Put to Death Anti-Community Practices
1. Put to Death!
“Put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature” Our old sinful, earthly self has been crucified with Christ. Our new self, holy and righteous, has been raised with Christ. We no longer belong to this world. We are the special living community of God’s people who are Christ-centered and community-concerned. We are communities of love who love others with actions and in truth (1 Jn 3:18). Therefore, we must put to death all anti-community practices. These are sinful sexuality and sensuality, sinful attitudes, sinful speech, and deception or lying to each other.
These are anti-community practices because they are self-centered and selfish placing the love of self above the love of God and others. They destroy relationships. They inflict serious damage on the one who does them and those who are directly affected by them. They also tear apart the wider community. And above all, they destroy our relationship and fellowship with God.
Therefore, the very strong command, “Put to death!” This is a radical action that involves pain and effort. It is dying to self. This is not a gentle, half-hearted approach that may tolerate these practices. They must be killed off otherwise they will poison and destroy the whole community. This is making our dying with, being crucified with Christ real in our lives.
It’s sad to see how many Christians and churches are tolerating these sinful practices in their lives and communities. Self-acclaimed Christians spew anger, rage, malice, slander, abusive language, and lies from the pulpits, in public and the media. Sins of sensuality and greed have brought down many Christian leaders and damaged many Christian communities. When we tolerate these practices and don’t put them to death, we are no different than the world around us. How can we then be the salt of the earth? When salt has lost its saltiness, it cannot stop the decay and make the food tasty. We have no attraction power that will draw people to Christ and into His kingdom.
We must put to death these practices not only because we are new creations in Christ, but also because God’s wrath is coming because of these. When we tolerate these and continue with them we are playing with fire. “Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?” (Prof 6:27-28) The Bible warns us that the Lord will punish all those who commit such sins and they will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. When we do these we are not living as if Jesus is our Lord. We are not living Christ-centered lives. Therefore, whatever the cost, put to death these anti-community, anti-kingdom, and anti-God practices. Because they are no longer part of our new life. We no longer walk in these ways.
God blessed us with two great gifts to build relationships and community — sexuality and speech. But when we misuse and abuse these gifts, we have turned them into sinful sensuality, sinful attitudes, and speech. We have turned them into anti-community sins. Let’s look at them in detail.
2. Sinful Sexuality & Sensuality
Sexual immorality means every kind of immoral sexual relation. It refers to all sorts of practices that seek gratification outside the God-given context of marriage. Impurity is moral uncleanness. It refers to both physical immorality as well as the filthy imagination, speech, and deeds of a sensual heart and dirty mind. Lust is the uncontrolled and powerful desires and emotions that lead to sexual sins. Evil desire is an excessive craving for sexual satisfaction or for other things. It is wicked, self-serving, and would do anything to grab what they desire.
And this brings us to greed. Greed is the desire to have more than one needs or should have, to have what others have or more than others have. Greed is the unchecked, uncontrolled desire for money, wealth, material things, power, physical pleasure, and sexual gratification. Do you see the progression here? Greed leads to evil desires and lust, which in turn produce impurity and sexual immorality.
Greed is idolatry because people set their hearts and minds on something other than God. They give their allegiance to something else of this world, and not to the living God. Self is worshipped instead of God because greed looks out only for self. Self is loved instead of God and others. The end result and the punishment for idolatry is death. These are deadly practices both for the individual and communities. Therefore, we must put them to death.
3. Sinful Attitudes & Speech
“You must also rid yourselves of all such things as these …” In other words, we must also put to death sinful attitudes and speech. Anger is that growing, inner anger that we cultivate in our hearts when we do not make peace. It’s that feeling of hatred or indignation that keeps smoldering within one. Rage is the violent emotion of anger that boils within one and then boils over in an outburst of uncontrolled anger. Rage is unrestrained, selfish, and expressed verbally in name-calling and insults. Malice is the viciousness of the mind. It is the feelings and actions that intend to harm someone.
