Colossians 3:12-14 — Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
Do you ever feel that a lot is expected of you as a Christian? I have to admit I do. I mean this is me here. I’m not that special. Of course there are people who do love me, but they love me “faults and all” — nobody thinks I’m perfect. How about you?
So with that in mind, what do you think about this little extract from Paul’s letter to the Colossians? Just to ramp up the pressure a little more, I might point out that this is the culmination of a longer passage. I wanted to focus on these verses because they are all about the way we relate to one another. There’s nothing in these verses about service or duty of labor … nothing about doing. They’re all about being, about who we are.

“Put on, therefore, as the elect of God”. We are chosen by God, and in all our dealings with one another, therefore, we ought to aspire to be like God.

First, we are to be merciful. Cruelty comes naturally to us in our unredeemed state. Whether it be unthinking cruelty to animals, or bullying those who are weaker than us, or neglect of the old and infirm, without a restraining hand it is our usual behavior. But “seeing that we have put off the old man with his deeds;” (Colossians 3:9) we are to be merciful!

Then there is “kindness”. The translation doesn’t get the sense of the word — but I’m not sure what simple word or phase would. It’s one of those Biblical words that carry a lot of weight. The nearest I can get to the idea is “being pleased to place each other’s good first”. I think it’s an old-fashioned virtue. Not many of us, now, actively seek other Christians to bless.

If I were to go through each of the inter-personal virtues, this would be a very long piece and that’s not my purpose. I wanted to illustrate, with the first two, the way that the Christian was to have characteristics that were unknown in the Graeco/Roman world. 

Not much has changed. Few of us Christians have managed to put on charity or, more properly, love. 

I am to put on love, which is the binding — the glue — of perfection. Perfection — are you kidding? I’ll just keep trying!