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United In Love And Ruled By God’s Peace (Colossians 3:14-15)
I. United In Love
II. Ruled By God’s Peace
Transcript: [36:48]
I greet all of you in the blessed name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our text for this morning's message is taken from Colossians 3:14-15: "And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." The title of our message is "United in Love and Ruled by God's Peace." Two important lessons we want to learn from this passage. Firstly, united in love, followed by ruled by God's peace.
[37:45]I. United In Love
The phrase "and above all these things" speaks of all the things mentioned in the preceding verses like bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearance, and forgiveness.
The word ‘charity’ means love—agape—which is the highest form or purest love. To ‘put on’ has the idea of putting on a set of clothes, like when a person removes his dirty clothes at the end of the day and puts on a new set of clothes. In the early church, when the people were baptised, it was a common practice that they would lay aside their old clothes before the baptism and be given a new set of white robes afterward.
With this picture in mind, the Apostle Paul was telling the Colossian believers that, ‘You are the new man in Christ. You are clothed with Christ's righteousness. Therefore, the old clothes, the old man with all his sins, must be set aside and put on the new man with all these virtues like bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearance, and forgiveness. But above all these virtues, or the most important virtue, is charity, love.’
Remember, Paul was speaking in the context of the church. So it was a reference to exercising love in the church. Why did Paul not choose some of the other virtues like humility, zeal, knowledge and spiritual gift perhaps to be one of the most important virtues? But he cited "above all these things put on charity."
Firstly, love is the distinguishing feature and hallmark of the Christian. Jesus Himself said in John 15:12, "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." In John 13:34-35, He said, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you. that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."
This virtue of love is not only the evidence that we are the disciples of Christ but ultimately that we are truly born again believers. That was why the Apostle John said in 1 John 3:14, "We know that we have passed from death unto life."—How do we know?—"Because we love the brethren." Later on he said in 1 John 4:12, "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." That is the reason why love is the hallmark of the Christian.
Without love, all the other virtues cannot stand. If I may put it this way, all the other virtues would mean nothing.
- Humility without love is empty.
- Zeal by itself is a good virtue, but without love, it is a dangerous, self-seeking and destructive force that serves only one's personal feelings or one's personal ego rather than for the good of others.
- Knowledge without love is a cold and meaningless pursuit that helps nobody.
A classic example of someone who had the knowledge but without love was Jonah. Jonah was a powerful preacher. He had great knowledge of God's Word. But his problem was he did not want the Ninevites to be saved. He had no love for them, not even after they repented. Through his preaching, everyone in the city repented.
We would assume that he would be most happy. But we read what happened after the people were saved. Jonah prayed one of the most ridiculous prayers ever recorded. Let me read for you Jonah 4:1-3: "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live."
Such bitterness. Everything Jonah said about God was true. He had great success in his preaching. I wonder how many preachers have experienced everyone in the city, an entire city, repenting through their preaching. Jonah had such an experience. Indeed, he had great knowledge. But what was his problem? He had no love. And because of that, he was foolish. Foolish to pray such a prayer. Later on, God used a situation to illustrate to Jonah what his problem was.
If it can happen to Jonah, it can happen to any one of us.
- I can be preaching the Word of God to you as I'm doing right now, and souls may be saved; or
- As a Sunday school teacher, you may be teaching the children, and some may profess faith in God through your ministry; or
- We may visit the elderly homes and share the gospel with the residents and sing to them, and in their evening years some may turn to Jesus Christ for salvation.
Well and good. But if deep down in our hearts we do not have love, we do not really care for their salvation. We are just doing what we are doing as a dry routine spiritual exercise, or we just simply love to sing. Then all will be meaningless.
Do you realise that it is easier to be doctrinal and biblical than to be loving?
- It is easier to be active in church work than to be loving.
- It is easier to be regular in giving our tithes and offerings than to be loving.
- Is it possible for us to go through the motion of Christian services and yet not be loving?
Most certainly.
How often parents, while they are driving to church, experience a most chaotic situation in the car. It could be an intense quarrel between the husband and the wife or some drama between the parents and the children. There will be shouting, screaming all over the place. But immediately when they arrive in church, they start to worship. They start to sing hymns. They give off their tithes and offerings. They even serve in the various ministries of the church, despite just going through that most unloving experience in the car.
The point I'm making is that it is so easy for us to be caught up with the routine of going through the motion. It is a dry routine. Without our hands being in tune with our hearts, we just do the work. But our hearts are far away from the work we are doing. God knows.
The bond of perfection means the unity of complete spiritual fellowship. Love is like the glue that binds us together in fellowship. All of us would agree that we have our differences. Whether it be in the way we speak, in the things we do, in our mannerisms, in our opinions, or even how we air our opinions, we'll be lying if we say otherwise. Love is what binds us together in fellowship despite our differences.
Take a look at this physical house, the church building. There are different bricks. No two bricks are exactly the same. Thus, as no two Christians are exactly the same, there are different concrete bars or steel bars that are different in length. There are different pieces of wood made up of various textures. They cannot be bonded together unless they are cemented, welded and nailed together, and then they can form this physical building.
