Friends,
Christian
author, Charles Colson tells this story in his book, The Body: Being Light in
Darkness, p.163 -- one time, theologian Francis Schaeffer, shared a platform
with former politician and urban leader, John Gardner. Mr. Gardner spoke on the need to restore
values to our culture. After he finished
speaking, a Harvard student asked him – “On what do you build your values?” Gardner, usually articulate and confident,
paused, looked down and said, “I don’t know.”
Colson says, “I have repeatedly encountered this same reaction when I
have contended before scholars and college audiences, that…in a secular,
relativistic society, there is no basis for ethics. No one has ever challenged me. In fact, in private, they often agree with
me.” I would affirm -- I am not certain what other answer
could there be. Without some set standard, such as that found in the Word of
God, then there can be no set standard for values. When this is the case, every individual is
his or her own standard…so, there can be any number of millions of
standards. This is the kind of
pluralistic world that we are living in today in many respects. But, before we through dirt on a Christianity
that some have settled in a six foot box, let’s not forget that the power is with
God, not us. Humanism has no definitive answers to life’s big questions, but...God does. People’s doubts and fears will
be erased when they trust in the God that “shows up” when we least expect it,
but who also is always there.
Paul
shares with the Colossian believers (Colossians 3:12-17) that, in Christ, they
have been blessed with distinct values, a set of standards. The challenge is to
continue to live according to these values that are revealed. Paul wants the Colossian believers to live
holy, “set apart” lives, (the original word, which we are probably familiar
with, is hagios). There are some important motives for doing
such, based upon what God has done for all of us. God has chosen His people through His Son,
Jesus Christ. He wants for all men to
come to salvation. For those who “choose
their chosenness” in Christ, these are able to find salvation in Him. And as we have indicated, believers who have
given their lives to Christ also have been set apart from the world and unto
the Lord. We are not our own, for those
of us who are in Christ belong completely to Him. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) This is certainly a growth process for all of
us, but I appreciate what Kyle Idleman says about this subject…that we do not
get “to go to a ‘spirituality’ buffet” to pick and choose what we want and what
we do not want.
We
are motivated by love…by such unbelievable, yet believable love, that we have a
Father in heaven who would give up His Son on our behalf, so that might be able
to live eternally. Related to this is
another motive for Christians to understand -- forgiveness. In Christ, God’s forgiveness is complete and
final…it is not conditional or partial. God
is able to forgive guilty sinners (which is all of us), because of the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. He has forgiven us for the sake of
Christ. (Ephesians 4:32) And because of
this love, we should live lives of love of gratitude, thankful for what God has
done. As we grow in our love for God, we
also grow in our desire to obey Him…walking in a “newness” of life in Christ.
Now,
based upon these motives, believers have a solemn responsibility before God.
Following are eight spiritual values that we need to grasp and apply: Tender mercies – we live with compassion
(love) toward others. The word is, once
again, one of my favorites in the original, splanchnizomai…we
feel deeply, an anguish for people, as from the bowels; Kindness – because of
God’s kindness toward us, we likewise need to live with kindness toward others;
Humility – while the pagan world of Paul’s day admires pride and domination,
Jesus exemplified humility…thinking of the Father and others first, rather than
Himself; Meekness – is not weakness, rather it is “power under control”…like
“healing medicine,” such as the plasma that Kent Brantly is donating to Ebola
victims in order to speed their healing process; Long-suffering – literally
means, “long-tempered,” which is to forbear with difficult circumstances,
people without retaliating…in other words, it is patience; Forbearance – which
we just mentioned means to “hold up” or “hold back”…to be patient with one
another. God holds back judgment because
of His grace. As with God’s virtue above, we also exercise -- forgiveness. Unlike
the Father’s love, our love is frequently conditional and partial. But the more
that we grow to understand and apply God’s love to our lives, we understand
that this is not acceptable. We love and forgive those who offend and hurt
us. We do this because we come to understand how
much we have been forgiven, and that we have no room to be carrying such
fleshly baggage around as envy, anger, worry, hate. It is simply not enough just to endure, but
we must be active in our forgiveness. Finally
-- love is the most important of all Christian virtues and values. All of the other qualities flow out from
this, as if it is the headwaters. Love
binds all virtues together.
Paul
moves from character to conduct. When we live according to God’s will, we
experience the peace of Christ. When we
are not at peace, it is likely that we have somehow disobeyed the Lord. But, if
we have peace in our hearts, then we will also be at peace with
fellow-believers. As seen in the
parallel passage, Ephesians 5:18-19, we are likewise encouraged in other
spiritual pursuits by living according to the Word – teaching, admonishing,
singing, and praising are all able to take place in our lives if we are living
to please the Lord and not ourselves. As
Christians, we bear the name of Jesus Christ…and it is His name that has
authority. Whatever we do in our
spiritual walk needs to reflect that there is salvation in no other name, but
Jesus. (Acts 4:12)
A
few years ago Dr. Nick Stinnett of the Univ. of Nebraska conducted a series of
studies in an attempt to discover what characteristics were common in strong
families. He and his researchers discovered six qualities. And the first
quality and one of the most important to be found in strong families was that
of appreciation. They concluded that families which were strong were strong
because family members expressed appreciation for what each member DID and for
who they WERE. In a similar study another researcher looked into the effect of
praise in the workplace. His study showed that the ratio of praise to criticism
in the workplace needed to be 4 to 1 before employees felt that there is a
balance - that there had be 4 times as much praise as there was criticism
before those employees felt good about their work and about the environment
they worked in. (Both
studies were reported in Richard J. Fairchild’s "Gratitude-A Necessary
Attitude" 2001)
People
need appreciation…they need praise. And they need to receive this four times as
often as they receive criticism in order to have a healthy environment at work
or home. One of the things that
Christians are often accused of is that they often do not look or act any
different than those who live in the world…this is a problem. The Lord calls
the Colossians…and us…“holy.” Once again, “holy” means “set apart for a special
purpose”. People that are set apart for a special purpose live differently from
the rest of the people around them. God
chose us in Christ because He sees great potential in us. Do we really want to
be like everybody else, or do we want to be special and reach the great
potential that God sees in us? Do we want to “live out our salvation”? If we want to reach the place that God has
for us, we need to recognize that we belong to a different family. We must dress in the wardrobe of that family. We
are to wear white clothes that have been given to us by our Savior. We do not want to stain these clothes with
sin, or even by living in the gray areas of life. We need to have the “whatever we do”
characteristics at work in our lives – compassion, kindness, humility,
meekness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and love. If we are in the Word of God, if we are at
peace, by the grace of the Lord we will strive and thrive as His special
people…and be thankful.
Blessings,
Don
