Completing Life
Remember, Paul's whole ministry purpose was to present people complete in Christ by equipping them to be all Christ had made them to be (1:28-29). Here in this chapter, Paul explains how a person dies to deception and becomes complete in Christ.
A Life of Seeking Christ (1-4)
Paul begins with a call to passionately seek Christ, who is seated at God’s right hand and in whom their lives were hidden. He directs and calls on them to set their minds on things above and for them not to set their minds or become focused on the earth (1-2). Paul takes a moment and digresses into some pretty basic logic: if their life was hidden with Christ in God, then when Christ appears, that is when their life will genuinely start. Paul concludes that they would want to set their minds on what is coming and beginning, not on the earthly and what will be ending (3-4).
A Life of Changing Bad Habits (5-9)
If the Colossians were going to genuinely seek Christ, they were going to need to make certain that earthly habits were taken off like a smelly shirt. These habits were a part of their former life and were actions stirring up God's wrath, meaning they were not habits of the new heavenly life (5-9). Paul comments that the wrath of God comes upon those who refuse to take off certain practices, because the activities Paul mentions abuse others, and in the world God is creating, self-centeredness is eradicated and abuse is non-existent. God's wrath is God's motive to rid the world of every form of abuse so God can recreate the world to look like Himself, a world without lust, thus a world without abuse. Wrath is what the world experiences when God takes that ultimate step to rid the world of all things that would abuse others.
A Life of Thinking and Seeing Differently (10-11)
To seek Christ, they needed to put on the new self, which thinks differently than the old self. The new self comprehends the image of God, the very character of the Creator, who made Christ all in all and all in Christ. In Paul’s mind, his foundational teaching for the new self created in Christ was to see Christ as everything and see everyone as in Christ (10-11).
A Life of Practicing God-Habits (12-15)
Paul then instructs the Colossians to put on and practice the God-habits the new self longs to express. He gives special emphasis to forgiveness and love, which allow the peace of God to govern the new person (12-15).
A Life in the Word (16-17)
Paul next instructs the Colossians to allow the Word of Christ, the oral gospel they had been taught, to dwell in them richly. By “richly,” Paul means it was to take up a large portion of their affection. Paul goes on to teach them that Christ's Word grows in hearts when they sing it in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Christ's Word also grows in hearts as they do everything in Jesus' name or in His character or place and then give thanks for all the miracles the Father would do through them, as they do all they do in Jesus' place (16-17).
A Life Expressed at Home and Work (18-25)
Finally, Paul describes the lifestyle of the new self, the self focused on Jesus as King, and its impact on their marriages, parenting, and vocational life in specific ways.
Wives are to be respectful and honoring of husbands (18).
Husbands are to be loving and sensitive to their wives (19).
Children are to listen and follow their parents’ direction and counsel as an act of pleasing the Lord (20).
Fathers are not to agitate their children by being demanding and domineering, causing their children discouragement (21).
Servants and employees are not to try to please their bosses but are to honor and revere the Lord, serving the Lord first with their whole heart, and then serving humans (22).
Paul wants servants to remember it is the Lord whom they serve because they are living for the ultimate reward, the inheritance to come (23). Anything coming from human labor is not their ultimate reward (24).
Paul reminds the Colossians to let the Lord pay back those needing paying back, for He would be paying back much differently than they could; He would show no partiality (25).
Parental Proverbs (1:8-9:18)
Tenth Discourse: “A Sex Story” (7:1-23)
We find a youth, on some evening, passing by without intent for sex and lacking wisdom in his heart (6-9). Someone else's wife, dressed like a prostitute, meets him. She is loud and does not abide inactivity, ever searching for a stimulant (10-12). She flaunts affection (13), religion (14), and the subtle lie that he is the one for whom she has been longing (15). She tempts him with quantity, quality, and intensity of lovemaking; “she will be unimaginable” (16-18). She guarantees him there will be no reprisal, for their affair will be completely discreet (19-20). She seduces him with her words until she captures his whole soul (21).