Love is the bond that cements us, welds us and nails us together to build the spiritual house which is the church. Through this strong bond of fellowship, each and every believer can then grow to be the person God wants him or her to be.
Then the question is: how can we grow within the church fellowship? Obviously, the main elements would be the Word of God and the Holy Spirit's working. But what has the believer got to do? Why must he be in a fellowship? Allow me to use the illustration of the Amazon forest.
When you look at the thick vegetation, there are trees so tall that they overshadow all the other trees so much so that no sunlight can penetrate through. There are trees so huge and thick that they seem to take all the nutrients from the soil. Yet every tree whether big or small is still so strong and healthy. How is that possible? We know that each tree is a special individual separate entity. What we cannot see is that underneath the ground they are all connected through their intertwined roots.
One tree may receive more water than the rest. Another tree may receive more minerals. And yet another tree may receive a vast amount of sunlight. The water, the nutrients and the sunlight are actually shared amongst the trees through the roots. This is made possible by God's amazing provision of a very unique fungus that grows on the roots and it forms a network which links the roots of one tree to the roots of others. This is how the water, the nutrients and the sunlight are passed one to another.
Why am I sharing with you this? As a church, we are just like the trees in the Amazon forest. And love is like that unique fungus connecting us by an invisible bond. Through the bond of love, we share the blessings God has given to each of us.
- If someone is in need, that bond of love will supply to his needs.
- If someone has abundance, that bond of love will bring the benefits to the rest.
- If someone has more biblical knowledge, that bond of love will enable that knowledge to be articulated in life or in word to edify and encourage others.
- If someone has multiple spiritual gifts, that bond of love will use those gifts to touch the lives of many.
In this mutual process of sharing, which we often say fellowship, we can bear one another's burdens and we can strengthen one another's faith.
A classic example of this bond of love and fellowship is in the early church in Jerusalem. Allow me to read for you Acts 2:42, "And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers.”
And Acts 2:44-47, “And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved."
This is what real church life is all about. The believers not only shared their time of worship together, but even their time outside of worship, going to one another's homes, enjoying meals, and sharing activities together.
Dear friend, the only way we can follow the example of the early church is that we must remember all the endeavours in the work of the ministry. Everything that we do as a body of believers, the motivation must be love.
- If you take love out of our mission work, you will have a group of people just trying to win more people for their own denomination or organisation, but not for Jesus Christ.
- If you take love out from the truth, you will be like the Scribes and the Pharisees.
- If you take love out from sanctification, the result is self-righteousness.
- If you take love out of humility, the church will impose human standards on the people.
So you and I must take this command very seriously and let love be the motivating factor for our unity and also in all our endeavours. Everything we do must be based on love.
[1:01:20] II. Ruled By God’s Peace
Let us move on to verse 15: "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." This verse is very similiar to the one found in Philippians 4:7 which is worthy for our consideration: "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Many of us are very familiar with this verse. Perhaps it is your favourite memory verse. Here God promised us His peace. And there are four questions we need to ask for this one verse.
Firstly, what is this peace of God? There is a difference between being at peace with God and having the peace of God. First and foremost, before our conversions, we were not at peace with God. We were His enemies. Upon receiving our salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, we are at peace with God. Romans 5:1 said, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Positionally speaking, we are at peace with God. We are not His enemies. But practically speaking, we do not always have the peace of God. This peace is the opposite of being troubled. This is the inner peace God promised the believers who will trust Him, who will pray and believe in Him with a thankful heart. This is the inner peace that the psalmist said in Psalm 46:10, "Be still, and know that I am God". We do not always have that peace which we will come to them.
Secondly, what is the characteristic of this peace? The Apostle Paul describes it as the peace of God which passeth all understanding. (Philippians 4:7) Notice it does not promise that God will give us according to what we ask, because what we ask may not be good for us. But He will give us something even better. It is His peace that passeth all understanding.
When we are sick, our immediate response is to get rid of the sickness, right? We want to get out of it. So we pray for healing and recovery, but our finite minds may not understand that perhaps it is God's will that the sickness remains with us because that is what we need. Why? To humble us. To enable us to repent from certain sins, to strengthen our faith, to cause us to grow spiritually, etc. Perhaps it is the sickness that will take us to the grave. Only God knows, but He will give us His peace that passeth all understanding.
There are thousands and thousands of books in the libraries around the world that will teach you how to obtain peace. But they are all through humanistic ideas and methods that cannot give true peace. The peace that God promised is not some psychological gimmick. No, it supersedes. It goes beyond all human solutions and anything that the human mind can ever think. That is what it means "passeth all understanding."
Thirdly, what will this peace of God do to us? The Apostle Paul says, "It shall keep your hearts and minds." Take a moment and consider this. It is always in our hearts and in our thoughts that anxiety will trouble us. Right? The first attack is always in our minds, in our hearts. That is why these are the two areas in which God will protect us.
