In the name of Christ

Written by Marv Thiessen

Pastor Marv Thiessen

Calgary First Mennonite Church

February 14, 2010

 

IN THE NAME OF CHRIST

Colossians 3:17

 

As we conclude our prayer week, our guide draws us to Colossians 3:17 for the fifth and last session of prayer week. When I reflected on that single verse, a number of seemingly divergent thoughts came to me. One related to the last sermon that I preached in this series on Colossians, a sermon based in chapter 2 in which we pondered rules in the Christian life. This verse relates to that sermon because the rules I described from the church in which I grew up were often based on this verse or others similar to it. When the rule against drinking, dancing, playing cards or smoking would be propounded to us, it would sometimes be supported by an appeal to the idea that in every ethical choice we made we needed to ask whether we could do this in the name of Christ. I believe that was absolutely right. Of course, it was assumed by the one giving the rule that Jesus would not have done or could not endorse the thing being prohibited.

Another thought related to the article I read concerning Mennonite Central Committee’s recent visioning process as described in the January 25, 2010 issue of Canadian Mennonite magazine. The phrase, "in the name of Christ," has been used for decades by MCC as a statement for its purpose in relief and development but has now been incorporated into MCC’s foundational statements for the first time. MCC is being intentional, by using that phrase, to root their work of sharing God’s love and compassion for all in the example and teaching of Jesus Christ.

Still another thought revolved around the second word in the verse, the word, "whatever." I thought of how that word is often used in our contemporary language to indicate someone’s dismissal of an idea or to communicate resistance to the encouragement or correction of another. I know that I’m sometimes guilty of such a usage of the word. I indicate that I don’t take a particular issue all that seriously by using "whatever" either as a single word or within a longer response to the issue. And I thought of how ironic that use of "whatever" is in contrast to the way Paul uses it here, included in a phrase that describes something of great importance.

As I said, these thoughts seem divergent. They are random, unorganized thoughts in response to a biblical text. But we’ll return to them in one way or another as we continue to reflect on Colossians 3:17, taking seriously the idea that whatever we do, we should do it in the name of the Lord Jesus.

As we remember previous studies in the letter of Colossians, we recognize that this language of putting Jesus Christ first is in keeping with those studies. We’ve heard this before. The Colossians had heard it before. We remember that we’ve talked about the way the Colossians were pressed to give allegiance to the Roman empire and how the letter Paul wrote to them challenged them to resist empire thinking and to give allegiance to Christ first of all. So, this verse, as a summation of the kind of character that Christians should develop, is absolutely in keeping with the rest of the letter’s emphasis. As we concluded in previous studies, we in 21st century North America also find our allegiance to Christ challenged and the call to put Christ first continues to be relevant to our lives. So, I’ll take that idea as a foundational idea in this reflection on Colossians 3:17, inviting us to consider competing allegiances as we think about doing everything in the name of Christ. I suggest we can draw three competing allegiances out of this verse and find ways to respond to those competing allegiances.

By the way, while you might find yourselves mocking the traditional three point sermon here, you should also be aware that we have been referring to verses 15, 16, and 17 of Colossians 3 as a sort of trilogy as we have studied them this week. In each verse, Paul calls attention to something that exists in Christ. In verse 15, he referred to the peace of Christ. In verse 16, he spoke of the word of Christ. Now, in verse 17, Paul draws us toward thinking of the name of Christ. Instead of Christ, he writes the Lord Jesus but he is referring to the same person, of course. Another aspect of the trilogy is that each of the verses includes an encouragement or command to be thankful while performing the acts that are the main focus of each verse. With that context of trilogy taken care of, let’s look at how I find three competing allegiances in Colossians 3:17.

The first competing allegiance is empire. Since I think this has been an important theme throughout the letter, it makes sense that it would come out here in this verse. I find it implied in the phrase that speaks of the name of the Lord Jesus. Doing something in someone’s name in New Testament language meant doing something in the authority of that person. As we have noted in earlier sermons, the Roman Empire declared itself to be the power and authority over all its subjects. When Paul uses language that speaks of the power and authority of Jesus, he subverts the claims of the Roman Empire. Christ stands above empire.

