EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR: STOP TELLING LIES TO THE PEOPLE (THE EPISTLES Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11)

One of the most popular and most misunderstood Reformation sayings of Martin Luther is the statement, “Sin boldly, but believe ... even more boldly.” This saying, which he made in his letter to Philipp Melanchthon in 1521, is often understood in such a way as to suggest that what we do in the physical body does not affect our standing before God, so long as we believe in the heart. This is the Reformation principle of sola fide (“by faith alone”) taken to the absurd extreme. If all that we need for salvation is nothing but faith alone, then ethical behaviour is irrelevant. In today’s 2nd reading, Paul confronts a similar false belief in the Christian community of Colossae. The Colossians believed, and rightly so, that they had died and been raised to new life with Christ in baptism. What they failed to appreciate was that this mystical experience had practical implications in their day to day living. They gloried in their new spiritual status as born again Christians, but in their daily lives, there was little difference between them and their non-Christian neighbours. There was a disconnect between their faith and their life. In today’s passage, Paul tells them that this dichotomy between faith and life is wrong Christianity. Their faith view of themselves as people who have been born to new life in Christ should be seen in the way they choose to live their lives from day to day. He uses four strong words of command to point out areas of their lives that must be brought into conformity with their faith. These four imperatives are: “seek,” “set your minds,” “put to death,” and “do not lie.” The first two commands, “seek the things that are above” (Colossians 3:1) and “set your minds on things that are above” (verse 2) look like two different ways of saying the same thing. They refer not to specific concrete actions but to ways of thinking, to attitudes and dispositions of the heart and mind. True faith colours the way we see reality, it transforms our value system in such a way that we can sing with Isaac Watts in the hymn When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, When I survey the wondrous cross  /On which the Prince of glory died,  My richest gain I count but loss, / And pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, / Save in the death of Christ my God! All the vain things that charm me most, / I sacrifice them to His blood. Faith is not just a declaration that we have received Jesus as our personal Lord and Saviour. It is something that continues to work in us, transforming our personality from within and conforming us ever more perfectly to the image of the Creator God within us (verse 10). The last two commands “put to death” and “do not lie” refer to concrete actions. In the Latin Vulgate, the word  used for “put to death” is mortificate, from where we get the word mortification. It is the discipline of self-denial, of saying no to our natural human tendencies that may lead us to sin. Hence the Colossians are advised to “Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry” (verse 5). Paul singles out greed for a special condemnation, equating it to idolatry, the worship of another God. As we see in the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Rich Young Ruler (Luke 18:18 ff), attachment to wealth could prevent well-meaning Christians from hearing and heeding the voice of God in their lives. Finally Paul dwells on the command, “Do not lie to one another” (verse 9). The Greek used here actually means, “Stop telling lies to one another.” The Colossians were telling lies to one another by teaching that it did not matter whatever one did in the body so long as one believed in the heart. A heresy is a lie, and Paul wants them to stop it. Do we sometimes tell similar lies to ourselves in order to rationalise and justify our clinging to old sinful habits while continuing to tell ourselves that we are born again Christians? The message for us today is loud and clear, “Stop telling yourselves such lies,” for, as James tells us, “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26).