Dr. Ron Sumners
June 26, 2011
When a man becomes a Christian, there ought to be a complete change in his personality. He puts off his old self, and puts on a new self, just as the candidate for baptism takes off his old clothes and puts on a new white robe. We often evade the truth on which the New Testament insists, the truth that a Christian, who does not change, is an imperfect believer. This change is a progressive change. The new creation is a continual renewal that takes place for a lifetime as we grow into the image of Jesus Christ. Christianity is not really Christianity unless it recreates a man into what he was meant to be!
One of the great effects of Christianity is that it destroys the barriers that divide. In Christianity there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian nor Scythian, slave nor free.
The ancient world was full of barriers. The Greek looked down on the barbarian; and to the Greek, any man who did not speak Greek was a barbarian! The word "barbarian" literally means, "One who says bar-bar !" To the Greek, any language other than Greek was gibberish. It sounded like "bar-bar" to them. The Greek was the aristocrat of the ancient world and he knew it.
The Jew looked down on everyone who wasn't a -Jew. They were God's chosen people and to their mind there were only two classes of people in the world: Jews, the sons of Abraham, the chosen of God and the gentiles, who were lost with no hope.
All other nations were simply fuel for the fires of hell. The Scythian was notorious as the lowest of the barbarians. The Greeks considered them worse than barbarians. Josephus, the historian, said they were just short of being wild beasts. They were savages and terrorized the ancient East with horrible atrocities. The Assyrians and Syrians were considered Scythians.
The slave was not even classified as a human being in the ancient world. He was the property of the owner. The slave was merely a living tool, with no rights of his own at all. His master could beat him, work him and even kill him at his whim with no retribution. The slave did not even have the right of marriage. There could be no fellowship in the ancient world between a slave and a free man.
In Christ, all these barriers were broken down. J.B. Lightfoot reminds us that one of the greatest tributes paid to Christianity was paid by a linguist. Max Muller was one of the great science of languages. In the ancient world, no one was interested in foreign languages, apart from Greek.
There was no learning and no studying of foreign languages. The Greeks were the scholars, and they never would have stooped to use a foreign language. The science of language is a new science, and the desire to speak another language is a new desire. It did not exist in the ancient world. Max Mueller wrote, "Not until that word barbarian was struck from the dictionary of mankind, and replaced by brother not until the right of all nations of the world to be classed as one class, did the science of language begin. This change was effected by Christianity!" It was Christianity that drew men together to the place that they desired to know each other's language.
There is a lot of discussion in our country about language. We have multiple millions of Hispanics and other nationalities in the United States. Should we expect that they learn English? That is not the subject of our talk today and I am not even sure what I think about that. I do know that if you care about people, you will desire to know their language. We might expect the Hispanic to learn English, but should we not also attempt to learn enough Spanish to communicate the Gospel to them!
T.K. Abbott points out how this passage shows the barriers that the Christian Faith destroyed.
First, it destroyed the barriers which come from birth and nationality. Different nations, who either despised or hated each other, were all drawn into one family of the Church. Nations which would have attacked each other in territorial conflicts sat in peace beside each other at the Table of the Lord!
Second, it destroyed the barriers which come from ceremony and ritual. Circumcised and uncircumcised were all drawn together in one fellowship. While a Jew remained a Jew, to him any man of any other nation was unclean. When he became a Christian, every man of every nation became his brother. Paul is the perfect example of this fact.
Third, it destroyed the barriers between the cultured and the uncultured. The Scythian was the ignorant barbarian of the ancient world: the Greek was the aristocrat of learning. They came together in the Christian Church. The greatest scholar in the world and the simplest dirt farmer could sit in perfect fellowship in the church.
Fourth, it destroyed the barrier between the classes. The slave and the free man could come together in the church. A slave could even be a leader in the early church. Onesimus, a fellow worker with Paul, was a run-a-way slave. In the presence of Jesus Christ, the social distinctions of the world become irrelevant!
Paul moves on to give his list of graces with which the Colossians must clothe themselves.
Before we begin to look at that list we need to note two very important things.
First, Paul begins by addressing the Colossians as chosen of God, dedicated and beloved. The significant thing is that every one of these three originally belonged to the Jews. They were the chosen people; they were the holy, dedicated nation. They were the beloved of God. Paul takes these precious words which had been the sole possession of Israel and gives them to the Gentiles. He shows that the love and grace of God have gone to the ends of the earth, and that there is no favored nation. The Kingdom of God now exists in the hearts of those who have chosen Jesus Christ.
Second, it is interesting to note that all of the graces listed here have to do with relationships between man and man. There is no mention of virtues like efficiency, cleverness, diligence and industry. It is not that these things are not important, but the goal of Christianity has to do with relationships! Christianity is community. It is relationship with God and fellowship with our fellow man.
Paul begins with a heart of pity. If there was one thing that the ancient world needed; it was mercy. The sufferings· of anima ls were nothing in the ancient world. There was no provision for the aged. The maimed and wounded were simply left to die. The treatment of the mentally challenged and physically handicapped was inhumane. Christianity brought, and is still bringing into the world; mercy! It is safe to say that everything that has been done to better the treatment of the aged, sick, weak, the mentally incompetent, the animal, small children and women have been done under the inspiration of the Christian Faith.
The Christian is to put on kindness. The ancient writers defined kindness as the virtue of the man whose neighbor's good is as dear to him as his own. Josephus used it as a description of Isaac, the man who dug wells and gave them to others, because he would not fight with them over water rights. (Genesis 26:17-25). It is used of wine which has grown mellow with age, and which has lost its harshness. It is the word that is used of the yoke of Jesus, when He said, "My yoke is easy and my burden light." (Matthew 11:39) Goodness by itself can be stern and rigid; but kindness is the goodness that Jesus used with the sinning woman at His feet. (Luke 7: 37-50) The Christian is marked by a goodness which is a kindly thing.
There is humility . It has been said that humility was a virtue created and introduced by Christianity. It has been remarked that in Classical Greek there is no word for humility. The Greek felt he had nothing to be humble about!
Christian humility is based on two things. First, on the divine side, it is based on the ever present awareness of the creatureliness of humanity. God is the Creator; man is the creation; and in the presence of the Creator the creation cannot feel anything but humility. Second, on the human side, it is based on the belief that all men are potentially the sons of God; and there is no room for arrogance when we are living among men and women, who are all in the royal linage.
There is gentleness. Long ago Aristotle had defined this term as the happy medium between too much and too little anger. The man who has gentleness is the man who is self-controlled, because he is God-controlled, that he is always angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time. He has, at one and the same time, the strength and the sweetness of true gentleness.
There is patience. This is the spirit that never loses patience with its fellow man. Their foolishness and their unteachable natures never drive patience to cynicism or despair; their insults and their ill treatment never drive it to bitterness or wrath. Human patience is a reflection of the divine patience of God that bears our sinfulness and never casts us off. With the patience of the father of the Prodigal Son, He waits for us.
There is also forbearance and the forgiving spirit. The Christian forbears and forgives. He does so because he understands the longsuffering and forgiveness of God concerning his sin! If God forgives us, we must also forgive one another.
To be a true follower of Jesus; we must take off the old clothes of self-will and disobedience and put on the virtues of the Gospel!
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