If you remember from last week, we looked at 1 John 2:1-6, and the final verse is a sermon unto its own, and so I decided to go ahead and refrain from talking about that last week, and do that as a separate sermon for this week.
If you have your Bibles, you can follow me there. I’m going to reread that to you once more as we start today. 1 John 2, the first six verses. And if you have a bookmark, please put one in Colossians 3, and we’ll read the first 17 verses from there.
As you’re turning to 1 John first, let me read to you a couple of illustrations that I found that go with today’s sermon:
When the wife of missionary Adoniram Judson told him that a newspaper article likened him to some of the apostles, Judson replied, “I do not want to be like Paul or any mere man. I want to be like Christ. I want to follow Him only, copy His teachings, drink in His Spirit, and place my feet in His footprints. Oh, to be more like Christ!”
Second, On a wall near the main entrance to the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, is a portrait with the following inscription:
“James Butler Bonham; no picture of him exists. This portrait is of his nephew, Major James Bonham, deceased, who greatly resembled his uncle. It is placed here by the family that people may know the appearance of the man who died for freedom.”
Do you see where I’m going with this? No literal portrait of Jesus exists either. But the likeness of the Son who makes us free can be seen in the lives of His true followers.
So let’s take a look at our first scripture today, 1 John Chapter 2, verses 1-6:
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
So that one verse–verse 6–is what we are going to examine today. How in the world do we live as Jesus did? Like I said last week, verses 3-5 are hard enough. We don’t always do as God commands; we are not capable of it, completely. In fact, Paul, who wrote half of the New Testament, said this in Romans 7: 21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
As I did last week, I found a quote from a classic Contemporary Christian song. Here’s one from Petra that says: “Sometimes I feel like Jekyll and Hyde, Two men are fighting a war inside; One gives, one takes, I have to decide; Sometimes I feel like Jekyll and Hyde.”
So how can we live as Christ? Again, Paul, who admitted he was imperfect and struggled with sin, said to the Corinthian church: “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”
I often quote from R.C. Sproul. He passed away in 2017, so a man by the name of Nathan Bingham, replaced him on his “Renewing Your Mind,” broadcast. He said, “Live in such a way that if you share the gospel with someone, they’re not surprised that you are a Christian.”
Another person I often quote, who also passed away a few years before Sproul did–back in 1892, by the name of Charles Spurgeon, said, “The Bible is not the light of the world. It is the light of the Church. But the world does not read the Bible; the world reads Christians. [As Jesus said] You are the light of the world.”
So we are not only to live as Christ for our own sake, but we bear a responsibility to others if we call ourselves Christians. Have you ever wondered what the word, Christian means in its true definition? Today, it simply means a follower of Christ. But its original definition, when the term was first coined during the time period of the Book of Acts, was a more derogatory term which meant ‘little Christs.’
The apostles and early church followers did everything they could to emulate Christ. That’s how they got that name.
It reminds me of that verse in Ephesians which says:
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
Oh boy–first we have to be imitators of Paul, then imitators of Christ, and now imitators of God the Father? Yes. Jesus said, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
I see now why so many people just give up going to church and living their lives their own way. It’s impossible, isn’t it?
Thank God for his amazing grace.
Let’s turn to Colossians Chapter 3, and read the first 17 verses. This is where we’re going to go for the rest of our sermon today. I know, 17 verses is quite a lot, and I’ll try to keep it brief this morning.
1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
This is one of those passages where the verses seem to be arranged rather haphazardly, so if we go down to verse 9, beginning with the second half of that verse and continuing to the end of verse 11, we read, “since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”
So a couple of things that I want to point out from this is that we have–past tense–taken off our old self and put on our new self. Think of baptism–the image of the water as the Holy Spirit, and we lean backwards as a symbol of dying to our old self, immersed in the Holy Spirit and being raised anew, drenched with the Spirit as a new creation.
It is a public declaration of who we are now in Christ–we have crossed over from becoming orphans of God to becoming his child–or a little Christ. It’s a wonderful ceremony that symbolizes taking off or dying to our old self and having put on the new self.
But the passage in Colossians doesn’t end there. This is our hope for those of us who fail every day at imitating Christ. Paul says that the new self, “is being renewed [present tense] in the knowledge and the image of its Creator.”
So ‘be holy as I am holy; be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect,’ isn’t so scary after all. We are being renewed in the image of Christ and our Father in Heaven.
Something that I’ve said many times, and I’m going to say it throughout this sermon, is that our Christian life is a process, a journey, a personal walk with Christ at our own pace.
So when do we get to the point where we’re perfect? Never on this earth. Only when we shed this shell and are no longer, literally, in the flesh. We are now, in the meantime, only righteous because God declared us righteous when we accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.
Until then, we are to grow and mature into Christlikeness, not because we have to, but hopefully because we want to.
I was thinking about this just the other day. Do the people at work wonder what makes me different? Is it because I can’t do this or that? Hopefully, they see that it’s because I live in Christ, therefore I don’t want to do this or that. I am immersed in a whole other lifestyle. How can I imitate Christ to those around me, so that they don’t see a religious person or a preacherman as they call me, but Christ?
How can we, as James said, live as Jesus did?
Our new self is being renewed–again, that is in the present tense, not the past, not the future, but we are presently being renewed day by day in the knowledge and in the image of our Creator.
I like how the Amplified Bible puts it: And have clothed yourselves with the new [spiritual self], which is [ever in the process of being] renewed and remolded into [fuller and more perfect knowledge upon] knowledge after the image (the likeness) of Him Who created it.
