Take No prisoners -Pt2

So I totally purposed to tell
you about the end of my trip. When I left South Dakota, I headed
down to Nebraska to round out, that was the, that’s what started
the whole thing to begin with and I forgot to tell you about
it. So I do a conference up in Nebraska every fall, Lord willing,
and Because we were in Europe last year, I was unable to be
there, so it was an extra sweet blessing to be with them and
to enjoy the company of like-minded men and open God’s word, which is what
I would like you to do. If you would, please take up
your Bibles and turn once again to Paul’s letter to the Colossians,
and once again to chapter 3 where we left off last Lord’s Day. We are in the midst of the second
of 10 exhortations in this section, a section that begins in 3.1
and courses all the way down to chapter 4, verse 6. And here,
Paul is applying what he has taught in the course of the first
two chapters. Three weeks ago, we covered the
first of the 10, grasping for glory or cultivating a heavenly
mindset. there in verses one through four.
And then last week, we embarked on the second of the 10, a sudden
and alarming change of themes, engaging our deadly enemies. And I say sudden and alarming
because in the opening four verses, Paul had taken us to the positive,
exhilarating, joyous land of heaven. And then, from
his exhortation to heavenly-oriented living, he takes us back down
to earth and into a veritable battlefield. We went from setting
our minds on the things above to war. those who have been rescued out
of the world, redeemed and saved. It only makes sense that we should
focus not on our existing world, but on the world to come. This
world is no longer our home. God has saved us. We have been
raised up with our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and our life
now as believers, Paul says, is hidden with Christ in God. We, in our salvation by faith
in Christ, are divinely secure. We are in Christ and Christ is
in God, doubly secure. And because of that, we should
focus our hearts and minds on eternal things. And so as Paul
takes his readers into this next section, verses five through
eight, the change of subjects is somewhat striking to us. From
the highest of heights, heaven, right back to the lowest, depravities
on earth. And remember, it is as if Paul
drops us into an active battlefield. A full-on war raging all around
us. I suggested that you could smell
the gunpowder, you could hear the shots, you can hear the cries
of the men for assistance. Other than a sudden reference
to hell itself, I can’t think of a greater context. From heavenly
glory to an earthly battle. If we may, I’d like to take the
opening eight verses once again, just to set the context for us
this morning. Therefore, if you have been raised
up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ
is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the
things above, not on the things that are on the earth, for you
have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ,
who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed
with him in glory. Therefore, consider the members
of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion,
evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is
because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon
the sons of disobedience. And in them you also once walked
when you were living in them. But now you also put them all
aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from
your mouth. Last week, we only made it through
the first portion of that passage. We looked only at verse five.
What I suggested to you was the front line of our enemy combatants. They’re cresting the hill, they’re
aiming at us, and they intend to shoot to kill. We titled the
message, really two messages last week and this week, Take
No Prisoners. It’s a fight to the death. And
prisoners or enemies or combatants, they’re all appropriate characterizations
of this section, given the identities of these wicked forces. Immorality,
impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, idolatry. These are frighteningly deadly
foes, and they’re very common, both in the first century world
and in our own. We saw, first of all, just how
prevalent these sins were in Paul’s day. They are addressed
in various measure in no fewer than seven of Paul’s epistles. Galatians, 1 Thessalonians, Romans,
Ephesians, twice, and 2 Corinthians. We looked at each of these very
repulsive sins, deadly in each of their own right. The first
one was immorality. And the word that we saw there,
porneia, from where we get our word pornography, and it refers
to sexual sin in general. A wide range of sins outside
of the husband-wife relationship that God designed. The second
one is impurity. We looked at impurity, which
is really the partner of immorality, the thought life that really
generates immorality, a dirty mind and a dirty heart that cannot
but produce sin. The third term that we looked
at was passion. And we see that, you know, in
life and even in scripture, there is good passion and there is
bad passion. And here it is absolutely evil
passion that is referenced, an animal-like craving that controls
the individual. And it’s characterized in various
places as lustful passion or degrading passion. used in Romans
1 to point to the sin of homosexuality. So these are very practical exhortations
that the apostle is providing. The partner of—pardon me—the
partner of passion is what Paul says evil desire. It’s the condition
that stirs the heart to sin. It’s a morally bad desire of
which Paul speaks here. The fifth term that we looked
at was greed. And it seems somewhat out of
place. We think of greed with regards
to money or possessions. But here, it’s just a selfish
desire for more. And it’s even more terrible than
greed over money because it’s associated with those four above
sins. Immorality, impurity, passion,
evil desire are all greedily longed for. They stop at nothing
to fulfill their ravenous desire. And the sixth and final term
that we peeked at was idolatry. And the whole thing, all of those
very sordid sins really tally up to make for idolatry, which
is essentially the worship of self. Now, several weeks ago,
we looked at this passage. We read in the various passages
where some of these same sins were listed. And one of those
was Ephesians 5, 3 through 6. In Ephesians 5, it presents two
very similar lists, remarkably similar to our Colossians passage.
