Who is my Master and What Does it mean?

Mr. Lewis
Colossians 3:23
May 16, 2007

This is a written version of the chapel message I’m going to give on Wednesday for all Sturgills who want a preview.

My Sturgillish Outline:

1. Tell You What it Says
2. Tell You What it Means
3. Tell You What to Do with It

This Passage will help us answer the question, “Who is my Master and what does that mean?”

Colossians 3

[1] If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [2] Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. [3] For you have died, and your life is 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 what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. [6] On account of these the wrath of God is coming. [7] In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. [8] But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. [9] Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices [10] and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. [11] Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. [12] Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, [13] bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. [14] And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. [15] And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. [16] Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. [17] And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. [18] Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. [19] Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. [20] Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. [21] Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. [22] Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. [23] Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, [24] knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. [25] For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

What Does it Say?

Set Your Mind on Things Above v. 1-4

Paul just got done talking about Ascetics in chapter 2, which are a group of people overwhelmingly obsessed with rules and stuff here on Earth. They are very similar to the Pharisees in that they are more concerned with appearances and pleasing men then they are in pleasing God. They have an altogether Earthly focus, rather than a Heavenly focus. Thus, Paul strongly admonishes the believers to have their focus fixed on Heaven. Of course this cannot be done without a system of morality, which we see next.

Put off Old & Put on New v. 5-15

Here Paul’s saying to do 2 things:

1. Get Rid of Sin
2. Put on Virtues

Pretty self explanatory, huh? But you might look at the list he gives of sins and virtues and wonder if it doesn’t contradict what he had just gotten through scolding the Ascetics for. The answer is that it does not, and I’ll explain why furthur down, but the short answer is verses 1-4.

Relationships v. 16ff

Third he’s talks about relationships and how they ought to be seasoned by our Heavenly perspective. We ought to Admonish one another, praise God to one another, Give thanks to for and with one another, and submit to each other.

The Key v. 23

The key to all of this is found in verse 23:

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”

This is the key to the whole chapter because it calls us back to chapter 1, which is the Key to the whole book. So we transition:

What Does it Mean?

The Overview of Colossians

We need to get a brief overview of Colossians, and we’ll do it through one passage toward the beginning, but first it’s important to understand Paul’s style. In the vast majority of his books, like this one - or a great example is Romans - Paul takes the first chunk of it and talks about Doctrine. He does this because doctrine is very important to Him. In fact in Romans he spends most of the book on doctrine. If you ever want an in depth Bible study that will challenge your understanding of God and your faith, study Romans 1-11. At any rate, Paul spends a while discussing Doctrine, and in just about every book there’s a definite turning point. At the beginning of a chapter somewhere in the middle there’s this word “Therefore” or “So”, and from then on in the book he’s talking about practical application. The reason he does this is because he understands that what we believe ought to affect the way we live.

If I believe, as I preached last November, that God is Holy, I ought to have a desire to be more holy myself. If I believe that God hates a particular sin, I ought to want to abstain from that sin. If I believe He doesn’t care, then I’ll live however I want. the point is that what I believe about God affects the way I live. This is why the atheistic world is so desperate for evolution to be true so they can have a world without the restraint of God. So every time Paul talks about doctrine, he applies it. And he never talks practically without the backbone of doctrine, because practicality without doctrine is meaningless!

So it’s so important for us to read at least part of the beginning of Colossians in order to understand chapter 3. If you’re paying attention, you notice that Colossians has 4 chapters, putting chapter 3 squarely in the application section. So to fully appreciate the application Paul is making, we must get the doctrine. So let’s look at the theme passage of Colossians: Chapter 1:15-20.

He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on Earth or in Heaven, making peace by the blood of His Cross.

The Point

Did you notice it? Did you catch it? Did you see the little seven word phrase in verse 18 that means everything in this passage? I’ll read it again:

that in everything He might be preeminent.

Let that sink in. In the midst of this passage talking about who Jesus is and what He has done and is doing, the purpose of it all is His own preeminence! Jesus Christ is KING! To miss this is to drastically miss the point of chapter 3, because the whole rest of the book of Colossians is all the natural applicative outpouring of this profound Truth! Everything Christ has ever done, is doing and will ever do has been for His own glorious exhaltation. Let it sink in!

