Life’s North Star

If you would go ahead and begin.
Turning to Colossians chapter 3, I likened the concern of the
passage in front of us this morning to a great ship navigating at
night on the sea. Just like any seagoing vessel,
as soon as it departs from a port, there is an immediate need to
begin steering it toward its intended destination. It’s one
thing to direct a ship during the day with visual cues. The crew could watch for other
ships, landmarks, or even the flight behavior of birds. At night, however, navigating
was a much more difficult task. In our modern day, this task
has been made relatively easy with the precision of GPS satellite
guidance. The ship and her crew has a wealth
of information ever before them. Land masses, storms, other ships,
and even icebergs are immediately seen. But such information was
not always readily available to sailors. Ancient navigation
was very rudimentary. The compass wasn’t even implemented
for sea travel until the 12th century. Prior to that, sailors
were dependent upon the stars to guide them at night. Sometimes we are like that. We
need guidance. We need the equivalent of a North
Star in order to navigate life’s opportunities and challenges.
And this is essentially what Paul speaks of in this, his seventh
practical application of doctrine, Colossians 3.17. Just one verse this morning,
it is enough. And as I said, this is Paul’s
seventh practical application that he’s given us thus far in
this chapter. The practical applications have
varied widely. Verses 1 through 4, heaven-oriented
living. Verses 5 through 8, sin-mortifying
living. Verses 9 through 11, truth-grounded
living. Verses 12 and 13, Christ-like
living. Verses 14 and 15, love-focused
living. The verse we looked at last week,
verse 16, Bible-centered living. It’s a greatly varied list. And
yet, even as diverse as that list is, it’s not all-encompassing. Paul knows that believers need
a general principle of guidance, kind of like that which the North
Star provides for mariners at sea. An overarching guiding principle
that could apply to any and all circumstances, no matter the
career, no matter the problem, no matter the decision or the
obstacles, a fixed focal point that directs us safely to our
destination. That’s what Paul provides in
Colossians 3.17. Would you follow along as I read
this one verse? Whatever you do in word or deed,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. giving thanks through
him to God the Father. The Lord has used Paul thus far
to give believers guidance on a variety of things in our earthly
living, maintaining a heavenly focus. He’s given us help regarding
shedding ourselves of sinful tendencies, considering ourselves
as dead to worldly desires and practices, He has presented to
us the need to purge ourselves of deceitful tendencies, dwelling
instead on the true knowledge of Christ himself. The Apostle
has urged us as believers to righteous conduct, living out
Christ-like virtues toward others. He has likewise insisted of Christians
that they practice the highest of these virtues, those of love
and peace. And as we were reminded last
week, he has also strongly commended that we, as his children, be
full to the overflowing with God’s Word. And still, under
the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Paul recognizes that there is
something still missing from his list of practical applications
of his doctrine. What he recognizes and provides
is that North Star guiding principle that is useful to all believers
in all situations. We don’t have that until verse
17 of chapter 3, a navigational aid for every occasion. What
I want to look at this morning is life’s North Star, the Christians’
guiding principle as we see it here in Colossians 3.17. And Paul tells us three things
about this North Star. The first thing he provides for
us about our guiding principle is the scope of the guiding principle. Whatever you do in word or deed,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Here in verse 17, Paul
moves to provide Christians with an infinitely broad rule of life. And the first thing that we have
to do in considering the principle here set forth is to consider
the nature of this principle. What exactly is Paul saying here? To do whatever you do in the
name of the Lord Jesus. The first thing that we notice,
in fact we cannot help but see it, is the broad scope of this
principle. It’s captured in those two superlative
words, whatever and all. It’s a fascinating combination
of words. The first one translated as whatever
is in the singular, gathering up into one possible feature
of everything that we do. Paul places this word at the
head of the sentence. for emphasis. That is, whatever
is presented as the subject of the entire sentence. The second word is not unlike
it. The second word translated as
