Passion

Colossians 3:4-6  "When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming."

In the last couple of weeks when I would open my Bible I would come across this verse in Colossians. I would sit there and just contemplate one thing that I never realized before. A possible reason why I never caught this before was because I grew up studying out of the NIV which doesn't properly translate the description here. The word I'm looking at that hit me is passion.

Passion. I've hung on that word contemplating it for a couple weeks in Paul's context. The NIV usually translates this word as "lust" but that doesn't do it justice. The word used for passion here in the Greek that Paul uses is "pathos" which can mean good or evil pathos.

That got me thinking about what I was surrounded with growing up in the church and going to a university where Christians were "on fire" for God. I would in a way idolize the people who have such a "passion" for the Gospel. Who seem to live off this passion and I think I'm not as good as a Christian as they are because they seem so "passionate" about God. I would envy that and wonder why I didn't have that same "feeling" or desire. Somedays I did try to live in it but that usually came as a result of allowing my emotions to be manipulated by a great weeklong conference.

Looking back, and comparing to what Paul is saying, the passion I desired wasn't Spirit led for the fruit of the Spirit does not list "passion" or a word anywhere near to this to describe the working of God in the life of a repentant sinner. In fact, he uses passion whether good or bad as what is earthly and should be put to death. Why? Because it is idolatry. I continued to think about how I envied fellow repentant sinners for their "passion" and realizing now that in their and my own ignorance we justified living in an earthly desire that we should put to death, to "serve God" and therefore we were idolizing the desire more than loving Christ.

I then start to think about the pastors that I had heard in the past, who seem to speak about the "passion" of believers serving Christ to in a way sell Jesus to the listeners or to motivate evangelism within their church. Thinking on that, I'm realizing this was all wrong. I then start to relate to Adam Marshall's quote:

"The Gospel is not a victory-drunk invading army, bent on conquering no matter the cost. It is a whisper in the enchanted beauty of the night that calls one to peace and love, insisting, but never tyrannical in its persuasion. It allows itself to be ignored, and in doing so, showcases the glory of God by its thriving in meekness."

It's understandable when new to the faith like being new to a marriage to be caught up in the "moment" of passion with the spouse. As you grow older though you realize that love is more than just that moment or passion. That growth comes through the hardships that you work through with the spouse, testing your love and loyalty to the person you swore into a covenant with. For this reason Paul describes Christ as the groom and the Church as the bride. We each grow in our love for the Creator and we shouldn't envy the passion of others but instead realize that you're goal is to put to death the old self in order to put on the new, which is of course the image and holiness of Christ.