“And Be Thankful” (Part 2 of 2)

In many of the Apostle Paul's letters he urges believers to cultivate a heart of thankfulness, to celebrate God's goodness at all times, and in every circumstance.

Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg shows us how in this way the church can be a radical light shining in a dark world. We're looking at the book of Colossians chapter 3 verses 12 through 17. Dress code is an interesting phrase, isn't it? I don't know how recent it is, the idea of dress code.

I mean, there's always been different codes. And I'm going to identify three pieces that are part of those whose lives are transformed by grace, community-wise. First of all, he is pointing out that our identity is grounded in the work of Christ. And the work of Christ is seen in his calling us to himself. Notice how he begins, verse 12, Put on then. Put on then.

Get your clothes on. As God's chosen ones. The story of the Bible from the beginning is a divine search on the part of God for those who are not actually looking for him.

A divine search on the part of God for those who are hiding from their Maker. And he is reminding these people that God has chosen them. What Jesus on one occasion says to his disciples, he says, You didn't choose me, but I chose you.

Wow! Out of all the people in the world, these people in Colossae. You see, we thank God for our salvation, don't we? Because we know that God was entirely responsible for it. That's why we thank him.

Chosen ones. Holy, a people of his own possession, a recurring emphasis throughout all the letters of the New Testament. The glory of the gospel is actually in the fact that God is doing something in his church that is absolutely different from what he's doing anywhere else. Martin Lloyd-Jones was very strong on this. He would say to his people always in London that the great glory of the gospel, when it is revealed in a community, is revealed in the fact that God makes his people different from other people. And it is when the difference is seen, when the attractiveness of the difference is seen, that people will actually begin to pay attention, will actually begin to listen, even though they may hate us for it at first.

You've known that. Some of you work in an office, and you came to faith in Jesus Christ, and you were part and parcel of the usual milieu at the coffee breaks or whatever else it was, and you remember those stories, and you remember your language, and you remember all the things that you were able to engage in without even a thought. And suddenly it all began to feel like dust in your mouth. You were no longer a participant in that way, and the people hated you for it. They called you names. But wasn't it you they came to when their son was diagnosed with cancer? Wasn't it you they came to seek out when they felt that their life was on a shaky foundation? They hated you. You were different. They listened.

They came. And some of them came to Christ because of you, because you were chosen, because God made you holy, and because he loved you—chosen, holy and beloved. You see, that's not merely a term of affection. They understand what it is to say, I like you or I love you. Mere terms of affection are wonderful things. But what he's actually saying here is, you are objects of God's love—a love that has been exercised toward sinners even while we're actual sinners, a love that has been unconstrained by any qualities in us. It's unlike any other love. We love because, well, this is a nice person to love.

I mean, they're like me or I like them or I like what they do. But God looks on us, and despite what we are, he loves us. In this is love, not that we love God but that he loved us and gave his Son as a propitiation for our sins. When I was studying this, it made me think again of Jonathan Edwards and the distinction that he makes in his religious affections concerning gratitude. This is what he says, True gratitude, or thankfulness to God, for his kindness to us, arises from a foundation laid before, of love to God for what he is in himself. Whereas a natural gratitude has no such antecedent foundation. The gracious stirrings of grateful affection to God for kindness received always are from a stalk of love already in the heart, established in the first place on other grounds—namely, God's own excellency.

So is there, then, a difference between natural gratitude and gracious gratitude? Only the person who is in Christ has any inkling of this. Otherwise, you see, what about all the people in the world that have nothing and yet in Jesus have everything?

When everything that is represented as an essential dimension of human existence is no longer part and parcel of their lives. Is Christ really all in all? Well, our identity is grounded in the work of Christ. Secondly, our unity is to be marked by the love of Christ. Paul, as you will notice as you read this letter, was really conscious of the fact that there was a scandal, really, represented in the Colossae Valley, and the scandal related essentially to social distinctions—social distinctions.

Division that had to do with ethnicity, Jew and Gentile, or with social status, high or low, whatever it might be. And so he is essentially making sure that the people who are in this church, to which he writes, that they understand that in Jesus all of those things have changed. Because as he says, actually, in verse 11, Christ is all, and he is in all. So in other words, the old distinctions that mark people before they become Christians are not irrelevant distinctions. Whether it is by virtue of our birthplace or our background or our home life or our education or our capacity of intellect or our social standing, they are not irrelevant, but they are transmuted. They're changed. Because what happens is, those things which make us the people we are to exist in a community that only understands those values are then actually made something radically different when we are now in Jesus. Because that is the unifying feature. Not the color of my skin, not the school that I went to, not my bank balance—none of those things.

