Chapter 6
Paul first of all says, “have nothing to do with sexual sin” [verse 5].What does he mean by that? The Colossians lived in a culture where sinful sexual practices were associated with the religious worship of their day. It would have been very easy to get carried along with these common, liberal beliefs and carried them into the church. We too live in a culture where there is much confusion about what is right or wrong within our sexual expressions. Indeed there has not been a time when it has been more necessary for the Christian Church to be distinctive and clear in its understanding of this very serious topic. Here is what I believe to be the clear teaching of Christ and the New Testament:
“All sexual expression and activity must take place within a monogamous heterosexual marriage. Any other form of sexual activity can be defined as sexual sin.”
I do not believe that it can be clearer than that. It would be quite wrong to scapegoat some forms of sexual sin, like homosexuality and be relatively soft on others. All sexual sin comes under the one umbrella and we are encouraged, by the New Testament to call it for what it is – sinful, and therefore debilitating to the Christian character – and something that must be stopped, repented of, and the power of Christ sought to keep us from entering into it once again. I could go on to examine all forms of sexual behaviour in detail and to ask whether or not they were acceptable or not. Indeed, we live in a culture that is tolerant of sexual freedom of expression, but I would go back to the clear statement already made, and if a person in the church is indulging in any form of sexual activity out-with that definition, we must call it sexual sin, repent of it and seek the help of Christ to maintain our integrity.
However, just in case we miss the clear implication of what Paul means, he uses other terms to drive home his message. He knows, that particularly, though not exclusively, men are drawn in by sexual temptation and this has the potential to gravely weaken their Christian witness. We might reasonably call this “The Samson Syndrome”. We might stop the act of sinful sexual behaviour but retain, in our emotional and thought life, what the New Testament refers to as “lust.” Jesus identifies lust as the same as the act. To lust after someone is to commit the act in our minds, and in God’s eyes this is just as bad as the physical sin. However, we have to notice a progression of thought. Lust begins with temptation, which leads to desire, which leads to lust. We have to exercise the discipline that deals with our thought life, the moment temptation takes place. Temptation, we cannot help because it can come from at least three different sources. Internally, it comes from “the sinful, earthly things lurking in us.” They will not easily give up their grip on us. If they cannot have us performing the act, they will have us justifying the desire and entertaining lust. As with Jesus, Satanic powers, which are always active against us to weaken our influence in the world, know our weakness and will be happy for Christians to entertain a sinful thought life while maintaining external integrity. We have to be vigilant to this and aware that there is a spiritual warfare in which we must be adequately armed, as Paul suggest in Galatians. We need also to be aware of the powerful influence the media exerts in this respect, with its own moral agendas. Temptation is therefore inevitable, but it is up to us whether we allow our minds or emotions to take sexual lust, in whatever form, to the next step, that inevitably leads to inner justification and a weakening of the mind, the core element in the battle for moral integrity.
Sexual temptation is perhaps the greatest agenda for modern Christian. We live in an age of apparent moral indifference, where we are encouraged to be part of a society with uncontrolled erotic desires and sexual excess. Malcolm Muggeridge, much maligned in the liberal media for his apparently old fashioned views is bang on target when he says that “the orgasm has replaced the cross as the focus of longing and the image of fulfilment”. It is a sad fact of reality that the media depicts any expression of love as immediately leading to the bedroom. Instead David Garland rightly reflects that “the New Testament understands that our sexual expression is not just something that we do; it reflects who we are. Christians are those who always put the rights and needs of others first. They act from love. Many discover too late the difference between lust and love. Lust seeks quick fulfilment and is just as quickly sated. Love takes work and deepens over time. Lust focuses only on the senses, but love uses the senses to cherish the other and to nourish the soul.”
There can be no doubting that there is a whole range of sexual temptations and issues. The current crop of issues includes the whole homosexual debate. While I acknowledge that homosexual practice is wrong, as with any sexual practice out-with a covenant relationship of heterosexual marriage, I admit I am not sure if there is such a thing as homosexual orientation, though there is clearly no homosexual gene. I find R. T. Kendall helpful:
[we must be] Accepting your sexuality. I remember one Christian pastor who said he had prayed in tears ‘with all my heart every night of the year’ to be delivered from his homosexual orientation. I wish it were otherwise, but one’s sexuality usually does not change with one’s conversion – or even being doubly dedicated to Christ. What does change is the ability to resist temptation through the power of the Holy Spirit. I’m sorry, but whatever one’s sexual orientation, he or she does not have to give in to temptation. There are robust heterosexual males who resist temptation to have sex outside of marriage every day of the year, year after year – resisting solely for the glory of God. There are also many gay people who do the same. Accepting your sexuality without sinning is pleasing to God.
