Are You Putting Me On?

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, 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.
(Colossians 3:12-14 – ESV)

Paul talks about putting on the new man, a new way of doing things within a new community, the local church. This does bring up some legitimate questions, however. With all of this emphasis by Paul and the New Testament on the local church and our involvement in it, with all the talk of our dependence on the church, and so many churches, why aren’t people putting on the new man very much? Why do we see more sin in the church and not less?

It is because the communities are not acting like the new man, they are focused on things that are too akin to the old man, and that relevance destroys their reverence.

The first problem is that the churches themselves are not ordered properly around Christ. The focus is something else: usually man and his felt needs. Christ is not all. Even the community itself is not to be the primary focus.

The second reason is that we have too many unregenerate in our ranks. Christ is not in all. There is no church discipline because there is no church worth in the minds of many.

Yes the church has social and societal responsibilities, but its first responsibility is spiritual. Too many churches are just civic centers or country clubs, a community of comfort rather than a community of Christ, where upward mobility represents the upward call. The goal is not to get everyone into the middle class. It is not a community of self-improvement it is supposed to be a community of sanctification.

We are supposed to be in the world not of the world. Although there are no class distinctions anymore we must realize that Jesus didn’t come to liberate you from your social situation but your sinful situation. Within the process of the community the lines will disappear, but we see so little sanctification that no wonder there is so little integration.

Don't pretend that you can join the church like joining a country club and once you have a membership card everything’s okay. We must be serious about whether the death of Christ means something more than entertainment and personal gratification. This isn’t a game it is a spiritual war we are in. It is time we either stopped playing church, or join the Kiwanis club.

Are you a 14%er? You know, those people who play church and put on a smiling face for the day? You never hear from them during the week, but you wouldn’t want to, because come Monday they are as mean as a rattlesnake. Then again, considering that church is only about 2 hours on Sunday, maybe some aren’t even 14%, maybe just during the service, you know, a 1.2% Christian. Is there even such a thing, really? Is it you I’m talking to? Instead of just putting on a show put on the new man. Go to church, get involved, become part of the new man, and when you go outside, live like it.