Growing in Christ: Colossians 3 (7)

Opening Prayer: Psalm 116.1-6
I love the LORD, because He has heard
My voice and my supplications.
Because He has inclined His ear to me,
Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.
The pains of death surrounded me,
And the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me;
I found trouble and sorrow.
Then I called upon the name of the LORD:
“O LORD, I implore You, deliver my soul!”
Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
Yes, our God is merciful.
The LORD preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.

Sing Psalm 116.1-6
(Mit Freuden Zart: All Praise To God Who Reigns Above)
I love the Lord because He hears my cries and pleas for mercy.
Because He bends to me His ears, my prayers shall ever thus be.
The snares of death encompassed me; hell’s grip could not unloosened be;
distress and anguish pressed me.

I called to God, “O Lord, I pray, my soul redeem with favor!”
The Lord is gracious in His way, and righteous is our Savior.
His mercy to the simple flies; He lifted me up to the skies –
I rest in Him forever!

Read Colossians 3; meditate on verse 14.

Preparation
1. How does Paul describe love in verse 14?

2. What illustrations of this “bond” does he provide in Colossians 3?

Meditation
From the beginning of his letter to the Colossians, Paul has emphasized their love for one another. Their love prompted him to pray for them (1.3, 4). He longed for them to be knit together in love (2.2), a knitting love that consists in Jesus Himself (2.19; cf. Eph. 4.16). He detailed the various ways such love is expressed among believers: “tender mercies, kindness, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another…” (3.12-17).

When we put on Jesus, we put on love. He is the bond of love Who knits us together as members of His one Body, the Church. In Him, and in His love, we press on toward perfection, knowing we will only be made perfect in love when we see Jesus face to face and are like Him (1 Jn. 3.1-3).

The love we have for the Lord and one another keeps us from loving the base things of this world, which we happily put off that we might be clothed with Jesus (vv. 5-10).

Love is the glue of all our relationships – in the family, at work, in the church, and as we go into the world (vv. 18-22). Everything we do should show that we love and honor our Lord and our neighbors (v. 23). We fix our minds and the eye of our heart (Eph. 1.15ff.) on Jesus (3.1-4), basking in His love, being absorbed into Him and clothed with Him; and as we do, we cannot help but go forth in love, filled with the peace of God and overflowing with thanksgiving (v. 15).

The more we become steeped in the Word of Christ, the more we are clothed with Him and formed into His likeness (v. 16; cf. 2 Cor. 3.12-18), and the more His love, like rivers of living water, flows from us to our world (Jn. 7.37-39).

Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
“But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (3.14).

So above everything else that we could ever put on or into our lives, love is the best because it sticks people together, both to God and to one another. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 Jn. 4.19). And this bonds us to Him and to others. Or it should.

Bonding puts things together. It is the whole point of glue. The purpose and calling of Elmer’s and paste and epoxy and all adhesives is to stick stuff together. Paul wants us to understand what he is saying, so he uses a medium that we can all relate to: gooey stickiness. And here it is a good thing. Not something like on our kid’s hands that we immediately want to wipe off; but a mess we are to leave on, that bonds us to others.

In this situation, it is seen as perfection! Paul tells us that it supersedes all abilities: prophecy, being able to understand all mysteries, having all knowledge, faith to move mountains, supreme generosity and even martyrdom (1 Cor. 13.1-13). It is the end all be all of life. To love as Jesus loved: “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus; that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Cor. 5.14,15).

Paul tells us to “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Cor. 11.1). Let us go forth to imitate them in this love that “is the glue of all our relationships”.

Reflection
1. Why does love have the power to “stick” us to one another? How does that work?

2. As we put on Jesus, we put on love. Explain.

3. Can we expect to increase in love apart from setting our mind on the things that are above? Explain.

Now what Paul wishes to say is that there is no benefit in those things, for all those things fall apart, unless they are done with love. This is the love that binds them all together. Whatever good thing it is that you mention, if love be absent, it is nothing, it melts away. John Chrysostom (344-407), Homilies on Colossians 8

Bind me to Yourself in love, O Lord, and help me to love others as I…

Closing Prayer: Psalm 116.7-19
In prayer, rehearse the many ways God binds Himself to you in love each day. Give Him thanks and praise. Seek a greater measure of His salvation, that you may love Him and the people in your Personal Mission Field with more of Jesus’ love.

Sing Psalm 116.7-19
(Mit Freuden Zart: All Praise to God Who Reigns Above)
Full well the Lord has dealt with me; my soul from death He delivered.
My weeping eyes, my stumbling feet, He has redeemed forever.
Forever I before His face shall walk with those who know His grace,
and dwell with them forever.

Afflicted, I believe His Word, though lying men would undo me.
What shall I render to the Lord for all His blessings to me?
Salvation’s cup I lift above and call upon the God of love
and pay my vows most truly.

How sweet to Him when saints depart – save me, Your servant, Savior!
From sin You loosed my wand’ring heart; I praise Your Name forever!
On You I call, my vows to pay; here in Your Presence I would stay
Your praise to offer ever.

T. M. and Susie Moore

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Except as indicated, all Scripture are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available by clicking here.