all points to each individual thing that we do. Together, whatever and all point
collectively and separately to every possible thing that a person
can do. And if you think about it, that
is all that Paul is reiterating when he says, in word or deed. The first of those two terms,
the word, simply refers to speech. or what emanates from us, whether
written or oral. As Paul exhorted the Ephesian
believers in 429 of his letter to them, let no unwholesome word
proceed from your mouth, but only such a word is as good for
edification. We must honor the Lord in our
speech, bridling our tongue, as James encourages us. We constantly have to guard our
mouth from sharing gossip or slander, speaking lies, or just
blathering on about empty and foolish things. And so, our words
are gathered up in the whatever and the all, The second word,
deeds, which legitimately could be translated here as work, it
just refers to a person’s actions. And he hereby calls us to honor
the Lord in our actions as well, all of our actions. Once saved,
we enter into the sanctification process, whereby our actions
are, little by little, more and more brought into conformity
to Christ. And the truth is, we cannot do
one good and noble deed without the supply of God’s grace. We
must inquire of ourselves, does this thing that I’m doing honor my Savior? Or does this
thing that I’m doing glorify God? Or does this thing that
I’m doing square with His revealed will? Well, those two words,
words and deeds, basically just point to the totality of our
lives, don’t they? Those two words are paired in
Acts 7.22, and they’re used there to speak of Moses’ life, a man
of power in word and deeds. Paul used the words to tell of
the great response that he had to the gospel, resulting in what
he said, the obedience of the Gentiles in word and deed. It was the totality of their
lives that Paul could look at and acknowledge. So that by referencing
here the totality of our lives, he’s calling us in a sense to
install a filter, as it were, to adopt an overarching principle
that stands as a guard over the individual elements that make
up our life. We pray generally for this all
the time. Do we not? When something big
is looming, When we draw near to a special occasion, these
thoughts burden us. When something difficult or challenging
comes up, or dangerous, or something with great implications, we pray
with great intensity. Paul suggests that we adopt such
prayer for our day-to-day living, even in the little things. To
look to Christ for example, to look to Christ for guidance,
to look to Christ for grace, to look to Christ to honor. Just this opening phrase, whatever
you do, it stimulates some important thoughts. In the first place,
when he says whatever you do, speaks of the certainty of action. It’s not whether the believer
is going to do this or that. It’s not a question of if we
are going to do something. We are going to do. We are going
to do something. That much is a given. Paul speaks
of it as a certainty. We are going to do many things
in life, in fact. And so the first thing that we
observe is that even in the little things that we do, they are covered
by this principle, that we should pray accordingly. We should guide
our life by that North Star. I suppose that the second thing
that I would point out here is that Paul speaks here of a great
personal freedom, doesn’t he? When he says, whatever you do,
there is an ability to choose this career or that career, this
school or that school, this house or that house. There’s great
personal freedom. There’s openness. There’s freedom
of choice. There’s an ability to think and
dream and move in this or that direction. And no, Paul is not
here undermining his doctrine of divine election. He’s talking
to Christians, those who are already saved. He’s not speaking
about their choosing of God, but rather the thousands of little
decisions that we make and are enabled to make all along the
way. And in that, when Paul says,
whatever you do, there is an infinite breadth, isn’t there?
I mean, whatever you do, it doesn’t get any more broad than that. That little phrase covers every
possible option that people could ever choose. It’s beautiful. That said, there’s something
else that we can observe here in this little phrase. When Paul
says, whatever you do, there is surely divine sovereignty
woven into that equation. Let’s be clear here, when Paul
speaks of the personal freedom of choice, he doesn’t brush aside
God’s loving oversight, his guidance, his direction of his children’s
lives. It’s not like God just sets us
in motion to sit back and watch us flounder and flail and fail. What Paul is referring to here
is God’s loving guidance through all of our plans. This is borne
out in Proverbs 16, 9, right? The mind of man plans his way,
but the Lord directs his steps. Beautiful and comforting thought.
