Fresh and Clean

August 3, 2025 homily on Colossians 3:1-11 by Pastor Galen

“…you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator” – Colossians 3:9-10

Fresh and Clean

As I’ve been growing older, I’ve been learning to appreciate the simple, everyday pleasures in life. One of life’s simple pleasures is stepping out of a nice hot shower and drying off with a brand new, freshly laundered fluffy warm towel, and then slipping on freshly laundered clothes. You feel like a brand new person, like a Tide or Downy commercial, or like that song, “Feeling Good”, that says, “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me—and I’m feeling good,” or the Outkast song from 2,000. “So Fresh, so Clean.”

But what if every time you showered or bathed, you just put your dirty, old, smelly clothes back on, and then put your nice clean clothes on top of them? That would rather defeat the purpose of showering, or putting on new clean clothes, wouldn’t it? If we really want to feel good and fresh and clean, we have to be willing to cast aside the old clothes before we put on the new clean clothes.

Out with the Old, In with the New

In Colossians 3, Paul and Timothy exhort the church in Colossae to cast aside all their dirty laundry — the evil deeds that were associated with their former lives, all those destructive tendencies they were inclined towards before they came to Christ — so they can put on the new clothing, the new life that Jesus has given them. 

In verse 5, Paul and Timothy tell the Colossians to “put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desires, and greed” Col. 3:5), and in verse 8 they tell them to “get rid of all such things — anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language” (Col. 3:8) and “do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices” (Col. 3:9). 

You see, when the Colossians chose to put their faith and hope and trust in Christ, they  were made new. Paul and Timothy remind the Colossians that they “have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator” (Col. 3:9b-10). 

The Colossians have been given brand new, clean clothing to wear. They have been cleansed and forgiven of their past sins, and Jesus has made them so fresh and so clean. But it seems like the Colossians have been trying to put their dirty old smelly clothes back on! They’ve been trying to wear the new, clean clothes that Jesus has given them on top of their old clothes. Maybe they think that the Christian life fits them pretty well, that praying to Jesus or going to church makes them look pretty good on the outside, and so they want to wear their new clothes. But the problem is that they haven’t truly given up their old way of living — they haven’t been ready to cast aside their old clothing just yet.

Paul and Timothy want them to know that their new clothing — the new life that Jesus has given to them — is not meant to just cover up their old lives, to make them look better on the outside. No! Jesus wants to change them through and through, to make them completely over anew.

As one author has written, 

For too long, we’ve called unbelievers to ‘invite Jesus into your life.’ [But] Jesus doesn’t want to be in your life,” he says. “Your life’s a wreck. Jesus calls you into his life. And his life isn’t boring or purposeless or static. It’s wild and exhilarating and unpredictable.

Similarly, Paul and Timothy remind the Colossians that they haven’t just invited Jesus into their lives — instead, their lives are now in Christ! Their lives have been made completely new, they have died to their former selves, they have now been “raised with Christ” (Col. 3:), and their lives are now “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). And so Paul and Timothy challenge the Colossians to live like people who have been transformed by Christ, people whose lives are now in Christ. They challenge the Colossians to put to death everything associated with their former selves, including all unrighteousness, bad patterns of behavior, destructive practices, and wrong thoughts or evil words that harm others. They are to put all of that away, cast it all aside, and live into the new life that Jesus has given to them.

Consequences of Not Getting Rid of the Old

And just in case the Colossians don’t quite understand the severity of continuing down the path they were on, Paul and Timothy remind them that it is on “account of these [things] the wrath of God is coming” (Col. 3:6).

Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t really like to think very much about the wrath of God. I’d prefer to think of God as a kindly older gentleman with a perpetual twinkle in his eye, someone who winks at my mischievousness, or who looks the other way when I tell a little lie or think a bad thought.

But Paul and Timothy don’t sugarcoat things for the Colossians. The things that the Colossians used to do were flat-out wrong. They used to do things that were harmful to themselves and to other people. 

Malice? That’s not an accident. Malice is doing something evil with the intention of causing harm. Slander? That’s specifically trying to ruin someone’s reputation. Abusive language? That’s language that’s obviously intended to hurt someone else.

But that’s how the Colossians used to live! And Paul and Timothy don’t want to see them go back to that way of living, so they use this shocking language of God’s wrath to wake them up to the reality of the path that they had been on.

Now, I don’t believe that Paul and Timothy want the Colossians or us to live in constant fear of God’s judgment — as if we might get struck by a lightning bolt at any minute if we accidentally step out of line. But sin does have natural consequences, and if we continue on in patterns of destructive behavior, it will eventually catch up to us. 

New Clothes

A few verses further down in the chapter (in verse 12 and following), we see the new clothing that Paul and Timothy want the Colossians to put on in place of the old. They tell the Colossians to put on the new clothes of “compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience (Col. 3:12), to forgive each other (Col. 3:13), and “above all, clothe yourselves with love” (Col. 3:14).

But before we can put on these new, clean clothes, we have to cast aside the old. It doesn’t do any good if we try to pull the new clean clothing of compassion on top of malice, or kindness on top of slander or abusive language. 

In fact, adding these godly traits on top of the destructive patterns of behavior might make things even worse! Imagine, for example, if you try to just put on the clean clothing of patience on top of the dirty clothing of greed. You would be like an evil mastermind, waiting in his lair to take over the world. Villains can be patient, but that doesn’t make their greed any less problematic! And sweet-talking is wrong if you’re trying to manipulate someone for your own evil purposes.

Instead, Paul and Timothy tell us to completely toss aside the old, destructive patterns of behavior so we can truly live out these godly, Christlike traits. Then, and only then, can we be people of peace, rather than people who bring harm. People who speak words of life, rather than death, people who treat one another with love, rather than greed or evil desire. If we will cast aside our old way of living and allow Christ to transform us from the inside out, then we won’t just look good on the outside. Rather, in Christ we will be made new through and through. 

And in this new life in Christ, Paul and Timothy remind the Colossians, “there is no longer Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free. But Christ is all and in all!” (Col. 3:11). In other words — our background, what we did or used to do, our class, our station in life — none of that matters anymore because we have been made new in Christ. Our identity in Christ. We have cast aside the old clothing, and we have been given a fresh start. It is, indeed, a new dawn, a new day, a new life for us.

Conclusion

Like the Colossians, it might be tempting to just try to slip the Christian life onto our old selves, to try to fit a little bit of Jesus into our lives or try to sprinkle a few kind words into our vocabulary every now and then, but go on living the way we’ve always lived.

But if we truly want to be clean, if we truly want to live into the new life that Christ has for us, we have to toss aside the old clothing, our old ways of living. Only when we open ourselves up and ask God to remove the harmful behaviors and destructive patterns from our old way of living can we truly live into the new life that Christ has for us. 

In closing, hear these words from Paul and Timothy in the verses that follow (Col. 3:12-15).

Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. (Col 3:12-15).

Amen!

Questions for Personal Reflection in Response to Today’s Sermon:

1. When have I most felt “fresh and clean” in my spirit—fully renewed by God?
2. What are some “old clothes” (habits, attitudes, behaviors) that I am still trying to hold onto? In what ways am I tempted to “just add a little Jesus” without letting go of the old life?
3. Are there destructive patterns in my life that I’ve been trying to cover up rather than surrender? What might I be afraid of losing if I truly let go of the “old self”?
4. What does it look like in my life to “clothe myself with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience”?
5. How might I intentionally open myself to deeper transformation through Christ this week?