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.