Colossians 3:1-14
Today’s reading from Colossians is all about becoming real. As citizens of the Kingdom of God, we live a new life in the fullness of Christ and today’s message is a very practical look at what behaviours we display in our lives that show this reality.
There is a quite famous old English Christmas story that I read when I was very young, called The Velveteen Rabbit.
Some of you will almost certainly know it, and I have mentioned it before but in a whole different context – that of being real with ourselves - and relating to a different passage of scripture.
It was written by Margery Williams, and it speaks to what God would have us know of life in his Kingdom.
It’s a story about a conversation between a toy rabbit and a toy horse. Rabbit asks the toy horse, ‘Mr Horse, what does it mean to be real. Wise Mr Horse replies, “real isn’t how you are made.
‘It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become real.’
Rabbit looked at Mr Horse and said, ‘Does it hurt to become real? Sometimes’, said Mr Horse. ‘But when you’re real, you don’t mind being hurt. It doesn’t happen all at once. You just sort of become real.’
‘It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or must be carefully kept safe and wrapped up.’
Mr. Horse goes on; ‘Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby.
‘But these things don’t matter at all, because once you’re real, you can’t be ugly except to people who don’t understand.’
So let’s talk about becoming real with each other. It’s as similar a process for you and me as it was for the toy horse.
As Christians, we are in the process of becoming real. To paraphrase Paul in v.10; ‘we are the brand new being which God, our Creator, is constantly renewing in his own image.’
God is renewing each of us into something real. So what does that mean practically? Well, Paul tells us in Romans (12:2) that the first thing that happens is that we are “transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:2).
And, as Paul writes in v.5 today, in this new way of thinking we “put to death the earthly desires at work in us.”
These base desires can make us like a beautiful, exquisitely made piece of furniture that can’t be used for what it was made because it’s been drilled with white ants!
It’s not a real piece of furniture because it can’t be used. It looks great on the outside but has been eaten from the inside out.
Paul goes on to say that we too used to be like that. We can look polished and self-assured, but the reality is that we are being turned rotten from the inside by earthly desires that destroy us. Greed, pride, lust, evil passions – all these and a whole lot more.
Outside of Christ we are dominated by them. They control us and dictate how we behave toward each other in what we say and do.
But part of the process of becoming real is to allow the Holy Spirit to transform the way we think, to transform the attitudes we have, the way we think about other people and the world around us.
But becoming real – becoming the person God made and want us to be – isn’t just about how we think. What is in our minds often comes from our hearts and nearly always shows up in our outwards behaviour.
Now in vv. 8-9, Paul stresses one type of ungodly behaviour in particular which we need to reject - the way we talk to and about one another. A transformed and renewed mind is most fully revealed by what comes out of our mouth.
Paul says “get rid of all anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language… Do not lie to one another.” All relating to our speech, what we say.
If we insult people or gossip about people or spread rumours or lies, we know there is anger, deceit and hatred in our hearts which always ends up coming out of our mouths!
It can become a habit. The way husbands and wives can sometimes speak to one another can destroy a marriage. The way parents can speak to their children can destroy them for their whole lives.
The way friends can sometimes just seem to remove themselves from each other’s lives because of the unforgiven words spoken is tragic.
Scripture says much about the way we destroy others with our tongue, particularly the Psalms and the book of James. They are likened to sharp arrows that kill.
Negativity flows so easily from our lips. We are so quick to criticise, and it leads to hollowed out lives. The word ‘sarcasm’ comes from a Greek word, and it literally means ‘to eat flesh’.
To eat flesh! And that’s exactly what sarcasm and criticism feels like; it’s like someone is eating away at us, emptying us of self-confidence and self-worth, and filling us with self-doubt.
But Paul urges us to live differently. Instead, speak words that build each other up. To speak out of compassion and understanding, with patience and kindness. Words filled with grace, yet seasoned with salt (the opposite of flattery, incidentally).
Paul says all this about speech for a very good reason. If we want to become Real – and to know what it is to be truly fulfilled – we can only do that as we develop our relationships with one another.
And that is why the church is so important, because it’s only as we grow in fellowship and love with one another that we discover our true potential as children of God.
Community is vital for us if we are to grow as the renewed people of God. In v. 11, Paul says: “In that renewal, there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, now distinction between slave and free. But Christ is all and in all.”
If we want to become real and grow in the image of God, we need to grow in our commitment and our love for each other.
He continues in vv.12-14 (verses immediately after today’s reading): “Therefore, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive each other. Above all, clothe yourselves with love which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (vv.13-14).
That is Christianity in a nutshell, and how the whole world will know that we are disciples of Jesus.
The Christian faith is not a private faith. We are called to live in community with one another; to learn to love one another, and be tolerant and forgiving and, above all, to encourage one another in what we say.
The Toy Rabbit said, ‘Does it hurt to become to become Real? Sometimes,’ said Mr Horse, ‘but when you’re real, you don’t mind being hurt.’
Becoming real can be painful because the Holy Spirit convicts us of aspects of our life that need to change. Change always hurts a bit but, when you’re real, you don’t mind being hurt.
By the time we become Real, God will have loved all our hair off and we may have loose joints and be a bit shabby. But as Mr Horse says, ‘These things don’t matter at all, because once you’re real, you can’t be ugly except to people who don’t understand’.
God understands us more intimately than anyone we know. Let’s understand each other. Let’s get a bit shabby for God and let’s begin loving the hair off each other. Let me pray …