Colossians 1:24-29

Paul now shifts his focus to his ministry to the church.  Paul rejoices in his sufferings for the Colossians.  It is weird for us to think of rejoicing in our sufferings.  We will see that Paul’s view of suffering for the church is very different than ours.  Just like in everything else, Paul’s focus is on Christ.  He says he is filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church.  Does this imply that Christ’s afflictions were lacking?  Definitely not!  I think what Paul is saying is quite profound though.  As Christians, we are the body of Christ.  Christ lived a life of hardship and sacrifice for our sake.  He died a horrible death to bring us to life.  When we as the church become the body of Christ, we inherit His affliction to some degree.  In order to bring the good news of life to the world, the Body of Christ must sacrifice itself like Christ sacrificed His body while on earth.  Paul sees His ministry as being according to the stewardship from God given to him to make the word of God fully known.  This is not Paul’s ministry, it is God’s ministry, a part of which He has entrusted to Paul.  This is huge when it comes to ministry!  We tend to make ministry personal.  When we succeed it is awesome for us and when we fail or hit a rough spot, we are depressed and feel like failures.  If we look at it as God’s ministry and affliction as us sharing in the afflictions of Christ, this should completely change the way ministry works.  Our focus needs to be on God and not ourselves.  Paul then calls the word of God a mystery hidden for ages but now revealed.  Why was the mystery hidden for so long?  I don’t know and may never know, but the bottom line is it has been revealed to us now and that should prompt a response.  Our lives should be focused on explaining this mystery to those who have not heard it yet!  Paul states that God has chosen for the saints to make known how great the glory of this mystery is among the gentiles.  This mystery is Christ in us, the hope of glory.  This really is a mystery.  We had no hope and then Christ came into us and now we have a hope.  This is profound!  Often we take it for granted, but this is a huge truth!  We are to proclaim Christ, teaching everyone with all wisdom.  It is important to use wisdom when sharing the gospel, but that doesn’t mean to be selective.  We are to proclaim Christ to everyone!  Not just our neighbors, not just Americans, not just people in far away countries, we are to proclaim Christ to everyone!  I don’t believe Christians should have the approach of having been called to a particular area.  We are called to proclaim Christ to everyone!  This is obviously impossible on our own, but it is possible for the full body.  This is the ministry for which Paul toils, struggling with all his energy that God powerfully works in him.  Paul is energized by God to be able to minister.  This does not mean he has it easy.  He says he toils, struggling with all his energy.  God apparently gave Paul enough energy for ministry, but not any more than enough.  Even with God’s help, it is an exhausting struggle for him.  This is a little scary, but also really encouraging!  If you are worn out and burnt out, it’s okay!  Even Paul struggled and was worn out.  Instead of looking at how effective you want to be for Christ, compare how effective you are with Christ to how effective you were before Christ.  When you do that, you should see the impact of the energy that God powerfully works within you.

Colossians 1:15-23

 Colossians 1 continues with Paul talking about the preeminence of Christ.  He is the image of the invisible God.  This is huge in my opinion.  There is so much about God we can’t know.  We can’t see Him, we can’t physically touch Him.  Christ was the image of the invisible God.  Who Christ touched, God touched.  What Christ said, God said.  Jesus Christ is our physical example of the character of God.  By Christ, everything was created.  Everything includes things on Earth and in heaven, things visible and things invisible, thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities.  All things were created through Him and for Him.  This implies that there is a vast spiritual world out there which was also created by Christ.  Sometimes I wonder what this world is like.  Christ is before all things and in Him all things hold together.  He is the head of the church.  He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent.  This passage emphasizes the importance of Christ.  It explains how He was from the beginning and controls everything.  In fact, creation exists because of Christ and for Christ.  I think the name Paul has for Christ, the firstborn from the dead, is interesting.  We think of Christ being the only son of God.  We don’t think of him as being the firstborn from the dead.  This implies that there will be others bon from the dead.  Christ had to be raised from the dead in order for us to be raised from the dead.  Paul says the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Christ and through Him, to reconcile all things on heaven and earth to Himself.  When I first read this I wonder what in heaven had to be reconciled.  The thought I have on this is that nothing in heaven had to necessarily be wrong.  Creation was unable to reconcile itself with heaven.  Christ came to Earth and was fully man and reconciled us to Him.  He was also fully God and as such heaven was also reconciled to Him.  So through Christ all things were reconciled to Him.  Through Him we have access to God.  Paul continues to say that we who were once alienated are now reconciled in His body through His human body and human death.  We are reconciled so He can present us as holy and beyond reproach.  This comes with a condition though.  We must continue in the faith, stable and steadfast.  We can’t shift from the hope of the gospel, which has been proclaimed in all creation.  Not only does Paul say that the gospel has been proclaimed in all creation, which is significant, he also says we must not shift from that hope.  Does this mean it is possible to lose our reconciliation?  I honestly don’t know.  My personal belief is that we cannot, but passages like this don’t sit quite right with me.  Anyway, these are my thoughts.  Whether they are right or not I don’t know.  I just hope I don’t lead anyone in the wrong direction who reads this!

