Christian Meekness - from Colossians 3:12

Just playing with my audio recorder again.

The following are my teaching notes from our Sunday School class on Meekness from Colossians 3:12-13.

Colossians 3:12-13

¹² “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; ¹³ bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”

Intro:  Last week we began to introduce the subject of Christian Mercy.  Just as a Christian is to put on a Compassionate Spirit (defined here by tenderness, kindness and humility) so also the Christian must put on a Merciful Spirit (defined here by the words meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another, forgiving one another).

We simply introduced the subject last week by pointing out, not that we need much reminding, that we all still carry about numerous short-comings and sins.  And that it is inevitable that within the local church our faults will at times cause injury to others.  And how we respond when we have been in any way wounded by a brother or sister in Christ is Paul’s focus now.  We are calling it a Merciful Spirit, and it is summarized by the 4 words or phrases in our text:  Meekness, Long-suffering, Bearing with one another, Forgiving one another. 

It is worth pointing out that Paul assumes Christians will be in such a close fellowship with one another that we are going to, at times, injure one another.  If there were no such close connection and fellowship, these instructions would seem rather silly.  You don’t tell virtual strangers going into a movie theater that to get the most out of this movie you will need to put on meekness and long-suffering with one another.  No.  They are strangers.  They don’t have to like one another or even know one another.  It is like when a young couple goes from dating to being married.  Now all of a sudden you have to love this man who can manage to put a dirty cup in the sink…but cannot seem to manage to move it ALL the way to the dishwasher.  As though they were miles apart.  And the strange thing is that his clothes seem to have the same problem with respect to the hamper.