Colossians 3;12

Colossians 3:12 says, Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;  Paul began to list some of the characteristics of Christians, who are referred to as the elect of God.  They were not the elect of God because of who they were intrinsically, but because they had put their faith in Jesus Christ.  They were holy for the same reason.  As such, they were to be merciful, kind, humble, meek, and long suffering.  As followers of Christ today, we are the elect of God and are to be holy, guided by the Holy Spirit.  Once we are, we should display these same characteristics.  Verse thirteen adds, Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.  Paul continued by saying that they were to forbear, or be tolerant of one another and forgiving of one another if they had a quarrel against one another.  Of course we cannot control how the other person will react, but we are to forgive them no matter if they forgive us or not.  We are to forgive as Jesus Christ forgives us.  He forgives us freely and completely, even though we have nothing to forgive Him for.  His forgiveness is not a tradeoff, and neither should ours be.  Also, when Jesus Christ forgives us, He forgets what He has forgiven us for.  We may not be able to completely remove the memory of what we forgive someone of from our mind, but we should never bring it up again or let it influence how we see the person we have forgiven.  Just imagine how it would be if Jesus still saw us as the sinner that we were before we accepted Him as our personal Savior and Lord, and every time we failed again, He brought up all our past sins that we have already been forgiven of.  Yet, this is how we often react to others, even when we say we have forgiven them.  Verse fourteen continues, And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.  Paul said above all these other characteristics, we are to put on charity, or love, for others.  If we love them with a Christ like love, then all these other things will be a natural outcome.  It all begins with being filled with this Christ like love.  Verse fifteen states, And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.  Paul said that they were to let the peace of God rule their heart.  We cannot truly be ruled by the peace of God if we continue to be at war with our fellow man, especially other Christians.  As Christians, Paul said that we are called to be one body and that we are to be thankful to God for that calling. Verse sixteen adds, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.  Paul said they were to let the word of Christ dwell in them richly in all wisdom.  For this to happen, we must study God's word, which is the only way to gain wisdom, since wisdom comes from God.  Paul also said that they were to do this with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing with the grace that is in our hearts to the Lord.  If we sing with the grace of God in our heart, we should sing joyously.  Verse seventeen adds, And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.  Paul told the believers at Colosse that they were to do everything, from what they spoke to what they actually did, in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks God the Father through Jesus Christ.  This still applies to us today.  If we do all for the glory of God because we have accepted salvation by our faith in Jesus Christ, then we will have no room for looking down on others nor for not forgiving them if they have harmed us in some way.