So, What’s Paul Saying in Chapter 3?
He is saying that Because Christ is King, here’s how we should live. Verse 23, of course, is the linker that points us back to chapter 1. Here we have our answer: Who is our Master? It ought to be Jesus Christ, because He is King! The whole chapter opens up now. Here’s what Paul’s saying in application:

Set Your Minds on Things Above

But now we understand what Paul’s thinking about things above. We knew what he meant by things below, but the things above is clear: The glory and preeminence of Christ the King. this ought to affect everything we do. We meditate and study the word of God so we can constantly live in light of the fact that Christ is our King.

Put off and Put on!

Now we see that putting off and putting on isn’t about an Ascetic checklist. It’s about tearing off weights that drag us down in service to our master. Hebrews 12 draws the picture of a race:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

We run in service to our Master Jesus. And anything that holds us down is sin to us. Quite obviously things on the list Paul mentioned are sins, but I’ll hit closer to home. What about video games? Television? Internet? Friends? Can these be sins? I daresay they can be! None of them are specifically mentioned in Scripture, yet if any of them become a hindrance in our pursuit of Christ, they are sin to us, and ought to be put off! I know I’m stepping on toes. I’m even stepping on mine!

Have Submissive and Praise Seasoned Relationships

I say it this way because our interaction with one another ought to be seasoned with sweet praise to God, thanksgiving and humble service to each other. How many of us do this? Or how often is our communication about, ‘Guess what so and so did to me. He did this and then he did that and then he did the other thing, and as if that wasn’t enough, he smacked me in the face.’ That’s not the kind of God honoring relationships Paul describes here! Or all we do is grumble and complain. Do we praise God to each other? Do we thank God for each other in each others presence? I’ll be the first to stand up and say I fall way short of this mark!

GLORIFY GOD

This can all be summed up of course in verse 23 “Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men,” which sounds an awful lot like “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Our job is to glorify God. But HOW??? This is something we Piperites banter about constantly. Live for God’s glory. Glorify God. What in the world does it mean? Well, speaking of Piper, why not have him explain it? He says it so well in his book, Don’t Waste Your Life, the whole premise of which is that any life not lived fully for the glory of God is a waste! In it he says:

What does it mean to glorify God? It may get a dangerous twist if we are not careful. Glorify is like the word beautify. But beautify usually means ‘make something more beautiful than it is,’ improve its beauty. That is emphatically not what we mean by glorify in relation to God. God cannot be made more glorious or more beautiful than He is. He cannot be improved, ‘nor is He served by human hands, as though he needed anythying’ (Acts 17:25). Glorify does not mean add more glory to God.

It is more like the word magnify. But here too we can go wrong. Magnify has two distince meanings. In relation to God, one is worship and one is wickedness. You can magnify like a telescope or like a microscope. When you magnify like a microscope, you make something tiny look bigger than it is. A dust mite can look like a monster. Pretending to magnify God like that is wickedness. But when you magnify like a telescope, you make something unimaginably great look like what it really is. With the Hubble Space Telescope, pinprick galaxies in the sky are revealed for the billion-star giants that they are. Magnifying God like that is worship.¹

This is done by fulfilling the creation mandate of bearing His image to the world. In Piper’s metaphor, God is the huge galaxy, and man is the person trying to observe the galaxy. Humans who function in the image of God are an integral part of the telescope, which includes also the Bible and the Holy Spirit, that reveals God as who He is to the individual. We fulfill the image bearing responsibility when we progressively sanctify ourselves to become more like Christ, who was and is the perfect image of God because He is God in the flesh.

So, Let’s Get Practical

How can you as a middle school or high school student at ICS Uijongbu fulfill the role of this passage. How can you obey Colossians 3:23? One simple thing comes to mind:

Be the Best Student You Can Be

Pretending that Jesus is your teacher, and working only for His pleasure, put your all into your school work so as to be the image of Christ in school. Like it or not you have been called to this school for the time you are here, and He has a purpose for you. You may want to be elsewhere, but God has called you for the time being to be a student at ICS Uijongbu, and He wants you to be faithful here. His will is for you to do your best here! Which means of course: Get Good Grades!!! I thought about making part of my message about how grades aren’t that important because I’ve seen many of you react to a 97 like Tiger Woods reacts to a 300 yard almost perfectly straight drive. Your eyes are on earthly things! Are you wanting good grades to please your parents or your teachers or yourself. Don’t get me wrong, you should obey your parents and your teachers, but they should not be your primary motivator for getting good grades. What about getting into Harvard? Again, college isn’t a bad idea, but is that your primary motivator? Why do you even want to go to college? Is it so you can make money? Where are your eyes? If your eyes are on heavenly things you’ll realize that Jesus wants you to do your best. Effort is more important than results, though don’t fool yourself, effort will bring results so don’t say you’re trying if there are no results. Effort is more important than results, but motivation is the most important. Who are you trying to please?

