The Word of the Lord this evening from the book of Colossians, the book of Colossians and chapter 3, we'll read from Paul's letter in chapter 3 of Colossians, verses 1 through 14, looking more carefully tonight at verses 12 through 14. Colossians 3, 1-14, this is God's Word. Since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these, anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge. in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. So far, the reading of God's Word. Let us pray together. Your grace is what we plead, Father, to hear an exhortation from Your Word this evening. And also, I pray for Your guidance. Protect Your servant from error. And might we be mutually encouraged from Your Word, for Jesus' sake. Amen. A little story for you, especially for the children. There was a great king in a great land who had lots and lots of money. And he went away, he decided to move away one day to a different land. And on his way out, he decided, of course, that he should collect all the money that his servants owed him. He had a lot of money in the time he was there. So, of course, people would come to him when they needed some money. They needed to buy some food or they needed to buy something for their families. So, all these servants owed him money and he went out one day and he found a servant who owed him $100,000. $100,000. And he went up to the servant and he asked for his payment and the servant couldn't pay him. He didn't have the money. And the king said, well, if you can't pay me, I'll tell you what you're going to do. I'm going to sell you and I'm going to sell your wife and I'm going to sell your children and with the money that I earn, I'll pay myself back. How does that sound? And the servant said, fell on his face. He said, no, great king, I can't do that. I don't have the money. Please, I don't want to give my life up and my wife and my kids to pay the debt. And the great king said, okay, I'll tell you what. I feel in my gut that I love you and I know that you owe me the money but consider the debt canceled. You don't have to pay me back the $100,000 you're free to go. Pretty nice king, huh? Well, interesting thing that happened. Now the servant went out the next day and he found another servant who was just like him that owed him 50 cents. And he went up to that servant and he said, I want my 50 cents. And the servant was really poor. He didn't even have 50 cents to pay the guy back. You know what happened? The guy said, you know what? You're going to go to jail until you can pay me my 50 cents back. The servant demanded his 50 cents and he threw the guy in jail. Kids, what do you think about this story? It's shocking, isn't it? It's shocking that after the king, who was so kind to his servant, by forgiving him of the $100,000 that he owed him, that the servant could be so cruel and turn around and demand the 50 cents from a guy and when he couldn't come up with it, he threw him into jail. He was a servant just like him. How unloving and unforgiving. Well, this evening, we look at what Paul wrote to the Colossian church and what the Holy Spirit has to say tonight to the church in Escondido, the church that meets in Escondido, about showing true love toward one another. And true love is an imitation of the love that God has shown to us as His beloved children. Just like God the Father loved and forgave us through Jesus Christ, we were reminded by Paul that we must love and forgive each other. We'll look at this true Christian love tonight. First, at what true love is and how to understand it. Secondly, at how we're commanded to show the true love that God requires. And last, the place where we are to show this true love. Well, in the first place, we should note that the true love that Paul talks about in Colossians 3, 12-14 is different from many other kinds of love or ideas about love that are floating around out there in the church and in the world even sometimes. There's only one kind of true love. And as we've said, that's an imitation of the love that God has shown to us as his beloved children. And in order to get this point, we need to see how Paul addresses this commandment or this idea of showing true love to one another and the way in which Paul writes about it, the way in which Paul tells us now to love one another will teach us an important difference about true love, true Christian love from other kinds of love or other understandings of love that are out there in the world. Well, take a step back with me and let's review a little bit about how our passage this evening fits in the context of the book or relates to the other parts of the letter of Colossians. You know, broadly speaking, in the book of Colossians, there are two main sections. Now, they're not hard lines between the two. There's plenty of overlap, but there's two main sections. And the first section is the doctrine or the teaching section and that talks about Christ and His salvation which He has earned for His people. Paul introduces himself in chapter 1 at the beginning of the letter thanking God for the Colossian church that He has called them to be His children, that God has established a church there and he thanks God for the great salvation which He has given to the Colossian believers. And then it moves on into a discussion about the power of Christ and Christ's exaltation over all of the creation and His Lordship not only over His creation but over His church. And then a shift comes in the book in about chapter 2. We move on to the second section where Paul's been explaining things, teaching the doctrine and the teachings and then he comes on to the commands. He says, do this, do that. We call it imperatives. Things you ought to do. Chapter 2 of Colossians, verse 6. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him. Rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith, which you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. So Paul, having explained what God has done for them, talked about Christ and His exaltation, now moves on to give the church in Colossae the imperatives or the commands about how they should now live. He goes on in that chapter to talk about legalism. Don't let people judge you for things that God has approved of. Don't pass rules that God hasn't passed over you. So there you have it, two sections. First, the indicative or the doctrine or the teachings. And second, the commands or the imperatives. Now, you'll notice that our passage is in the imperative section. It comes later in the book, in the command section. But you'll also notice that there's some overlap. When you read our passage, it's just like a little picture of the book as a whole. First, you have two main sections in our verse. You have the teaching about who we are in Christ. And then flowing out of that, you have the commands. Chapter 3, verse 12. Look at that again. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. So you have the teaching or the indicative of who we are, you're God's chosen people, you're holy and you're dearly loved, and now, because of that, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, the commands. Now remember what we said, looking at how Paul teaches us to love one another will single out the true Christian love from all other false ideas of love that float around in the world and even sometimes creep their way into the church. Now, our first clue at seeing how Paul commands us is understanding the relationship between the doctrine or the teaching or the indicatives and the commandments or the imperatives. What is the relationship between the doctrine that Paul teaches and the commands that he gives? And what I want you to catch is the commands in the New Testament not just here are always based on this is pretty obvious based on or they flow out of the doctrine or teaching you can't separate the two the imperatives or the commands flow out of the teaching or the doctrine and you find this doctrine slash command pattern all over the New Testament and we'll just look at a couple examples in 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 9 through 12 what you want to listen for is the teaching and then based on that, flowing out of that, the commands. But you are a chosen people. 1 Peter 2, verse 9. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. There's the doctrine, the teaching, and here's the command. Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us. The doctrine of the teaching of who we are in Christ and then the commands that flow from it. Romans chapter 11, a very famous one, known to us especially because our catechism follows the structure of the book. But the end of Romans chapter 11, Paul having for so many chapters examined the great salvation of God and taught all about it. All of the doctrine of our salvation. Oh, the depths, from verse 33, of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay Him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. There's the doctrine. And now, therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. What I want you to catch, as I said, is that the commands in the New Testament and in our passage are always based on the doctrine or the teaching. You can't separate the two. It's the same in our passage. In Colossians 3, verse 1, as we read a minute ago. Since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your heart on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Verse 5. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature. You see that word, therefore, in verse 5. It's because you've been raised with Christ. It's because of who you know you are in Christ. And the doctrine of that, that now you live a life that is pleasing to Him. And that word, therefore, again, appears in verse 12, going back to the same doctrine or teaching that Paul introduced in chapter 3. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, it's because you have been raised with Christ. It's because you are seated at the right hand of God that now you put off in this life all of your evils. And the doctrine specifically that Paul refers to in verse 12 in chapter 3 is what? Well, you as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved. It's interesting here to think that Paul must have been thinking of that famous verse in Deuteronomy chapter 7. Sounds a lot like what we just read from Colossians. I'll read that to you from Deuteronomy 7, 6 and 7. Speaking to Israel, God says, For you are a people holy to your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people. his treasured possession. And the Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. And so Paul, hearkening on that language, is teaching the Colossian church that look in the same way that God took to himself Israel by his mercy, in the same way he has redeemed you by the blood of Christ, by his mercy alone. And it's not based on anything you've done, but because you are chosen. Chosen of God by his grace alone. It wasn't your choice. It was God's choice. And now you are set apart to serve Him wholly and you're loved by Him. That's the doctrine in view for the teaching or for the commandments that Paul will give. Well, good enough, you say. All right, all right. Commandments flow from the doctrine of the teaching. I understand that. The imperatives flow from the indicatives. Nice. Well, now what? Here's why we did that. Understanding this will allow you to recognize the one only true Christian love and to be able to guard yourself against all these false ideas of love that are out there in the world and, like I said, sometimes creep their way into the church. True love is an imitation of the love