It Is Easier to Subtract When You Add

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Some of my earliest memories involve the rich, dark soil around my childhood home in Michigan. I loved digging holes, and Michigan was a great place to do it! The soil was soft, and the summer weather was great (neither thing could not be said of Georgia, where my family eventually moved). I had one hole that I was particularly proud of, because it was deeper than I was tall (at six years old or so). For all the pride it gave me, it also gave me a lot of frustration, because the deeper I went, the more soil from the piles around the rim fell back into the hole.

I would venture to guess that almost every Christian experiences a similar kind of frustration at one point or another. In order to follow Jesus, we have to dig out the “root[s] of bitterness” and other dirt-y sins (pun intended) from our heart (Hebrews 12:15). In the early stages of digging, things tend to go pretty well, as surface level sins are cast out of our hearts and out of our lives. The problem tends to come as we let the shovel of God’s word go deeper into our hearts and discover things that are more deeply embedded; we tend to find that as we cast those things out, it is very easy for them to tumble back in.

Colossians 3 speaks about the need to “put off” sinful behaviors like “anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language […] since you have put off the old man with his deeds” (Colossians 3:8). If you have ever deeply struggled with these or other sins, you might have found this command challenging. I remember a skit Bob Newheart once did in which he pretended he was a psychologist. No matter who came into his office, he had one simple piece of advice to offer: “Stop it!” His clients obviously were not very happy, and I think it’s safe to say that many Christians who have attempted to follow similar advice have not wound up very happy either.

To borrow from the proverb, Christians who try to live their lives in the negative find that as they think in their heart, so they are (cf. Proverbs 23:7). The more they think, “Stop _________,” or “Don’t do _________,” the more these things tend to occupy their thoughts and their lives. This is because Christianity was not meant to be lived in the negative.

One summer after we moved away from Michigan, my Mom drove us back up for a visit. We even visited our old home. As we walked around the yard, I was excited to see what had become of my hole. I was very disappointed (and somewhat perplexed) to see that the new owners had filled in my hole… with rocks. As I reflect on this memory now, two thoughts come to mind: 1) It’s really strange that they didn’t just fill the hole in with dirt; 2) Rocks are actually an excellent way to keep dirt out of a hole.

Just a few verses after Paul tells us to “put off” sinful attitudes and behaviors, he says that there are some attitudes and behaviors we must “put on” (Colossian 3:12). This is how Christianity is meant to be lived. It is not about taking things out of your life, not doing things, and not thinking things; it is about replacing inferior, sinful behavior for superior, moral behavior. It really is easier to subtract when you add; the person who adds Christian attitudes and behaviors finds it a whole lot easier to subtract sinful ones.

Paul introduces what Christians need to put on with three powerful points of encouragement in Colossians 3:12 that we should meditate on anytime we’re finding this process of replacement difficult. First, if we are in Christ having put Him on in baptism (Galatians 3:27), we are already “the elect of God,” i.e., the ones whom God has chosen. Second, though we must continually “pursue […] holiness” in order to “see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14), God has already made us holy and will continue to work in our lives “to present [us] holy, and blameless, and above reproach” (Colossians 1:22). Third, even before the instruction to “put on,” Paul makes it clear that we are “beloved,” valued and treasured by God, even “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8). God’s view of us as “the elect of God, holy and beloved,” is not contingent upon our having already “put on” all that he wants us to think, do, and become; it is our motivation to pursue these goals with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind.

So, the next time you are finding spiritual subtraction challenging, try to begin with addition! Remember, the best way to keep dirt out of a hole is to put something else in it.

-Patrick Swayne  
patrick@tftw.org