They're not obliterated, but they are absolutely transformed. That's what he's saying. The old distinctions of race and religion, Jew and Gentile, of culture, the Greek and the barbarian. I went to a very good education system. The barbarian goes, I don't want any education. They're both sitting together in the church, and this letter is being read, and they're looking at one another and going, You know, this is right.

I am a barbarian, and you are a Greek intellect. And look at us singing the same songs. Who does this? How can this happen in the world? Jesus does this.

He's the only one who does this. That's the point. Distinctions of social status.

Slave or free. And the marks that are then expressed in such a unity. And it's very important that we're honest about these things. I love it when Christopher Ash says, you know, the church is not made up of a bunch of people that you would automatically want to go on vacation with. I mean, just look around. I mean, get beyond your own little group that you like to sit in.

Just look around. You go, I don't want to go on vacation with them. No! No! And I don't want to go on a creation with him.

No! I get that. But that's the whole jolly point. Otherwise, what are we, clones?

No, you see, this is the distinction. Because the culture outside, which is full of thankfulness, doesn't understand the grace of God unless the grace of God is communicated—not simply by lip but by life. So they come to a church in the Colossae Valley, and they say, You know what? It's amazing, the diversity of people in this place.

What is this? Well, it's Jesus. Yeah, because when you become a Christian and you end up in a local church, you're forced to associate with people with whom you wouldn't ordinarily choose to associate. You say, Well, I don't think that's right.

I think it is dead right. And I've quoted this to you before, but I like to quote it, so I'll quote it again from my friend Steve Turner, the poet in London. And this is what he says, The church humbles us. It's one of the few places in our society today where we sit with rich and poor, young and old, black and white, educated and uneducated, and are focused on the same object. It's one of the few places where we share the problems and hopes of our lives with people we may not even know.

It is one of the few places where we sing as a crowd. And although the church needs its outsiders to prevent it from drifting into dull conformity, the outsider needs the church to stop them from drifting into individualized religion. Individualized religion. Incidentally, let's just be very, very clear about the fact that none of this takes place in online chats. This doesn't work in cyberspace.

Whatever dimension exists as a result of what we're able to do this morning through technology, it is a very poor substitute for the reality that God intends. Physical friendships are being impacted by smartphones and by online chats. And those relational friendships within the body of Christ are being impacted in the selfsame way. And that is why it is so vitally important that when we talk about community, when we talk about participation, when we talk about engagement, this is not something that we drummed up as a concept. This is at the very heart of what it means to be in Christ—that our unity is marked by the love of Christ. Notice what the marks are. We can't go through them all. Our time hastens.

Look at it. Put on as God's chosen ones holy and beloved compassionate hearts. Number one, what do compassionate hearts look like? Well, there's kindness in our treatment of others. Humility in our view of ourselves. Meekness or gentleness, a disposition of tenderness.

Patience, learning to bear with each other, to deal with complaints about one another. Forgiveness. Forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Goodness, gracious. When I'm full of thanks for the mercy and grace of God that has granted me forgiveness, when I am full of that thankfulness, I will find it much easier to extend the same forgiveness to others who have wronged or who are wronging me. When I am filled with thankfulness to God for the way he has treated me despite who I am, then who in the world am I gonna hold on to these complaints, to these grievances, to these petty issues?

Listen! Some of you in your marriages are right here. Let's leave the church aside for the moment. Sir, how long do you plan to hold on to your complaints, grievances, and issues about your wife?

Madam, how long are you planning to deny your husband, or whatever it might be? This is for the church. The church exists as individuals.

Individuals are joined together in marriage. And the attractiveness of our world's allure is dim in comparison to this. It's not easy.

Nobody says forgiveness is a great idea until they have somebody to forgive. But you will notice, verse 14, and above all this, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. If you think about the clothing of the Eastern world and layers and so on, and then that big—you see it also in parts of South America—those amazing shawls, or whatever they are, they're like gigantic blankets.

You see it in South Africa as well. And eventually the person just pulls it all around them. And then sometimes you see them gathering up their children inside of it and managing to make a whole cluster out of it all. And it's as though Paul is saying, Listen, and when you put all these pieces together and you gather them all up, then you will discover what God desires for you. Above all this, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Well, I'm going to resist singing for you. I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. Finally, the activity that is done in the name of Christ. Our identity is grounded in the work of Christ. Our unity is based on the love of Christ. And our activity is done in the name of Christ. What activity? Well, actually, everything.