If we don’t put to death these evil and sinful attitudes, “the heated metal of anger will be forged into poisoned arrows of the tongue” (Maclaren). Slander will follow. Slander is the hurtful speech that defames another person’s character. It insults and curses others. It deliberately spreads lies about others and gossips behind their backs. Slandering another person is slandering the image of God in that person, and thus amounts to slandering God himself. Anger, rage, malice, and slander turn into “filthy language from your lips.” This is foul, obscene, abusive, rude speech. It is hateful and spiteful speech. It’s also unthinking, crude talk, or swearing.
“Do not lie to each other.” Lying is a great sin against God, against one another, against the church, and against love. It is shocking how lying and spreading false information have become the accepted norm in our society, even among Christians. When we don’t do due diligence in our research and fact-checking, and therefore, share false information, we are lying to each other. We are a people of truth and should always pursue truth. “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body” (Eph 4:25). A community-concerned church demands great honesty and truthfulness to one another.
4. Being Transformed into the Creator’s Image
We put to death these sinful practices because we have taken off our “old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (vv. 9-10). We are new creations. “… if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor 5:17) In Christ we have taken off our old self. In Christ, we have put on our new self when we were raised with Him and born again through the Holy Spirit.
We are being renewed in knowledge. Our new self is based on the true knowledge of who God is and what He is doing. We know the truth about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the model, the picture of our new selves, whose example we should follow. We are being renewed in knowledge so that we “may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that [we] may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that [we] may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:2-3). This is a constant renewal. We are growing and increasing in the true knowledge of God and His will. We are being renewed “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:13).
We are being renewed in the image of our Creator. The character of Jesus Christ is being cultivated in us. We are becoming perfect in Christ. Jesus Christ is the Creator God and the image of the invisible God as we saw in Colossians 1:15-20. And so, as we become like Christ, the image of God is being restored in us. “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18).
5. Christ Is All & In All
We are new selves. We are part of a new community. Christ in Himself He created one new humanity. Therefore, we “are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household” who have “become a holy temple in the Lord” and who “are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Eph 2:14-22). And here in the new self, here in our new identity, here in the new community of Christ, here in the new humanity, “Here there is no Gentile or Jew” — here there are no distinctions based on nationality or race. Here there is no “circumcised or uncircumcised” — here there are no religious or ceremonial distinctions. Here there is no “barbarian, Scythian” — here there are no cultural distinctions. Here there is “no slave or free” — here there are no distinctions based on social position or standing, economic status or class. But Christ is all and is in all” (Col 3:11).
In Christ, we are all equal, all the same, all members of His Body. Here in His kingdom, all the things that separate people are no longer valid. Yes, in this world and this life, we continue to live in our national, ethnic, racial, cultural, and social identities and positions but they are now of secondary importance. They are all surrendered to and under the rule of Christ. If any of these identities should cause me to disobey my Lord, if any of these should cause me to practice any of these anti-community sins, then that identity or status has become an idol. In the Body of Christ, we are all one and united regardless of our different identities and positions. Before God, these distinctions don’t count. All that counts is our being in Christ. Therefore, “Christ is all and in all” (Col 3:11).
Christ is all — Jesus Christ is our only Sovereign Lord and Savior. He created all of us. He saved all of us. He is all that matters. There is no one like Him, no one above Him. He rules as Lord of the universe. Nothing lies outside the sphere of his sovereign rule. We worship Him. That’s why v. 17 says that we should do everything “in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col 3:17). Christ is in all — He gives new life to all of us. He lives in us. He is with us always. We are all members of his body. He binds us together. He is the source of our unity.
Think about this. Every human being, no exception, is created in the image of God. That image may be distorted and damaged by sin but it’s in every person. God loves everyone and wants them to be saved. When someone believes and becomes a new creation in Christ, not only is God’s image restored in them, but now Christ lives in them. When we commit any of these anti-community, not-loving, relationship-destroying sins against someone, be it an unbeliever or a believer, we are committing it against God’s image and against God. And when we do it against a brother or sister in Christ, we are doing it directly against Christ. This is serious and that is why we must put them to death.
We are first and foremost kingdom citizens and should live and behave accordingly. Our new self in Christ makes it a daily practice to put to death the sins of sensuality, evil attitudes, sinful speech, and lies. Our new self in Christ destroys the worldly and human distinctions and so brings radical change to all our human relationships. Our new self lives out the love of God and others. Then the world will be amazed and come to acknowledge Jesus as Lord.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:34-35).