The apostle Paul knew this equation quite well. Acts 16 records that
Paul had a really good idea, good intent to go to Asia and
preach the gospel. But through means that are left
unexplained, the Holy Spirit forbade it. He had the same great
intentions to go to the region of Bithynia. But the Spirit of
Jesus steered Paul and his team away from there as well. God
had plans. Paul had plans, but God’s plans
superseded Paul’s and directed him accordingly. His plans were
not sinful. They were noble and good. God redirected him and he does
the same with us all the time. We know that God watches over
us and guides and directs according to his divine plan and his glory. We may have the best of intentions
in our plans, and yet inexplicably to us, God redirects us. He closes doors, he opens doors,
so that whatever we do is always subject to his loving and sovereign
guidance. And so Paul lays it out here.
Whatever you do, It’s perfectly broad, and yet there’s room for
the guidance of our loving Heavenly Father, and he completes his
thought with this, whatever you do, do all in the name of the
Lord Jesus. This is the guiding principle,
and we need to ponder it to absorb its significance. Now, I don’t
want to cause you concern here, but the translation of this sentence
is subjective. The fact is, there is no main
verb in the entire sentence. Literally, it would read like
this. And whatever you might do, whether in word or in work,
all in the name of the Lord Jesus. There is no main verb. In the
first portion of the sentence, that verb is in what is called
the subjunctive mood. It’s the verb that speaks of
potential. What may or might happen. And hence, it’s translated as
whatever you might do. But for clarity’s sake, our translators
have supplied a main verb so that the sentence begins to make
sense. And they have appropriately supplied
the main verb so that that sentence is understandable. They’ve supplied
the main verb as an imperative. Do. Do this. And all three of our popular
translations have it this way. You can glance down at your particular
translation and see it there for yourself. The second use
of the word do will be in italics. If you’ve got a good publisher,
NAS says it this way, whatever you do, do in the name of the
Lord Jesus. ESV says it this way, and whatever
you do, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. King James, Whatsoever ye do,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. You get the point. Our translators, in order to
make the sentence readable and understandable, have provided,
supplied the main verb, and they’ve all supplied an imperative. Do. It’s a command. And I think they’ve
appropriately translated as such. We come to another observation
of this. Great passage. Not only the scope of this principle,
whatever you do, word or deed, it’s all, everything that you
do. Not only the scope of the guiding principle, but the nature
of the guiding principle. That’s what we’re after. We’re
trying to figure out what Paul even means here. But he says,
whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus. It’s clear on the face of it,
but there are many questions that stand still. This is a completely
broad and sweeping statement, infinitely wide in its scope,
as we’ve seen. From the beginning of this chapter,
we’ve seen that Paul is imparting these practical lessons, applications
of his doctrine, And this particular lesson is exceedingly broad. It touches every aspect of our
lives, whatever we do, all, everything that we do. And the question
remains, what does it mean to do all, to do whatever we do
in word or deed in the name of the Lord Jesus? There are a few helpful passages
that urge similar things of us. The first, just listen, is Ecclesiastes
9.10. It’s a similar verse. Ecclesiastes 9.10, and it’s actually
one of my favorite verses for the work world. Whatever your
hand finds to do, do it with all your might. What a great
principle. Give maximum effort. Regardless
of your career or calling, give everything you’ve got to that
effort. Whatever your hand finds to do,
do it with all your might, for there is no activity or planning
or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going. He says
that life is short. Get busy and pour yourself into
whatever it is you are doing. There is that same broad scope
there, whatever your hand finds to do. And the insistence there
is to do what we do with vigor, with faithfulness, with integrity,
to do it with all our might. Paul’s encouragement at Colossians
3 is very similar to that, isn’t it? There’s another even more
closely related passage written by Paul. You may remember it. We know this verse, 1 Corinthians
10 31. Just listen. It’s only one line.
Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, same exact
phrase, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Paul’s exhortation
there is very similar to our verse here in Colossians, that
no matter what it is that we may do, we are to do it by God’s
grace and for God’s glory. Our lives as Christians It is
not to be built around our enjoyment only of the blessings that God
provides here, nor is it to be built around blessing others
necessarily. Jesus said that we are to seek
first the kingdom of his kingdom and his righteousness, and all
these things will be added to you. Our desire, our focus, is
to be the glory of God, isn’t it? And then others will be blessed. And then we will better enjoy
his many bounties. So Paul’s admonition here to
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus is a sentence that occurs
only here in this exact form. Last week, as you will recall,
I took us to the parallel passage in Ephesians 5. And a similar
phrase occurs there in the same context. So if you would, would
you just turn back there two books to chapter five of Ephesians? I just want to read this one
verse, one line really, but I’ll read it in context. And we’ll parachute right into
the middle of it. Verse 19, speaking to one another in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart
to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ. to God the Father and be subject
to one another in the fear of Christ. And so there, Paul’s
insistence is that we return gratitude to God for all things,
he says, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. back, if you would
please, to Colossians 3. And here in Colossians 3, even
though the two passages are generally parallel, Paul’s encouragement
here is not with regard to giving of thanks, but to our words and
deeds, to what we do. And he says, to do all in the
name of the Lord Jesus. By that little preposition, in,
Paul points to the sphere or the attitude or the spirit by
which we do whatever it is we do. The sphere or the context
of everything that the Christian does is Jesus Christ himself. What a powerful thought. The
name refers to the fullness of who Jesus is, what he has revealed
himself to be to us, his followers, his children. so that to do something,
to do anything in his name, is to do it in harmony of what we
know of him. And in that sense, we know Jesus
to be holy and gentle. He is the image of the invisible
God, as Paul said of him in chapter 1. And for those who have placed
their faith in him for salvation, that changes everything, doesn’t
it? We are now in the closest union with our Savior. We hold
Him to be not only our Savior, but our Lord. We desire to be
yielded and obedient to Him in all things. There’s also a sense
in which we do something in someone’s name in order to represent them. to do whatever we do as their
emissaries, to do it in their way, according to their standards. That’s part of this equation
as well. And He is to us as well, our Lord Jesus, an infinite supply
of grace, isn’t He? He is the one that enables us
to accomplish His will and ways. To do everything then in His
name is to do nothing that would dishonor Him, but rather, as
the passage in 1 Corinthians has it, to do everything that
we can to glorify Him. Not out of a cold sense of obligation,
but out of a heart and a desire to please and honor Him in love.
We especially speak or engage in some deed in Christ’s name
when we remember that we are sent into the world as his ambassadors,
his representatives, that our words and our actions reflect
back on him. And so we come reverently into
worship when we do this as well. Paul says that the whole of life,
whatever we do, in word or deed is to be done under Christ’s
guidance as he himself would do it by his energizing supply
of grace and for his great glory in everything, word and deed. There’s a third thing that we
observe from this passage. Not only looking to life’s North
Star, the nature of the guiding principle and the scope of the
guiding principle, but the spirit of the guiding principle. The
spirit of the guiding principle is that last set of words. Whatever you do in word or deed,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through
him to God the Father. This thankfulness, too, is an
echo of the previous passage in Ephesians. Paul says there
that we are to always be giving thanks for all things. This is
Paul’s same encouragement here, heartfelt gratitude. And here
in Colossians chapter three, Paul places this expression of
gratitude in the context of actively doing all in the name of Christ. In other words, thankfulness
is the natural response to doing all for Christ. It’s an echo
of what Paul encouraged last week, that we are to sing with
thankfulness in our hearts to God. And so, in this doing whatever
we do in word or deed, doing all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
in what way specifically can we thank God in that connection? First, we can thank God for our
salvation. That we even have the desire,
not to mention the means of His grace, to do anything for His
glory. To think that we can now bring
God, the God of glory, any measure of glory itself is astounding. We shudder to think where we
would be without the free salvation that He has provided. Even the
means to do all in his name comes not from within us, but it’s
doable only by the provision of his grace. Closely related
to that, we can thank God for what he has provided in Christ.
