Date: October 5, 2025
Colossians 3:12-14
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
I have to admit as I began to drill down into this topic of forgiveness and love, there came a point where I had to say, “How did I get here?” I even asked myself the question, “Is this really necessary?”
I revisited the text several times. Considered the cultural climate.
I debated mentally for a long time. For days, while driving or random quiet times there was this back and forth in thoughts because I could leave this. Ultimately, as you will obviously see, the decision was to press down.
In Colossians 3:12-14 we are instructed to be compassionate, kind, humble, meek, patient, loving and to be forgiving. Last week, in dealing with this text in Colossians 3 and in light of recent cultural events we discussed the nuances of forgiveness.
But there is an additional issue; we have the following passages which point the opposite direction. Consider the following:
For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil may not dwell with you.
5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;
you hate all evildoers.
6 You destroy those who speak lies;
the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. Psalm 5:4-6
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb;
they go astray from birth, speaking lies. . .
6 O God, break the teeth in their mouths;
tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord! Psalm 58:3,6
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies. Psalm 139:19-22
Maybe you have not noticed these three Psalms as you, over time, have read through your Bible. It is possible that your mind wandered and the full impact of these really did not set in.
These are certainly from our Scriptures. Which begs the question in light of our passage on forgiveness and being a forgiving people, how does this fit? What are we to do with these very colorful descriptions, prayers and praises to God in what to do with our enemy?
These are three examples of what we call imprecatory Psalms. Imprecatory is a prayer for God to call harm or evil on someone.
My first sermon here in February was from Isaiah 6:1-6. One of the points of that sermon concerned the thrice repeated description of God, “Holy, holy, holy.” This was a matter of emphasis, and it mentions specifically God’s holiness.
The description did not address God as “love, love, love.” Nor did it express him as, “merciful, merciful, merciful.” God is loving. God is merciful. God is forgiving.
What the passage states clearly mention is God’s holiness. God is “holy, holy, holy.” He has a passion for that holiness.
There are just 4 other Scriptural instances where something is repeated 3 times. One of those is Revelation 8:13 where it says regarding the coming judgement of God, “Woe, woe, woe.”
There is strong emphasis in American evangelism on the love of God, and So much so that it comes at the expense of the holiness of God. This has led to some having a misunderstanding of forgiveness. This was the idea introduced last week.
For God so loved that he gave . . . to this we say “Amen!” We are grateful as we were unworthy and unholy and our gracious and merciful God made us holy.
Underestimating God’s holiness and misunderstanding of forgiveness it has weakened our ability to hate evil and renders us logically unable to defend the faith from the enemy. (repeat – rest of what I say will clarify)
My hope today is to return us to a bold faith.
Speaking from the heart, I have watched the faith that I love get completely wrecked. I have seen the country that I love get completely wrecked.
There has been an ongoing deterioration of faith and values that if I were to publicly state, from this pulpit, what is being said by others on similar pulpits, I might be able to keep my job but there would certainly be meetings. There are things being said in pulpits at this very hour that is straight from Babylon and Sodom and Gomorrah.
Similarly, there are acts of violence committed every day against believers in this country. I was typing out something for Donnels Creek and my Attention Deficit kicked in. I thought to myself, I wonder how many people enrolled in the 31 Days reading have watched the video today.
Y’all know I can see who has been looking right? There was a sharp decline from day 1 to day 2 to day 3.
Anyway, I popped on over to the Tube and of course greeted with the home page of suggested videos. There was one of five to seven people standing on a street corner, peacefully protesting an abortion mill. Two of them had signs.
They were approached by 5 people, one carry a club, three carry semi-auto rifles. They were in all black, masked from top of the head to foot. They douse them with bear spray while the semi-auto stood ready to shoot if any dared to strike back.
What about persecution worldwide? This is not mentioned on any news channel. (have photo) This is a photograph of a mass grave being filled. September 20 (two weeks ago) more than 90 Christians were murdered by Islamist in Ntoyo Africa in eastern Congo. No a whisper of this.
On my shoulders to the right was bad Matthew. To the left side was bad Matthew and those two began to fight it out. “I hate those who hate you God.”
How it typically goes for the Christian who loves Jesus is like this, They have been taught about forgiveness. They know what Colossians says. They know the words of Jesus.
If someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn him the other. Love your enemy, pray for those who persecute you may be the sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good and sends the rains on the just and the unjust.”
What are we to do with these words of Jesus? Do they make us sitting ducks; patsies? How do we reconcile this teaching of Christ with the imprecatory song and prayer of David? Can we say, “Do I not hate those who hate you?”
I look around me and there is an overwhelming rise of evil around us. I am telling you; I hate watching this happen to our FAITH and our country. We are in a time period where we are not shielded because we live in a small town.
