Get Rid of It

 

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices.

Colossians 3:5-9

Today I have been studying Colossians 3. I first remember this passage from right after I had become a Christian and someone had challenged my daughter at the school lunch table saying, “The Bible doesn’t say anything about cussing.” We were sure it must but we had no idea where.

At that time we had no bible study tools in our home. Our only concordance was in the back of one Bible. We started our search with cuss, nothing. We tried “curse” and “cursing.” The Bible talks about curses but not the kind we were looking for. We tried “speech” and then finally hit paydirt in Colossians 3 with “language.” Colossians 3:8 in the NIV says, But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these, anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.” Victory! My daughter was equipped to win the argument.

I now see how shallow my understanding was then. If we go back to verse 5 (at the top of the page) we can see that Paul was instructing the Colossian believers about how to live as Christians. In verse 1 he says if we are raised with Christ then we are to seek the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. I was not just supposed to help my daughter win this argument, I was to get rid of my own sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry as well as my anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language.

Most of us can look at that list and come out looking pretty good. God’s standard isn’t “pretty good”, it’s perfect (Matthew 5:48, You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect). So, how do we get rid of sins like these?

God is so good. Jesus says in John 14:16 that He will ask the Father and He will give us a Helper, the Holy Spirit, to be with us forever. Is that all there is to it? A Christian won’t do these things because we have the Holy Spirit? Paul is addressing his comments to Christians, so that can’t be it.

Paul’s words to “rid yourselves of” or “put away” these sinful behaviors hand us some responsibility in our spiritual growth and obedience. God is gentle and will not force Himself to be heard. If we will put our minds on things above we will want what he wants for us and we will put away sinful behaviors as they are revealed to us. Even this will not promise obedience. Sometimes we are just blind to areas of weakness and sin.

In other words as we read the words of Colossians 3 and go through this list we need to think about what these sins might look like in our lives. Most who read this are not going to be involved in adulterous relationships (though statistically it is probable that some are!). Adultery is not the only sexual immorality or impurity from God’s perspective. How about trashy novels? Pornography? Flirtatious behavior? Maybe anger and rage are someone’s downfall. Many people hold it together great at work and in the church but go home and unload on their spouses or children. It’s as much sin at home as it is anywhere else.

How about filthy language for you? Cuss words, tasteless jokes, sexual innuendo? In our big snow I heard a neighbor yell at his five year old son, “What the *&@# don’t you understand about what I just said?” It was filthy and that child could have heard the same question with as much impact without the filthy language.

Let’s examine our daily behaviors and decide what we need to be rid of – and then rid ourselves of it!