Have you made any New Year’s resolutions? If not resolutions, maybe any goals or plans for the coming year? The new year provides a fresh start, a sense that “this year is going to be better.” I think that is a good thing because we all need fresh starts, do-overs, goals and plans.
Can I try some startling New Year’s resolutions on you? I think these are “subversive” in a sense because they are in many ways countercultural to our highly competitive, individualistic world. And yet they are what we all wish others would do to and for us. These resolutions, if practiced, will completely change relationships, situations, and especially us. They are words written 2,000 years ago by an early follower of Jesus, the apostle Paul. Paul was once highly competitive and aggressive, but he became a completely different person because of the love God had for him. In fact, I think he would say he wasn’t really human until he encountered the God who became a human. His words come from a little letter he wrote to a group of people just like you and me, all struggling to find our way in this world:
Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. Since God chose you to be the holy [different] people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from King Jesus rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful (Col. 3:10, 12-15)
A YEAR OF BEING LOVED AND LOVING
In these verses, Paul gives us a description of who we are as humans, where we find our true identity, and that is in being loved. To be human is to be loved. We are loved by the God of the universe. We become less human when we are not loved, which leads to dehumanizing behavior. Above all, you must realize how much you are loved. These words, “chosen, holy, and dearly loved” were the words God used to describe the people of Israel in the Old Testament (Ex. 19:5-6). But it was always his intention that every human being would hear God speaking these words to them—to you. And God has put his money where his mouth is by showing us how deep, wide, long, and high his love is by coming to be with us and to rescue us from all powers that hold us down, even death.
We understand what love is by looking at God as he has fully expressed himself in King Jesus. Love isn’t a feeling, it is a “rugged commitment” to the well-being of another human being by being present with, fighting for, and sticking with another.[1] That kind of love is the only hope to overcome the selfishness that is in all of us, and we need Someone to stick with us and train us to love like that, too. That Someone is Jesus (God become human), and Jesus is always on the cross for us, and it is his faithful love that always leads to the triumph over our dark tombs.
WE NEED THE ARMOR OF LOVE
Paul paints a picture of love as being like clothing that is draped around Jesus. Then Jesus takes each piece of clothing and wraps it around us. We should envision each of these as “pieces of armor” that Jesus puts around us to protect us. Love is what keeps us secure and protects us. Hate is a defensive strategy; people hate because they are afraid, and they use hate to protect themselves. But hate doesn’t protect your heart at all. Rather, hate is like a sieve that lets in all the darkness that poisons your soul. What you need is the armor of love layered over you to protect you from a cold world. With this armor of love, you can be not only protected, but you can “go on the offense” with this love. You can actually change relationships and life situations with each of these pieces of love.
MY NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
So, from these words of Paul, I find some of my New Year’s resolutions, my New Year’s wardrobe. But each of these will not come about through my willpower. Rather, each grows out of understanding, contemplating, even “dwelling” in, how much God loves me. We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). Or as Paul put it, “Follow God’s example, as dearly loved children, and walk in the way of love, just as King Jesus loved us and gave himself for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. 5:1). Each of these “resolutions” are pieces of the protective armor of love that God drapes over us:
Be More Compassionate. Paul literally says that we should have the “bowels of compassion.” We should feel for others from our gut, because God feels for us (2 Cor. 6:12, 7:15; Mark 1:41, 6:34). Another way to describe this is having a “heart of pity.” Barclay notes that there was no mercy in the ancient world. Babies, animals, and sick people were all tossed aside. “Christianity brought mercy into this world. It is not too much to say that everything that has been done for the aged, the sick, the weak in body and in mind, the animal, the child, the woman has been done under the inspiration of Christianity.”[2] People are changed by compassion. Compassion is exactly what the world needs now.
Be Kinder. The Greek word for kindness is chrestos, which is a beautiful word because it is similar to Christ (Christos) and because it is derived from the Greek word for grace, charis. There is nothing more disarming than kindness; there is nothing that can change a situation, an environment, or a relationship like kindness. Kindness is so lacking in our culture, and Christians can change that culture by going on the “offensive” by being kind. People are changed when they are “graced” by kindness. Kindness is what the world needs now.
Be More Humble. Christianity turned the world upside down when it revealed that God, the great and Almighty, was humble. In fact, God’s greatness is shown in his utter humility to rescue us (Phil. 2:5ff). In the ancient world, humility was not a virtue; pride and arrogance were seen as virtues (resulting in the dehumanizing world of the ancients). “Humility was a virtue created by Christianity,”[3] and as David Brooks notes, “humility is the greatest virtue.”[4] Humility is the greatest virtue because it forces us to see our own selfishness and opens the space for us to let others in, to let others grow and thrive. It is the opposite of the central vice, pride. God turned the ancient world upside down, and now, more than ever, we let God turn it upside down again by our kindness and humility. Humility is what the world needs now.
Be More Gentle. The word for gentle can be translated as either gentle or meek, and it is used to describe Jesus (2 Cor. 10:1) and Moses (Num. 12:3). Meekness is “strength under control.” Followers of God can be gentle because they don’t have to fret, worry, or be anxious about God taking care of them; it is the “meek” who will inherit the earth and all the blessings that God richly provides (see Ps. 37:11; Matt. 5:5). Gentleness is what the world needs now.
Be More Patient. Patience can be translated as “patient endurance” and “longsuffering.” Patience is the beautiful character trait of God described in Exodus 34:5ff: “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.” The Hebrew word for “longsuffering” literally means “long of nose.” Usually, when someone gets angry their nose turns red. But God is “long of nose,” meaning it takes a long time for his nose to turn red, and that is part of his grace to us. Because of God’s patience, we can learn from our mistakes and turn back to him. In turn, our patience with others can bring about a change in their hearts and lives. Patience is what the world needs now.
Forgive More. The word used here literally means “gracing,” or covering another person with grace. It means responding to hostility or anger with grace because that is how God has responded to us (Matt. 6:12, 14-15; Rom. 12:9-13:10). This is exactly why and how we can forgive: “Forgive (grace someone) as the Lord forgave you (graced you).” Forgiveness is what the world needs now.
Spend time every day thinking about how much God loves me. Paul says that over all of these pieces of armor, “put on love which binds them together in perfect unity.” What is the motivation behind all of these virtues? Why do Christians live differently than the rest of the world? It is only because we have experienced the compassionate, humble, kind, gentle, patient, forgiving love of God in Jesus Christ. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). What the world needs now is love.
Be More Thankful. Paul finishes these “resolutions” by reminding us where contentment, joy, and peace come from: thanksgiving. It is not joy that brings gratitude; it is gratitude that brings joy in our hearts.[5] We need to give thanks to God constantly because being thankful delivers us from our bondage to fear and worry. Giving thanks reminds us of all that God has done so that we can remember that he is the one who can deliver us from our present situation. Giving thanks also brings contentment, which breaks us free from the grip and anxiety of greed. God tells us to be thankful for our own good!
You can read more about the wardrobe of love in my new book, How to be Human in an Inhuman World: Colossians for Daily Living, available on Amazon and through Sulis International (www.sulisinternational.com).
[1] See Scot McKnight, The Letter to the Colossians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 93, 349.
[2] William Barclay, The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975), 157.
[3] William Barclay, 158.
[4] David Brooks, The Road to Character (New York: Random House, 2015), 263.
[5] See David Steindl-Rast, Gratefulness: The Heart of Prayer (New York: Paulist Press/Ramsey, 1984), 204.