Tag: christian living

Throw Away the Grave Clothes and Put On the Grace Clothes (Colossians 3:5-17)

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Colossians, Miscellaneous4 Comments

Have you ever spent a long day working outside in the heat? During the warmer months, I spend at least one day a week working in the yard. After such a day, my clothes are usually a dirty smelly mess, and I have to shower before doing anything else. My clothes are so filthy that I almost feel bad even putting them in the dirty clothes basket alongside other dirty clothes (that aren’t nearly as dirty).

Now imagine what it would feel like to put those clothes back on after getting out of a nice long shower. It would be just…wrong. Why? Because after getting clean, you should put on clean clothes. You should adorn yourself with what is now true of your nature. You’re no longer a dirty sweaty mess, so you shouldn’t wear dirty sweaty clothes. You’re clean. So you should wear clean clothes. Simple enough, right?

This is essentially Paul’s argument in Colossians 3:5-17. Since we have died to our old selves and old ways, we should put off our old clothes. Since we have been cleansed and raised with Christ, we should put on new clothes of righteousness. But how do we do that? What clothes should we remove, and which should we put on? What does that look like in real life? This passage has the answers.

Grave Clothes

First, we must take off our grave clothes, “for we have died, and our life is hidden with Christ in God” (3:3). However, Paul uses much stronger language than just “putting off” our old clothes. He says that we are to, “put to death” certain characteristics of our life before Christ (3:5). We are to kill our old habits and ways- sexual immorality, impurity, passion (lust), evil desire, and covetousness (3:5). All of these lead to idolatry because we cannot pursue them and also submit to the Lordship of Christ.

Brothers and sisters, if you are still in sexual sin, you must put it to death. It is a suffocating garment of death that rots the soul and destroys relationships. Do everything you can to put a bullet in the head of sexual temptation and sin!

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Old Testament Wisdom for New Testament Believers (Proverbs 4:23-27)

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Miscellaneous1 Comment

“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom ” (Proverbs 4:7a). If you want to be wise, get wisdom. Pretty simple, isn’t it? The entire book of Proverbs is filled with wisdom. So get the book, there you go- wisdom! But if you’ve ever read the book of Proverbs, you know it doesn’t come that easily.

Proverbs is a part of the rich wisdom literature of the Old Testament. Such literature is not conducive to interpreting at face value and immediately applying it to our lives. We have to slow down and understand the individual proverbs in their original context. We have to read them through the lens of biblical theology, and then apply them to the current context of our lives as New Testament believers.

In this message I want to help us “get wisdom” by studying a passage of Proverbs in the ways I just mentioned. Our text will be Proverbs 4:20-27,

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A Secret Spirituality that Shines: Living for God and Not for People (Matthew 6:1-18)

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Imago Dei ClassLeave a comment

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes the righteousness that characterizes the members of His kingdom. Is a divine righteousness that only He can work in the hearts of His people by the power of the Spirit. It is a righteousness altogether different than that of the religious leaders of the day. It is the righteousness of the redeemed heart that is evident in the words and actions of one’s life. It includes loving one’s enemies, reconciling friendships, making peace, giving generously, and going the extra mile.

In Matthew 5:16, Jesus commands[1] His followers to let their light shine before others, so that people may see their good works and give glory to the Father in heaven. Throughout the rest of Matthew 5, He describes what these good works look like in the context of personal relationships. However, He knows the human heart. He knows that as we progress in righteous living, we will begin to desire glory and praise for ourselves. Thus He warns, in 6:1 “Take care not to practice your righteousness in the sight of people, to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.”

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