Colossians – Shema 6

Engage

Passage: Colossians 3:1-11

The New life in Christ v1

• Seek the things above v1
  • set your hearts on things above where Christ is
• Think on the things above v2
  • Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things 

• Put to death earthly nature v5&7
  • Idolatry 
    • sexual immorality
    • impurity
    • lust
    • evil desires
    • greed
  • These anger God v6

• Put away v8&9
  • Pride
    • anger
    • rage
    • malice
    • slander
    • filthy language
    • lying 

• Put off v9
  • Old self
• Put on v10
  • New self
    • being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator

• Unity v11
  • Christ is all and in all

Person Discipleship Activity (PDA) / Relationship Builder (RB)

Put to death….[…] Rid yourselves…

Time to Shema …   

But how?  Where do I start …?!  2 suggestions:

1. Face Hard Facts

• When you read verses 5-9, which elements make you feel most uncomfortable when you look at your own life.
• Martin Luther once commented, “All of life is repentance.” 

Confess to God the things you know are wrong in yourself and ask for His help in turning your back on them. 

• Remind yourself of some facts about God:

1 John 1:8-9 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Psalm 103:13-14 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.

2. Recognise the Sin behind the sins.

Some 19th-century wisdom from Andrew Murray:

“Let [the disciple] consider how all want of love, all indifference to the needs, the feelings, the weakness of others; all sharp and hasty judgments and utterances, so often excused under the plea of being outright and honest; all manifestations of temper and touchiness and irritation; all feelings of bitterness and estrangement, have their root in nothing but pride, that ever seeks itself, and his eyes will be opened to see how a dark, shall I not say a devilish pride, creeps in almost everywhere, the assemblies of the saints not excepted. Let him begin to ask what would be the effect, if in himself and around him, if towards fellow-saints and the world, believers were really permanently guided by the humility of Jesus; and let him say if the cry of our whole heart, night and day, ought not to be, O for the humility of Jesus in myself and all around me!” Andrew Murray, Humility (1892),  ch 2

“Pride is the cancer of the spiritual life.” CSL

An effective way of dealing with our pride (and all the anti-God characteristics that proceed from it e.g. ) may well be by aiming for its opposite – humility.

Ask the Spirit to move you on from Col 3:5-9 and aim to co-operate with His work in you by engaging in some of these humility-building, pride-busting activities this week.

💡Take the lead from Jesus and deliberately perform some task that is beneath your dignity. (Jn 13)

💡Do some anonymous good deed in the name of Christ – BUT KEEP IT ANONYMOUS and don’t replay the action in your own mind! Matt.6.3

💡Watch out this week for an opportunity to set aside your own preference and do what someone else would prefer. Or step back and let someone go in front of you in a queue?