And so I want you to just turn there for a moment Back to your
left, two books, two Ephesians. And when you get there, go to
chapter 5. And I’m bringing you here, we’ll
just read through it briefly, but I want you to see the frequency
with which these terms are mentioned. And we will reference this passage
several times this morning. But let’s get an overview of
Paul’s thoughts here, beginning in verse 3. Ephesians 5, and
glance down, if you would, at verse 3. But immorality or any
impurity or greed must not be named among you as is proper
among saints. And there must be no filthiness
and silly talk or coarse justing, which are not fitting, but rather
giving of thanks. For this you know with certainty
that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater
has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one
deceive you with empty words. For because of these things,
the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” A whole
lot of parallels in that passage. So Paul deals not only there
with the moral sins of the flesh, as he does in Colossians, but
he also deals with the sins of the heart and the tongue, as
he does in our passage, Colossians 3, five through eight. And so
back, if you would, to Colossians chapter three. Part of the language
from where we derive the imagery of war is in Paul’s command that
we consider as dead our own physical bodies. It’s violent language. And this, too, for Paul, remember,
is war. It’s not a game. It’s not a mere
skirmish, not a contest. It’s a fight to the death. No
reasoning, no negotiating, no truce. There will be one victor,
and there will be one who is vanquished. Only one will live. The other will die. This is war. And so a reasonable question
might be posed here of me, or at least also of Paul. Why all
this discussion about war? Why the drama here, Paul? Why the suggestion of enemy combatants? Well, as we noted, part of that
comes from Paul’s command there in verse 5, consider as dead. That’s an imperative. It’s a
command, even if a solemn one. But Paul further explains his
grave concern in verses six and seven, and that’s where we want
to pick up this morning. The title, Taking No Prisoners,
is just really referencing our engagement with deadly enemies. And as we looked last week at
the front line of our combatants, We turn this morning to the deadliness
of our combatants, and we find it in verse 6. For it is because
of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons
of disobedience. And in them you also once walked
when you were living in them. Now, the first thing that Paul
does here is to explain his strong language of verse 5. Consider
the members of your earthly body as dead to these horrible sins.
Why, Paul, such dramatic language? He gives the reason for that
in verse 6. For it is because of these things
that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience.
This is deadly business. And this too is a strong and
arresting sentence. Anytime we hear of the coming
wrath of God, it should get our full attention. The simplest
understanding of the apostles explanation here is that these
sins generate the wrath of God. God’s just punishment for sin
and sinners. And the wrath of God ultimately
brings death. That’s the language of Paul in
Romans 5, isn’t it? Romans 5, 12, through one man,
sin entered into the world and death, through sin, death spread
to all men because all sin. Sin brings death. That leads to Paul’s conclusion
in Romans 6, 16. He says it’s either one way or
the other that we will present ourselves either as slaves for
obedience, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting
in righteousness. It’s one or the other. Likewise,
1 Corinthians 15, 56, you probably know this passage well, the sting
of sin is death. James, the Lord’s brother, writing
in his opening chapter, verse 15, James 1, 15, that incredible
image, when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when
sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. It’s an either or. It’s that simple. Sin brings
death. And that means that those dreadful
sins of verse five, immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
greed, and idolatry, that dabbling in or entertaining or immersing
ourselves fully into any one of those is a deadly pursuit. It is to call down the wrath
of God upon us. Sin brings death, and those sins
call down God’s wrath unto death. When Paul speaks here of the
wrath of God, he refers not merely to God’s attitude towards sin,
as if he’s over in the corner in a huff, you know, but it’s
the resulting consequences of his feeling towards sin. It’s
God’s anger expressed towards sin. Paul typically speaks of
the wrath of God as being God’s final expression of his displeasure
with sin. He tells the Jewish nation, Romans
2.5, because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are
storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation
of the righteous judgment of God. He often speaks of the wrath
of God as something future. 1 Thessalonians 1 10, speaking
of Jesus who rescues us from the wrath to come. That’s the
believer’s promise. We will not experience the full
wrath of God. Likewise, in Romans 5, 9, for
any who are justified by Christ’s blood through faith, we are saved
from the wrath of God through him. What glorious news for the
believer. So there’s that aspect of God
and his wrath at being future tied to judgment. Romans 118
says it clearly, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth
in unrighteousness. And while we tend to think of
God as being, God’s wrath as being poured out only in judgment
on the last day, the wrath of God is a present and continuous
expression of God. The form of the verb here says
as much. Literally, it says, the wrath
of God comes. It’s already coming. Sin calls
down God’s righteous anger against sin, and God’s punitive response
to sin is always being poured forth. This is exactly what we
get, the idea that we get from Paul in Ephesians 2. Paul refers
to such sinners as children of wrath. Having just read Ephesians
5, I don’t want you to turn there necessarily, but you may recall
that Paul says exactly the same thing there. Because of these
things, these sorted list of sins, because of these things,
the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedient. It comes. In some sense, it’s already here.
