Wednesday, August 26 –
It’s mid-week, and in our reading
thru the New Testament, we come to the next of Paul’s letters – Colossians. Today we read Colossians 1:1 – 2:5. I would
urge you to read the text first and then come back so that we might look at it
again.
The letter to the Colossians is one
of the Prison epistles. This letter,
along with Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon, all were written while Paul
sat chained in a Roman prison. What’s
interesting to note about the letter to the Colossians is that we don’t know
for certain if Paul, or one of his team members, was the missionary who
established the church in the city of Colossae.
It may be possible that the original believers of the church in Colossae
were those who came to listen to Paul teach while he lived in Ephesus for two
years –
“[Paul] entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning
and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some became
stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the
congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning
daily in the hall of Tyrannus. This continued for two years, so that all
the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts
19:8-10).
Paul mentions a man named Epaphras (1:7, 4:12) who was involved in planting
churches in other places in the Ephesus region, including Colossae, and it may
have been that Epaphras planted the Colossian church. Yet, it is clear, from the letter that Paul
knew of the church and its leaders.
The question we have to ask is, “why
did Paul write this letter to the church in Colossae?” The letter makes a strong statement, a declaration
that Jesus Christ is Lord, both supreme in all things, and sufficient for all
areas of life. This statement – which we
know so well – is not something to pass over quickly. He exposes an emerging heresy, later named
Gnosticism, that was creeping into the church. Gnostics preached a different
Jesus than what Paul proclaimed. We’ll
get to this heresy later, but for now, Paul wrote to them to counter the
influence that was coming from this new heresy. He did it by declaring the Supremacy of Christ
Jesus as the Son of God, and the all-sufficiency of Jesus as Lord, the Savior, and
the one who established the Church.
Paul begins with a greeting that, once
again, expresses his gratitude for who they are, and his love for the church
(1:1-8). What is interesting in that
greeting is Paul’s reference to “faith, hope, and love,” [the same formula
statement he used at the end of 1 Corinthians 13]. Paul spoke of the Colossian church in these
grand words – “… we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that
you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in
heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel” (1:4-5). He stated it over and over in his letters: faith
in Christ as Savior and Lord, the hope of life in Christ that leads to eternal
life, and love for God and each other – “faith, hope, and love; these three
remain, but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13:13).
Paul’s prayer for them follows, and
is a strong statement of purpose for their faith together –
“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking
that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom
and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully
pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the
knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to
his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving
thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the
saints in light” (1:9-12).
Here is the life of a maturing Christian – to be filled with the knowledge
of God’s will, wisdom and understanding; to walk in a manner worthy of Jesus,
to please him, and bear fruit in good work; and to increasingly grow in the knowledge
of God. These are statements that
express faith, hope, love prayers. He reminds
them that God’s power – his glorious power – is all-sufficient for what they
need to endure and live patiently in joy.
It is the Father who they can thank since he is the one who made their
inheritance in the Kingdom of God possible.
It is the Father who makes possible that which seems impossible. God “qualifies,” which means “makes it
possible” to share in his inheritance.
That is an assurance that we all need to embrace.
But How? How did he make this inheritance as saints
possible? “He has delivered us from
the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in
whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins…” (1:13-15a). As in other places we’ve read, Paul describes
salvation in Christ as an act of deliverance from darkness to light, from death
to life, from sinful condemnation to forgiveness and grace.
Can Jesus do this? What gives him the right,
the authority, the ability to deliver us?
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For
by him, all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created
through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him, all
things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is
the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be
preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and
through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven,
making peace by the blood of his cross” (1:16-20).
Jesus Christ is the exalted Son of God, creator of “all” things visible and
invisible. He holds all of Creation
together, and he created the Church, his body of believers when he rose from the
dead as the firstborn from the dead.
Jesus is exalted at the right hand of God the Father and is preeminent
as the Son of God – as one who has all the “fullness of God” in his being, and
who by sacrifice has made reconciliation between God and man, earth and heaven,
possible through his blood shed on the cross.
This might be the most exhaustive
and most marvelous exposition of the identity of Jesus. One writer put it like this – “It is easy
and not very costly to admire Jesus as a great moral teacher, but the proper
response to Christ is not mere admiration but worship. We are called not simply
to follow His guidelines but to throw ourselves at His feet in adoration and
praise. Consequently, if we want others to have a proper view of the Messiah,
then we need to be careful and always speak of Him as God incarnate, who rules
overall.”[1]
The supremacy of Christ is what
will protect them from creeping errors.
Once they grasp the sufficiency of Christ Jesus, they begin to understand
the truths they had already begun to know.
This would help them also realize what Christ Jesus has done to secure
their salvation –
“And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to
present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed
you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of
the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under
heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister” (1:21-23).
The words Paul used to describe their faith, “stable and steadfast,” are the
difference between a vacillating faith and a secure faith. What they once were is not what they are now
(1:21,22), and it is this stable and steadfast faith that will help them go on
to maturity in Christ.
The final part of 1:24-29, is
shaped by Paul’s reminder to them of his call by Jesus Christ into the Apostolic
ministry – for which he is suffering. He
returns to the word “stewardship” (1:25), to remind them that his role is an appointed
one, and it is to proclaim the mystery of Christ Jesus to include the Gentiles in
the church. The glory of the mystery is
that for any believer, “Christ is in you” (1:27), and Paul’s mission is
to present that hope to everyone who will receive it –
“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom,
that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil,
struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (1:28-29).
The chapter division is once again, interruptive to the flow of Paul’s writing. The next sentence continues Paul’s “toil,
struggling with all his energy that Christ powerfully works within me…”
– “For I want you to know how great a
struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen
me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together
in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the
knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:1-3).
The balance of his concern is held in the tension of those words, “love” and “the knowledge,” or truth, concerning Christ. Our emphasis on individual belief, the priesthood of all believers, and our personal relationship with Christ are all understandable as we talk about our faith in Christ. Yet the work of Christ in His church is universal, and there are not separate ways to understand Jesus personally – that will not do, that is not permitted. The body of Christ is the spiritual growth of all members who are “knit together…so that the full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of Jesus is clearly known” (my paraphrase). Here we are given a picture of what is assaulting the church in Colossae. False teachers, Gnostics, emphasize a “mysterious knowledge” and uses Christ – not embraces, or believes in Christ as God – but uses Christ to propose a mystical philosophy of “higher knowledge.” Paul ends this section with his promise that he is writing, even from a distance, to make sure they realize he was present with them in their struggle – “I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ” (2:4-5).
It is always Christ Jesus, and our faith in Him, that serves as the security
and foundation of our life in Christ. To
this end, the church has a confession it holds to that is universally embraced.
Peace
[1] R.C. Sproul, TableTalk, Colossians, The Invisible Made Visible
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