talking about slaying and stripping out sin in our lives this week as we study Colossians 3:5-9. Here’s a good devotional article from Enjoying God Ministries to get you primed.

How to Think on Heaven

From Richard Baxter’s book below, he offers 10 helps in thinking on heaven:

1. Be convinced that heaven is the only treasure and happiness;
2. Labor to know your interest in it;
3. And how near it is;
4. Frequently and seriously talk of it;
5. Endeavor, in every duty, to raise your affections nearer to it;
6. To the same purpose improve every object and event;
7. Be much in the angelical work of praise;
8. Possess yoursouls with believing thoughts of the infinite love of God;
9. Carefully observe and cherish the motions of the Spirit of God;
10. Nor ever neglect the due care of your bodily health.

Set your Minds on Things Above

We are talking about heaven this week as we study Colossians 3:1-4. I’ll mention in class the book by 17th century pastor Richard Baxter called “The Saints’ Everlasting Rest”. You can download the book here (view online without registration; but must register to download).

It is also available at various bookstores:

I’ve been told that Randy Alcorn’s book on Heaven is excellent as well.