And there’s a general sense in which God’s wrath is continually
being poured out. And in that regard, it is typically
seen in what we might characterize as natural consequences. injury,
death, sickness caused by substance abuse, loss of income, career,
reputation, relationships, and on and on and on it goes, right?
That can all be tied directly to the wrath of God against sin. Sometimes it comes as divine
chastisement intended to bring the sinner to repentance, and
other times it is purely punitive. It is the consequence of transgressing
God’s laws and principles, a transgression against God’s holiness that brings
down the just punishment of God. And so the timing of God’s expression
of his wrath, it’s not an either-or matter. It’s both. God’s wrath
is coming. God’s wrath will come. But in
a very real way, God’s wrath is already poured out against
sin. And so there’s a sense in which
this is a declaration of judgment for any who will hear. Did you
grab that? It’s a declaration of judgment
for any who will hear and heed and repent. It serves as a corrective
warning. It’s a call to repentance for
such sins. Paul makes three kinds of statements
often. In our parallel passage, Ephesians
6, he writes the same words that he does here in Colossians. Because
of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. In Galatians 5.21, 1 Corinthians
6.10, Paul warns that sinners, such as he identifies in those
locations, will not inherit the kingdom of God. It’s a sobering
warning. But it’s a call to repentance
for any who will hear. And even in that, there is mercy,
God’s mercy. Now, we notice as well that this
wrath of God is not just dispensed recklessly or indiscriminately. It comes, Paul says, on the sons
of disobedience. Paul uses the same phrase as
we just read, he uses it twice in Ephesians, with regard to
God’s response, righteous response to sinners. Ephesians 2.2, where
he speaks of the Christian’s former life, a life dictated
by the devil. There in Ephesians 2, he says,
you formerly walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air. He was calling
the shots. He was dictating to you how to
live of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Although the Ephesian believers
had been saved, the devil was still in total control of what
he refers to as the sons of disobedience. These are those who follow the
devil’s dictates, his mindset, his philosophies, his attitudes. They are just like their father,
the devil, whom Paul characterizes as disobedience itself. Disobedient, those who are controlled
by him are naturally called his children. Satan is their master
and ruler. And in the parallel passage in
Ephesians 6, the one we read a moment ago, the same exact
phrase occurs. It’s only responsible for me
to tell you that a few early manuscripts do not contain this
phrase. Some of you can see in your passage
brackets around this phrase. Some scribe, somewhere along
the way, may have either inserted or omitted this phrase from certain
manuscripts. Frankly, the sentence would be
rather clumsy without it. The wrath of God comes. And so I think a third option
is best. It wasn’t inserted, it wasn’t
omitted. Just as Paul used this phrase
in Ephesians 5, 6, he also used it here in Colossians 3. And
no matter what, I think the phrase, upon the sons of disobedience
is legitimate. But what does it mean? Who exactly
are the sons of disobedience? It speaks of one who can be identified
with the character of a certain thing or trait. In this case,
disobedience. They are disobedient just like
their father. Just like a child resembles his
or her parents, so also those who resemble those, those people
who resemble those who are sinful and wayward can justly be called
the sons of disobedience. Well, with Paul’s explanation
really complete here in verse 6 and 7, we press on to verse
8, which admittedly is an awkward transition. What we have in our engagement with our deadly enemies,
we have not only the front line of our combatants, the deadliness
of our combatants, but then we have a second wave of combatants. We see that in verse 8. But now
you also put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander,
and abusive speech from your mouth. This is a funny outline. It was a difficult passage to
outline. Because from a human perspective,
it’s almost clumsy. Paul gives that initial list
in verse 5, and then his supporting or explanatory statement in verses
6 and 7, and then almost out of nowhere, he introduces a second
list of sinful practices. It is a bit awkward, but it’s
not out of the question. It’s an almost, oh yes, by the
way, there are these other matters as well. What he’s doing here
in verse eight is appending this list of sinful practices to that
first list, the one that we considered last week, immorality, passion,
and the like. Sticking with our battle theme,
I liken this to a second wave of enemy soldiers cresting the
hill. Paul speaks of the first wave
in verse 5, and he’s explained their deadliness by the wrath
of God. That’s what those things elicit.
