“….. since God has chosen you, made you holy, and lavished his love upon you. You must be tender-hearted, kind, humble, meek and ready to put up with anything. Let the king’s peace be the deciding factor in your hearts ….” Col 3:12,15
NT Wright asks in his commentary on Colossians, “Have you ever seriously tried to forgive someone who has wronged you? Have you ever seriously tried to be compassionate and patient? Have you ever tried to let Christ’s peace, Christ’s word, Christ name be the reality around which you order your life? If you have, you’ll know it’s not easy.”
Without doubt it takes serious prayer, real effort and a good dose of the Holy Spirit’s encouragement, and sometimes I have found, sovereign intervention.
Nevertheless this is the reality that Christ has called us to live ‘in’ with him.
As we do forgive; as we are compassionate and patient; and as Christ’s peace, word and name are central to our lives – we become “more human” (NT Wright).
Now days we are given lots of prompts on how to live. ‘5 Steps to a Healthier You’. ‘10 Steps to Managing Your Money’. ‘14 Steps to a Life Without Pain’. However, I think that since we are called to live in the ‘new reality’ Christ inaugurated then maybe a good starting point would be to run this test over everything we do.
“whatever you do or say must be able to stand having these words written above it : ‘In the name of the Lord Jesus’.
Settle that in your hearts and minds and a great deal else will fall into place.” (NT Wright)