Living As If We Believe In the Incarnation

Paul's epistle to the Church at Colossae contains some important advice about what it means to be the Church.  This is particularly found in Colossians 3.12-17, which is the most well known text within the epistle.

Paul indicates that being the Church is all about cultivating the spiritual disciplines of forgiveness and accountability.  The community is called to hold one another accountable to living their lives according to the example of Christ, but to also forgive one another when they fail to do so, keeping such persons in the community rather than removing them.

Paul's advice makes perfect sense when we consider the high bar that has been set for us through the life and teachings of Jesus.  We are called, as Paul reminds us, to live as Christ lived: to clothe ourselves with love, mercy, and compassion, to have peace within ourselves and to promote peace within the Church and the larger community.

The life that we are called to live, on a broader level, was manifest in God's incarnation in Jesus.  By entering into human life to redeem us, God manifested forgiveness, compassion, love, and mercy.  The very act of incarnation that is celebrated during the Christmas season reveals the nature of the God who was revealed in Jesus, that we are called to emulate.