And with that thought ringing in his mind, Paul quickly introduces
a second list of sinful behaviors. A second wave of deadly soldiers. Perhaps this latter list was
even generated by his explanation in that middle verse, the coming
of the wrath of God. Because you see, God’s wrath
is poured out not only on the more sensual sins that he mentions
in verse five, but against all sin, every sin, every kind of
sin. even what we might think of as
lesser sins, social sins. But any and all sin calls down
God’s righteous wrath, and so when Paul says in verse 6, because
of these things the wrath of God will come, and that in our
heathen condition we once walked in them, He recalls and faithfully
interjects another battery of sins. And this group of sinful
behaviors is, as I said, a more social than moral and private. These are very public sins. We
see these on display all the time. And he immediately resumes
the strong language of verse five, consider the members of
your earthly body as dead to these immoral things. Even if
you have eradicated those things, he says, there is still more
spiritual work to do because here he says, but now you also. Essentially, he says, look, we’re
not finished here yet. You also need to eliminate these
things. The language here is very direct,
leaves no doubt. Put them all aside. This is one of Paul’s favorite
and often used metaphors. Put off this and put on this. About half the times that it’s
used in the New Testament, it’s used by Paul And the image that
it elicits is a metaphorical donning of a garment, like a
coat or a jacket. And he does this in Romans 12,
both put on and put off. Listen to Romans 13, 12. Let
us lay aside the deeds of darkness, take off, and put on the armor
of light. Listen to Ephesians 4.22. Lay aside the old self. And then in 4.24, put on the
new self. Again, in Ephesians 4.25, laying
aside falsehood. And so when it comes to discussing
the idea of setting aside sinful practices, other New Testament
writers also seize hold of this image. Listen to the writer of
Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1. Let us lay aside every encumbrance
and the sin which so easily entangles us. James uses this image. James 1 21. Therefore putting
aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness. Verse
Peter 2 1. Therefore, putting aside all
malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, one
of the privileges that I had this week was to visit my brother’s
dairy. And for any of you who have,
well, if you’ve been, you already know this need. If you ever intend to go
visit the dairy, bring an extra set of clothes. Because just
walking through, you don’t even have to get close to the cows
and all the rest of what the cows produce. Just walking through,
you come out with a very particular aroma. So not only did I bring
extra clothes, I brought a very large trash bag to put the clothes
in, roll it, and seal it tight so that my entire vehicle didn’t
smell like the dairy. I have enough memories of it
as it is. All that to say, this putting
off or putting aside is a very effective illustration, isn’t
it? It’s like peeling off dirty clothes. So what Paul says here
is to peel off these offensive practices from our lives and
cast them aside. It’s a dramatic and demonstrative
word intended to capture the action of forcible removal of
sin from our lives. Now we’ve seen this again and
again in our study of Colossians, these side-by-side parallels
with the book of Ephesians. But there in that letter, he nearly mirrors what he says here
in Colossians 3.8, when he addresses the same exact thing in Ephesians
4.31. Listen to this. Whereas Colossians
says, put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive
speech, In Ephesians 4.31, he says, let all bitterness and
wrath, our word, and anger, our word, and clamor and slander,
our word, be put away from you along with all malice. It’s the
same exact illustration. The order is different. The list
is slightly increased in the Ephesians passage, but these
sins were prevailing among God’s people in both churches. Four of the words from our list
here in Colossians 3.8 are duplicated there in 4.31 of Ephesians, and
that tells us that these sins were very prolific among professing
believers. Otherwise, why tell both churches
about these things? Now, if we were to overhear some
person correcting someone, we would immediately know that the
individual was struggling with that, wouldn’t we? Let’s use
something innocuous here as an example. Think of it. If someone said to another person,
Please stop pointing. It’s not polite. What would we
conclude? We would conclude that this individual
has a bad habit of pointing at others. And it’s no different
here. Both the Colossian and the Ephesian