Colossians Intro

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything!  I fizzled out in Exodus and got busy with wedding planning.  I have been reading Colossians recently though so I’m gonna try to go through Colossians on here now.  We’ll start with Colossians 1:1-14.  My format will be less structured with these.  I’m changing everything up!  Paul identifies himself in the beginning of this book as an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.  His apostleship has nothing to do with who he is or what he has done.  He is an apostle because of the will of God.  Timothy is also writing this letter. 

The recipients of this letter are the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Collosae.  Collosae was the smallest church written to by Paul.  It is located east of Ephesus and was mostly known for its wool trade.  Paul wrote this letter while in prison in Rome.  He probably wrote it about the same time as Ephesians and Philemon.  All three letters were delivered by the same people.  There was a false teaching going around at this time which basically undermined the power and authority of Christ.  Paul was writing this letter partly to set them straight.  The preeminence of Christ is one of the major themes of Colossians. 

Paul finishes his introduction with the greeting, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father”.  He establishes God as our father and attributes both grace and peace to Him.  We are four lines into the book and Paul has already attributed grace, peace, and his apostleship to God. 

Paul begins his letter by praising the Colossian church.  He lists all the reasons he is thankful to God for them.  He is thankful to God because of their faith in Christ and for the love they have for the saints.  He attributes this faith and love to the hope they have laid up for them in heaven.  This is significant for several reasons.  Once again, Paul attributes the Colossians faith and love to the Father.  Secondly, the Colossian church was apparently known for their faith and their love for their brothers.  Their motivation is their hope laid up for them in heaven.  If we ever find it difficult to have faith or love others, we might want to evaluate what our hope is placed in.  Is it placed in affirmation?  Attention from our friends and family?  Do we hope that we won’t feel guilty if we love others?  Or do we love because of the hope we have in Christ.  Is our focus on things of this world or on things of heaven.   The Colossians were placing their hope in heaven and Paul was thanking God for that.  Paul then states that this hope comes through the word of truth, the gospel.  The gospel came to Collosae as it was coming to the whole world.  The gospel was bearing fruit and growing around the world as people were hearing and understanding the grace of God in truth.  When our faith is healthy, we should bear fruit.  Often we look at fruit as only the visible “proof” of our faith.  We ignore the entire purpose of fruit.  Fruit is designed by God to bear seeds and help plants reproduce.  We are to bear fruit to help the gospel spread and grow.  If the church is healthy, it will bear fruit and spread.  Apparently, Epaphras was the man who brought the gospel to Collosae and then reported back to Paul and Timothy.  I find it important that Paul seems to indicate that the gospel didn’t grow in Collosae or around the world until it had been heard and understood.  This underscores to me the importance of discipleship.  Faith comes by hearing, but growth comes through understanding.  It is not enough to just tell people the good news of Christ’s sacrifice for us, we also have to help them understand the grace of God in truth. 

Paul then outlines his prayer for the Colossian church.  He prays that they would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.  This makes sense; we all want to know God’s will.  But what are our motives?  Paul seems to indicate that our reason for knowing God’s will is to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in knowledge of God.  We should want to know God’s will for our lives not for our benefit, but so that we would please God, bear fruit, and increase our knowledge of Him.  I know I personally feel like often I want to know God’s will so that I can know what my future holds or so I can prepare for the future.  My desire for knowledge of His will is partly for my own benefit.  We should know His will for His benefit.  Paul then asks that the Colossian church would be strengthened with all power according to God’s glorious might.  The purpose for this strengthening is for endurance and patience with joy.  Many times I think we ask God to help us avoid hardship or to give us want we want quickly.  What we need to ask for is strength so that we can endure and be patient with joy.  Along with this strengthening we should give thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints.  Once again, it appears that our focus should be on heaven.  It appears that Paul is praying that when hardship and persecution come, the Colossians would have strength to endure by thanking God for their salvation.  Once again, the focus should be on Christ and not the world.  We have been transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of Christ, who has redeemed us.  This is huge!  We need to be careful to remember this and not focus on our earthly problems.