Living Out the New Self: A Reflection on Colossians 2:6
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” (Colossians 2:6)
What does it mean to be “made new?” Christians believe that God has a purpose for our lives and desires us to live in a certain way. We are putting on the new self, “being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator (Col 3:10).” How we choose to live, and what we are living for, matters a great deal.
My last blog looked at Romans 8 as the basis of our standing with God in Jesus: we are accepted, completely loved, and delighted in by our Father beyond our wildest dreams. But this is not the end of the matter. Paul puts forth in Colossians 2:6 that our standing with God is the foundation for our walk with Him on this earth: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.”
To Paul, those who have received Christ and made him the focal point of their life have another question to consider: How then shall we live?
How then shall we live?
Paul’s next step is to examine the implications. We do not simply sit idly by and do nothing with what He has given us. In gratitude and joyfulness, Jesus asks us to be “a light in the world” (Matt 5:14-16). We are Jesus’ disciples, learning from and being taught by Him what it looks like to live as He desires.
This is certainly a big question. We’re asked to consider our lives and our purpose (Luke 14:28-29). What is worth our time and energy, and what does Jesus have to say about it? In our day-to-day lives, what is it we should strive for? Colossians 3 gives us a look at what a disciple of Jesus is characterized by and how they should seek to live.
More than “sin management”
Often Christian culture places emphasis on not sinning. This is appropriate, but if we’re not careful, the Christian life can become little more than “sin management.” Jesus has a much bigger and more magnificent vision for our lives than this.
Certainly, we are asked to die to ourselves; to lay aside selfish desires that are only focused on serving our own needs, particularly when our seeking to gratify those selfish desires comes at the detriment of others. But we don’t just choose not to sin. Instead, we engage with what’s right, holy, and beautiful (Col 3:1-2, Phil 4:8). We are to “put off” the things we once walked in that are destructive to ourselves and others and to “put on” the characteristics of a new self: “compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. (Col 3:7-9).” Paul brings the matter of walking in Christ to more than just moral rightness. He says that love is the most important of all the characteristics of the new self: without it, nothing else matters.
Solomon, Jesus, and the meaning of life
In Ecclesiastes, Solomon wrestles with the question of the purpose of his life. After lots of soul-searching, he concludes that there is one thing that is worth our time and energy: “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.” And what are these commands? Jesus tells us that the two greatest commands, love of God and love for others, are our ultimate aim. All of the demands that God gives us to live rightly are all, in some way, shape, or form, a way of loving Him or others well.
But why do we do this? What does it matter? 1 John 4:19 clues us in: “We love because he first loved us.” The purpose of our striving to love others and God well is to put on display the magnificence of God and His great love for us.
How is it that God loves us? Here we loop back around to Romans 8: He defends us, keeps us close, pours out His grace to strengthen and comfort us, purifies us from sin, and loves us with joy. Jesus asks us to live as He desires for a far bigger purpose than following the rules correctly. He wants us to experience the joy and freedom of loving others and loving God well.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of joyless, unfulfilling sin management. Are you stepping into your “new self”—God’s higher purpose for you?