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The Apostle Paul affirmed to the Colossian Church of their lives being hidden in Jesus Christ and that they will all appear with Him in glory. He taught them how they are to steadfastly set their minds on things above where Jesus is and start to forgo their earthly nature.

He used the strong language of putting to death our earthly nature. This continual act of dying to our sinful earthly nature shows how sin that corrupted the world will continue to affect our spiritual walk with Jesus. We must always guard ourselves against the practices of the earthly nature. Just as how death is permanent, so shall our earthly nature be permanently removed from our lives and replaced by the new godly nature given by the Holy Spirit. We will avoid the wrath of God as we allow the Holy Spirit to control our lives.

The earthly nature practices Paul mentioned in Col. 3:5 – “sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry” are all as prevalent today as it was in early Church times. We are “in the world” 6 days a week and in Church on Sundays. It is little wonder that we are constantly bombarded with temptations to give in to these earthly vices. Nevertheless, we have been given the “risen in Christ” power to have victory over sin (Rom. 6:14) because Jesus has already won the victory for us by His death on the cross. Let us not waste this power but instead use it for His glory and our joy.

We will continue to slip and fall here and there but we must be guarded from making this whole cycle a way of life as this grieves the Lord. We must remember that there is no size to sin. Let us not downplay the “smaller” sins that we may deem less punishable – “anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language”. Just as Jesus redefined obedience as to the spirit of the law instead of the letter of the law, we are not just to outwardly behave ourselves but also watch our tongues for out of our heart, the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45). When we discard our old selves and put on our new selves, we become a new people of God who are renewed in spiritual knowledge according to the image of God. God breaks through all the barriers for us as we trust Jesus who is our all in all. We are all the Church of God.