PT-5 "The Performance of the New Man" (Col. 3:12-13)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/7/2017 8:57 PM

My Worship Time                                          Focus:  PT-5 “The Performance of the New Man”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Col. 3:12-13

            Message of the verses:  “12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”

            The next word we look at is “gentleness” “mildness of disposition, gentleness of spirit, meekness.”  The Greek word is “Prautes.”  This word is closely related to humility, the last word that we looked at in our previous SD.  John MacArthur writes “It is not weakness or spinelessness, but rather the willingness to suffer injury instead of inflicting it.  The gentle person knows he is a sinner among sinners and is willing to suffer the burdens others’ sin may impose on him.  This gentleness can only be produced by the Holy Spirit (cf. Gal. 5:22-23) and should mark the Christian’s behavior at all times, even when restoring a sinning brother (Gal. 6:1), or defending the faith against attacks from unbelievers (2 Tim. 2:25; 1 Pet. 3:15).”  For us to truly understand this virtue we must as MacArthur writes, remember it comes from the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

            The next word is “patience” which is translated (makrothumia).  William Barkley writes “This is the spirit which never loses its patience with its fellow-men.  Their foolishness and their un-teachability never drive it to cynicism or despair; their insults and their ill-treatment never drive it to bitterness or wrath.”  MacArthur says that patience is the opposite of resentment and revenge.  Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:16 “Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.”  Peter tells us “and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you (2 Peter 3:15).”

            Next we look at “bearing with one another” “and this means to endure, to hold out in spite of persecution, threats, injury, indifference, or complaints and not retaliate.”  Paul writes in 1 Cor. 4:12 “and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure.”  The Corinthian’s were not modeling this as we see in the sixth chapter of 1 Corinthians as they were taking each other to court.  

            MacArthur concludes “Believers are to be marked not only by endurance, but also by ‘forgiving each other.’  The Greek charizomenoi literally means ‘to be gracious’ and the text uses a reflexive pronoun, so it literally reads, ‘forgiving yourselves.’  The church as a whole is to be a gracious, mutually forgiving fellowship.  By including the phrase ‘just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you’ Paul makes Christ the model of forgiveness.  Because He has forgiven us, so also must we forgive others (Eph. 4:32; cf. Matt. 18:21-35).  The phrase ‘whoever has a complaint against anyone’ refers to times when someone is at fault because of sin, error, or debt.  The Lord Jesus is our pattern for forgiveness, because He forgave all our sins, errors, and debts.  He is also the model for the rest of the virtues discussed in this section.”

5/7/2017 9:22 PM