Another Day 4 Willing Responsibility: Digging Deeper
March 9, 2023
Discover the original intent of Scripture. Make good application to our everyday lives.
Become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
Colossians 3:12-17
The Original Intent
1) What did Paul mean by “bearing with one another”? (verse 13)
Paul’s letter to the Colossians was written as an encouraging exhortation and was delivered in response to reports of false teaching which had infiltrated the church in Colossae. These errant teachings were fostering a number of errors while sowing discord among believers in Jesus.
While Paul had not personally visited the church at Colossae, he labored over the fruit growing there and was compelled to respond to false teaching and affirm the deity of Jesus Christ. Because these known Christ-followers were Paul’s family in Christ! Just prior to this passage in Colossians 3:5-11, Paul exhorted the believers at Colossae to turn from their old ways, listing a number of behaviors that were consistent with their old way of living before repenting of their sin and surrendering to Jesus.
Next, Paul encouraged Christians in the Colossian church to “put on” the markings of their new life in Christ. The primary signs Paul listed as identifiers of their new lives included compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, and love. Paul wrote that these attributes were all unto a purpose: bearing with one another, forgiving one another, and achieving harmony.
Paul wrote specifically to Christians in this epistle, and this passage held special regard to their personal interactions with one another in God’s family. He wasn’t writing about their response to unbelievers, or to relationships external to the fellowship of believers. Paul wrote specifically about human relationships between individual believers within the local church setting, and the crux of his exhortation to the Colossians in this passage is direct: be patient with each other.
The Everyday Application
1) What did Paul mean by “bearing with one another”? (verse 13)
The “bearing with one another” Paul had penned while under the Holy Spirit’s breath (2 Timothy 3:16), is only possible when a believer is surrendered to the work of the Spirit’s leading within them. It’s simply impossible to achieve this divine work under human powers and motivation.
When I consider the “how” of living everyday life under this teaching, I think of an action that is often difficult for me, slowing with humility. Often, my agendas and lists that must be accomplished cause me to rush faster and faster, making it easy to overlook the many ways I could instead choose to slow down and bear another’s burden alongside them instead of rushing ahead of them, or even tooling around behind them.
I think of the things I’d rather overlook or are unimportant to me but are critical to my fellow brother or sister. My child struggling to tie their shoes, my friend who continually battles issues irrelevant to me, the neighbor who could use a meal. “Bearing with” means slowing down to place another’s needs and challenges on the same level as my own. I could choose to zip around their need, justifying that it’s not mine to worry about, or I could remember that, as brothers and sisters in Jesus, we are “each part of the other.” (Romans 12:5)
Whatever challenges, hurts, brings joy, or causes celebration for another Christ-follower should cause the same responses within me if I’m truly “bearing with” them. A chilled, callous, or critical response to my brother or sister should send warning flags to my soul, reminding me to return again to the Spirit’s work in me to soften my heart with a genuine desire to slow down and “bear with” my fellow ones in the Family of God.
The Original Intent
2) Why was Paul exhorting and instructing the believers in Colossae in this way?
The false teachings Paul referenced in his letter to the Colossians were tinged with both Greek and Jewish beliefs, which indicates the Colossian church was likely filled with a mixture of both Greek and Jewish believers. Having never visited the church at Colossae, his friend and fellow co-laborer in the gospel, Epaphras, kept him abreast of what was happening; through him, Paul heard about the false teaching.
This was a church of new believers who had put their faith in Jesus Christ and were actively experiencing the mystery and miraculous work of sanctification. Paul’s encouragement to “take off” their old ways and “put on” their new life in Christ is evidence they were growing in their walk and needed continued discipling and teaching. Although Paul was not personally acquainted with them, he held spiritual authority as an apostle and sent this epistle to further disciple them in the way of Jesus Christ.
The Everyday Application
2) Why was Paul exhorting and instructing the believers in Colossae in this way?