that God has shown to you as His beloved child. Let me put it in a negative sense here. Love toward one another in the church or outside the church is not true love unless it's an imitation of the love God has shown to His people in Christ Jesus. And to drive this home, I'm going to give you three examples tonight of ideas of love or understandings of love, of true love, which are false. And you can contrast that to the imitation of Christ's love for His people. First of all, we'll give them little catchy names. The first one we'll call the false love of just be good, just be nice, and don't argue over beliefs. Just be good, just be nice, and don't argue over beliefs. Most people today in the street, you talk to the common man, they believe this. They believe that there's some general sort of good, General sort of love that transcends no matter what you believe. What do they say? Well, look, don't argue over beliefs. Just be good and just be nice. And if you can do that, that's true love. Those same people say that all religions, right, are basically the same. But the one thing that we agree on when it comes right down to it is what? Just be good, just be nice, and don't argue over beliefs. A couple of modern examples of this. I was reading the sports page a couple of weeks ago during bowl season for college football, reading the Los Angeles Times, that heralded newspaper. And there was an article about a man who had played in the Rose Bowl many years back. And to make a long story short, this man had come out of the closet. He was a homosexual who was tormented during his playing years because he could never confess his secret to the other players in the locker room because they would have alienated him even worse. But living with that secret was terrible to him. And the point of the story was to bemoan how awful it was that this guy went through this situation, this torment of having this secret hid and this being alienated if he had come out. Of course, the article had nothing to say, only in passing, of course, about the fact that this man had left his family of many years. Once he came out of the closet, He had fostered children under a lie. He had left them to fend for themselves, alienated his family, even his own wife and children. Well, now, what do you think the response would be if you had written to that author and said, hey, wait a minute, what about the family? I don't think this is right. What would have been the argument? Well, listen, just be good. You don't have to agree now, but just be good and just be nice and don't argue over beliefs. Well, see, the thing is, people today will pick and choose their beliefs and approve all sorts of abominations and wickedness in light of those beliefs and then turn around when you object and say, just be good, just be nice, and don't argue over beliefs. Listen, there's no general sort of love that we can all agree on. The commandment for true love comes out of true doctrine. Every day near home, near the church in Ontario, I drive by an Islamic center. I don't think it's quite a mosque, though it has the design. And there was a big sign on it last week. They're having a rally. Welcome! Bienvenidos! A lot of Spanish speakers in our neighborhood. We love you on this big banner across the driveway. Well, how do you evaluate that? How do you evaluate the Islamic Center's effort to love the community and reach out to them? Now, some people might say, Well, they seem like nice people. And they do good things for families. And, you know, they're good to have in the neighborhood. They're good neighbors. They clean their yard. You know, they're nice. They have you over for dinner. Just be good. You know, just be nice. Don't argue over beliefs. But that's not true love. Any sort of love or niceness or ideas about that that is not based on the indicative of Christ having saved His people is a phoning. It's a phoning. And it's an abomination to God. It's not true love. Second false idea of love, after the just be good, just be nice, don't argue over beliefs, is the love that we're going to call, and you'll find this in church as the gospel is preached, the people who believe in predestination think they can do whatever they want, view of love. The people who believe in predestination think they can do whatever they want, fallacy. Now, why do I bring this up? because this was as prevalent in the time of the writing of the Scripture as it is today, as this church, among others who confess the doctrines of Scripture, will meet these battles both in your personal conversations and as a church. But this idea says that if you really believe in predestination or the idea that God chose you or that you were saved by God's mercy alone, you know what that means. That means you have no motivation to love one another. In fact, what you're going to do, if you believe that God chose you by His mercy, you're going to go out and you're going to sin more because you can do whatever you want. And people will say that now. You'll run into that. This church has run into it in the theological battlefields. As you talk to people that have not thought of this doctrine before or people that object to it, they think, well, if you believe that God chose you by His mercy and you're saved by Him alone, then you believe that you can do whatever you want to do. Because you'll just get away with it. You're chosen. Paul reported that when he was preaching through the book of Romans, he reported that people were accusing him of that all the time. Romans chapter 3 and verse 8. Why not say, as we are slanderously being reported as saying, and as some claim that we say, let us do evil that good may result. Their condemnation is deserved. There Paul is saying, look, when I preach grace alone, that Christ alone saves and it's nothing that we do, that they're saying, well, that means we're also saying you might as well sin more so that there can be more forgiveness and more grace. Same thing in Romans chapter 6 after Paul explains that your salvation is by God imputing or giving the righteousness of Christ to you. And that's all God's work, none of your work. What do the people argue? What then shall we say? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? Paul says, certainly not, by no means. May it never be. But this is a false idea of love that's out there. One that you might run into. Now, the irony of this is that it's only the people who understand the gospel and understand the gospel clearly who can have a clear understanding of the commandment to love one another. Anything else, any other motivation for love out of, well, let's see, am I going to get right with God if I just love people enough? You know what that is? It's not nice, it's not loving, it's self-righteous, it's arrogant. I'm going to love people so that God will love me. Oh, that's nice. No, it's not nice. It's arrogant. It's not based on true love. True love is an imitation of the love that Christ has had on his people. One more false idea of love we'll call, and this one might hit a little closer to home. It has for me because in the past I've always very much tempted to fall into this trap. This false idea of love we'll call the Jesus versus the theologians fallacy. The Jesus versus the theologians false idea of love. Well, you know, there's an old myth that goes around in the church, you've probably heard it, that there are two types of Christians. The ones who are loving and then the theologians. The ones who study theology and the ones who are good. The ones who love God and the ones who talk about Him. You know, you hear these distinctions all the time. There's, you've heard great ones, there's justification Christians, the ones who talk about being saved, and then there's the sanctification Christians, the ones who really try to be holy. And then what do they do when they think about Jesus and the Pharisees? They say, well, Jesus, on the one hand, was holy and good. The Pharisees were the theologians. They were the ones that were pitted against each other. The reason Jesus was upset with the Pharisees, they say, was because they were too particular in their theology. And they forgot to love. This is a trap. Jesus versus the theologians is a trap. Don't fall for it. In the first place, as you know, everybody has a theology. Every person has a theology. Now, not everybody knows all the technical words and all the fancy words about what they believe, right? Not everybody's read, not everybody's studied. Sometimes, you know, we feel inferior around people that know more than us. All that, you know, happens all the time. Not everybody knows all the lingo, but everybody has a theology or everybody believes things about God. And sometimes, you're not even aware of what you thought about God until you actually are confronted to think about it or you read something that makes you think about it, but it's important to remember that everybody has a theology, and in that sense, everybody's a theologian. Now, when people are sinful and unloving, it's not that they're theological. Now, it may be that they're arrogant, or that they have a bad theology that leads them to be disobedient to Christ. Maybe that they're out-and-out sinful, but it's not because they're theological that they're unloving. Jesus versus the theologians is a fallacy. That's not an idea of true love. You can't be theological and have true love. Well, just let the beliefs go aside. Don't argue over the beliefs. That's a trap. Don't fall for it. The only kind of true love toward one another is based on the theology of the love that God the Father has shown to you through Jesus Christ, our Lord. I'm going to press this a little bit. Think about Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa. Give her life to service that most of us, if we even looked at some of the things that she did, we'd become sickened. Our stomachs couldn't even take the work that she did with some of the most suffering humans on the face of the earth. People who had nothing but sores and poverty and lived in the mud. Mother Teresa gave her life to serve them. Now, I don't know Mother Teresa's heart. I only know her confession of faith. Her confession of faith was not the gospel. It was not Christ alone saves by faith alone, by grace alone. It was not. Mother Teresa spoke of raising Mary to co-redemptrix or whatever name she gave. Is that true love? What Mother Teresa showed to those people? Is it the love that God requires? Is it the love that God asks of His people? No. Well, sure, it looks like true love. And sure, it does in a general sense, in a civil sense, for society, some good, relieve suffering. But is it true love? No, it's not. It's absolutely not. I received a package in the mail the other day, a little brown envelope. I got all excited. Somebody mailed me something. It was a little puffy. More than a card. And I opened it up, and on this little cardboard paper, postcard size, was this stone. and it was shiny. And I got all excited. I thought, oh, somebody sent me a precious jewel. And I looked at it in the light. It shined brighter than, you know, diamonds I have seen. And, you know, of course, in the back of my mind, I'm skeptical, right? You know, rubbed it. It seemed pretty hard on the surface. And I, you know, looked at it. Wow, that's pretty nice. You know, where'd I get this from? So you read the fine print. And, of course, it's cubic zirconium. And some jeweler sending it out. hopefully you'll send in $10 to them to get it set on a ring and give it to the one you love. Da-da-da-da. It looked like a diamond. It shined even brighter than a diamond. But was