There are many reason why people might indulge in inappropriate sexual activities:
They may have been sexually abused and that leaves its mark on their lives.
They may be looking for intimacy that was missing in their own lives, and looking in the wrong places.
They may be escaping from pressure and indulging in a whole range of sexual activities.
They may have become addicted to sex – starting perhaps at the level of pornography and progressing to other things.
They may be in it for the thrill – especially married men or women who feel they are losing significance in other areas of their lives.
That is not an exhaustive list, but the sad fact is that Christians are as prone to be drawn into the full range of inappropriate and sinful experiences as are non-Christians. This is one of those areas where the principle of putting to death, and continually putting to death, what is clearly wrong must come into play,
The sins of “greed and covetousness” are put together [verse 5].
How do we define greed?
“An intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power or food.” New Oxford Dictionary
By that definition, the person who is greedy lacks contentment. Paul tells us that “godliness with contentment is great gain.” What is it that we are to be content with?
- We are to be content with our possessions. If God blesses us with more than we ought to be prepared to bless those have little or nothing with our extra wealth. We are to enjoy wealth but not be greedy. Andrew Carnegie said that it was a sin for a man to die rich.
- We are to be content with our circumstances, unless God chooses to change them. We are to be content with our spouse, our children, where God has placed us in life and what he has asked us to do.
- We are not to be greedy for power. Inevitably people who seek power for its own sake are poisoned by it. Only God can handle power without becoming corrupted by it. The Christian must always have the mind and attitude of a servant, whatever their calling.
- We are not to be greedy for status, through work, education or social-climbing. Jesus never craved status – he served God and he served us. Many of the Pharisees, his arch rivals were heavily into status and were principally concerned about what people thought of them. They may have protested that this was not the case, but Jesus exposed their inner hypocrisy.
- We are not to be greedy for food. One of the great problems of the few prosperous countries in the world is that so many [an increasing number year on year] are not satisfied to eat enough or maybe a little bit more food. They desire an excess. Illnesses linked to overweight will at least rival those associated with heavy drinking and smoking – the two current principal causes of death in Scotland. Let’s not mince words here – to be greedy for food and to be well overweight is a sin. People may say that they are not harming anyone but themselves, but their over-indulgence is costing someone in a deprived country.
Paul then moves on to the sin of covetousness. What does this mean?
“To show a great desire to possess something, typically something belonging to someone else.” Oxford English Dictionary
Of the five commandments [see Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5] that relate to how we are to treat other people [The first 3 speak of our relationship to God, the 4th has to do with the Sabbath, the 5th concerns honouring our parents and 6-10 are prescriptive of how we are to treat other people] the commandment not to covet is the most extensively stated:
"You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbour’s." Exodus 20:17
To covet therefore is to want to possess what another person has:
It is the desire to have another person’s money or possessions. In a sense that is the inner act of stealing. It is a failure, again, to be content with what we have. It is jealousy that is progressing to greed, that may progress to an actual act of theft. How many people [even Christian] justify taking something from their employer or company on the basis that “they have plenty, and I don’t have enough!” How many of us find ways of justifying false expense claim forms on the basis that our employer can afford it – we covet what he or she or the company has and then we act dishonestly.
We might covet another person’s husband of wife. It is amazing how quickly people tire of their partners and start casting an eye around. They see another person’s partner and they want that other person – that can be lust or wanting to have what that other person has. This kind of coveting is dangerous because it opens the door to relational or sexual sin. “Life would be so much more fun with that other person. Sex would be more frequent and better with that other person. I would get on so much better with that other person.” The list could go on and on, because it is pure fantasy. The grass always appears greener on the other side. I am looking over at my neighbour’s garden and lawn at the moment and it looks so much better than mine. But once I get over there, I will find weeds in the flower beds and moss on the lawn – he will facing the same problems as I face. Why? Because basically it is the same kind of ground we are cultivating. That is true of life. Appearances are deceptive. When we are going through a dry or difficult patch in our relationship we might look at another woman or man and believe that life would be so much better with them. Get up close to them and they are experiencing the same relational difficulties as everyone else.
