Chapter three drives us to focus on our relationship with Christ and focus on the things of heaven. When Paul tells us to concentrate on the things of heaven, he does not mean to be so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good. In fact, to be heavenly minded will cause us to be productive on earth by the blessings of God. If a person shows true focus on the things of heaven, he or she will concentrate on the spiritual matters that are stated in the Scriptures in all areas of life from work to family to church. This in turn, will fulfill the verse four where the meaning of life will be Christ centered.

We see in verses five through nine the need to stop fulfilling the ways of the flesh. We see the first thing mentioned is to flee sexual immorality. In many religions today apart from Christianity, sexual immorality is seen as a rite of passage into a deepened state of consciousness and knowledge. In other words, to experience sex outside of marriage with the temple prostitutes brings "enlightenment". In Christianity, sexual intercourse outside of the marriage covenant brings further bondage for a person becomes one with the person who they choose to fornicate with. In this Colosse culture of mixing all religions to appease the flesh, it is easy to take the fleshly things we enjoy but are prohibited by God and justify their presence. The same things also apply to murder, greed, and other forms of idolatry. All greed, control, and sin really means is that we want something other than God. We tell God in one sense that "He is not enough for us. We need more". We also tell God indirectly that we do not trust him to meet our everyday needs. Therefore, we attack the very essence of God's character when we indulge in idolatry. We say "my way" instead of "his way" and we expect God to fix the "my way" when "my way" fails to work. We fail to see that His ways are not our ways. In order for the mess caused by "my way" to be cleaned up, we must allow "His ways" to be implemented in order to do things "His way".

In verses ten through seventeen, we see clearly why the Colosse church must stop the attitutdes mentioned in the earlier verses. The reason being that the church at Colosse no longer belongs to the world system of thought. Verse eleven tells the Colossians that it does not matter what earthly national heritage these people belong to, like the Galatians, all that matters is Christ and your personal faith in him. We see Paul bring in all of the national heritages into this letter of teaching because the church of Colosse possessed these different heritages amongst their membership. We had Greeks who dominated the culture of the time who felt that because of their cultural contributions, their thinking was the official Christian thought. We had Jews who were the chosen people of God trying to use this mentality as the official mentality. We had Barbarians, Scythians, and slaves who lacked culture, finance, and blessings of God in this picture also. All of these factions and their ethnic cultures presented problems.

We see Paul, in verses twelve through seventeen, bring these people together to be the family of God. What was seen as a pluralistic church has now been made singular and drawn to the point of unity to where Paul addresses the church to become gentle, kind, humble, and express love towards one another. In other words, demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit in unity because you are now part of the same body of Christ. You now have to live with one another, work with one another, and teach and instruct each other in the ways of God. More importantly, these different peoples of national origin now made into one body by spiritual origin must now worship God and be thankful to Jesus through the singing of psalms, spiritual songs, and hymns.

In verses eighteen to twenty-one, Paul lays down some groundwork for Christian living. We see Paul deal first with the family structure. He states the Father as the head of the household and tells the wife and children to obey their father. Paul also instructs the Father to love his wife and not be overly restrictive on the children. Why would Paul address the family structure first? Because if the family structure is not intact, society as a whole is not intact. We see today where there is no family structure, fidelity, loyality, and conscience is nonexistent. We see evil abound through gang related crime, teenage sexual promiscuity, and other avenues of idolatry. The problem with society is not all due to the elimination of prayer out of schools. The real problem is that many men failed to be the head of their households and establish order, decency, and integrity into their wives and children. We see the life stories of many black athletes who had no father, who was raised by their mother or grandmother everyday. To deal with the hurts of not having a father, these athletes looked for love through sex to fill in the voids. When the girl becomes pregnant, some repeat the actions of their estranged father by running away and recreating the same vicious cycle they experienced as a child with their child. There are many more instances that can be brought up, but the main point is to show that without the structure of the family, society suffers as a whole.

Verses twenty two through chapter four, verse one discusses a important need for all today in society. There is a need today for a work ethic to be instilled into all. Many Case studies have shown where a lack of family structure effects the work ethic of an individual. No matter who you are, whether you work as a cashier at Burger King or are the CEO of a bureaucratic international corporation, all will have to bow with their knees and confess with their tongues that Jesus Christ is the ultimate boss know as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The true reality is that many of us are not the boss of where we work and end up answering to a direct report. Therefore, we are to do our jobs with dignity, integrity, and respect even if your boss is not Christlike in his actions and dictative demeanor. We are not to loathe off when he is not around nor are we to "kiss his rear end" when he is around. On the other side of the coin, men in authority and owners of the business need to give the workers their just payment for work done, value and respect the workers, treat the employees with respect and dignity instead of threats and lies, and reward integrity and ethics and not schmoozing and favortisms. The work ethic is a two-way street. If you are a lazy worker, you deserve your just reward. If you are an oppressive and dictative manager, you deserve a high turnover rate. What a poor witness it is to be the owner of a corporation coming to work in your Lexus from your guard-protected condiminium while your employees are barely making the poverty level. However, there is a time to leave if abuse and harassment takes place. I've been there and was told by my ex-boss at my last job that if he asked me to perform a sexual act that I would or risk being insubordinate. To question him was considered sabotage. I hate to be in his judgement seat when God's wrath and fury comes upon his life.

You see, there are those in the church today who desire to oppress the working class financially, spiritually, mentally, and developmentally. In many corporate churches today, the men and women who create the same corporate American mentalities and find legal ways to oppress the blue-collar sector run the corporate churches. Instead of a kingdom, it is a business. Instead of compassion and mercy ministries, it is profit. The same class struggles in the work environment and society today now exists in the church. Success is measured by the pocketbooks than the heart. The church is a two way street also. The congregation must respect and submit to the leadership while at the same time, the leadership must honor and submit to the congregations and be forthright and honest in all areas of the church's business and in their personal lives. The church is neither the place of escapism and isolationalism from the world nor is it the reinforcement of the manufacturing sector mentalities. The church is supposed to be the discipling center to teach God's children how to reach the world in order to survive in the world and be effective, hard-working, and law-abiding citizens. We plead for curriculum based values systems in the same schools we refuse to send our children to and we do not even have integrity, values, and common decency. We fight for prayer time and attention from the pastor. Able bodied families try to get as close as they can to the church as the elderly are forced to walk a considerable distance. We but into conversations without saying "excuse me" while we refuse to flush the commode and wash our hands in the bathrooms after we use them. Minutes later, we dance to the music, "ronda-konda-shonda" until we have laryngitis, and amen the pastor's sermon while saying "That sermon was for that brother in the next row". Values, ethics, plain old common sense, and dilligence are qualities that need to be enforced and enacted in our lives at all times.

Click Here for part four of The Colosse We Live In.