In fact, James suggests that wealth can turn against the person to bring them down. The rich people addressed here kept their wealth for themselves and cheated those who worked for them. Their only reward is on this earth, where they satisfy themselves with “self indulgence” (v. 5). In Luke 6:24 Jesus warns, “Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.”

By condemning this attitude of rich oppressors, James extends comfort to believers who may worry about their economic status, struggle to make ends meet, and feel at times that their earthly security is threatened by lack of resources. God has promised that He can and will provide for our physical needs. God also sees the inequity of this earthly world and will indeed one day call oppressors to account. The rich who put their energy into money will have their reward on this earth, but the poor will inherit eternal riches. “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20)

Your net worth may not be much, but your heavenly worth is immeasurable. God knows your economic situation. He also values those who set their eyes on Him and resist the impulse to view earthly riches as their goal in life. If you have been blessed financially, thank God for the earthly gifts He has given to you today and seek to use them for His glory. If you struggle, give Him your financial worries because He holds you and your well-being in His hands.

The quarrels and fights are outward signs of an internal heart problem. James points to the cause of our inner “desires” (v. 1). He describes a series of specific actions: you want something; you covet what someone else has; you quarrel and fight; you do not ask God (v. 3).

The last item is different. It is not describing an activity that we do, but what we do not do—or even what we do incorrectly. We ask God with the wrong motives (v. 3). Here is the internal problem. Rather than our lives and hearts being taken captive by God, we are becoming friends with the “world” (v. 4). This, James warns, is adultery.

A “friendship” with the world is not the same as living in and among the world. It also doesn’t imply that we should not have friends who are unbelievers. Jesus Himself walked among sinful people. But Jesus also prayed that the world would not gain too great an influence on believers: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of it” (John 17:16).

If we are truly friends with the world, we are embracing values and habits that oppose our Savior. We are nurturing an affinity for practices and priorities that are not consistent with a life of obedience to the will of God. We are called to be a friend of God, a relationship far more valuable than anything the world can offer. Too much “friendship” with the world will lead to destructive behavior.

APPLY THE WORD

Do you have lingering grudges or arguments that need to be resolved? Are you involved in an actual disagreement with another believer? Have you allowed these areas of your life to truly be taken “captive” by the Holy Spirit? Pray today that God will soften your heart and allow healing and forgiveness to take place, even when emotions are involved. Ask God to make you a peacemaker and not a fighter, so that you will have a testimony to the power of His forgiveness.

Colossians 3:8–11

When God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, He gave them a single command—not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Satan tempted them and they chose to disobey. We call this event the “Fall” because they fell from their original state of innocence into an experiential knowledge of sin, dooming all humanity to death (see Genesis 3). Though Adam and Eve had been created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27), their disobedience defaced that image, as if mud had been smeared onto a beautiful painting.

Christ’s redemption cleanses us of sin, washing the painting of mud, as it were, and restoring the image of God in us (v. 10). In daily life, living out the gospel means to rid ourselves of all that is unChristlike. Once again, Paul made this point with a before-and-after contrast. In the life they had once lived, the Colossians had walked according to their “earthly nature” (v. 7). “But now,” he wrote, “you must also rid yourselves of all such things” (v. 8).

This second list of sins deals mostly with relational or interpersonal wrongdoing, with a strong link to sins of speech and the lack of self-control (vv. 8–9). “Anger” is destructive and unloving, as is “rage,” which suggests abusiveness or being out-of-control. “Malice” is animosity or an intent to injure someone. “Slander” includes gossip designed to drag down another’s reputation. “Filthy language” is profanity or obscenity. Finally, lying violates the commandment not to bear false witness against one’s neighbor (Ex. 20:16).

Paul then restated his overall point as a kind of clothing metaphor (vv. 9–10). An old garment needs to be taken off, while a new one should be put on. From “old self” to “new self,” our rebirth in Christ is a transformation in our identity. We are not who we were, and we’re not to live as we did formerly. The “new self” is still in process and is “being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” In this sense, we’re all co-pilgrims together on the journey to Christ (v. 11).

The themes of process and pilgrimage have emerged several times in our study of Colossians. Salvation includes the past (gospel received in faith), present (putting our earthly natures to death, setting our hearts on things above), and future (when we’re presented blameless before our Lord). One of the great classics of Christian literature that memorably captures this narrative and these dimensions of the Christian life is The Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan.

Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend penned the popular modern hymn, “In Christ Alone.” In its second verse, this hymn reflects on the wonder of the Incarnation: “In Christ alone / Who took on flesh / Fullness of God in helpless babe! / This gift of love and righteousness / Scorned by the ones He came to save. / Till on that cross as Jesus died / The wrath of God was satisfied / For ev’ry sin on Him was laid / Here in the death of Christ I live.”

Paul, too, exalted the full deity and humanity of Christ. Colossians 1:15–20 is often considered the climax of this epistle because of its doctrinal and poetic qualities. Paul might be quoting an existing hymn, but it’s also possible he composed the hymn or poem himself. In any case, he asserted that Christ “is the image of the invisible God” (v. 15). This means that although God is a spirit and cannot be seen, Christ became human and made it literally possible to see God. This is also a way of saying that Christ is fully God. Hebrews 1:3 similarly affirms, “The Son

is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.”

Christ is also “the firstborn over all creation.” “Firstborn” is a positional metaphor—that is, it doesn’t mean the Son of God began His life at a certain point in time (He’s eternal!), but rather indicates His position as ruler over the created world. This interpretation is confirmed and expanded in the next verse, where we learn that “in him all things were created” (v. 16). Christ’s relation to creation is not only one of authority, but also one of authorship. He spoke it into being and continually sustains it (cf. John 1:14). His preeminence covers the entire created realm, including supernatural beings, a truth that will be applied specifically in chapter two against the false teachings spread in Colossae (2:18–19). In summary, Paul wrote: “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (v. 17). Or as one commentator put it, “Things make sense only when Christ is kept at the center.”