Colossians 3:14 … Clothing ourselves with Love (04/19/17)
“Above all, clothe yourselves with Love, which binds everything together in perfect Harmony.” ~ Paul (Colossians 3:14)
The majority of scholars agree that – for a variety of reasons – 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Hebrews & Ephesians were almost certainly not written by Paul, and a portion of scholars cast their doubts on Paul’s authorship of Colossians as well. That having been said, the majority of scholars believe that Colossians is an authentic Pauline biblical epistle, in which case it would have been the last one he ever penned – probably written while he was imprisoned in Rome near the very end of his life …
Taking this all into account, it should come as no surprise that he is seen here once again inadvertently “stumbling upon” The Way of Christ in this verse. For even though Paul never saw Jesus in the flesh, and even tough Paul never once heard Jesus teach, and even though Paul was waylaid by a deceiving demon on the Road to Damascus (who posed as Christ and lambasted Paul with guilt & mind-numbing shame over his treatment of Jesus’ true followers – see Acts 9 & Luke 10:18 et al), and even though Paul developed a theology thereafter that directly contradicted the teachings of Jesus in almost every way, still Paul regularly happened upon the Truth of that glorious, selfless Way – still he regularly left his passive-aggressive dysfunctions and vile condemnations of others behind long enough to whisper of the Life of real & perfect LOVE (see also Romans 2:1, Romans 2:13-15, Romans 8:5-6, Romans 8:14-16, Romans 12:10, Romans 12:14-21, Romans 13:8-10, Romans 14:4, Romans 14:13-14, Romans 14:19, Romans 14:22, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 1 Corinthians 6:17, 1 Corinthians 10:24, 1 Corinthians 13:2, 1 Corinthians 13:8, 1 Corinthians 16:14, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Galatians 5:6b, Galatians 5:14, Philippians 2:4-5, Philippians 4:5, 1 Thessalonians 5:15-18, & Colossians 2:20) …
And that he regularly did so means that he, just like you & I, was privy to the greatest of Truths – that he, just like you & I, knew what Jesus knew and was offered its same wonders:
*He knew that Heaven was Here&Now, not coming sometime in the future (see Matthew 10:7 & Luke 17:20-21) …
*He knew that God was an internal Essence (see John 14:12 & John 14:20-26) composed of perfect, unconditional, non-condemnatory LOVE (see Matthew 5:48, 1 John 4:8 & 1 John 4:18 et al) …
*He knew that the way to enter this radiant State of Being was via selfless acts of radical Kindness (see John 13:15-17, Matthew 24:12-14 et al) – especially those given to our enemies (see Mathew 5:43-48) &/or the downtrodden in our midst (see Matthew 25:35-40) …
*He knew that God was a God of Peace (see Matthew 5:9 & 1 Corinthians 14:33) and Mercy (see Luke 6:36) and Forgiveness (see Matthew 18:21-22) and Acceptance (see John 5:22) …
*He knew that we were all innately Children of God (not sinners, as his ego errantly claimed (see Matthew 9:2, Matthew 9:22, Matthew 19:14, John 12:36 et al), and he knew that we could all act accordingly – by choosing to “clothe ourselves in Love.”
Amen … Let it be so.
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