Colossians 3:12-14–Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation

Posted by Seth on Dec 8, 2009 in Bible Study, Daily Devotions |

Colossians 3:12-14–Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation

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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Colossians 3:12-14 wherein we are reminded of the new lives that we should live as God’s chosen ones.

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 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. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

To put into practice rightly the instructions here mentioned, the Christian must remember who he/she is. The elect are “God’s chosen ones” and not their own; they belong fully to the Lord who purchased them with His blood. God alone has the right to name them and to set the direction of their lives. Having such an identity is a fortunate state to be in as it means that we who are His have been marked “holy and beloved.” Having nothing pertaining to holiness to offer, we can only receive it. Just as God gives us His love, so we also are stamped with His holiness through Christ. Nobody else can claim these special and wonderful promises! What then should we be? How then should we act?

Putting on specific attributes and holding certain practices are in order. Compassionate hearts should be always in us. The compassion that we have been shown, we should hold tightly so that others might experience God’s merciful kindness through us. Similarly, humility and meekness of the sort that our Savior exhibited should be practiced by us. There is no room for pride and self exaltation when we recognize who we are apart from our only Righteousness: Christ. God will lift us up in due time, and so we should practice patience as we pursue daily faithfulness. Again, God is forever patient with His children and we must imitate Him in this way (Ephesians 5:1), showing others the same kind of grace.

With such attributes in place, wearing each one with great desire to express our love of the Lord and our intention to emanate His goodness, there are relational consequences. We will and must bear with one another when the connections within the body are strained. God has made us one for oneness unto his glory. The weak should be lifted up, the sad and despairing must be joined in grief, and the downright odd must be embraced. Sins committed against one another will happen; these must be met with forgiveness. None has sinned against another as horribly as each of us has sinned against God, being far from giving Him glory in all things. If He has forgiven us, we have no reason to hold grudges against others and cause pain instead of healing in the body.

Finally, with nothing being more central to the character of God than love, we must put on the same. If the love is true and full and lasting, the other commands will be more easily followed. It is no coincidence that Jesus proclaimed the greatest commandment to be love for God followed by love for others. Loving God with one’s all purifies and directs every aspect of our lives. Real love, rightly understood and divinely described, is beautifully infectious.

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