We read Colossians 3:1-11 as our longer text for this morning, setting a context for this verse and holding it as a companion text. Some of the features of those verses lend meaning to the three allegiance principles of verse 17. In relation to the Christ above empire principle, I thought verse 11 has meaning. The Roman Empire considered some of its subjects as superior to others. Paul wrote of life in Christ, that there are no favored groups of people. All are equal in Christ. To recognize the fundamental equality of all people was one way that Paul would have reminded his readers that they should put Christ above empire. As we have said a few times in the earlier sermons in Colossians, the empire in which we live pushes consumerism, militarism and technicism. We should spend to obtain goods and to drive the economy. We should trust the military might of our nations to keep us secure and make the world better. We should trust that technological advance will make the world a better place. When we find those emphases to be counter to the will of Christ, we know we must give our allegiance to Christ rather than to empire.

The second competing allegiance is self. Another possible sense of the phrase, "in the name of the Lord Jesus," is "in the presence of." If we think of Jesus as being present with us in everything we decide to do, we are challenged to deny allegiance to ourselves. One reason for that is that Jesus taught his followers to deny themselves. We can hardly give allegiance to self while denying self. Another reason is that if we seriously consider Jesus as present with us, we’ll have a hard time thinking just of ourselves. I also find the sense that self is a competing allegiance in the concluding phrase of the verse where Paul says that we should do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. The challenge to be thankful moves us away from thinking about self. The fully grateful person is not one who continues to harbour selfish desires. We bring about an end to the allegiance to self as we immerse ourselves in gratitude to God.

Once again, I find some companion thoughts to this challenge to the allegiance of self in the first eleven verses of the chapter. We read in verse five, "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Words like lust, evil desires and greed clearly signify actions that relate to a preoccupation with self. Paul argues that the new nature of Christ with which we are clothing ourselves brings us to the place of denying these selfish desires.

I don’t think we’ll have any difficulty thinking about how allegiance to self is a competing allegiance to Christ. I think we hear plenty of messages and also tell ourselves quite often that we need to take care of ourselves first. We need to pay ourselves first. Well, doing things in the name of Christ stands against that line of thinking. We think of others before we think of paying ourselves. That reminded me of the reference to Mennonite Central Committee in the introduction. MCC is committed to helping others have better lives in the name of Christ. One of the ways we can battle against the allegiance to self is to give sacrificially to organizations that work at improving others’ lives in the name of Christ.

The third competing allegiance is societal standards. I think about that because of the third sense of the phrase, "in the name of the Lord Jesus." Doing something "in the name" of another means doing it in their character. Paul challenges to do everything in the character of Christ. Well, Jesus showed very clearly that he stood against societal norms where they were in opposition to the character of God. We, too, will be challenged to be opposed to societal thinking when it does not reflect the character of Jesus. It struck me that in the list of actions and attitudes that Paul said we should put to death in chapter 3 there were items that find quite a bit of life in our society. It struck me that when we understand Paul’s reference to sexual immorality to mean that God’s intent is for sex to occur exclusively within the bounds of marriage and that God intends for marriage to be between one man and one woman and teach that viewpoint, we are holding to a viewpoint that is no longer a very dominant viewpoint in our culture. It struck me that when we take seriously the call to not be greedy, we are taking a stand that our culture thinks is peculiar and misplaced. It struck me that if we are to remove all filthy language from our lips or engage in no lying, we will act in ways that are not particularly required by our societal standards. Doing things in the name of Christ means aligning our actions and attitudes to a different standard than that of our society. We align actions and attitudes with the character of Jesus.

Doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, then, means placing Christ above empire, above self, and above societal standards. I want to conclude with a few thoughts that relate back to those random thoughts I spoke of in the introduction. Perhaps what we’ve talked about makes you feel like we’re setting down a whole list of rules and you struggle with others putting rules on your life as I reflected had been done to me by using Colossians 3:17. I would say this is not about rules but that it sets out one overarching ethical principle that we use to guide our decision making about moral behaviour. Can we act or think while doing it in the authority, presence or character of Christ. My other concluding thought remembers my reflection on the way the word "whatever" is used in our contemporary vocabulary to indicate devaluation, disinterest or disdain. When Paul uses the word, "whatever," it has great importance. It speaks to everything. It speaks to the universality of the claim of Christ’s supremacy. It reminds us that there is nothing that shouldn’t become subject to our allegiance to Christ. Whatever you do, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus.