In Christ, you have experienced a radical change of identity. You have been liberated to become what God intended you to be when he created you. It is like being in a government witness protection program and being given a new identity; you don’t want to let on to anybody what you were before you got into the program.
Prayer: Help me to think and act like I am really in a new place and that I am really a new person. Amen.
20 – Dump the Garbage
Colossians 3:5–8 — (5) Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). (6) On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. (7) These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. (8) But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth.
Success in college means adapting to college demands: less TV, less sleep, a willingness to reserve judgment on complex questions, polishing those reading and writing skills. Yes, there does come a time when the fateful words must be spoken: Don’t do this; don’t do that. A lot of folks think that the Christian faith is basically a series of variations on the “Don’t” theme. Today’s reading is the kind of passage that the biblically illiterate are sure dominates Scripture and the whole of the Christian faith: Don’ts. Read it carefully because—surprise!—it is almost the only “don’t” in the whole letter. So little is spent on commands in this letter because the new nature of anyone in Christ spells out a picture that you will pick up on it in a flash.
Being in college as a Christian puts you on the margin where earthly habits battle heavenly ones. If you keep on living with the habits of the world, it is a denial of what you have learned in Christ and a rejection of the transformation going on in your life. It leads you in the direction of becoming what could be called a “Frankenstein’s monster”—a little of this and a little of that. You definitely do not want a diabolically split personality.
If you think sex organs are the only organs that put you in danger you may not have been listening to your tongue lately. Words can be the most powerful tool in your toolbox, for good or for hurt. As a Christian you have a Christian language so that you can speak truths that go unnoticed or denied by society in general. Not only do you have the “use of Christian language,” but you also need to develop the “Christian use of language.” As you become disciplined to a helpful, precise, truthful use of language, you necessarily eliminate “anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive language.” As a person undergoing God’s makeover, dumping the trash is part of the process. How can you tell what is garbage? For starters, anything that hurts others must go.
Prayer: Let me not resist the transformation going on in the new person Christ is making of me. Amen.
21 – Ultimate Makeover
Colossians 3:9–10 — (9) Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices (10) and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.
A better movie (more draw at the box office) than the “sex and say whatever you want to say” kind of movie might be one we could call College Lies. It might feature a university president who sexually harassed women; a researcher who not only invented her data but also the very subjects from whom she got the data; a coach who falsified his resume and played players who weren’t exactly students; a student who didn’t tell his parents that he had flunked his first two years because he had been playing cards. Unfortunately, these “characters” are all real.
The point is that people connected with American colleges and universities are not necessarily any more honest than the rest of the world. The things suggested for inclusion in our imaginary movie are things that the perpetrators hide behind lies. Christians would call lying a sin because in various ways it is hurtful to others. Does higher education need a makeover?
The makeover. A recent fad on reality TV. First was the makeover of the backyard, then the house, then the body. Would the made-over-one be pleased? We all have been the targets of makeovers since arriving on this earth—from what God intended to what American culture demanded.
While we await further developments in the TV world of makeovers, back to Paul. In this passage he continues to develop the gospel’s unfolding promise: the gift of a new life to the Colossians (and all believers) and the new and better behaviors that show it off. He points out that Christians ought not to lie. (Why bother lying since you already have the truth in Christ?) Your new nature in Christ has a particularly important aspect to it—you are being renewed in knowledge after the “image of [your] creator.” No lie!
Prayer: Help me be so renewed that I know the truth and tell the truth. Amen.
22 – And the Walls Came Tumbling Down
Colossians 3:11 — (11) In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!
When I started college, among the strongest walls that separated students from each other were these three:
The wall that separated collegiate “Greeks” (fraternity/sorority students) from “non-Greeks.”
The wall between the preppies and the public school graduates. When I entered college, my school had had a tradition of accepting primarily the wealthy and socially gifted applicants. My class was the first class in which the number of us public school grads equaled the number of “preppies.”
The gender wall: boys vs. girls. Some years after I graduated, my all-male alma mater accepted women! The gender wall fell and everyone was welcome to attend. (Well, maybe not welcomed by all. For some, that wall was only violated, not eliminated.)
But you are being “renewed in knowledge” (3:10). You are getting new information—a new understanding that calls for the use of new wisdom. One piece of new(ly received) knowledge is truly big: there are no cultural distinctions (Greek/Jew, Mexican, Iraqi), no physical ones (circumcised/uncircumcised, black/white), no ethnic ones (Irish/Jewish), no political/social/economic ones (slave/free, PhD/GED) that Christians ought to take seriously (cf. Gal 3:28). You may learn classifications in class, but you will also learn ways in which everyone is the same—in their chemistry, their social needs, their political aspirations. Christ loves everyone despite the “human” classifications that might be used to classify, separate, or denigrate anyone. He has eliminated the walls of division. There is no way to put barriers between you and others now that your mind has been renewed. This is not just about being tolerant of others. This is a reconstruction of your mind, a re-creation produced by God. This is a recognition that sinful humans have arbitrarily made up the idea that particular characteristics could legitimately be used to separate you from others. It was like a bad April Fool’s joke—just made up.
Who are the “they” to your “we”? From now on it has to be “we.” (It’s easier than trying to remember who exactly is a “them” and monitoring all the “us’s” to make sure they’re just like you.)
Prayer: Help me act re-created so that I will no longer notice any differences between me and others. Amen.
23 – Here Is Your New Wardrobe
Colossians 3:12–15 — (12) As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. (13) Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. (14) Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (15) And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.
Wearing brand name sneakers, school colors, the number of a star athlete, or T-shirts with aggressive, in-your-face