Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Anger
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Analytical
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Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Anger
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Introduction:
My youngest son, Zane, has a tendency to get dirty.
He has certain clothes that he likes a lot better than others.
He also has certain socks he likes better.
And so after playing outside and getting filthy, we take him in for a bath and he has nice clean clothes on.
Yet, sometimes, he finds a way to sneak those old clothes back on when we aren’t paying attention.
He might come by and we notice a smell that we shouldn’t be smelling on a boy who has been freshly bathed with clean clothes!
Unfortunately, many of us do this same thing in our spiritual lives however.
We are cleansed by the blood of Christ and given a clean body and clean clothes.
We are forgiven and made new.
Yet, we still have the flesh that seems to want to try on those old garments time and time again.
Those sins of the flesh continue to show themselves.
Join me as we read God’s Word and see Paul admonish us to put away the old life:
Let us pray.
Prayer
Today we are going to discuss three ways the we should put away the old life.
The first is:
I.
As a Believer in Christ You Should… Put Away the Old Walk (7-9a)
Colossians 3:7–9 (ESV)
In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.
But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
Do not lie to one another...
In these too you once walked.
He has just mentioned sexual immorality, covetousness, and idolatry and now he is about to open up another list of sins.
He admits that the Colossians used to walk in these sins but he has commanded them put them to death in verse 5 and now he urges them to put them all away in verse 8.
By using the word walked here, Paul means that the Colossians were not only doing sin, they were living in sin.
But now that they are believers - they are not to continue living that way.
Paul admonishes them to put away this sin.
He tells them to put them all away actually!
The Greek for this is apotithēmi (ap-o-teeth-eh-me).
This Greek word is actually where I came up with the introduction.
The word literally means to take off.
It was used for taking off and discarding old and worn out clothes.
Paul tells the church to take off their old ways and discard them like an old set of tattered clothes.
The old ways need to be put away and put to death and never to be put on again.
It is at this point that we are given another list from Paul.
Last week we had a list of 5 major sins that he went through.
And this week we have yet another list of sins that Paul gives us.
This time it is a list of 6 sins.
Let’s go ahead and break them down one by one as well so we can understand what he is telling us to put away or discard in our lives.
The first is:
1.
Put off Anger
I think that most of us understand what anger is.
Anger is something that can be sinful and can be righteous.
Obviously most of us consider Jesus getting angry and turning over the tables in the temple (Matthew 21:12-13).
Jesus didn’t sin in this anger.
It was a righteous anger.
The anger that Paul mentions here is a smoldering anger.
It is chronic anger and settled feeling of hatred.
It is a deep-rooted bitterness.
This type of attitude of the mind and heart is unfitting for the believer.
James goes a step further explaining this as well:
Believers are to be slow to become angry.
When man or woman gives themself to chronic anger bad things happen.
Which brings us to the next word Paul mentions.
2. Put off Wrath
While anger is a state of bitterness and resentment, wrath is the resulting action from the anger.
Anger is like the pot that is right about to boil and wrath is what happens once the boiling point has been reached.
Some people seem to hover right around boiling point daily.
These people are dangerous people.
One small thing can tip them over the edge and their wrath becomes evident.
Wrath is really nothing more than a sudden outburst of anger that was already brewing.
I tend to think of anger and wrath like a volcano.
An active volcano can blow at any time.
There is hot lava that is ready to overflow and burn all of those around it.
All it takes is one external force to set it off.
The book of Proverbs is filled with Scriptures warning against anger and most them speak of the folly and foolishness of anger.
Anger and wrath destroy relationships as well.
That is why Paul warns us about smoldering anger and needing to have reconciliation when an argument or disagreement has occured.
We need to be quick to reconcile and repent and talk things out.
Holding them in only cultivates anger and wrath and gives the devil an opportunity.
Next we come to:
3. Put off Malice
This isn’t quite as common of a word that we use today.
It is well translated as wishing to do harm to someone or at least desiring that harm befall a person.
One who has a malicious heart will rejoice when someone suffers and suffer when that same someone rejoices.
This type of thinking chokes out the joy in your life.
Malice usually arises because of an unresolved issue.
When you have let the sun go down on your anger time and time again, malice starts to creep up into your thought patterns and begins to control your life.
Flee from this.
In this same vein we see we are to:
4. Put off Slander
Whereas malice is wishing that someone has something bad happen to them, slander is actively trying to bring bad upon that person.
It is speaking against someone in such a way as to damage their reputation.
It takes it worst form in deliberately spreading false information about another behind their back.
The word translated slander here is actually blasphēmia (blass-pha-me-a).
This is the same Greek word that is translated blasphemy when talking about God.
We see the judgment from blaspheming God throughout Scripture.
But when we slander man we must see it as a big deal as well.
Obviously blaspheming God is much worse than blaspheming man.
However, we must understand that when we slander man we slander one who has been made in the image of God.
Next time you feel the urge to speak ill of someone, remind yourself that they are made in the image of God.
This is even moreso for those who are brothers and sisters in Christ.
We should not slander anyone - but to slander a fellow believer is to slander one who is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
5. Put off Obscene Talk
Next we get to obscene talk.
The Greek word for this can mean foul language or filthy talk.
It encompasses a whole host of vocabulary that is not fitting for the believer in Christ.
James clearly addresses this in chapter three of his epistle.
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