We might covet another person’s abilities or gifts. One of the wonderful things about life is the rich tapestry of abilities that God has given to every person on the planet. Let’s look at a church for a moment. There are the organisers or administrators– the people who ensure that get things done. There are the people who are not capable of an original idea, but give them a vision and they will work their socks off to make it happen. There are the innovators – they can cast a vision but are hopeless at organisation or getting the job done – however the church would be without direction if they were not in it. There are the teachers who teach the adults and the young. There are the people who take responsibility for the buildings of the church – they are hands on and very practical people who sustain the fabric of the church. The list could go on. Covetousness? It is when one person looks at another and says, “I do not value the gifts God has given me and I want to be like that other person”. I am a teacher/innovator in the church. I would love to be more practical and envy people who are good with their hands – they make me feel so foolish because of their practical abilities. I love worship and wish I had the musical gifts of those who lead worship. I hate to think what state the worship would be in if I was in control – and the fabric of the building if Mr. Fix-it was in charge does not bear thinking about!! Instead of coveting another person’s ability we should simply be grateful for the gifts God has given us and maximise their potential.
We should not covet another person’s status. One of the sad things that has crept into the modern church [perhaps it has always been there] is the worldly attitude of ambition. Ambition is good because it creates a desire for excellence. Ambition in the Christian can be good if it wants to create a degree of excellence that leads to serving others and God’s Kingdom in a more productive way. However when people start chasing status as an end in itself – wanting to be noticed and seeking public acclaim, they have fallen into the trap of the Pharisees. It happens to all of us. We all need to be valued and it is good to be given encouragement that makes a person feel they are doing a good job. But human nature is such that we can overstep the boundary into the wrong kind of ambition – an ambition that leads to self-glorification. Too often I hear people in Christian circles say, “We are doing it for the Lord”. If they have to put it that way 99 times out of 100 they are doing it primarily for themselves – that is not to say that the Lord will not use us when we are chasing our ego – but let’s not take the Lord’s name in vain!! We covet others when we get caught up in this desire to be as significant, or more significant as other people. It is also a fact of life that the Lord has given a place of significance in His Kingdom to people that he can trust with power – people who are not normally into self-gratification. We have to therefore examine our hearts and ask the Lord first of all to humble us, if we want to be used in a significant way in the work of His Kingdom. Only the humble can be trusted with great responsibility in the Kingdom, but they must first be humbled, and that is not always comfortable. Paul recognised that a thorn in the flesh and suffering were part and parcel of his life as a Christian leader – almost certainly because of his incredible potential for self-sufficiency. Do we covet the status of some Christians? We must be prepared to bear the Cross they bear almost daily.
How does Paul finish his definition of the joint and complimentary sins of greed and covetousness? He refers to it as idolatry. The amplified version of the Bible refers to idolatry as “the deifying of self and other created things instead of God”.
When I do not “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” and instead live a life that is self-centred – the greed for material things, personal significance and other people’s status or possessions – I am effectively replacing the Lord from the core of my life and affections with something that is both created and inferior. The logic of what Paul says is therefore clear – I may not be worshipping a crude piece of stone or wood or metal, but more subtly I am living for my own self and personal satisfaction and therefore I am the main focus of my existence. That too is idolatry.
Paul’s declaration in verse 6, after all he has said in the preceding verse is sobering and frightening. Here is how the amplified version translates the verse:
“It is on account of these very sins that the holy anger of God is ever coming upon the sons of disobedience – those who are obstinately opposed to the divine will.”
Surely Paul cannot therefore be speaking to Christians? But he is, and he is warning us that through Christ and his power, wisdom and influence we have been raised up to live a new life. For us to revert back to the old life, or to continue to live in it is inconceivable. But such is the pull of the sinful nature, the lure of the world and the subtly of Satan, we are ever under attack. We have to be on our guard, honest about ourselves and our weaknesses and constantly, through the Holy Spirit, seeking the will and the resources to identify sin and resist temptation.
What Paul is essentially saying is: ‘This is who and what you are in Christ, live a life in accordance with this new identity and calling and do not start to fall back into the old ways that identify you with ungodliness.’
As if to emphasise what he is saying, Paul is very forceful and blunt in how he describes the attitude of God towards sin. William Barclay says this about what is often translated as the wrath rather than the anger of God in verse 6:
“Upon all such things the wrath of God must fall. The wrath of God is simply the rule of the universe that a man will sow what he reaps and that no-one ever escapes the consequences of his sin. The wrath of God and the moral order of the universe are one and the same thing.”
Just in case we try to minimise the seriousness of any of the sins that Paul has so far mentioned, he drives home his point in the following manner:
The world in which we live is basically disobedient to God. It creates and recreates its moral agenda in a manner that is suitable to itself at any given point in time. It does not recognise the legitimacy of the Law of God and his fixed moral agenda for the universe. The essence of the world is disobedience to God – the world may and will not recognise this, but this is God’s opinion.
