Practical Christian Living
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.
2. The call of God to the Church, His Body.
3. Be ye thankful.
4. Let the Word of God dwell in you richly:
(1) Teaching (2) Admonishing; in hymns and spiritual songs.
1. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts. Our verse opens with this: "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts." We have often heard of a "troubled breast." The Christian should know no such thing, if he is letting peace rule.
The unsaved may be like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, but the Christian has heard Christ say, "My peace I give unto you." We then should let that peace rule in our hearts. We should set "peace" as a sentinel outside the door, and let it "garrison" our hearts; we should also let peace take the reins of control within.
Being justified by faith, "let us have peace." This is a sense of peace with God. He is our peace. He made our peace on Calvary, let us have it. The conflict is over, our sins are gone; under the flag of full pardon we have come to Christ: let us live in the center of His peace.
In our text, however, we have something deeper than the "peace with God," we have "the peace of God." There are no wild storms with dashing waves and blasting winds with God. There are no periods of restlessness, and maddening despair. Let us let the peace of God rule in our hearts.
2. The call of God to His Church. There is something in this peace of God that speaks to the Church. Here is the full command: "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one Body." God seems to be saying that He wants His peace in the one Body, the Church. Saints have been knit together, and built up together into one Body, and God wants that one Body to function in peace. He wants peace to rule and to reign in the Church.
How shameful are the conditions that often baffle us in the midst of the churches. There are strife and contention; there are schism and divisions, and all because we walk as men. Where peace rules there is oneness in the. one body; there is peace in unity, where there is obedience to one headship.
3. "Be ye thankful." A thankless life is not necessarily a life without blessing; it may be a blessed life, which is forgetful of its benefactions. He who has most, may be the least appreciative. A mother who had bestowed all kinds of love and care upon her child for years, said to me, "Oh, if he were only thankful!" A great physician who was indeed a father of marked kindliness to his son, said, "How I wish my son would only tell me he loves me."
Thinkest thou that our God, from whom all of our blessings flow, would not delight in a bit of thanks? Praise is comely. Praise glorifieth God.
4. "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly." The Psalmist said, "Thy Word have I hid in mine heart." That is fine. Here is something better. The Word must dwell in us, richly; that is, in large supply; that is, in the full sweep of its richness.
(1) It should dwell in us, teaching us. We, Mary-like, should sit at His feet as students, and hear His Word.
(2) It shall dwell in us, admonishing us. That is, it should reprove us, and it should encourage us.
(3) It should lead us to singing hymns and spiritual songs. His Word puts gladness into our hearts, and singing into our lips.
I. INSTRUCTIONS TO WIVES (Colossians 3:18)
1. Christianity the liberator of womanhood.
2. The ministrations of women in the Church.
3. The Christian woman should be in subjection.
1. Christianity the liberator of womanhood. There is a little expression in our verse concerning wives. It is in the concluding statement of the verse: "In the Lord." Wives "in the Lord," and wives "in the world" (before the Lord came to give them their emancipation from the thralldom of an unbearable yoke), present two distinct conceptions of wifehood.
Before Christianity came to break their shackles, women were the slaves, the chattels, and the shrinking burdenbearers of their husbands. When Christ came, womanhood and wifehood were placed back in their God-destined and God-purposed glory.
2. The ministrations of women in the Church. The women that publish the glad tidings are a great host. In the Old Testament, under the rule of God, womanhood held a high and holy relationship among the people of God.
In the days of Christ woman showed her true spiritual value. In the Early Church woman took her place as a prominent factor in religious life. Here are a few expressions worthy of study:
"Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the Church which is at Cenchrea: * * assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many."
"Greet Priscilla and Aquilla my helpers in Christ Jesus: who have for my life laid down their own necks."
"Greet Mary, who bestowed much labour on us."
"Salute * * Junia," my kinsman, and my fellowprisoner, " * * of note among the Apostles."
3. The Christian woman should be in subjection. Womanhood is no less beautiful, and no less helpful in service because she is called to be in subjection to her husband, any more than the Church is less glorious because it is in subjection to Christ. The yoke we bear as Christians is easy, and the burden is light. So also is the Divinely placed yoke upon wifehood easy and light.
II. INSTRUCTIONS TO HUSBANDS (Colossians 3:19)
1. The Bible oneness of husband and wife.
2. The establishment of a new home.
3. The husband should love his wife, as Christ loved the Church.
1. The Bible oneness of husband and wife. "Each for the other, and both for God." God's plan in the home. It is not the husband going his way, and the wife going hers; but the two going together.