churches, and frankly, most other churches as well, had a real
problem not with pointing. They had a real problem with
anger, wrath, malice, slander, and among other things. And that
tells us that although the recipients of this letter had repented of
their sins and placed their faith in Christ, they had indeed become
Christians. They were not yet perfected in
holiness. Just like us, they still had
much of the old life to peel off and cast aside. Well, it wouldn’t be right to
ignore Paul’s list here, this additional list of sins. Let’s
briefly consider each of these. First, anger. And the funny thing
is that back in verse 6, Paul used this word, and it was translated
there as wrath. Remember? The wrath of God, a
key feature in this entire passage. Paul says it even more sharply
in Romans 12, 19. Never take your own revenge,
beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written,
vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And if you glance
down at Colossians 3, 8, you see that the second word in this
list is translated as wrath. Well, that’s somewhat confusing.
Different Greek word translated the same way, which tells us
right away that these words are not altogether different. They
overlap in meaning. They are similar. Well, the fact that Paul reuses
this word a second time, a second time in three verses, it hints
that this kind of anger is God’s prerogative, not ours. And James, the Lord’s brother,
in James 1, 19 and 20, in his epistle says this, this you know,
my beloved brethren, but let everyone be quick to hear, slow
to speak, and slow to anger. Why? Because he says in verse
20, the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of
God. The word here refers to a settled
anger or indignation. This isn’t just popping off at
somebody. This is settled anger against someone, even hatred.
Not a snap, a sudden outburst, but a slow and established sentiment. We might even think of a person
given to such feelings as seething, a strong and thoroughly entertained
attitude. They know what they’re thinking.
This is the sinful feeling that serves as the foundation for
resentment and revenge. That’s frightening. This is the
source of a deep-seated hostility. Paul says, put it aside. The
second word in our list here in Colossians 3, 8, translated
as wrath. Again, as I said, a different
word entirely. The root word of this particular
word means to burn, as with a sacrificial offering. And so it can be translated
as rage, Acts 19.28, indignation, Romans 2.8, angry tempers, 2
Corinthians 12.20, outbursts of anger, Galatians 5.20, many
different translations that all point to the same thing. This
person is like a boiling tempest. They don’t even know what they’re
angry at. They just know they’re angry and it’s a matter of time.
It refers to a sudden outburst of angry passion. It’s anger
that is boiled up and now burst forth to the surface. It pictures
the individual whose anger begins to simmer and then boil, and
then, like the proverbial tea kettle, it eventually erupts
with great fury, sometimes even violently. Oftentimes those who
are around such a person, when he reacts with rage, they’re
caught totally by surprise by the reaction. There’s yet another
social sin, malice. This is a truly ugly word. Worse even than the first two,
if possible. The word malice just speaks of
something, some thought or attitude that is objectively bad. It can be understood as a heart
of cruelty, an evil mindset that desires the harm of others. I told you this was bad. It rejoices
in another person’s calamity. This is sick. It orients from
a corrupted heart to begin with. Now, I don’t often quote definitions,
but this one was so good, I figured that I would. Listen to one pastor’s
definition of malice. He calls it a vicious disposition
of spite. Do you get that? A vicious disposition
of spite. That’s his position. That’s his
operating position all the time. a vicious disposition of spite,
deep unkindness of the self-centered, Christless heart. Although malice is related to
anger and wrath, an expression of them, malice, takes the anger
to a dreadful place. Remember a few weeks ago, we
looked at Romans 1. We saw this word there. Remember
that foul list of sins? Very lengthy list in Romans 1
at the end. Listen to this series of sins
that Paul enumerates. He says, full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit, malice. Paul, writing to Titus, uses
this word, among many others, to characterize our former unsaved
life. In chapter three, verse three,
he says, we also once were foolish ourselves. We were just like
them, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and
pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful,
hating one another. It’s one of the reasons Paul
uses that is to tell us to be merciful to those of the world.
This is the individual who carries a grudge, refusing to exercise
the grace of forgiveness, who begins to exact revenge on their
perceived enemies. This is the angry, spiteful person
who maligns others in bitter retribution, a vindictive desire
to injure someone else. Such hateful words are no accident. They don’t just erupt. They are
the result of an intention to hurt another person’s feelings
or to damage their reputation. Well, that brings us very naturally
to the word slander. Because slander is often the
weapon of choice for someone who is maliciously angry with
someone else. What better way to hurt someone
than to damage their reputation by a venomous dose of slander? The word here, you know it as
soon as you hear it. It’s the Greek word blasphemia. You guessed it, it’s the word
from which we get our word blasphemy. Now, when it’s used with reference
to God, it’s blasphemy in that sense, something untrue of God. But when it’s used in reference
to other people, slander is a very good translation. Whether it
comes in the form of a false accusation, an evil report, a
harsh denunciation of someone else. One of the most fascinating
uses of this word occurs in Jude, a very short book. Jude there is instructing his
readers about the foolish idea of rebuking the devil. We had
a Q&A at the end of the conference yesterday, and one of the most
lengthy discussions, a person asked about rebuking the devil.
And we all just said, the Bible clearly says that we are, Paul,
Peter, and James all say that we’re not in the business of
rebuking the devil. It just says to resist the devil. Well, we looked at several passages,
but this one came to mind. One of the most fascinating uses.
He’s instructing his readers again about the foolish idea
of rebuking the devil. And there in verse nine of Jude,
it says, Michael, the archangel. Any angels here this morning?
That’s what I thought. Michael, the archangel, when
he disputed with the devil, and argued about the body of Moses,
did not dare to pronounce a railing judgment against him, but said,
the Lord rebuke you. He didn’t even deal with the
devil, and neither should we. It’s a railing judgment, it’s
translated there, that captures this behavior very well. It’s any kind of speech that
orients from anger and maliciously slanders someone else. Slander
leads naturally to the last of these social sins. A word that’s
only used here in all of the Bible, abusive speech. the closest that we come to finding
it again elsewhere in Ephesians chapter five, where Paul mentions
filthiness and silly talk, coarse jesting, which are not fitting. But Paul isn’t talking about
filthiness or dirty talk here, nor is he talking about silly
talk, foolish banter, Nor is he even talking about harsh,
coarse jesting. Here it’s another sin entirely. It’s abusive speech. And perhaps
the most delicate and accurate way to describe this is a foul
mouth tirade against someone else. Someone who uses vulgar
language in the course of verbally berating someone else. We’ve
all heard it. It’s totally unacceptable. Well, I love John Eady’s more
poetic characterization of this passage when he says that this
list of Paul, what he produces there in verse 8, is a melancholy
genealogy of bad passions. Isn’t that beautiful? a melancholy
genealogy of bad passions and we know that a genealogy builds
and and then traces the various generations down well that’s
exactly what this does listen to this it’s a melancholy genealogy
of bad passions simmering temper exciting passion and so you have
this offense and you begin to dwell on it and maul over it
and it it becomes deep-seated and eventually erupts as passion. Simmering temper, exciting passion,
passion heated to indignation. You cannot, will not let it go.
You’re going to see this thing through and it is indignation
that eventually erupts. Simmering temper, exciting passion,
passion heated to indignation, indignation throwing itself into
libel and abuse. Now it is verbal, now it has
erupted, and now I am attacking someone else. And then finally,
Simmering temper, exciting passion, passion heating to indignation,
indignation throwing itself into libel and abuse, a malicious
element lying all the while at the base of these enormities.
You have malice in your heart for someone. So Paul, just as
Paul urged us in the course of this battle, to render our bodies
as dead to these sinful inclinations of the flesh, verse five, so
also we are to peel off and fling from us, like a filthy garment,
these social sins, because these too call for the wrath of God,
anger. wrath, malice, slander, and abusive
speech. The sad thing is we’ve all engaged
in it, just like the Colossians and the Ephesians had. These
things almost are second nature to many of us. Let’s humble ourselves
before the Lord, shall we, in prayer?