Welcome to this Come to Jesus Daily Devotional and our summer inspiration series. Today, we consider the kinds of attributes that damage our relationships and that we need to ‘put to death’.
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‘Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.’ (Colossians 3:5-11)
What are we to put to death?
1. Put ungodly attitudes to sex to death
Firstly, we are told to put off things that damage our relationships sexually:
Our text speaks of five sinful approaches to relationships that we are to put to death:
i. immorality – ‘Fornication’ which is sex outside of Christian marriage.
ii. Impurity – To pollute your new life with sexual sin in act or thought.
iii. Lust – To allow yourself to become inflamed by sinful sexual desire.
iv. Evil desires – To be eager for what is against God’s will.
v. Greed (Covetousness) – To be greedy for what you don’t have, sexual sin in this case. This is the motive behind all of these sins listed.
2. Put ungodly speech to death
Secondly, we are are to put to death ways of using words that damage our relationships:
‘But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices..’ (Colossians 3:8-9)
i. Anger – This is anger that’s ongoing. It’s to hold on to the wrongs that we feel have been done to us.
ii. Rage – This is the outburst of rage. It’s to allow our actions to be controlled by our passions.
iii. Malice – To have an ongoing hatred or grudge against a particular person. It’s to want that person to suffer in some way, or certainly not to want blessing for them.
iv. Slander – This comes from the word ‘blasphemy’. It means to be slow to reveal God’s ways, but quick to speak of evil in our relationships. It’s to poorly represent Jesus in our speech.
v. Filthy language from your lips – This is the content of our speaking. No one would offer a glass of water mixed with one drop of sewage to a friend, so why would be offer speech that is not completely pure?
vi. Do not lie – Finally we are told not to lie to one another. Lying is not congruent with the ‘new self’ that we have put on. Of our new selves we are told, ‘which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.’ Falsehood and lying is not in keeping with the ‘image of our creator’ who speaks truth.
In response, Just as at Colossae, our relationships are severely damaged through ungodly and unwise attitudes to sex and a poor use of language. Our culture is saturated with sexual immorality. It’s in many songs, films, shows, advertisements and philosophies of life. The world without Jesus seeks to make sexual sin attractive, and if we allow ourselves to believe the message, we will develop ‘greed’ in this area.
Do you see that it’s the inner ‘greed’ that leads to external ‘sexual immorality.’ If we are not wise, we can feed the fire of illicit desire through what we think about and what we allow to entertain us. To break the power of sexual covetousness we need to, ‘set our minds on things above…’ (3:2) And, ‘Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature…’ (3:5).
Our world, ever more so with the advent of social media, is divided by a poor use of language. Anger, rage, malice, slander and filth seem to be the main features of the most popular content creators. Sex and hate sells!
Everyone has been involved in sexual and language sin in some way. We all need to ‘put it to death’! What steps do we need to take in order to pursue healthy relationships?
Community group notes and study
1. Notices
It might be good to begin with notices. Please share from this week’s Church News.
2. Icebreaker
How has God been speaking to you from His Word this week and how has this helped you?
3. Worship together
Let’s begin our time together by lifting our eyes and hearts to worship our great God. Perhaps you have readings and songs that you would like to use together. Let’s be open to the gifts that the Spirit wants to give in order to encourage one another.
4. Study and pray together
Our message on Sunday, Inspired from Psalm 76:4, reflected on what it means for God to be ‘radiant light’. The Bible often uses light to speak of the appearance and ways of God; God’s light draws our attention to His holy and good nature, and, secondly, light speaks of His good ways that cast darkness out of our lives. Our message can be summarised as: God’s light restores worship and holiness.
Please read Psalm 76:4
Did God speak to you about anything specifically from Sunday’s message?
What would you say are the main teaching points of this short section of Psalm 76?
Why does God sometimes show His light (His glory) in a visible form? (See Luke 9:28-31 for example)
What does God’s light and glory teach us about His nature?
What does God’s light and glory teach us about His will for us?
What does 1 John 1:5-6 teach about the fruit that must attend anyone’s profession of faith?
Prayer - It might be good to pray for one another regarding anything that has come out of this challenging study.
SIV - Why is the pursuit of worship and holiness vital for us to be a light to this world?
SIV - Do we have any stories of how we have ‘Served, Invested, and inVited’ recently?
SIV - Spend some time together talking and praying about who and how you are seeking to bring your community to Jesus.
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