There is a steadfast and growing obstinacy in our world towards the Gospel of Jesus and its claim upon our lives and the call to discipleship. People are happy with a church that is morally and spiritually neutral. The world loves to hear the church speaking of the unconditional love of God, as if he does not judge what we do and is accepting through grace of every lifestyle. That is a perverse understanding of both God and the Gospel. John 3 says that “God so loved the world that he gave his Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” It does not say, “God unconditionally loved the world that he gave his son so that we might all have eternal life.” God’s love is there but it does have conditions – we only benefit from it by believing in his Son and that implies a complete capitulation of our whole self to him – where he is Lord and we his disciple. The world might want unconditional love and a cheap form of grace, but to live in such obstinacy is to incur the wrath of God.
We are told by Paul that we once walked the way of the world. There is a reflection of Psalm 1 in verse 7.
“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.”
The whole disposition of this man is to have made a conscious choice as to how he will live. The wicked walk in a way that is not pleasing. That is the way that we walked before we committed our lives to following Jesus. Why would we want to go back to living like that? Paul alludes to the sheer inconsistency of going back to a way of life that we made a conscious decision to leave behind.
The wrath of God is already upon people who live in such a way and will one day be fully disclosed in their experience. It therefore makes no sense for the children of God to be living in such a way that displeases God – indeed, that makes him angry with us. We have to set aside any ideas that we have cultivated in our minds that God is some kind of divine sugar daddy who indulges us. He is a responsible parent with the highest of aspirations for us. Though we will never attain perfection, the Lord is not happy with a believer who does not aim high. Think for a moment as a human parent. You have clearly given your child a standard to live to – it is the standard of your home. They know the difference between what pleases you and what does not. How do you feel when they are deliberately careless and inconsistent concerning your standards? Do you feel angry? You have every right to feel that. That is a sign of real love because real love demands the best in another person. You have not stopped loving your child by being angry at them, you are angry with them because you love them.
However, the wrath of God is something that will not be ultimately withheld. We should fear God – have a profound respect for him. Indeed Jesus told us to fear the Lord. A casual indifference to him and his standards is an acceptable to him, should be unacceptable in the modern church and should be unacceptable to us as his people. To have an inconsistent life is also unacceptable. We can use every excuse we like about addictions, upbringing and genetics but the bottom line is that we know the difference between what God wants us to do and what he finds unacceptable. We do have to accept that even at our best we will never be perfect and we glory in the grace of our Lord Jesus and his Cross. But we never use that as an excuse for a poor standard of discipleship.
Having got to the end of the first 7 verses how do I reflect on my own life? A mixture of things. It has reinforced my belief in the significance of the resurrection of Jesus. It has also challenged me about how it should be impacting upon my life. I am saddened to admit that it has not had the impact that thirty years of being a Christian would suggest it should have had. That is not the Lord’s fault. I had all of these divine resources available to me and I reached far too often into myself to try and facilitate what I needed to get me by and face the challenges life placed before me. It has challenged me to look again to the Lord as my sufficiency and to seek him in a way I feel I have not to date. I have struggled with my health, with relationships and with discerning the will of God for the churches I have served – God could have accomplished so much more if I had sought him in my weakness and utilised his power. I very much regret this lack in my life, but feel it is not the final statement of my life and that the Lord has given me another opportunity.
I am also saddened to admit that although I have known the commands of God in my head, and I have known what Jesus requires of me as a disciple, I have not honoured Jesus with a consistently godly life. I have not taken off the old clothes with any consistency and have not shopped with the Holy Spirit to re-clothe myself with godliness as often as I ought. I have not been lethal enough when it came to sin. I have befriended sin too much rather than seen it as a lethal and deadly enemy.
I have to admit that though I have taken a very clear and public stand against some forms of sexual sin, I have not been as consistent in my heart. This has caused me great sadness. I have not been the master of my mind and emotions. I do pray that the Lord will grant that my eyes and my head will be more submitted to the will of my Father.
What of covetousness and greed? I would dearly love to say that there is no way I have struggled here, but that would be a lie. There have been times of great discontentment and too much of a love of money – too much of my security has been derived from what I had or did not have [mostly the latter!!] in my bank balance. I have worried too much instead of trusting my days to my Lord. I have been wrongly ambitious and wanted people to notice me – my ego has got in the way of genuine service to God’s Kingdom, and I grieve that very much.
Honestly? I am a man thoroughly corrupted by sin and the older I get the more I realise its obvious and subtle power and influence. I am more than ever convinced of the desperate need I have of the grace of God – I have no hope of heaven without the grace and mercy of Jesus, but I never want to take them for granted. I sincerely wish I had lived a more consistently godly life, but I recognise that this is probably how most people who have been Christian and Christian leaders for a long time will feel. I do, though, feel hopeful. The great physician of souls and the wonderful potter is not finished with me yet. Despite all of my obvious failings, I know he has achieved good through me and still has good to do through me.