Three Minute Bible

February 5, 2025February 6, 2025

Colossians 3:5f – Gimme! Gimme!

A picture of two small children playing. They are sitting on the floor in a nice home. One child is holding a toy that they have taken from the other child, and the other child is crying.

[Put to death] … and greed, which is idolatry.

Summary: Paul sees connections that might not be obvious to all of us. Connecting greed and idolatry is an example of his logic.

One of the most amazing passages in the entire Bible is the foundation for “all the law and the prophets.” In it, Jesus says:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-39)

In this passage, Jesus (a/k/a God), explains God’s priorities for his creation. When our hearts, souls, and minds are lovingly focused on God, everything else falls into place.

February 4, 2025February 4, 2025

Colossians 3:5e – Our Personal Tutor

Picture of a fly swatter in a glass cabinet marked "IN CASE OF EVIL BREAK GLASS"

[Put to death] … evil desires …

Summary: Paul’s instruction to put evil desires to death forces us to confront ourselves in the mirror of God’s truth.

When Paul talks about putting “evil desires” to death, he opens the door to an important and fascinating conversation.

Who decides what “evil” is?

That sounds like a simple question. Evil is “evil,” right? After all, everybody knows what “evil” is, don’t they?

February 3, 2025February 3, 2025

Colossians 3:5d – Good Passion and Bad

Picture of road leading down to Dante's Inferno.

[Put to death] … lust …

Summary: How is lust different than sexual immorality? The difference is significant. As we look into the roots of the word Paul used, we find a life-saving warning.

Paul’s third category of things to put to death is represented in the NIV by the word “lust.” About half of all English translations use this word. The other half, with a few exceptions, use the word “passion.” Both are a fair translation, but some clarification is helpful here.

The word Paul uses in Greek is “páthos.” “Páthos” is a word that describes a feeling we humans sometimes have. It is correctly translated as “passion,” but it is a very specific kind of passion.

February 1, 2025February 2, 2025

Colossians 3:5c – Choose Jesus

[Put to death] … impurity …

Summary: Paul’s reference to impurity draws us into an interesting study of dross and chaff.

Paul’s list of things belonging to the “earthly nature” and that deserve being put to death includes sexual immorality, impurity, and lust. Together it would seem that all three have a lot in common and, in fact, they do. But there are differences, too.

Sexual immorality is the use of our human sexuality in ways that God did not intend. Lust is the craving for sexual immorality. Impurity embraces both but, at the same time, encompasses more.

January 31, 2025January 31, 2025

Colossians 3:5b – Design Specification

picture of human torso and head showing inner skeleton and some technical design information

[Put to death] … sexual immorality …

Summary: Paul begins to detail how we live according to God’s will.

As we begin to take a closer look at the things Paul wants us to “put to death,” the first thing on his list is “sexual immorality.” (The King James Version of the Bible famously uses the word “fornication” in this passage.)

Without going into details about how this word is used or what it means, we can generally say that God has something specific in mind about human sexuality. And he should. After all, he created us!

January 30, 2025January 30, 2025

Colossians 3:5a – Soul Searching

picture of a man and a translucent copy of himself which represents his soul

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature …

Summary: Understanding Paul’s words requires the ability to discern our invisible qualities.

The Bible talks a lot about life and death and, of course, we all know what “life and death” is.

Right?

As we have discussed in past meditations, there are two kinds of “life and death.” One is the obvious one that we see and hear about in our natural lives. People are “born,” people “live,” and people “die.” All the time.

January 29, 2025January 29, 2025

Colossians 3:4 – Waiting for Jesus

Picture of night sky filled with lightning.

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Summary: In this passage, Paul gives us an exciting clue about the future.

What happens when our lives are “hidden [or guarded] with Christ in God?”

In this passage, Paul answers that question. When Christ appears, then we who are “with Christ” appear with him in glory.

Paul’s answer raises a lot of questions. The first question is “How does Paul know this?”

January 28, 2025January 28, 2025

Colossians 3:3 – Safe in Jesus

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

Summary: Once again, Paul challenges us to use our understanding to discern what he means by life and death and to figure out what he means by being “hidden with Christ.”

You might remember from our meditation on Colossians 2:20, where Paul says, “Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world …”, that we have already explored the concept of “death” according to the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15: 11-32).

In the story of the Prodigal, he leaves home, and when he does, Dad says his son is now “dead” to him (Luke 15:24,32). Now, he doesn’t mean “dead” in the sense of cutting someone off. Some people say, “You’re dead to me!” as a way of saying, “I hate you!” It is obvious from the story that the dad does not hate his son.

January 27, 2025January 27, 2025

Colossians 3:2 – Things Above (Part II)

Picture of sign that reads "HEAVEN" pointing to the night sky

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Summary: Understanding Paul’s thought about setting our minds on “things above” requires that we first understand what he means by “above.”

If this sounds like a repetition of the last verse, it is … kinda. Paul repeats his thought, but instead of saying, “set your hearts on things above,” here he says, “set your minds on things above.”

There is a difference!

January 25, 2025January 26, 2025

Colossians 3:1b – Things Above

… set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Summary: Bridging the language barrier between our world and Paul’s is not always easy or straightforward. Sometimes, we have to think hard about what he is saying.

It is interesting how my mind plays tricks on me.

You can play tricks on your mind, too. The funny thing is that the mind is pretty good at tricks. Take, for example, the ltetres in teshe wdors. Did you nitoce that they are all mxied up? Even though the letters are mixed up, most of you reading this will still be able to sort out what the words are.

The same thing happens with word order in a sentence. Our sees mind the words and somehow straightens out them.