June 13 - Colossians 3:5-6
“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.”
At the beginning of this chapter, Paul asked us to put our minds on things above, not earthly things. Now, he is beginning to make sure we know what these things are. We know that we have put the things of flesh to death with Christ on the cross when we accepted Him as our Savior, but Paul isn’t crazy enough to believe that once we’ve killed sin within ourselves, we won’t do our best to resurrect it.
He’ll spend a few more verses helping us to recognize those things that we face on a regular basis. It’s not terribly difficult to just get tired of Paul. These lists of sins keep showing up in his writings, he doesn’t really ever stop reminding us of how much they separate us from God.
In this letter, he tells us that these are the things that draw God’s wrath and I can’t imagine much worse than the wrath of God. That is what opened up a chasm in the earth to suck up the sons of Korah (Numbers 16). It is what destroys the earth in the end and sends Satan and his minions into the lake of fire.
Sometimes it seems so unfair that God has put us here on earth to live and yet He continually calls us to put aside earthly passions and desires. But, we are so limited in our thinking. We can’t imagine that anything could be better than what we know on earth, when what God wants us to realize is that these things pale in comparison to the offerings of heaven. Sometimes we get glimpses of those heavenly moments. For me it is in worship or in prayer. Those glimpses aren’t always enough to get me through every day, but they are enough to draw me back when I move away from the desires of my heart and remind me that someday I will experience more than my mortal body and mind could ever imagine.
“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.”
At the beginning of this chapter, Paul asked us to put our minds on things above, not earthly things. Now, he is beginning to make sure we know what these things are. We know that we have put the things of flesh to death with Christ on the cross when we accepted Him as our Savior, but Paul isn’t crazy enough to believe that once we’ve killed sin within ourselves, we won’t do our best to resurrect it.
He’ll spend a few more verses helping us to recognize those things that we face on a regular basis. It’s not terribly difficult to just get tired of Paul. These lists of sins keep showing up in his writings, he doesn’t really ever stop reminding us of how much they separate us from God.
In this letter, he tells us that these are the things that draw God’s wrath and I can’t imagine much worse than the wrath of God. That is what opened up a chasm in the earth to suck up the sons of Korah (Numbers 16). It is what destroys the earth in the end and sends Satan and his minions into the lake of fire.
Sometimes it seems so unfair that God has put us here on earth to live and yet He continually calls us to put aside earthly passions and desires. But, we are so limited in our thinking. We can’t imagine that anything could be better than what we know on earth, when what God wants us to realize is that these things pale in comparison to the offerings of heaven. Sometimes we get glimpses of those heavenly moments. For me it is in worship or in prayer. Those glimpses aren’t always enough to get me through every day, but they are enough to draw me back when I move away from the desires of my heart and remind me that someday I will experience more than my mortal body and mind could ever imagine.
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