N.T. Wright:
COLOSSIANS 3:12–17
Love, Peace and Thanksgiving
12 These are the clothes you must put on, then, since God has chosen you, made you holy, and lavished his love upon you. You must be tender-hearted, kind, humble, meek, and ready to put up with anything. 13 You must bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against someone else, you must forgive each other. Just as the master forgave you, you must do the same. 14 On top of all this you must put on love, which ties everything together and makes it complete. 15 Let the king’s peace be the deciding factor in your hearts; that’s what you were called to, within the one body. And be thankful.
16 Let the king’s word dwell richly among you, as you teach and exhort one another in all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to God with grateful hearts. 17 And whatever you do, in word or action, do everything in the name of the master, Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the father.
Here’s the acid test for whether Paul is talking sense or not. Read again through the list of sexual and speech-related misbehaviour in verses 5–9. Then read through verses 12–17. Ask yourself this: supposing there was a town in which everybody behaved in the way described in verses 5–9. And supposing, a few miles down the road, there was a town where everybody behaved in the way described in verses 12–17. Which town would you rather live in?
There will always be some cynics who say they would prefer the first. People are free there, they’ll say. People are having a good time. All right, they may lose friends now and then. Some people who can’t look after themselves may get hurt. But they’ll be doing their own thing, living cheerful and robust lives. Whereas the other lot (the same people will say) look like a bunch of wimps. Goody-goodies who can’t stand up for themselves. Always saying ‘sorry’ and singing hymns. This reaction is, I think, quite common in today’s world.
But a moment’s thought will show how shallow such an approach would be. The practices Paul outlines in the earlier section result in communities—families, villages, whole towns—tearing themselves apart. Unbridled sexual licence and untamed angry speech result in the breakdown of relationships at every level. Some people may fool themselves that they’re having a good time in that atmosphere. But again and again, in moments of truth, they will admit that they are lost, confused, lonely and bitter.
Nor are the people Paul is describing in this section a bunch of weak-willed, wimpish people without much to say for themselves. Anyone who thinks that simply doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Have you ever seriously tried to forgive someone who has wronged you? Have you ever seriously tried to be compassionate and patient? Have you ever tried to let Christ’s peace, Christ’s word, Christ’s name be the reality around which you order your life? If you have, you’ll know it’s not easy. It takes serious prayer and real moral effort. And people who engage in that effort tend to be people who are also capable of taking difficult decisions and engaging in challenging activities in other spheres as well. Christian behaviour, in other words, makes you more human, not less. Self-indulgence and habitual anger and lying may seem like fun for a while, but they destroy you sooner or later—often sooner.
Of course, there is a question of balance. Some churches are very concerned to stamp out sexual sin, but seem to ignore the positive things that Paul insists should be put in its place (kindness, humility, and the rest). Notice how sexual sin, which often disguises itself as ‘love’, is a caricature of what real love looks like, as sketched in these verses. A church with no (obvious) sexual sin but which is full of malicious gossip has only swapped one evil for another. Equally, a church where everyone is very caring and supportive but where immorality flourishes unchecked (perhaps precisely because people are afraid to confront it in case they’re told they are being ‘unloving’) is allowing noxious weeds to grow all around the flowers in the garden. You can’t select some parts of the picture and leave others. For any of the parts to make sense, they all need to be in place.
Once again, Paul’s list of behaviour patterns forms an overlapping sequence. But that doesn’t mean, in this case, that we can just glance at them and think, ‘Oh yes—he’s just saying we should be nice to each other.’ (Though of course we should.) Being ‘nice’ is only the start. It’s worth taking a moment and thinking about each word here, asking yourself (or, if you’re reading this with a group, asking each other) what sort of actions and words will make each one come true in your life, in the life of your church, in the life of your village or town. Think about them: tender-hearted; kind; humble; meek; ready to put up with anything (the word Paul uses here literally means ‘large-hearted’).
Remember that with most of these words there are people, like the ones we mentioned before, who will mock the very idea of behaving like this. Remind yourself that to be tenderhearted doesn’t mean being sentimental. That being kind doesn’t mean being a soft touch. That humility isn’t the same thing as low self-esteem. That meekness is not weakness, but is what you get when a powerful wild horse has been tamed (all the same power, but now under control). That large-heartedness doesn’t mean letting everyone do what they want with you. Don’t let people scoff at the central virtues that make the Christian life what it’s supposed to be. Why do you think people do that? Are they, perhaps, threatened by such a dazzling and demanding way of life?
In particular, notice how Paul draws the picture together, again and again, with reference to the Lord, the king, to Jesus himself. Jesus forgave you, so you must forgive; that’s what gives you the energy to use love as the belt, or perhaps the outer garment, which holds together and in place all the new clothes that you must put on (verse 14). King Jesus is to be the decider in all your deliberations, and his desire for peace among his people is the key factor (verse 15). His word is to be alive within the Christian community; there is always more about the gospel, and also about the written gospels, to explore and discover, and different gifts are needed in the community to draw out the meaning and apply it to the church’s life (verse 16). And, finally, whatever you do or say must be able to stand having these words written above it: ‘In the name of the Lord Jesus’. Settle that in your hearts and minds and a great deal else will fall into place.
Tom Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 180–183.