it a diamond? No. If I took it to a jeweler, they would have laughed at me. They would have given me the 12 cents it was worth. It's not true love unless it is. The only kind of true love toward one another is an imitation of the love that God the Father has shown to you through Jesus Christ our Lord. An important groundwork to look now at the commands that Paul does give. It's all based on the doctrine of who we are in Christ. And the question we now ask, according to what Paul has to say, is how is it that we show that true love? And the first thing to notice here is that when he says to clothe yourselves with compassion, mercy, and on and on, it's something that you do. It's something that you do. People will find a number of excuses to get around this, but this is an obvious point that needs to be made. Clothe yourselves, Paul says. It's like putting on a robe. Clothe yourselves with these virtues, with compassion and love for one another. Put it on. You have to do this. People of God, you have to do this. This takes effort. It's something you have to actively think. Christ has saved me by His mercy, and now I will go forth and I will clothe myself with that which Christ has done for me. You have to do it. It's an effort that God requires of us. And it assumes a couple of things. First of all, that there are sinful people in the church that will need to be forgiven. An objection that our conscience, or not our conscience, but our old habits raise up against us is, well, yeah, I know you're supposed to forgive. I know you're supposed to make an effort to reach out and love these people in the church. But, oh, if you only knew what such and such did to me. If you only knew what such and such did to me. But I want you to realize that that's the point here. I have a guarantee. Such and such will do such and such to you in the church. And that is the point. This passage assumes that you will get sinned against in the church in a way that offends you. Frankly, you have to forgive. Sure, you know, it's great in the church. You know, everybody gets along fine, don't they? Until what? Somebody sins against somebody else. Uh-oh. Then, pardon the pun, but all hell breaks out in the church then, doesn't it? Gossip starts and there it goes. Everybody's all fine until somebody sins against somebody else. And Paul's command this evening is, what? Quothe yourselves with the forgiveness that Christ has had on you. It assumes another thing. That you are probably one of those sinful people. And if you're not right now, you will be at one time or another in your life. Look at verse 13 of chapter 3. Paul uses his language in an interesting way here. bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Now, translation a little better may say, forgive whoever has a complaint against anyone. Whoever against anyone. And the way that Paul's writing there almost causes you to think, look, it's not an odd thing that somebody sins against somebody else in the church, but it's common. It's whoever sins against anyone. Guess what? You're going to be one of those sinful people and the challenge as we go through this passage is not to be thinking about other people that need to hear this message, but it's to be thinking about yourself. Think about yourself as a person who needs to forgive. In preparing for this, this is always a temptation. Not so much in a visiting congregation when you come, but at a home church. Oh, when I was preparing, I thought, oh yeah, you know, I can think of a few people that need to hear this. Boy, I did this little error to that person. I said, I crossed the line. I said something a little offensive. And you know what? They need to forgive me. That's right. And then this passage assumes you're going to be one of those people who needs to both be forgiven and also to forgive. That's the challenge as we look here at the list of commands that Paul gives. What specific ways does true Christian love work? What's the first word there in verse 12? Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion. Clothe yourselves with compassion. That word there in the original is onomatopoeia, which is the fancy word for words that sound like what they are. It's Paul using onomatopoeia. The actual word there is splankna, and it means guts. So the word splankna sounds like guts themselves. And the idea here is that you have to clothe yourselves and your relationship to other people with that moving compassion. so that when somebody sins against you in the church, you ought not, the fangs not to come out of your mouth and the horns to pop up, but rather that your gut is moved with compassion on that person. Interesting, vivid word picture from Acts chapter 1. Speaking of Judas. With the reward that Judas got for his wickedness, he bought a field and there he fell headlong. His body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. That's my life verse, but that was a joke. Intestines, guts, guts being spilled out. The movement in the bowels is the deep compassion that we are to have on one another. That's what Jesus had when He wept over Jerusalem. Even though they were going to kill Him and put Him on a cross, what? He had compassion. His guts were moved, and that is the command. That's how true love works, isn't it? That's how we're being commanded to feel toward one another this evening. Another word there, compassion and kindness. Now, the translations here in the NIV lists five words. There are six in the original. That second word, we're going to translate mercy. We're going to translate that word mercy. And in Philippians chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, Paul writes using the same word, If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any mercy, that's the same word, and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. How