“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 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. And above all these put on 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.”
– Colossians 3:12–15
Colossians 3:12–15 is a powerful paragraph, a powerful description of Christ who is your life.
So earlier in Colossians 3:4, we learned that Christ is our life. Verse 3, “Our life is hidden with Christ in God.” And so what Paul is doing here in Colossians 3:12–15 is he is encouraging followers of Christ to live in the life that Christ has made possible for them, to put on the character of Christ more and more every day to become more and more like Jesus.
Colossians 3:12–15 Thanks God For Showing Us Mercy
So here’s what I want to do. I just want to pray these verses verbatim, over you and me. Let’s just pray for these things in our lives, that Christ would indeed be our life right now, today, tomorrow, in all of these ways.
So, God, we pray that by your grace, you would help us to put on, as your chosen ones, holy and beloved, oh, what a description. God, thank you for choosing to show mercy to us, for setting us apart as children loved by you. So we pray that you would help us to put on compassionate hearts. Please give us compassionate hearts, kindness. Please God, help us to be kind in every way. Humility. God, we pray for humility, for meekness. God, we struggle to even know what that means. It’s so uncommon in the world, we pray from meekness.
This Verse Prays For Patience
We pray for patience. And help us to be patient. Help us to bear with one another. Amidst disagreements, amidst differences, help us to bear with one another, we pray. If we have a complaint against another, to forgive each other. Help us be forgiving. Don’t let us be unforgiving, bitter towards others. As you have forgiven us, help us to forgive others.
Colossians 3:12–15 Helps Us To Put On Love and Be Thankful
Above all these, help us to put on love. God, may love characterize our lives today, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And we pray. We pray that the peace of Christ in us would rule our hearts, that we would live with the peace of Christ in us, that we would exude the peace of Christ in us, to which indeed we were called into your body, into your church, into union with you.
And help us, finally, Oh God, help us to be thankful. Help us to rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances. Lord, we pray for the character of Christ in us, in all these ways today. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