Do we “Marcion” this tough Scripture in Psalm. Just cut out what we do not like? What does not seem to fit with the rest of Scripture? So we can understand our text in Colossians: be kind, compassionate, forgiving, meek, humble and patient?
Like our time with forgiveness, last week, there is a nuance which must be understood.
Application: From there to Here
In order to interpret our texts properly we must understand the context AND the whole counsel of God. What does our text say? What does the rest of Scripture say? How do we reconcile these two things?
Think of a village. We can call that the Village of Colossae. Those are the people who read this text first. These were the people to whom it was written. It has an application over there and that application could be different than over here.
Picture a village over here, we will call it the Village at Donnels Creek. It is a Village that is roughly 2,000 years and also nearly 6,000 miles away. There is a body of water that is in between the two villages.
The responsibility I have is to see what did the application mean over in that village and then build a bridge to connect the two.
We also carry a backpack – Like Dora the Explorer. We carry this backpack that is filled with the Whole Counsel of God. This is what God has said to other villages. We use all this information to rightly handle this word.
Last week we began our first look at this section of Scripture in Colossians, and our focus was on 3:13 and forgiveness. Of course, taking note of the current cultural climate with the recent events of Ms. Kirk forgiving her husband’s killer.
Because we are chosen, holy and beloved we are to put on some things: compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience and forgiving. As a forgiven people we are to be forgiving.
There are two words for forgiveness used. I mentioned this last week. It is more of a painted picture than a word.
First word is ALPHIEEMI– which means sent away, put over there, separated, removed. It is the word used here in Colossians 3:13 forgiving one another as the Lord has forgiven you.
Second word is KARIZOMAI– free, favor, a cancelled debt. This is the word used in Matthew as we prayed the Lord’s Prayer last week.
One word means something taken away. The other word means something given.
We had Ms. Kirk who said at her husband’s funeral, to her husband’s killer, “I forgive him.” Then Stephen Miller who said of the same killer, “You have nothing, you are nothing and we are coming after you.” We then explored how both of these can be a right response. Even though they are opposite each other, they can both be a Biblical response.
After mentioning several instances in Scripture where just a blanket statement of “I forgive you” is not automatically provided we can list at least three categories.
- Personal
- Public (Magistrate)
- Pastoral
On a personal level we are to be forgiving. In the Church we are to be forgiving. This is the context of what we are reading. Jesus has given us grace/forgiveness and he has taken away our debt. Let us imitate that.
But when considering the while counsel of God, there are other texts which shed additional light on this. Matthew 18 and an unrepentant brother is an example. Also Jesus’ and Paul’s teachings bring further nuances. If you missed last week, please watch or listen online.
He is not addressing the same problem here that was addressed in Corinth. There were serious issues in Corinth, issues of heresy.
Fortunately, the letter we are reading is addressing an issue where Paul is just saying, “Love each other and do the things that look like love” This would include patience, meekness, forgiveness, kindness and humility.
If you apply this teaching to the heresy in Corinth it would make the response weak and ineffective.
The pastorate is to look out for the flock. We will get more into this in our next series on leadership in the local church. The pastoral oversite is to watch for “savage wolves” (Paul’s words in Acts 20).
Our passage appears in a time when I have been in many discussions over the current state of morality in our country AND our nation. What do we do? Do we just keep identifying the problems, speaking about the problems and do nothing? Then let us take the teeth from the Lion of Judah!
Fighting on Our Terms.
480 BC (included map)
Historian Heroditus
The book we are studying, Colossians, was written by Paul at the same time which Ephesians was written. They were most likely carried by the same mail carrier as they were delivered. We can find in Ephesians how to fight.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic xx powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Xx 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you xx can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
Let us not be weak. Let us be bold in our faith. Let us not give an inch. Let us, just like the Athenians and the Spartans fight on our terms.
We face an enemy that is large. We face an enemy that has tried to execute us throughout time. Even in recent times as shared earlier, 90+ believers executed in one night.
We will not be meek with our enemy. We will be forgiving and meek with each other. But we will be bold and brave and fight the enemy in prayer. We will hate that which the Lord hates and at the same time, at the VERY SAME TIME pray that all men everywhere repent.
Christian, I am calling your attention to the holiness of God and it is nothing to be weakened or trifled. We can be bold in our faith and we need to be.
So many of us see on gravestones or hear quoted at funerals for those who died as believers that they fought the good fight and have defended the faith. . . yet most of us have seeded territory our whole life because we misunderstood how to live boldly.
We have territory here. Several weeks ago I mentioned that one of two avenues for growth in this church is the youth program. Are you fighting for those kids? Are they in your prayers?
God will bring people to where there is an ability for them to flourish. He will bring souls to a place where people will fight for them.
In this culture, in this time when the faith is devalued and tread upon, this is a time where we understand that we must hate what God hates, love what God loves. Let us pray for repentance and really believe that it can and will take place.