About four and a half years ago, I started writing a Bible Study. I remember at the time hoping I would be finished in time for some ladies to study it together that summer. It was a cute dream. Until I was about halfway through, trudging through commentaries of good stuff and thinking, “Gosh, this would all make so much more sense if I knew Greek.”

So, of course, I went to learn Greek.

And I spent two full years in our local university’s “College of Theology and Ministry” studying Greek, thinking about my poor Bible Study that I so needed to finish writing, because I had felt called to write it in the first place, but then it felt like I couldn’t keep going until I could actually open up to Colossians in my Greek New Testament and read it for myself.

And then I finished my two full years of Greek study. And I thought about that Bible Study and every time I was too scared, because I wasn’t in the same place as I was when I started writing it, and what if I had to start over from scratch? So it was easier not to.

But God continued to nudge me and I dove back in with full force and just a week and a half ago, I finished writing that study. And on the one hand, I’m proud of it, but mostly just so glad that I got all the words down so that other people could learn these important lessons Colossians has to offer. Because this isn’t MY Bible Study and the lessons don’t belong to me. The Holy Spirit directed these words to the body of Christ.

Right now this Colossians study is in the hands of “beta readers” who are sifting through it for me to offer feedback so the finished, polished copy can be everything it needs to be, but in the meantime, there is one lesson in particular that just keeps coming back to my mind and I wanted to share it here.

The third chapter of Colossians was really the one that very first stuck in my heart and wouldn’t let go, as I began memorizing it almost five years ago now. The words for practical living Paul offers are just exactly the gut-punching type that remind me where I need to be every time. The lesson I wanted to share today came from Colossians 3:12-14:

¹² Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, ¹³ bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. ¹⁴ And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

(Colossians 3:12-14, ESV)

Those words hit me every time. I really want to go into all of it right now, but I’m holding back. Instead, I’m sharing just a portion of the study I wrote over these verses:

“When I first began to consider these verses, I thought about how pretty each word sounded. I thought about how, yes, I want to be compassionate and kind and humble and meek (ok, I’ve never really understood meekness, so maybe just quiet?) and patient.

And I can do that. I really can. I can read my Bible, remind myself of all the pretty things I need to be, read other verses that tell me how to be these things. Then I can close my Bible, gather a deep, peaceful breath, ready to walk forward in my day.

And then, bam.

People come along.

All of this doesn’t sound too terribly hard. Until we think about people.

Because I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but sometimes people are hard.

People can just be so people-y, if you know what I mean.

I don’t know, maybe you don’t know. Maybe you’re an extrovert and you love people and you want to be around people always. And those people just fill your heart with joy and peace and you just want to wrap up all the people in a big hug and carry them home with you so you’re always with other people.

I am not that way.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a curmudgeon. While, yes, I’ve entertained fantasies of living alone in the woods, or alone together with my precious family, without having to deal with relational politics and hurtful people or people who push my buttons or people who diminish my ideas or contributions, I don’t actually dislike people. When people are lovely, I love them. Sometimes even when they’re cranky, I can see the hurt underneath and I still love them. But sometimes, on my not-so-nice days, or moment-by-moment, I don’t respond well to people – especially the people I’m closest to.

And then all this talk of compassion and kindness and humility meets full force with what remains of my humanity – the self-centeredness that somehow still hasn’t died, or the anger that often roils under the surface – and often-times my humanity still wins.

Because here’s the rub: none of these attributes that are supposed to clothe the church live in a vacuum. We aren’t clothing our own individual hearts, we are clothing the body of Christ – every single one of these characteristics is specifically tailored to create harmony in the body – which means they have specific inter-personal connotations. You can’t just be kind without having an object, someone, receiving that kindness. You can’t just be patient without something, or someone, testing that patience.

Ugh. I don’t like it, either. But it’s truth.”

And that patience? Here’s what I thought about for the first time regarding the instruction to be patient.

“I wonder if Paul lists this last because it seems like the hardest – this is the only characteristic that automatically assumes and understands that the people around you are being difficult. There’s no easy pass that says, ‘Yeah, I’d be kind or humble or gentle, but have you seen how these people are acting?! I did my best, and now I’m done.’ Nope. Even when it’s hard. Even when people are hard. Even when they’re provoking us. Patience. I’m sighing deep right now. Because patience isn’t ever going to be easy. But it’s what we’re called to, particularly as the body of Christ.”

Seriously – is this just me that for some reason had never considered that time and again when the Bible instructs us to be patient, that it means the authors (and, thereby, God) knew that we would have good reason to not be?

If you continue reading into verse 13, we, as the body of Christ, are commanded to forgive “when one has a complaint against another.” When we have a complaint – that means, again, that it’s known and understood and assumed that we will have cause to complain against others, but the cause for complaint is not an excuse to complain – it’s an opportunity to forgive.

Ugh.

These are the kinds of thoughts that make me want to close the Bible and walk away. Because when I can justify my impatience and complaints and whininess I feel a whole lot better about the fact that I spend a lot of my energy doing just those things. But when we truly consider the implications behind Paul’s instructions, we realize there is no justifying it.

The Body of Christ has no room for impatience and bad attitudes. There is no room for gossip and snide remarks. There is no room for bitterness and petty arguments.

This list – compassion, kindness, humility, patience – has no wiggle room for human justification to the opposite. It’s living in a way that is completely contrary to our human-ness. It’s the kind of living that makes us stand out and look different – in a social media obsessed with pointing out the wrong in others, it’s a life that looks at the good, calls out the beautiful and embraces the ugly, wrapping it in love. Even when they’re being very people-y.

This is the life we were called to. This is the life I pray I live.

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