Tuesday, July 29, 2025  

Today's Scripture
Colossians 3:1–11

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life.

But now you must get rid of all such things — anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all! (NRSV)

Reflection

How are we to live our lives, knowing we are one in the body of Christ? Paul offers answers in these moral guidelines for the Colossians. Consider the logical structure Paul employs: We are one in Christ. Distinctions are rendered meaningless. “In that renewal, there is no longer Greek and Jew … enslaved and free … but Christ is all and in all!” Put to “death” what is immoral, impure, evil. Seek virtue. Act with restraint. Bring no harm to others. Words to live by.

Continue reading just a few lines past today’s text, however, and we collide with words that cause some to shun Paul’s teachings altogether. Verses 18 and 22 (“wives, be subject to … slaves, obey …”), appear in contradiction to Paul’s message of unity. Inequality? Subjugation? Enslavement? Not only acceptable, but obligatory? The implication — that some are more equal than others — makes it difficult to take today’s passage in good faith. In Jesus and the Disinherited, Howard Thurman described reading the Bible to his grandmother — so long as he read nothing written by Paul. Why? Because, having grown up in slavery, she routinely heard Colossians used as a justification for holding her, and others, in bondage.

Maybe we are a little blind to the language of hierarchy. We shouldn’t be. As the cherished hymn says, “Join hands, then, children of the faith / whate’er your race may be. / Who serves my Father as a child / is surely kin to me.” And this can be a moral instruction for our time: to follow the example of the Savior who was sent by God to lift everyone up —and not to press anyone down.

Prayer

Lord of all creation, when we seek to protect status, prompt us toward fairness; if we are drawn to dominate, cause us to collaborate; if we are tempted by greed, turn our hearts toward generosity; and may we strive to uphold the “one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.” Amen.

Written by Sarah Forbes Orwig, Member of Fourth Presbyterian Church

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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