Look at verse 17. Whatever you do in word or deed… Whatever you do, it's comprehensive, isn't it? No compartmentalizing of things. No, you say, Well, I don't do it over here, but I do it over there. It's in my Sunday, but it's not in my Mondays or Tuesdays, or it's in my work, but it's not in my sport.

No, no. Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. In other words, he's saying that the whole realm of human conduct is to be brought under the lordship of Christ, and when that is the case, you will notice that the peace of Christ then rules in your hearts.

The word here is the word for an umpire who is adjudicating on things, rending a verdict in contested situations. And he says, No, it should be the peace of Christ that is the umpire in these areas. We were designed for peace. Christ is our peace. And anything that promotes discord is not in tune with Jesus.

That promotes discord. In the Anglican churches, which I sometimes attend when I go home, and others, I'm sure, here too, but they say, And now we're going to say the peace to one another. It's a distinctly embarrassing moment, I find, for me.

I don't know anybody in the place. And they all start turning around, going, Hello, Brenda, and stuff like that. And you say, Peace. Yeah, peace. Peace.

It's like, you can't just fake this! You can't just like… That's not peace. That's like non-peace.

It's a nice idea, but you can do that, and it doesn't do anything. Peace is what allows you to live together, to put up with one another, to forgive one another, to rejoice with one another. And he says, Not at the expense of principle, but let the peace of Christ rule in all your circumstances. We're supposed to live in peace, the man said to his wife. The daughter said to her mom, We're supposed to live in peace.

This isn't peace. Filled not only with peace but with the word of Christ. Let the peace of Christ rule. Let the word of Christ dwell. In other words, our fellowship is based on a mutual submission to the word of God. Because you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. We should sing a spiritual song here and draw this to a close. And make sure that as you do, you give thanks to God. You give thanks to God. One of the harvest hymns in Britain, which begins… No, it's maybe not that one. No. Well, anyway, one of them, Either we plow the fields and scatter, or Now thank we all our God with hearts and hands and voices.

I think it's that one. It ends like this. No gifts have we to offer For all thy love imparts, But that which thou desirest Our humble, thankful hearts. What would the church in Colossae look like as people came around to try and deceive it, to captivate them with false ideas, if they really got to grips with what it means to be in Christ?

Well, there would be a radical light shining throughout that valley, because people would have an opportunity to see something that they had never seen before and to meet someone that they had never met before—he who is the light of the world, shining out into the darkness through the lives of those who've had the lights turned on for them. Actually, what he's really saying is what Paul says in Romans 13 in a phrase, Put on Jesus Christ. Put on Jesus Christ. To be like Jesus, that's it. The trouble is I'm not really like Jesus.

Some of you are pretty good. Well, you may know today is the busiest shopping day of the year, and as you are thinking about Christmas presents for family and friends, can I suggest you browse through the items available in our online store at truthforlife.org slash gifts. We have a variety of biblically sound resources that make wonderful, meaningful gifts, and they're available at our cost while supplies last.

Shipping in the U.S. is free. So, for example, you'll find a bundle of three Lift the Flap board books that teach preschoolers how to exhibit Jesus' love and kindness. And for children who are a little older, Alistair has written a book called See is for Christian. There's also a book that explores the parables Jesus taught. And you'll find pocket-sized booklets that teach the story of God's salvation plan. These are simple gifts you can hand out to every child in your church.

In our online store, you'll find gifts for adults as well. And keep in mind, we sell these books at our cost in the hope that you will use them as gospel sharing opportunities. Now, our offices are closed today, so our team can be home celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday. We'll be back Monday, December 2.

In the meantime, you can enjoy shopping online at truthforlife.org slash gifts. Now here's Alistair to close today's program with prayer. Paul writes to the Romans, The night is far gone, the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. And as for the one who's weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. Father, we acknowledge that only in Christ, and by Christ, is it possible for us to increasingly look like your dearly beloved Son. We acknowledge that, Lord, and we pray that you will help us in such dependence upon your grace to live as you have designed us to live, to the praise of your glory. Amen.

I'm Bob Lapine. We hope you have a blessed weekend. Hope you're able to worship with your local church. Why did God send his son? That's a question that comes up often during the Christmas season, and we'll explore the answer on Monday as we begin a mini-series titled Navigating the Nativity. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.