Here is an ode we have written to husbands and wives
We've journeyed together, we two;
We've journeyed together
In all kinds of weather,
O'er moor, fen, and heather,
'Neath dark skies and blue.
And now we are facing, we two;
And now we are facing
The future, and tracing
Events interlacing
O God, keep us true!
We'll build up our altar, we two;
We'll build up our altar,
Stand firm as Gibraltar,
And nevermore falter,
The coming years through.
2. The establishment of a new home. Home life is indispensably linked to the thought of marriage and of husband and wife. "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife." The breaking up of the parental home means the establishment of a new home. The son of the first home, now grown, becomes the head of the new home.
3. The husband should love his wife, as Christ loved the Church. The authority of Christ over His Church is absolute; yet Christ loves the Church yea, He gave Himself for it once, and now He ever liveth to prove Himself a blessing to His people. So should, and so do, true husbands love their wives. They live to spend and to be spent for their wives. They who are "lords" become the servants; girding themselves to serve their wives.
III. INSTRUCTIONS TO CHILDREN (Colossians 3:20)
1. Children should obey their parents in all things.
2. Children should be dedicated to the Lord.
3. Children should be full of trust and faith in Christ Jesus.
1. Children should obey their parents in all things. God does not make arbitrary rules, foreign to wisdom and reason. God's laws are all for our profit. Children are to obey their parents because this is right. The shoulders of the child are not broad enough, nor his reasoning power strong enough, to "carry on" in the world.
Thus, the needs of children, and their call to obey their parents, adds responsibility to the parents. If we must decide the walk and ways of our children, we must choose wisely. We must bring up our children in the way that they should go.
2. Children should be dedicated to the Lord. Hannah brought her child, Samuel, and said, "For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him: therefore, also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth."
Joshua said, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." God said of Abram, "I know him, that he will command his children * * after him."
Let fathers, therefore, and mothers, bring their children to God, and give them to Him in fullest consecration.
3. Children should be full of trust and faith in Christ Jesus. Children should obey their parents in the Lord. Even above the authority of the parent, is the authority of the Lord. That means simply this: The child should be taught to recognize the supreme authority of God, and he should, moreover, be taught to early seek the Lord. The little children delighted in climbing up into the arms of their Lord and Lover. Christ said, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not." It is to such an One that children should still come, and come believing.
IV. INSTRUCTIONS TO FATHERS (Colossians 3:21)
1. The father should be the teacher of his children.
2. The father should be an example to his children.
3. The father should not provoke his children to wrath.
1. The father should teach his children. To the father God says, "And thou shalt teach them (My Words) diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."
The father was even commanded to write the Words of God upon the posts of his house, and upon the gates thereof.
The difficulty in child life today, lies in the fact that children are too often wholly neglected as to any spiritual instruction at home. They are left to bring up themselves to walk in the sight of their eyes, and in the ways of their hearts. Some parents give more attention to raising their pigs than to rearing their children.
2. The father should be an example to his children. It is not enough to say, "Do thou this," or "Do thou that." It should be said, "Come thou with me." "Do as I do; say what I say."
We should not send our children to Sunday School and church, we should take them. Yea, we should have the family altar, as a small church in our own home.
No man, as a father, can expect to lift his children to higher planes than those upon which he himself walks.
No mother can hope to guide her children into holiness if she, herself, is unholy.
3. The father should not provoke his children unto wrath. This is the command of our text, and the command is not without reason. A father should not be harsh or unkind in his instructions. He may demand obedience of his children, but he may not "yell it out" and frighten his wee ones into subjection. He may chasten his children for their disobedience, but he may not chasten them in anger. God give us "lovers" among fathers.
V. INSTRUCTIONS FOR SERVANTS (Colossians 3:22)
1. Servants should not serve with eyeservice.
2. Servants should not be men pleasers, but serve in singleness of heart, fearing God.
3. Servants should adorn the Gospel of Christ.
1. Servants should not serve with eyeservice. How striking is the admonition of our Lord to servants. Some may not wish to count them in at all, or, at least, they may want to place them in a separate compartment. Let us remember the admonition of the Lord through Paul: "There is no respect of persons with God." Let us remember just one other phrase: "Those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour."
Now here is the Lord's command to servants, "Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice."
