The Filthy Clothes of Pride - Himalayan Heights – May 8 Readings: Colossians 3:8 – Remove Anger

 Colossians 3:1-17 A Primer in Christian Living

All Scripture is God-breathed and useful, but there are some Scriptures that we can consider the Himalayan mountaintops of the Bible. In the next few months, we will be looking at a series of great texts that inspire and move us - the "Himalayan Heights" of God's Word.

Today's Reading:  Colossians 3:1-17

Colossians 3:1-17 is a step by step guide to Christian living. It is a series of 12 commands, each of which builds on the previous one, laying out how we should live as followers of Jesus Christ. Each day, read the entire 17 verses, then meditate on the verse or verses that are the focus passage.

But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. 3:8

NOTES:  Step 4 in the process of Successful Christian living, our fourth command, is to put away five attitudes and actions. Later, we will be told to put on new behaviors to replace them. The picture here is of taking off old, dirty clothes and putting on the new.

Through the Bible Readings: 2 Samuel 5-6, Luke 22:47–71, Psalm 58:5–11, Proverbs 12:17-18

If you wish to read through the Bible in a year, follow these readings. 

Devotional: The Filthy Clothes of Pride

You have been out working in the yard and you reek. Your clothes are caked with so much mud and grass and filth that your wife meets at the door and threatens you if you sit on any of the furniture. You have dinner plans at a fancy restaurant that night and something has to change. There is only one solution. You shed the filthy clothes and hit the shower to get cleaned up.

What kind of folly would it be to shower, get clean and sweet-smelling, and put your old, foul, nasty clothes back on? When you get cleaned up, you put on new clothes, don't you?

That is what this passage is about, Colossians 3:8-14, taking off the old, dirty clothes of sin and putting on new clothes righteousness that are appropriate for people who have been redeemed by Christ. As foolish as it would be to get cleaned up and put your filthy clothes back on, it is even more foolish for us to be cleansed by the Blood of Christ

When we come to Christ, we must realize that the clothes we are wearing are simply NOT appropriate anymore. We have bought by the blood, indwelled by Christ, empowered by the Spirit, recreated into new creations, given an eternal destiny, been adopted in God’s family and become partakers of the divine nature - new clothes are appropriate! 

Verse 8 lists five articles of clothing that we must remove - the filthy clothes of pride. When people injure us, insult us, or betray us, we have emotional reactions, described here as anger and rage. Rage speaks of that explosive anger you experience when your pride is injured, when you feel you have been mistreated. Anger is more of a settled thing, a desire to seek vengeance. Rage and anger, our emotions, lead to a response of the will, malice. Malice is a determination to do harm to another person, to cause that person pain. It is interesting that both of the actions that result from this are verbal. Paul speaks of slander, which means, in Greek, "to skewer." We use words that pierce people's soul's to hurt them in revenge. A similar word is usually translated obscene or filthy talk. Obviously, Christians should be circumspect in their conversation, but the Greek word refers to abusive speech, words that bite and devour, tearing others down. 

These are normal human reactions, but once we have been cleaned by Christ, they are no longer clothes we ought to wear. The rest of the passage describes the new, clean clothes that replace these, but our lesson today is to realize that living in anger, holding malice in our hearts, and speaking words of slander and abuse. When we are hidden with Christ in God, these filthy clothes are no longer appropriate for us. 

Father, thank you for the cleansing power of Christ. Help me to take off the filthy clothes of pride and walk in your ways, putting on the new, clean clothes of righteousness. 

Think and Pray:

Are you living in the filthy clothes that were normal for you before you met Christ?
Look at the 5 words in this passage, words that describe filthy clothes we need to take off. Do they describe you?