40 Days With God | In The Book of Colossians
Session 4: Living In Christ

by Pastor Shirley

SESSION 4 

Title: Living In Christ 

Text: Colossians 3:5-15 

The Colossians needed to realise that they have this new humanity, new identity in Christ. Embracing this new identity required them to undergo a process of change that involves two things: 

  1. TO STOP being the kind of people that we SHOULD NOT BE. (Colossians 3:5-9) 

We need to put to death the things in our lives that are contrary to our identity in Jesus.  

  • The first half of this passage talks about sexual sins, evil desires, and greed: 
  • Sexual sin is offense against God.  
  • Sexual sin is offense against others  
  • Sexual sin is offense against self. 
  • The latter half talks about sins committed verbally – anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language and lying. These more common or “lesser” sins are still unacceptable and incompatible to our new identity in Christ. Sins, big or small, should not mark Christian living!  

 

  1. TO START being the kind of people that we SHOULD BE. (Colossians 3:12-15) 
  • The chosen people of God are called to be holy.  
  • To be holy means consecrated, set apart to and for a higher purpose. 
  • To be holy means to give up our selfish and sinful ways and live for Jesus. 
  • The chosen people of God are dearly loved. When God looks at us, He looks at us through the lens of what Christ has done for us on the cross.  

We should clothe ourselves with: 

  • Compassionate (empathising and feeling others’ hurts) 
  • Kindness (loving others as ourselves) 
  • Humility (considering others better than ourselves) 
  • Gentleness (being polite and restraining our behaviour towards others) 
  • Patience (enduring and tolerating with one another) 

 

  • Forgiveness marks maturity in a Christian life. Forgiveness is an act of love. To be able to forgive is freedom.  
  • Love is the distinctive mark of Christianity because God is love! 
  • We are called to peace – it is our responsibility to maintain peace and to fight for peace in the Body of Christ!  
  • Thankfulness is another distinctive mark of Christianity (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  

Living in Christ means we need to represent Christ in a manner that will glorify Him. D.L. Moody said this, “Out of 100 men one will read the Bible, 99 will read the Christian.”  

Christianity has set a moral benchmark because our God is the Moral Law-Giver.  

Living in Christ means we need to stop being the kind of people we should not be and start being the kind of people we should be.