Daily Devotion, October 28, 2020

 

Devotion: Read Colossians 3:1-17.

This is one of my favorite scripture passages. It is great in every translation, but I particularly like The Message version. Verse 1, and verses 12-17 are often selected to be read at wedding ceremonies.

Today, as I’m reading all of these verses, I hear it through the voice of a wonderful coach, choir director, or band director each encouraging their team, choir or band. “So, if you’re serious about living this new life in Christ, act like it…look up and be alert to what is going on around Christ…”

This letter to the church at Colossae is giving the call for the qualities necessary for living in the new community of Christ. “The lists of vices and virtues (which follow the first set of verses) are those that will either disrupt or enhance the life of the new Christian community,” according to Dr. Andrew T. Lincoln.

It is easy to read these verses and to turn it into a list for our own “self-improvement”, but the ways of Christ are not just ways of self-improvement. Christ’s ways are about how we relate to each other. Christ’s ways answer the question of “How are we to live in the ways of Christ with each other?”

It calls for higher and deeper ways of relating than the ways of this world. It calls for forgiveness and love, for peace and for being thankful, for letting the Word of Christ have the run of the house!

I particularly like the words, “Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other.”  Again, it’s the spirit of “teamwork” of how we relate to each other which will make a difference in this world.

And perhaps my favorite words in this version are: “And sing, sing your hearts out to God!” Even if we can’t sing a note, we can’t help but give praise and thanksgiving to God every step of the way! The writer of these verses moves us from serious following to joy overflowing! Personal Worship Option: Loving and Gracious God, unite us together as a community of Christ in such ways that we are in tune with each other and in step with each other. Help us as a community to be forgiving, thankful, loving and peacemakers in our homes and in this world. Amen