Community Living

“So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other…just as the Lord forgave you...Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” – Colossians 3.12-13

The presence of such commands in the New Testament epistles implies something glaring about myself and my neighbor: we are both sinners, sinners to the core. One does not say to a bird, “Chirp!” or to a horse, “’Whinny’ and ‘neigh!’” These things come naturally to both creatures.

But to a human being, God must make a point of saying, “put on” compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross means we can do so – relying not upon our own nature, but upon His. To exhibit these qualities is not natural; I am not innately kind or humble, gentle or patient. Instead, I am prone to think a man rightly earned whatever hard lot has fallen upon him. I am more often callous and indifferent than compassionate and kind. It takes no effort for me to assert myself; but I must practice humility!

Further, the fact that I am commanded to demonstrate gentleness or patience inadvertently implies that God will sprinkle my path with individuals whose behavior naturally incites the opposite within me. It is easy enough to be gentle and mild with a helpless babe; but put me for five minutes in close quarters with someone brash or haughty and I must exercise all my powers of self-restraint to keep from throwing punches or baring claws.

Of all the virtues, patience is, in our culture, perhaps the nearest to extinction. We are eager, hurried, impulsive, and rash; who has time for patience when you are so used to having the thing you want now? Patient people, we feel, are passive people. Not so for the Christian! It is patience which breathes wind into the sails of faith. The dictionary says patience is “the ability to endure waiting, delay, or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset, or to persevere calmly when faced with difficulties.” We must put on patience if we are to persevere in the Christian life.

Finally, to know that I must bear with others and forgive means that others will try my patience and sin against me.

Why should I? The most natural thing to do, when I am face to face with a conflict between myself and my neighbor, is to withdraw. No need to fight it out – aren’t we above all that? Instead, I will remove myself from the presence of my enemy! My sense of justice tells me that such forms of retribution – whether active or passive - are only fair. After all, don’t I have a right to protect myself?

But the Scripture says I have no such right because my sense of right and wrong have been distorted by sin (Lam. 3.39). I have become not only my own worst enemy but I have also made myself an enemy of God: "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge" (Psalm 51.4).

Thus when commanding Christ's church to "put on" His natural virtues, the apostle appeals to a higher law than the law of justice.

Christ’s sacrifice on the cross – through which perfect Justice was completely satisfied – renders my sense of justice obsolete. I am now under a new law – the law of love (Mar. 12.28-31). Thus, in Him, I am compelled to forgive just as I have been forgiven; to love without regard for myself; only then can we begin to know and experience what is meant by “…the perfect bond of unity.”