The phrase "shall keep" is a military term meaning to watch over intently. The believers at Philippi or even at Colosse were very familiar with this word because they lived in provinces where Roman soldiers were stationed to keep watch over the entire city so that the residents were safely protected from their enemies. So the residents living within the compound, they are free from the worries and anxieties of the enemies attacking them because there will be these Roman soldiers on guard. This is a wonderful picture of God's peace watching over us, over our hearts and minds, so that the enemies like worries, anxieties, confusion, doubts and fears will not creep in and overcome us.
As believers, you and I are at peace with God. As far as our salvation is concerned, we are not God's enemies. We are the children of God, but we do not always enjoy the peace of God. And the reason is because we allow sin to creep into our lives. We allow worries and anxiety to trouble our hearts and minds.
Therefore, the command given is let the peace of God keep your hearts and minds. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts or take control of your hearts. Not the situations you are facing, but God Himself and His peace shall rule in your heart.
Each time we trust in the Almighty God and we focus on Him, we have this peace promised here—the peace that passeth all understanding. It is as if the peace of God is on duty to protect our hearts and minds. But each time we take our eyes away from Him, that is when we are left to a chaotic and troubled heart and mind, worries and anxieties will creep in. And the truth is that we do not have to.
Lastly, what is the ultimate source of this peace? The end of Philippians 4:7 says "through Christ Jesus." In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul had used this phrase "in Christ" or "through Christ" or "in Him" or "through Him" almost 150 times.
Some people have this misconception that to be a Christian means coming to church or to be baptised or to perform some rituals. The answer is no. To be a Christian means you and Christ have become one. You are in Christ Jesus. Once you are united with Him, you can never be separated from Him.
Remember Romans 8:38-39 says, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." It is always in Christ or through Christ. And God has specially placed us into His body, the church, where the peace of God also rules in the hearts of other believers.
I'd like you to consider this fact. Sometimes we hear of a believer who has just undergone a major surgery. It is life and death. And he trusts in the Lord over the surgery. And then he says, ‘It is well with my soul.’ That is a wonderful testimony to the peace of God ruling in his heart. And then we hear of a sister in Christ who has lost her husband and she trusts in the Lord over that precious loss, and she says, ‘It is well with my soul.’ That is also a wonderful testimony of the peace of God ruling in her heart.
If every one of us were to manifest or demonstrate this peace of God ruling in our hearts, what a beautiful picture that will be. It would be on a scale unimaginable. So it is not by chance nor coincidence that we are placed in a local church like this, because it is only in the church that we can see and experience the peace of God in our lives and in the lives of others. And through fellowship we are being encouraged how the peace of God is able to rule over all our hearts. That was why Paul said this is the reason why you are called in a body, the church. And “so be ye thankful”, be thankful.
Dear friend, maybe soon some of us would encounter certain adversities that we have never experienced before. Or we may have to make some important decisions that will alter our lives tremendously. Recently someone said to me that today nobody is concerned about the COVID-19 anymore. Well, it may return with a different strain of virus and then devastate the world with such an unprecedented scale that is different from the previous ones.
Who can ever fathom what will happen in the future? Are you troubled? The real challenge of Christian living is not to eliminate every uncomfortable situation from our lives. That is not God's will. As long as we live in this world, there will be troubles. There will be afflictions, pains and trials. It is inevitable. The real challenge is that in the midst of difficult situations, we trust in Jesus Christ, the source of our peace, the Prince of Peace, who bore our sins on the cross of Calvary, reconciling us to God.
[1:18:10]
Jesus said in John 16:33, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." When you have Jesus Christ and when you cling onto Him, you have the peace of God. As the saying goes, peace is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of God in the midst of troubles.
There will always be troubles in the world, in the church, in our homes, in our individual lives that will bring all kinds of anxieties. Dear friend, do not let troubles and anxieties choke you, suffocate you, and then paralyse you. But let the peace of God rule in your heart.
This morning if you are troubled with certain things happening in your life and you are starting to be anxious, God says to you, ‘Stop it and come to Me. Bring all your worries, anxieties, and cares to Me through prayers, supplications, and requests, mingled with thanksgiving. And I will give you My peace that passeth all understanding that will protect your hearts and your minds. All that is possible only through My Son Jesus Christ. If you want to come to Me, if you want My peace, you only have to go to Him.’
As believers, I pray that all of us would run to Him when we are troubled, especially when it begins with our minds and our hearts. Don't run to the trouble. Don't face the trouble trusting in your own strength, but trust in the source, the ultimate source of peace, Jesus Christ, who loves you perfectly. Run to Him and then the peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds. Let us give thanks to God.
Our Father in heaven, we give Thee thanks for enabling us to study the book of Colossians. And by Thy providence, we have come to Colossians 3:14-15. And we pray that we will take heed of what Thou hast recorded for us and that we may put into application what we have learned: that we be united in love, that our fellowship be one that is motivated by love.
And we also pray that we will not succumb to the cares of this world, neither the worries or anxieties that would often creep into our minds and then choke, suffocate and then paralyse us. But we let the peace of God take control of our hearts and minds. And we do that through prayers, supplications, making requests, with thanksgiving. And we trust and believe that the Almighty God will most certainly keep His promise that Thy peace shall guard and keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. All to the glory of Thy precious name. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.
[1:23:25]