Reading: Colossians 3-4, Psalm 14

What do you pay attention to? I had a revelation a couple of years ago about that question. Try swapping out the word “attention” for some other thing you have. Most obvious would be “money,” but other things work. How about “time?” Does that change the way you think about how you spend your attention? Even more than money, attention is a finite resource, and when you use it you are buying something. Whatever is getting attention from you should be worth giving one of your most precious possessions to. Unfortunately, we have an attention addicted market culture. Everything demands your attention, and all too often, we give attention without thinking about what we are buying with it. There is a great deal of concern about this among children in the information era, but it is really nothing new. It has just been exacerbated by the amount of information available. Humans have been giving their attention away without thinking about it much for a very, very long time. While it has gotten more obvious and intense today, it comes from the same root problems, and has the same solution.

Paul builds on his grand argument that Jesus is the final authority over and only means of reconciliation of all things. Given that this is what the Colossians have believed, they should not give their attention, any more than their time or money, to angels or elemental spirits. For the Christian, Jesus is the focus point for everything we do. It is not “Jesus plus” other things. It is through Jesus that we see all things. God is not simply another part of life, his will is to be the guidance for all of life.

Paul once again applies faith in Christ to behavior in the world. Because Jesus is the lens through which all things are to be understood, humans are not to engage in things contrary to their design, which was accomplished by, through, and for him. Worship of Jesus as Lord and behaviors contrary to the world as he intended it. Paul invites the Colossians to put to death therefore what it earthly in you: sexual immorality, impure shameful passions, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. These are not the design, and they lead to division, violence, and death. I believe a casual study of human history will confirm this.

But Paul doesn’t end with what not to do. He says, look, don’t do this stuff, because Christ has offered you a better way. They have been clothed with the new person that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. You actually can be like the creator, Jesus. The categories of division are unnecessary. Here there is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and in all. Worship of Jesus is the key to unlock life the way it was supposed to be. One where mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and forgiveness define the human heart. The primary attributes of the heart that worships Christ are love and gratitude. The restored people of God are a people of grace. They submit to one another. Just as he did in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul applies this to the most important, and most often misunderstood, relationships in life. Husbands and wives submit to one another. Children and Fathers treat one another correctly- children are to learn, not rebel. Fathers are to teach, not dominate or frustrate children. Even slaves are to be obedient to their masters, as they are working for Christ rather than this other human. By the same token, masters are to treat their slaves as servants of Jesus, not as their own. This particular subject will be picked up in the book of Philemon, which was almost certainly sent at the same time as the letter to the Colossians, but we aren’t there yet.

Paul wraps up the letter with encouragement to gratitude in all things. It has been said that gratitude is the antidote to basically all human problems. I think Paul would agree, provided the gratitude is correctly oriented towards God. Here we also get this long list of names, including a guy named Onesimus, who will appear again as the primary subject of the letter to Philemon, and whose personal situation presents an opportunity for us to see how Paul applies his favorite message about dying to self and putting on Christ for the sake of another. We have some other letters to get through first, but keep Onesimus and the problem of slavery in the Bible in mind. Paul will deal with it in a fascinating way.