Our atonement, the payment for sin, our forgiveness. When Paul
mentions the Father here, he isn’t focusing on him with regard
to his relationship to Jesus. but rather his relationship to
us as his children. We can thank him for that. We
can thank God that he has adopted us as sons and daughters and
that we as his children now stand in relation to him as a loving
heavenly father. We can thank God as well for
his grace, the grace that he supplies by and through his spirit
to do all that we do for his glory. We could never hope to
honor or glorify Him in our own strength, by our own efforts,
no matter how noble, no matter how energetic. But with the supply
of His grace, the impossible becomes possible. We can thank God as well. As
there is an infinite wideness in the opportunities before us,
whatever we do in word or deed, we have an infinite number of
opportunities, ways in which we can represent our Savior and
honor Him in it. This too is a cause of gratitude
to God. And I love the way that Paul
paints, if you will, this avenue of gratitude. that we are to
give thanks to God through him, that is, through Christ. This presents the Father as the
ultimate recipient of our gratitude. This is a special focus in the
letter of Colossians. Perhaps Paul was seeking to obliterate
this idea of generally offering up prayer to some unknown God. Because he seems to go out of
his way to direct the saints to express prayers of gratitude
to the Father. In 1.3 he says it, we give thanks
to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In 1.12 he says
it, giving thanks to the Father. And he says it again here. It
is a not-so-subtle reminder that God has given us everything by
means of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, and we acknowledge this
in our thankfulness to Him. There are many other scriptures
that affirm this idea that God the Father is the focus of our
prayers. Paul says in Philippians that
when we come to God in prayer, our supplications, our requests
are to be made known to God. God the Father. The author of
Hebrews likewise says that we are to offer up a sacrifice of
praise to God. Our worship may be directed to
him as well. Both of these passages also mention
the expression of thanks, gratitude. Philippians 4, 6 speaks of supplication
with thanksgiving. Hebrews 13, 15, which verse we
read, speaks of lips that give thanks to his name. But we don’t just barge in. and thank God the Father without
remembering the way of access to Him. And that’s what Paul
acknowledges here. We only have a relationship with
Him because of our redemption in Christ. And just as our life
and our salvation is through Jesus, our Savior, so also is
our communion and the expression of our gratitude to the Father. It’s through Christ. Just as
Jesus is God’s mediator of grace to us, He is our mediator of
gratitude to God. In preparation for the Lord’s
table, after a message like this, after a passage like this, every
one of us has need of God’s grace. Let’s go there. Our merciful God, We thank you
for this simple little sentence that is just so profound. It
is as our guiding North Star. What was to a sailor a life-saving
means of guidance, this too becomes to us a life-saving means of
guidance for this life for the Christian. Lord, we thank you
for the broad scope of this, that we can come to you in any
situation. Whatever it is we’re doing, whatever
it is we’re saying or thinking, whatever problem, whatever concern,
we know that this verse is a guidance for us. We thank you, Father,
for the clarity of understanding what it is to do everything in
Jesus’ name. to come to him for grace, to
plead for him for guidance and clarity from your word, and to
seek to honor him by doing his will in all we do. Father, we
thank you for the means that we have. We thank you that you
hear our prayer. We thank you that as a loving
Heavenly Father, you desire your children to come to you and to
pray to you. and to bring our requests and
even our gratitude to you. But we can never forget that
we’re enabled to do that because of what Jesus Christ has done. Lord, we thank you and we praise
you. In Jesus’ name, amen.