Read Colossians 3:18-25
If I can just pay off this one bill…
If I can just make it through my senior year…
If I can just get through work today…
If I can just lose 10 more pounds…
If I can just get a better phone…
If I can just make it to retirement…
How many times have we been in the “if only I can” mode of thinking. I’m not talking about the desperation “if only I can’s.” You know, if only I can make it to the next exit and there is a gas station with a restroom.
I am talking about the mindset that says, “I can’t really start living until this thing—whatever it is—is done or arrives or is over.” Something is intervening as far as me living to the full goes. I can’t wait until I can really live.
I don’t need some first things first poster. I don’t need a better day planner when I have more ball games than kids in more locations that I can physically be, and be only one person.
I don’t need career counseling when I get called into work unexpectedly three times this week and it looks like next week is go on—stay on, on into the next week.
I don’t need the flavor of the month get your life together program to reorganize my most recently reorganized disorganization.
I just need to get through all of these things that consume my life so that I can really live. Anyone ever been in that boat? I just have to get through this, and the next this, and the next…
What if I told you I can’t find that part in the Bible. What if I told you the Bible said something else. What if I told you that God’s plan for you included you to live, work, and play as if you were doing it all for him.
What if that one more bill that you need to pay off before you can get to living was something that you could do for the Lord. What if you could work at it together.
What if making it through your senior year was walking with the Lord more than you ever had before and you lived your senior year like never before. Maybe it’s your junior year or your fifth-grade year or a year in college or tech school, do it as if the Lord had the same schedule as you.
What if getting through work today was working as if you were working directly for the Lord, not for that knucklehead who is your boss. This includes the self-employed.
What if your weight loss or health regimen was not something you did to hit a magic number but you did it to take care of the temple that God gave you. What if you got a little Levitical about it.
What if you did the best you could with the phone you have until the Lord’s Spirit affirmed, it’s time to get a new one.
What if instead of waiting until retirement to live, you started living now and retirement became only a word attached to you job and not your life.
What if we traded our frustration for forgiveness.
What if we kicked our anger to the curb and replaced it with love.
What if we replaced the foul words in our lexicon with words more descriptive but less vulgar.
What if we traded living by the patterns of the world for living with the mind of Christ.
What if, everything became about living for the Lord. Sometimes we affirm, “It’s not all about me,” but we do it in our best Eeyore voice. What if we turned those words around and said, “It’s all about God!” and did it with the enthusiasm that we support the Sooners of the Cowboys.
What if we really made it all about God? Make what about God?
The diaper change, the dentist appointment, the grocery shopping, going back for the one thing we went for and didn’t get, the heat of the day, the cool of the evening, the ball games, the snacks for the team, the hip replacement, rotating the tires, weed eating the sidewalk, loading cattle, the sunrise and the sunset, the thunderstorm, and summer reruns—what if these were all about God.
What if we never went through the motions or operated solely out of human motivation in anything.
What if God was in the big picture and in the minuteness of every detail of our lives. What if nothing was ever ordinary. What if everything became a holy thing!
Paul is writing about a wholesale exchange of one way of life for another. The old died with Christ. The new lives with him in everything.
Old ways were of the world. New ways as a new creation are of God, rooted in love, seeking his approval in all things.
God’s peace rules in our hearts. Think about what Jesus said about our hearts and our treasure. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. What if one of our greatest treasures is God’s peace.
It is a peace that goes beyond our understanding. It is a peace that can grant us rest in the middle of the world’s turmoil. How can I rest in the midst of turmoil? Don’t let turmoil into your heart. Love and peace govern there.
Consider these words once again.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
What are the verbs here? Clothe, bear with, forgive, put on are the action words. Salvation is a gift all from God. Discipleship comes with verbs.
Dress with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. We need to understand that when we profess Jesus is Lord and we are saved, compassion doesn’t always come instantly. As disciples, we must take action.
Be patient with each other.
Forgive—that’s a verb that should count as a hundred simple verbs. Forgive as Christ forgave us.
Put on love. Understand that love is a powerful verb all by itself, but to put on love means that we have to break away from who we used to be and take action to be this person that God has called us to be. Love is the binding agent for everything we are and everything we do.
These are action words for us. They are a key part of our discipleship. They help us live out our salvation.
Salvation is all from God. Discipleship is walking with God and learning his ways. This is typically not debilitating work. Jesus said that his yoke was easy and his burden was light. Take his yoke and learn from him. There is action in our learning.
Husbands, wives, children, parents, even slaves are told to do everything they do not for human favor but to please the Lord. We live in reverence for the Lord. We work at whatever we do as if we are working for the Lord not for human masters or favor or status.
We belong to the Lord. We are his. Our identity is completely in the Christ. I think I might have noted once or twice that I was stubborn about this.
We are known by this identity—that we belong to the Christ. Christ is all and he is in all.
In all that we are now—a new creation, people belonging completely to the Christ, Spirit-filled people—we give thanks to God the Father.
But there is a catch…
Are we to trust in the Lord? No! We are to trust in the Lord with all our hearts. There is no half-measure or partial trust. It’s an all or nothing sort of deal when it comes to trust, especially with God. You trust him, or you don’t. Well, I sort of trust him…
Are we to love the Lord our God? No! We are to Love the Lord, our God, with all of our heart and mind and soul and strength. It’s an everything that we are sort of commitment.
Are we to put on God’s armor? No! We are to put on the full armor of God!
God does want half-hearted, lukewarm commitments. We are not known by our Christian tee shirts and membership cards. We are known by our love. It is not a casual love. It is an unconditional love.
As you go into your week, consider memorizing and bringing this verse to your heart and mind and across your lips for the days to come.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
It is the Lord Christ whom we serve!
Let’s not wait on anything before we live. Let’s live this life with God and for God and seeking God’s approval in all that we do.
It is the Lord Christ whom we serve!
Amen.
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