Let’s move on to verses 12-14:
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
For the sake of brevity, I’m not going to go into this phrase, but if you have time later today, take a moment and ponder what it means to be “God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved.” That is another sermon unto itself.
But let’s take a look at the next phrase, “clothe yourself with,” or some translations might say, “put on.” That is a deliberate act that we must do. It’s part of the journey. You want to be Christlike, live as Jesus? You must intentionally do this, not just nod your head in agreement, as a lot of pew sitters do. We must seek renewal from the Holy Spirit and ask for his help in committing ourselves to be more unlike ourselves.
Precept Austin writes: So wrap these traits around yourself. Become so immersed in Christ, so focused on Him, that you resemble Him in your thoughts, words and deeds (this is essentially a description of the lifelong process of sanctification). Don’t worry, God will give us plenty of opportunities to practice conforming to the image of His Son (Ro 8:29–note).
Going back to the late, late Charles Spurgeon again, He said:
“This is what you have got to wear, even on the outside—to put it on… It is to be the very dress you wear. These are the sacred vestments of your daily priesthood.”
If you were to look at these traits and combine them all together, they would be traits of the heart. A changed and renewed heart. I’m reminded of the message God gave to Israel through the prophet Ezekiel:
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will save you from all your uncleanness.
Notice how this is a work of God, not the work of man. Our job is to be willing to let God clothe us with what He desires to wrap around us. Remember last week, we talked about Joseph and the coat of many colors? What gift does God want us to wear? A new heart that will produce the fruit of the Spirit.
But that’s not the end. The very next two verses say this: 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
As we talked about last week, this is a give-and-take relationship. It’s not about religion, it’s about a relationship. When Evelyn trains horses, it’s not “do this, do that.” It’s a relationship that she develops with the horse. When she rides a horse, it isn’t “go here, go there,” they’re in tandem with each other. And so it should be in our relationship with Christ. How do we live as Christ? By living in Christ and he in us. Working in tandem together.
Conclusion:
Let’s take a look at the rest of our passage, verses 15-17:
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
You’ll notice right off the bat, it’s another give and take. The very first words in verses 15 and 16 are ‘let’ or ‘allow.’ This is a choice. God is not going to do anything in you that you don’t want him to do–believe it or not. God is a gentleman, and he respects our wishes. When I mentioned a few minutes ago about Christians who walk away from the faith–that’s their choice and God allows it–just like the father in the Prodigal Son story.
So Paul here is saying we have to deliberately allow God to do what he wants within us. In verse 16 he says, paraphrasing, that we should be open to receiving the message of Christ and allow it to dwell within us and among us richly.
Have you ever experienced the richness of the message of Christ? Like the rich, rich soil here in the Finger Lakes. Picture those who live on the farms and the vineyards here. We are to take residence on this fertile soil of God’s word. Or you could say it another way, like the illustration of the vine and the branches.
I did a sermon on ‘the vine and the branches’, and I did another one on the soil. I may do those again sometime.
Jesus said: “4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”
Remember the fruit of the Spirit that I mentioned a few minutes ago? How do we bear the fruit of the Spirit?
Jesus explains in the next verse:
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
There it is again. How can we live as Jesus did? Ironically, by being dependent on Christ. I think that’s what a lot of Christians miss. We cannot do it by ourselves. We may think we can. We may live good lives as the world defines good. We may do good deeds once in a while. But can we be holy? That’s a whole other question that the world doesn’t seem to know anymore unless it’s followed by a swear word. Even some churches don’t mention that word anymore.
How can we be holy as He is holy? We can only be holy through the redeeming work of the cross, and then our lives change step by step as we begin a walk with him to become more like Him.
Steven Cole notes that: while no one can walk perfectly as Jesus did in His humanity, “everyone who claims to abide in Christ should have the same focus and direction, not to act in independence from God, but in total dependence on Him….
“(Spiritual) Walking is not as spectacular or swift as running, leaping, or flying, but it is a steady, sure movement in one direction. It implies progress toward a destination or goal. A walk is made up of many specific steps, but it points to the overall tenor or general quality of a life, not to any one step. To walk as Jesus walked means that our lives should be characterized by daily dependence on God, submission to Him, and obedience to His will.
[That’s how Jesus walked on this earth–in tandem with the Father and Holy Spirit]
Steven Cole goes on to say that: Our overall aim in life will be to seek first His kingdom and righteousness (Mt 6:33). We will seek to please Him by our thoughts, words, and deeds (Col 1:10, Eph 5:10). While we will never perfectly walk as Jesus walked, it should be our constant aim and effort to do so.”
Let me read to you two more quotes before we close:
Warren Wiersbe said: To abide in Christ means to depend completely on Him for all that we need in order to live for Him and serve Him. It is a living relationship….
Paul expresses this experience perfectly [when he said] “Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20). This is a reference to the work of the Holy Spirit…..Christ lives out His life through us by the power of the Spirit, who lives within our bodies.
[I like how he puts that. God doesn’t just live within our hearts, he lives within our bodies–he consumes us–in us, on us, through us, all around us]
He goes on to say: It is not by means of imitation that we abide in Christ and walk as He walked. No, it is through incarnation: through His Spirit, “Christ liveth in me.” To walk in the light is to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
And one more from the late, late, late Charles Spurgeon, who said, “If any man abides in me, he shall bring forth fruit.” Fruits of righteousness are good works, and they are evidences that we abide in Christ.”
So you see, the only way we can live as Jesus did is to continually live in him and through him, step by step, day by day, moment by moment.
Featured Image by MindfulnessAcademy12 from Pixabay