The Colossian church was filled with people who had put their faith in Jesus Christ, and who were learning how to walk His way. Just like any believer, they were growing, learning and being changed by the power of the Holy Spirit, and just like any believer, they were imperfect.
False teaching had infiltrated the church and was undoubtedly stirring up plenty of opportunity for disagreements and disunity. Paul recognized the need for spiritual guidance, encouragement and exhortation, and with Timothy, he wrote to the Colossians. He expressed the importance of the call to be patient with each other and allow their new lives in Christ to transform the way the believers interacted with one another.
We need this same encouragement, don’t we? There is no shortage of issues believers disagree over; from denomination to denomination, yes, but also from one believer to the next. It’s easy to talk about essential beliefs, but many times we are quick to distance ourselves from believers whose nonessential beliefs do not match our own. Paul’s words in Colossians are for us today.
We are called to “put on” the clothing of life in Christ, and to operate with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, love and peace in our interactions and relationships with others in the body of Christ.
The Original Intent
3) What did Paul mean by “admonishing one another in all wisdom”? How does this instruction correspond with the encouragement to bear with one another? (verse 16)
The Greek word for “admonishing” in this verse could also be translated as “warn, rebuke, advise or instruct.” The Greek word used for “wisdom” might also be translated as “insight, learnedness or skill”.
Paul prefaced his exhortation by directing the Colossians to “let the word of Christ dwell in them richly”. Paul emphasized it was only by being immersed in Scripture that they would be able to wisely instruct one another. Paul called the Colossian believers to be patient with one another, and to live together in harmony by the power and love of Jesus Christ, being taught by His Word.
Paul intended them to live their lives drenched in the word of Christ and His Gospel message, sharpening one another in Christ through the wisdom He gave.
Paul laid out for us a clear picture of healthy, godly accountability in the context of the local church. There was no “top down” structure outlined here, just hand-in-hand and alongside one another. Paul didn’t write about one or a few believers holding all the rest accountable to some manmade standard. Nor did he write about believers doing whatever they wished, holding fast to their old way of life and continuing in sin.
Instead, Paul painted a beautiful picture. A call for every believer to deliberately operate in what might be called a high challenge sweet spot. Every believer intentionally steeped in the word of Christ. Every believer turning from sin and instead operating in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, love, peace and thankfulness. Every believer choosing to live in vulnerability and be held accountable to the word of Christ by other believers. Every believer holding one another in the local body accountable to the word of Christ in return. Every believer, together.
The Everyday Application
3) What did Paul mean by “admonishing one another in all wisdom”? How does this instruction correspond with the encouragement to bear with one another? (verse 16)
The Greek word for “admonish”, which most commonly is understood to be “caution, warn, or exhort” is intentionally rooted in another Greek word meaning “gentle bolstering”. When these two definitions converge, we likely end up with an understanding much different than the imagery we first conjured up when hearing “admonish”.
Perhaps you drew pictures of a shaking finger, a hand slap, shaming, condescending tone, or punishment.
But imagine feeling flustered in cooking. Attempt after attempt ends you with burnt meals, dirty piles of dishes, and frustration. Enter a seasoned “mama chef” who chats with you in your kitchen, encourages you as you add your flavors, dices the vegetables alongside you with ease, gently correcting your knife position as she tells stories, and listens to your woes with a tender heart. The meal is savored, the cleanup is shared, and you gained more culinary skills in an hour of “gentle, bolstering exhortation” than you had learned in the last 18 months.
This is the beautiful pairing of Christ’s call to admonish one another in all wisdom while also bearing with one another. In the heart of God, these two commands fit together like perfectly fitted puzzle pieces, revealing deeper layers of God’s extravagant love.
When we live like this, we reflect the beauty of “one another love” that strengthens unity and builds a family! Spend time praying right now and ask the Lord who He intends you to admonish and bear with this week!
*This Digging Deeper Study was co-authored by Merry Ohler and Rebecca Adams
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