It’s been a dreadful week or two hasn’t it? So much anger and hate, so much murder and mayhem, so much pain and destruct-ion. I seriously thought about leaving Colossians this week and looking for a text that would bring a relevant message from God’s Word that would help us all navigate these days. However, when I looked at the Colossians 3:12-17 passage I had been planning to preach on, I realized that it was perfectly relevant for and suited to our situation. How so?
Well, let me ask you, what’s the great need of our society and of the various warring communities in it? Change. No matter what side we are on, what community we represent, what color of skin, or what political party, we are all agreed that change is needed. However, although there is some agreement about some of the areas that need change, there’s still a lot of disagreement about other areas, and huge disagreement about how to effect any change.
In this passage, God points us to the area that must change first and also to the way to effect that change: Deep, long, and wide societal change is only possible through personal change which is only possible through heart change.
Yes, changes are needed in laws, training, education, and so on. But these will be shallow, short, and limited without personal change through heart change. People need to change through heart change. Let’s see how God uses Paul to point to what needs changed and how to change.
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