Perfect Harmony

"Above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony" (Colossians 3:14; ESV).

For those with an ear for music, we appreciate the work it takes to accomplish perfect harmony.

For those who are in Christ, it takes work, too, to accomplish perfect harmony--the process of sanctification that will not be completed in this life but only in that to come, when as John wrote in his first letter, we will be like Christ because "we will see Him just as He is" (1 John 3:2).

What are we commanded to do in Paul's letter to the Colossians that precedes the verse first quoted here?

"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 must you also forgive" (Colossians 3:12-13; ESV).

Only the redeemed are God's chosen ones--holy and beloved--and will desire compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, seeking to bear with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgive each other, understanding that as the Lord has forgiven us, so must we also forgive.

We desire, then, to exhibit and grow in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and then love, binding in harmony and unity of the Spirit to the glory of God.