Colossians 3:1-17
Living as Those Made Alive in Christ
1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
1 Peter 3:8-17
Beliefs of Compassion And Humbleness
8 Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. 9 Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. 10 For,
“Whoever would love life
and see good days
must keep their tongue from evil
and their lips from deceitful speech.
11 They must turn from evil and do good;
they must seek peace and pursue it.
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
St. Paul and St. Peter tell us to put Jesus in our lives...To do this we have to believe in Him and His Father...St. Paul and St. Peter give us a foundation of attributes that we should believe in and have in our lives...There are certain characteristics that are noble and good...St. Paul and St. Peter lay some of these attributes out...He tells us to embrace compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience...We are to love one another...We come closer to God when we have these characteristics...St. Paul, here, mentions the act of forgiveness, and we should forgive like our LORD Jesus forgives others...St. Peter and St. Paul gives us and write about these good things to believe in...
Since we are made in God's image, these characteristics should be natural for us...Yet, God is His mysterious and infinite wisdom, gives us free will...God gives us so much free will that in our lives we have much to choose from in our lives, and in a busy life, what we believe in becomes cloudy and gray...We get to choose to put compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, forgiveness, and patience in our lives... We choose these characteristics in our lives like Jesus did or we can be not compassionate, unforgiving, and prideful...This is our choice and we can clothe ourselves in these good things...
It is our choice to choose through God's freewill, much of what we believe in...God even gives us the option of believing in Him or not...Regardless, of the freewill and amount of this unfettered freewill He gives us, we need to step back and reflect on, what we believe and what we believe in...Because underlying, what we do in our life, is our beliefs...This is important to recognize...Together all our beliefs make up our belief system...Our belief system is how we think and what we do...The way we live our lives, reflects what we do...What we truly believe in is what eventually we live out things in our lives...Our belief system makes us rationalize certain things we see, feel, hear, read, and how we interpret those things...How we react to the things in our lives, comes from our belief system...This is why it is important to have these rules for Holy Living as a belief in our lives...When something happens in our lives, we react...How we react is often seen by others...St. Peter in his first epistle, says our reaction to things is an important part of being a Christian...When we react to things negatively and without God, people see this...When God is part of our belief, we react differently...We react better...It is good to react with God in our lives and in our beliefs...But also, a part of why we should know what we believe in, is that we should as St. Peter tells us, we should be prepared to anyone who asks the reason for the hope you have...When we believe in God and these good attributes that St. Paul and St. Peter write about, our lives and the others around us are better...You have more harmony in you life when we follow Jesus' Teachings and are our lives are more abundant...