Something Else to Consider

Why do we study the subjects we do in school? Why study Biology and Math and Literature? Wouldn’t it make more sense to just study the Bible 24/7 so we can go to a Bible College and know Bible really well, and preach the Bible and teach the Bible? No that doesn’t make more sense and here’s the reason why: Because there is a whole world of people who need to hear the Gospel, and guess where they are? They are the Doctors, the Lawyers, the Biologists, etc. We (by we I mean the church) need Christians who are solidly grounded in their faith and the Word of God who are also trained in the fields of medicine and law and biology who know how the Bible and their field interact to go out in the world and reach the lost here! These people may have no other way of hearing the gospel. They are the next wave of missions for the American church. They don’t go to church because they don’t want to have religion ‘preached at them’, and they don’t hear the gospel any other way because their Christian neighbor is either too Flanderslike or is afraid of being too Flanderslike to speak up. But what if the accountant who is like the person I just described has a coworker who’s a believer; who does accounting to glorify God; who stands up for right and wrong; and who shows love in the workplace. This is the inroad for the gospel in this persons life.

On top of that if there are well trained Christians in important fields like Medicine and Law and Biology and Geology, etc, who can have strong voices on very important issues like Abortion and Euthanasia, and how we interpret law and stem cell research and creation v. evolution, etc. Instead of having church outings to stand on street corners, carrying signs, hacking people off, and counting how many birds we’ve seen, why not have people who can actually engage in the discussion? This is why the Christian Liberal Arts University is so important. At a place like Liberty, Cedarville, Wheaton or many others, students have the opportunity to study their field including many angles on current issues and learn the Biblical perspective on the issue. Graduates leave equipped to engage the world for Christ.

I give you 2 examples on the importance of this. The first is Daniel, who did his best to honor God no matter what, and God rewarded him by making him #2 in the whole kingdom, because He wanted a strong believer who was competent in a position of influence. The second is my friend from high school Aimee Auclair. There was an article in the past issue of Inspire Magazine - the Alumni Publication of Cedarville University. Aimee and I acted in two plays together in high school and I was unfortunate enough to not have the opportunity to repeat in college due to my busy schedule, but she majored in theater and guess where she is today? Yeah, that’s right: Hollywood. No, she’s not big name up in lights yet, but she could be some day. (Seriously! She’s a great actress!). Here’s what the article had to say:

Cedarville and Hollywood - could two places be more different? Cedarville is quiet, conservative, close-knit, Bible-centered, and in the middle of a cornfield. Hollywood is bustling, liberal, impersonal, self-=centered, and in the middle of a metropolis. Two totally different environments, yes; yet Aimee feels strongly that her years at Cedarville prepared her for the very godless world of Hollywood. She shared, ‘I am so incredibly thankful for Cedarville University. When I moved out [to Hollywood], I was immediately bombarded with the thinking that all roads lead to Heaven… At that point I was so thankful for the Bible minor at Cedarville and other Bible classes that I took that helped to solidify my faith.” Obviously, being a light in Hollywood has its challenges. But Aimee is committed to the task… Hollywood isn’t exactly known for its moral decency or family-friendly movies, so how do Christians blend their desire to ‘make it big’ with their desire to be a Christ-follower? Aimee is thankful for classes at Cedarville that helped her think through some of these difficult issues. She remembers classes in which her professors led discussions, challenging students to decide where they should draw the line in acting. She was encouraged to decide what she was and was not comfortable with doing on stage. these discussions helped Aimee think critically about how the Biblical worldview applies to acting… Wherever God chooses to use her, Aimee’s ultimate goal is to glorify God by using the talent of acting that He put within her.²

The Big Question:

So here’s the big question. Who’s your master? If you’ve been saved, then your Master is Jesus. Are you living like it? Or are you not even saved and don’t know what it means to be a follower of Christ? What are you going to do in order to live for your Master Jesus?

1. Don’t Waste Your Life, John Piper.
2. “Shining a Light in Hollywood”, Inspire, Spring 2007, Page 22.

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