does true love work in the church when someone sins against you? What Paul is saying is this. If you really believe that Christ has forgiven your sins, if you really believe it, if you have any encouragement from that then forgive one another be of the same mind be of the same mind that Christ was in forgiving you the next word in Colossians 3 that Paul gives there is kindness clothe yourselves with compassion mercy now kindness Paul writes in Titus chapter 3 verses 3 through 5 at one time we too were foolish disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures we lived in malice and envy being hated and hating one another but when the kindness and the love of God our Savior appeared He saved us not because of the righteous things that we had done but because of His mercy He saved us through the washing and rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit what's the point here? what does it mean to have kindness? well the point is that true love loves the unloving now there's a lesson in how Christ saved us in this passage and the kindness he showed us for our relationship to others in the church when they sin against us did Christ save us when we came begging on our hands and knees and were good to him in the first place no when did Christ save us when did he show us kindness it's when we were foolish disobedient deceived and enslaved We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. And that's when God showed kindness to us. Some may say, oh, well, look, this person is just completely unloving. How can I forgive them? In the same way that God forgave us when we were hating both Him and our neighbor. It's in that same way that we are to show this kindness that God has showed us. Next on the list, compassion, mercy, kindness, says Paul, and also humility. Quote yourselves with humility, the same humility that Christ showed by coming to earth. You know, He didn't have to come. Being God, you know, Paul said. But instead, He humbled Himself and came down to save His people from their sins. Now again, somebody will say, but look, you've got to admit, Adam, there are people in the church who are just impossible to get along with. I mean, I don't know if it's that they slip up every once in a while, but these people, man, it's like their personality is to be just agitating and always saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, offensive, insensitive. How can you say, what do you do with that? Paul, you know, you tell me to be humble before them, but this person is impossible to deal with. Interesting thing that Peter writes in 1 Peter 5. And I'll read to you. It gives a little bit of help in this, I think. I'll read from 1 Peter 5, verses 1 through 7. What do you do with a person who's impossible to deal with in the church? Yes, you still have to forgive him. Does the Bible say anything else about it? To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings and one who will also share in the glory to be revealed. Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers, not because you must, but because you are willing. As God wants you to be, not greedy for money, but eager to serve. Not lording it over those who are entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. Young men, in the same way, be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility, there's that word, toward one another because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He might lift you up in due time. Here's the key verse. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Now, that verse 7 there, cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. You go to the Christian bookstore, it's on all the trinkets and it's a nice little verse to remember in the morning. When you feel bad, cast your anxiety on the Lord. And that's good. And we ought to. But think of the context where this verse appears. The context is, when you are humbling yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand that He may lift you up in due time when you are as a young man for instance being submissive to those who are older or all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another what about that in person who is impossible to deal with? Cast your anxiety on the Lord. Pray to the Lord. A little bit of practical advice. Forgive the brother or the sister and cast that anxiety on the Lord. Guess what? Again, this assumes it is going to be anxiety when you humble yourselves toward one another. It's something you do. It requires effort. Next on the list, Paul writes, compassion, mercy, kindness, humility, and gentleness. Gentleness is part of what God requires. 2 Timothy 2, verses 24-26. Now, this is going to say something interesting about gentleness. And the Lord's servant must not quarrel. Instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him, he must gently instruct in the hope that God will grant them repentance, leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do his will. Now, this is obviously written to Timothy, a minister of the Word, and for those who serve the church in that capacity. But what I want you to notice is when Paul uses the word gentle, There's something that it doesn't mean. Being gentle does not mean smoothing things over that go wrong. Being gentle does not mean being a doormat. It's easy for people to read this list together and say, oh, well, then the Christian idea of love is to basically lie down and let people walk all over you. That's not what this is teaching. Paul still calls a spade a spade. Remember what we read in that verse. Out of one side of his mouth, Paul says what? Be gentle. Gently instruct those. And then what does he call them? Two verses later. That they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do his will. Now, you've got to admit, in the way we think of gentleness today, a lot of times, we don't think it's ever possible to say that something's wrong or point something out as wrong and still be gentle. How gentle is Paul, would some say, if he calls people, you know, having been taken captive by the devil to do his will. Call a spade a spade, people of God. Being gentle does not mean that you're a doormat. But being gentle does mean you have kind intention. As far as depends on you, you live peaceably with all men. Compassion, mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience is the last word that Paul uses. Patience. 