MOSES NEVER REALLY wanted the job. Yes, he had a passion for the plight of his people. It was precisely that passion that got him into trouble with Pharaoh, when it became known that he had secretly murdered an Egyptian for beating a Jew. Moses had to flee to the land of Midian, where he settled down and became a husband, father, and shepherd.

Decades later, as Moses was tending his father-in-law’s flock, he saw a bush that appeared to be burning without burning up. When he moved in for a closer look at this curious sight, God suddenly spoke to him from out of the bush. Instinctively, Moses covered his face in fear. God told Moses that he had seen the suffering of his people as they were oppressed by the Egyptians, and called him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

But Moses resisted. Apparently, he was no longer the impetuous younger man who had fled Egypt and Pharoah’s wrath. “Who am I to do such a thing?” he asked. “What will I say if they ask who sent me? What do I do if they don’t believe me? And you know I’m not very good with words.” God patiently answered each of Moses’ objections. And still Moses said, “Please send someone else” (Exod 4:13, NIV).

God, of course, would not be denied. Moses went, with his brother Aaron to back him up.

Fast forward decades more. Moses has led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. He continued to lead them for a whole generation as they wandered in the wilderness as punishment for their faithlessness. With Moses as their commander, the Israelites have conquered the nations east of the Jordan River, and were now poised to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land.

But Moses would not be going with them. The passion that got him in trouble before got him in trouble again. For his own disobedience, God barred him from entering Canaan. He was well over 100 years old by that point, but his mind was sharp and his memory long. In what we know as the book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminded the people of the whole history of God’s faithfulness to them, and what it would mean for them to be faithful in return. Before his death, he wanted to make as sure as possible that the people would never forget what God had done and who they were because of it:

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. (Deut 7:6)

That statement echoes what God instructed Moses to tell the Israelites at the foot of Mount Sinai:

Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. (Exod 19:5-6)

It was God’s choice of the people that defined their identity, not anything intrinsic to them as a people. That act of grace was to be remembered and celebrated:

Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good;
    sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant.
For the LORD has chosen Jacob to be his own,
    Israel to be his treasured possession. (Ps 135:3-4)

What does all of this have to do with Paul’s letter to the Colossians? I want to make sure we don’t miss the resonance of what he says in chapter 3 with the story of the Israelites.

As you’ll recall, he’s told the Colossians that their baptism represents their union with Christ in death and resurrection. They are to treat their old nature as dead and live out of their new nature instead. He illustrates that old nature with a sorry list of attitudes and behaviors: “anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language” (Col 3:8). By contrast, he’s about to give them a positive list of virtues to embody instead. But notice how he introduces that list:

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Col 3:12)

Think again of the social and cultural makeup of that congregation: it was probably made up mostly of Gentiles who had lived promiscuous and idolatrous pagan lifestyles, with a smaller group of Messianic Jews mixed in. Each may have regarded the other with some disdain, which would have prompted Paul to write, “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised” (Col 3:11).

How would the Colossians have heard Paul’s words? What would it have meant for him to describe them as “God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved”?

Surely, the Jews in the congregation would have heard the echoes of the ancient texts and traditions celebrating God’s election of Israel. And given what Paul has already said in the letter about such things as Sabbath observance and circumcision, I imagine that the Jews in Colossae would have found Paul’s words here a bit hard to swallow.

Read, for example, what Paul says in Romans 11, which suggests that there was ethnic tension in the church as to who the “real” chosen people were. You get the sense that the Gentiles in that church had adopted an arrogant attitude toward their Jewish brothers and sisters, something like, “You had your chance and blew it; now it’s our turn. We’re the chosen ones now, not you.”

Was something like that happening in Colossae? I imagine so, but there’s no way to know.

Even so, what would it have taken for Jews to embrace the idea that in Christ, there was neither Jew nor Greek, circumcision nor uncircumcision? What would it have taken for them to accept the way Paul called Gentiles — and former pagans at that! — “God’s chosen people”?

Well, how about compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience? That’s as good a place as any to start.