You can listen to this message here: Lives Hidden With Christ - Put on Love

Colossians 3:5–14 is a passage overflowing with challenge, hope, and vision for what it means to live as renewed people in Christ.

Paul writes:

“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:5-14, NIV

There is enough in this passage to preach on for months. But today I want to focus on what I believe is the heart of the whole section: verse 14 — “Over all these virtues put on love.”

Love is not just one virtue among many. It is the virtue that holds all the others together. It is the defining mark of people whose lives are “hidden with Christ” (v. 3), people who have been transferred from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved Son.

Paul’s question is essentially this:
What does a renewed life look like?
His answer: love—love expressed, embodied, practiced.

So how do we put on this love?

I think one of my enduring memories of Advent as a child is the Advent calendar. I don’t recall us using one very often, but I distinctly remember them being in our house. So many Advent calendars had little chocolates or other treats behind each door. I also remember the Christmas countdown rings—red and green paper strips linked into a chain, with one link removed each day leading up to Christmas. The goal was Christmas morning and getting to open presents.

Each year the community that we call, Tap Room Tuesdays picks a local organization to support at the end of the year. This year, we are gathering donations for the Brick Elementary Food Pantry and the Lincoln Clothes Closet. If you would like to donate anything to the cause, you can drop things off on our porch until December 16 or you can order from Amazon and ship them to me: Amazon List

Here are the items that we are collecting:

Advent begins today.

Advent is a season of waiting, hoping, and trusting. We wait again for the coming of Christ. We hope that in Christ’s coming all things will be made new. We trust that faith will one day become sight.

Each year we return to particular passages to ponder in light of this season of hopeful waiting. This year is no different. We will reflect and hope and pray.

As I grow older, I’m finding something new stirring in my soul. When I was younger, Advent brought a sense of excitement. It was a spiritual challenge to imagine—again and again—what it might feel like if Christ had not yet come. The philosopher Peter Rollins practices something he calls Atheism for Lent, and for a time I tried to take on a similar mindset during Advent.

But now something new has sprouted in me. The only word I have for it is longing.