I. Our Actions Flow from What’s Inside Us

Colossians 3:9a – Do not lie to one another

Matthew 15:10, 16-20 – When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” 16 So Jesus said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 20 These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”

II. Believers Have Been Changed from the Inside Out

Colossians 3:9b-10a – since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man

2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Old Self
Ephesians 4:22 –that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts

New Man
Ephesians 4:24 – and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

Romans 5:19 – For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

III. Believers are Becoming More Like Christ

Colossians 3:10b – who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him

Being renewed (ἀνακαινόω anakainow) – spiritual rebirth of the Christian. Present tense indicating that it is an ongoing action. Passive voice, meaning that it is happening to the Christian, not something they are doing themselves.

Ephesians 4:23 – and be renewed in the spirit of your mind

2 Corinthians 4:16 – Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

IV. We’re All in this Together

Colossians 3:11 – where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

Galatians 3:26-28 – For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:14-16 – For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.