Year 5, Day 218: Colossians 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

Colossians 3 is an incredible chapter on identity.  Nearly every single sentence in this chapter deals with who we are in Christ.  Even the last paragraph in this chapter dealing with husbands and wives and children and slaves has to deal with who we are as a person and what identity we put forth for the world to see.  Paul gives us great advice right off the bat: set your mind on the things of heaven, not the things of this world.

But how do we do that?  What exactly does that mean?

We are to put to death the earthly things within us.  Sexual immorality.  Isn’t it nice to know that the first problem Paul thinks about is also the first problem facing our own culture?  Some things never change.  Impurity.  Evil desires.  Pathos.  Covetousness.  Anger. Wrath.  Malice.  Slander.  Obscene speech.  As I continue to read through this list and further, there is a relatively unsurprising theme that appears.  Those things that focus on me as the center of my life lead me into bad places.  Things that focus me onto my rights above the rights of others, my desires above the desires of others, my feelings above the feelings of others, and my needs above the needs of others.  That’s really the root of all of those things.  If I am thinking of myself first, I am quick to find myself dwelling in this list.

On the other hand, if my identity is in Christ then I should be imitating Him.  Holiness.  Compassion.  Kindness.  Meekness.  Patience.  Bearing with one another.  The list goes on.  Do you see what these all have in common?  The virtues are the denial of self in place of the desire for the other.  These virtues are rooted in willing sacrifice and often even the denial of self.

This shouldn’t surprise us.  What did Christ do when He came to earth?  He denied Himself.  He followed the will of the Father.  He gave Himself up for our sake.  That’s an identity worth buying into in my book.

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