The Chosen People of God!

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” – Colossians 3:12-15 NIV

The topic of Colossians 3:1-17 is ‘Living as Those Made Alive in Christ.’ In other words, Colossians 3:1-17 illustrates how to live as Jesus Christ’s followers effectively. Setting our appearances before Christ and others are good but setting our hearts before Him and others are much better. Colossians 3:1 states, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” God sees our hearts rather than appearances (1 Samuel 16:7), for everything is bare to Him (Hebrews 4:13).

Colossians 3:5 starts off with “Put to death, therefore…” We cannot put anything to death if our hearts are not right with those specific thing. If we look back in the Old Testament, the king of Egypt, Pharaoh, ordered His Hebrew midwives to kill baby boys when they come out from the women’s womb. However, the Hebrew midwives did not listen to the king of the Egypt and let the boys live because they feared God. After this, Pharaoh commanded all of his people that every baby must be thrown into Nile river unless they are girls.

Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

“Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.” (Exodus 2:1-10)

When we think about our attitudes and behaviours, we may realise that all of them come from our hearts. Once our hearts are right toward others and God, we are able to freely express our feelings. For instance, before I became a Christian, I used to lie to my parents when I have done things I would get trouble of. When my parents were asking the specific thing I was going to lie about, my face was going red. I think this is because my heart was not right with those things I had done and towards my parents. Now, since I became a Christian, I hate lying to my parents, anyone, and to God because all of Jesus’ followers have to live in the image of God (Romans 8:29-30). If I am lying to anyone, not only I am lying to them, I am lying to God (Acts 5:4). I hate to see anyone lie because they would be lying to God. John 3:21 proclaims, “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

I guess that being in the image of God as God’s beloved children is the main reason that we have to continue transforming our attitudes into compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. This means that we have to work on the fruit of the Spirit as it is combination of “… love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” (Galatians 5:22-23). Nevertheless, I believe forgiveness is the important part of the characteristic attributes, in order to carry the fruit of the Spirit in our hearts all the time. If we cannot forgive one another, we cannot carry the fruit of the Spirit to them and we also cannot reconcile them to God.

God wants every human being to reconcile with each other “so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 15:6) When believers gather together, they begin to form the body of Jesus Christ as each one of us are parts of the body, I believe (1 Corinthians 12:27). “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:4-5) I think this means followers of Jesus Christ are like jigsaw puzzles of Him. This is probably focal point of having church services on Sundays and having Christian groups during the weekdays. I am grateful to have my church family in New Zealand as well as in New York. To form unity, I strongly believe that love is the core characteristic attribute. When we love with one another, other attributes automatically flow along (Romans 13:8-10). I guess this is the reason that the second greatest commandment of God is to love each other (Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31)

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel…” (Colossians 1:15-23)