2. Servants should not be men pleasers. Servants seeking to please God, in singleness of heart, will find themselves abundantly enabled to please their masters. A servant who knows not God will be unprofitable, because of his or her godlessness; while that same servant, serving God faithfully, will be made profitable to his master.
"In singleness of heart," serving the Lord. Here are words that carry great weight. Service should not be "eye-service," pleasing men, but heart service, with one underlying principle (singleness), to serve the Lord. How sublime that, in serving one another, we may serve God; and in serving God, we will the better serve one another.
3. Servants should adorn the Gospel of God. This is taught in Titus. How glorious it is to think that true service to masters, as outlined in Colossians, means "adorning the Gospel," as in the Book of Titus.
Here God places a dignity upon servanthood that is not placed on any other phase of life. This is, perhaps, because we are all servants to Him.
VI. INSTRUCTIONS IN GENERAL (Colossians 3:23)
1. Whatsoever ye do, do unto the Lord, and not unto men.
2. Whatsoever ye do, do heartily.
3. Second-mile serving.
1. "Whatsoever ye do, do * * as to the Lord, and not unto men." It is written, "Let no man glory in men." If I be yet the pleaser of men, how can I be the pleaser of God? Christ made Himself of no reputation. He said, "I do always those things that please Him."
If we delight in being called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi, and desire the uppermost seats in the synagogues; and if we seek the greetings of men in the market places, we will find ourselves more and more willing to crucify the Lord of Glory. How many serve men more than God? How many love the praise of men more than the praise of God?
2. "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily." After all, there is only one kind of service that is truly acceptable to God that is a willing, happy, hearty service. Walking and living in the "second-mile" life is the only way to receive God's "Well done."
Any service that is done from duty, or under the law of command, be it ever so faithfully or fully done, loses its sublimity. A gift of necessity is not a pleasing gift. God loveth a cheerful giver; He also loves a cheerful worker.
3. Second-mile serving. What say you? Let us all pass out of the mile of duty, the commanded mile; and if anyone, even the Lord, ask us to go a mile, let us go twain.
VII. THE TIME OF REWARDS (Colossians 3:24-25)
1. God is not unfaithful to forget.
2. The reward of the inheritance.
3. Wrongdoing also has its rewards.
1. God is not unfaithful to forget. We now come to the great finale on Colossians 3:1-25 : "Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ."
The expression "Ye serve the Lord Christ" seems to suggest that God is not One to forget the love-life of His servants. In Hebrews it is written: "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work, and labour of love."
God is watching from above. He sees and knows it all. Soon He will come, and His reward He will bring with Him. We shall all receive according to the things we have done in the body.
2. The reward of the inheritance. The inheritance of saints in light, is of grace; the reward of that inheritance is another matter it is of works. Think you that our God will not repay us for the life we have lived, in that we have ministered in His Name, and do minister? To the true shepherd who feeds the flock of God, not for the love of money, not as lording it over God's heritage, but as being an ensample to the flock, the Lord says, "When the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away,"
3. Wrongdoing also has its rewards. Our verse concludes with the words, "But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done." Otherwise, God is not a just Judge; otherwise, God is a respecter of persons. Thinkest thou that a carnal, world-centered Christian shall enter into the joy of his Lord along with the faithful, Christ-centered Christian? Nay. We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ that we may receive the things done in the body, whether we have done good or bad.
AN ILLUSTRATION
George Truett with whom I spent many hours in prayer during the old college days at Baylor University tells how a life wholly on God's altar creates power in prayer and in all Christian graces:
A cattleman invited him to go out into the wide fields of his mighty ranch at the conclusion of a meeting. Said that rancher: "I have always considered these lands mine, these cattle mine, those buildings mine, but now I know that none of them are mine but His. Preacher, you make a prayer for me and turn them over to God for me." The preacher did it, and then the cattleman said: "I want you to make another prayer and tell God there is that bad boy of mine. I can't do anything with him. He is the bane of my life and everybody else's. I've tried my best and failed. You tell God, that I turn that boy over to Him too." And the preacher prayed again and dedicated that boy to God. That night in the meeting, to the surprise of all, that wicked young man was saved.
Parents, believe me, your surrender is going to mean the salvation of those loved ones. It is also going to mean a change in those Sunday School classes. It is going to mean victory where there has been nothing but defeat. It is going to mean a change in business, a change in everything. It is going to mean Heaven all the way to Heaven and glory all the way to Glory. God grant it may be so for us all henceforth.