1 Timothy 1.16 Again, the same word teaches us something about what it means. May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself... I don't have that word. I will say, when Paul talks about Christ having forgiven him, he speaks of the great patience that Christ had with him when he was actually murdering Christ's followers. Remember that Paul was a great persecutor of the Christian church and of Christ's people. And he says, look, Christ was patient with me. And I want you to imitate, says Paul, Jesus' patience with me. Now, certainly, if Jesus could have patience with the man who was murdering God's children, then we should have patience with one another and forgive one another based on the love that God has shown to us. In the last place, having seen how true love ought to work, we'll look at where we ought to show true love. And it's obvious just from the letter that the setting for true love is the church of Jesus Christ. The church ought to be a picture. The way we relate to one another ought to be a picture of how we forgive of the forgiveness of Christ to us. You know, we always talk about witnessing to the world and showing our love to the world. And we always talk about witnessing at home and showing our love and forgiving at home. And those are both commanded of God's Word. But what about the church? Do you ever stop to think about that? Forgiveness in the church. The letter is to the Colossian church. The word is to the Escondido congregation tonight. Colossians chapter 3 verse 14. That last verse in our text. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Well, the translators have thought that this... In verse 14, Paul is saying that love is what binds together all of those attributes that we read before, compassion, mercy, kindness, humility. But it actually should read, and over all these virtues put on love, which is the perfect bond of perfection, or the bond of perfection, or the mature bond of perfection. And I think the idea here, Paul is saying, is what binds us together as a church is this love. This love that has compassion and mercy and kindness. What makes us united in Christ? It's the love that we show toward one another. Colossians 2.19 He has lost connection with the head from whom the whole body supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews grows as God causes it to grow. The ligaments is the same word there, the bond that holds the body of Christ together. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, Job is talking about the great Leviathan or God is speaking about the great sea monster and he's talking about the scales and how they interconnect and how there's a tight seal and no water can get between them. And that is the same word, that bond. And we ought to be bonded together in Christ's church in that way. So tightly loving, so tightly connected that little sins, big sins, cannot get in the way of our love, cannot destroy us as water cannot penetrate the scales of the great Leviathan. So sin in the congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ will not break up this body. In Jeremiah 11, similar translation, talking about the evils of Israel, God says that they conspired against me. And that word conspired is the same word. Bonded together. People coming together for a purpose. And all these ideas here, when Paul says that love is the perfect bond of perfection, that is what will bind you together. Because of our own sin in the church, there's always opportunity for imitation of Christ's forgiveness. You know, your new pastor will be here soon. I don't know him, but what will he find when he comes? Will he find old grudges between warring families and people that have complaints against one another, unwilling to forgive? Or will he find a commitment to new obedience in forgiving and loving one another as Christ has loved you. And what about when He slips up to sin against you? What about when He crosses the line, forgets to call when He should have? What's He going to find? It's a daunting challenge. Children, you remember the story I told you at the beginning how that servant, that servant who was forgiven of the $100,000 debt went and threw the guy in the jail who owed him 50 cents? you know Jesus told that story and you know what happened at the end the guy who forgave the guy of his hundred thousand dollar debt the king came back to the servant and threw him in jail because he was unforgiving we pray in the Lord's prayer forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us it's a daunting challenge before us to love one another the true love an imitation of Christ's love for us. Let us pray. How merciful You are to us, O Lord, while we do not deserve it. You have forgiven us. You have chosen us. Caught in our own wickedness, You pulled us out, saved us by the blood of Christ. And how we pray that we take Your commandment seriously to forgive one another, not make excuses, but to be loving and compassionate and gentle with one another as you have been with us. We are your brothers and sisters. We are bonded together in this love and bind us more and more together, we pray, so that Christ would be glorified and we would be more and more imitating His humility. We pray in His name. Amen.