#1126. What do I need to put to death? (21/8/24)

https://www.communitychurchputney.com/post/1126-what-do-i-need-to-put-to-death-21-8-24

Welcome to this Come to Jesus Daily Devotional and our summer inspiration series. Today, we consider the kinds of attributes that damage our relationships and that we need to ‘put to death’.

To watch this devotional, follow the link below:

https://youtu.be/7Vqbs-F1sVA

‘Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.’ (Colossians 3:5-11)

Colossians 3:5–11

What are we to put to death?

1. Put ungodly attitudes to sex to death

Firstly, we are told to put off things that damage our relationships sexually:

Our text speaks of five sinful approaches to relationships that we are to put to death:

i. immorality – ‘Fornication’ which is sex outside of Christian marriage.

ii. Impurity – To pollute your new life with sexual sin in act or thought.

iii. Lust – To allow yourself to become inflamed by sinful sexual desire.

iv. Evil desires – To be eager for what is against God’s will.

v. Greed (Covetousness) – To be greedy for what you don’t have, sexual sin in this case. This is the motive behind all of these sins listed.

2. Put ungodly speech to death

Secondly, we are are to put to death ways of using words that damage our relationships:

‘But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices..’ (Colossians 3:8-9)

Colossians 3:8–9

i. Anger – This is anger that’s ongoing. It’s to hold on to the wrongs that we feel have been done to us.

ii. Rage – This is the outburst of rage. It’s to allow our actions to be controlled by our passions.

iii. Malice – To have an ongoing hatred or grudge against a particular person. It’s to want that person to suffer in some way, or certainly not to want blessing for them.

iv. Slander – This comes from the word ‘blasphemy’. It means to be slow to reveal God’s ways, but quick to speak of evil in our relationships. It’s to poorly represent Jesus in our speech.

v. Filthy language from your lips – This is the content of our speaking. No one would offer a glass of water mixed with one drop of sewage to a friend, so why would be offer speech that is not completely pure?

vi. Do not lie – Finally we are told not to lie to one another. Lying is not congruent with the ‘new self’ that we have put on. Of our new selves we are told, ‘which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.’ Falsehood and lying is not in keeping with the ‘image of our creator’ who speaks truth.

In response, Just as at Colossae our relationships are severely damaged through ungodly and unwise attitudes to sex and a poor use of language. Our culture is saturated with sexual immorality. It’s in many songs, films, shows, advertisements and philosophies of life. The world without Jesus seeks to make sexual sin attractive, and if we allow ourselves to believe the message, we will develop ‘greed’ in this area.

Do you see that it’s the inner ‘greed’ that leads to external ‘sexual immorality.’ If we are not wise, we can feed the fire of illicit desire through what we think about and what we allow to entertain us. To break the power of sexual covetousness we need to, ‘set our minds on things above…’ (3:2) And, ‘Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature…’ (3:5).

Our world, ever more so with the advent of social media, is divided by a poor use of language. Anger, rage, malice, slander and filth seem to be the main features of the most popular content creators. Sex and hate sells!

Everyone has been involved in sexual and language sin in some way. We all need to ‘put it to death’! What steps do we need to take in order to pursue healthy relationships?