Colossians 1:1-14 English Standard Version

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

 

Paul identifies himself as the author along with Timothy who is traveling with him. For those of you not familiar with the background of Timothy, he was a young teenage man with a Jewish mother and grandmother and a Greek father. It was his mother and grandmother who taught him to love and honor God. It is believed that these two women were converted on Paul’s first missionary journey where he preached in their city, Lystra, and they likely introduced Timothy to Christ. On Paul’s second missionary journey, Timothy joined Paul and was mentored by him. They became close, and Paul referred to him as “my son in the faith” (1Timothy 1:2). From Paul’s mentoring, Timothy was sent out to minister at the church in Ephesus and visited churches in Thessalonica and Philippi that Paul had concerns about wrong theology.

 

Questions to consider: Have you identified someone or has the Lord planted someone in your life for you to mentor, as Paul mentored Timothy?

 

Paul calls the Colossians, “saints.”  Why use this term? Aren’t we “sinners saved by grace?” Don’t we still sin? We do indeed sin, but God as our Father does not see us as sinners. Paul explains in 2 Corinthians, that for our sake, God made Jesus who was without sin, to take all our sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God, a new identity for us (2 Corinthians 5:21 paraphrased). God does not have any sinners in His family. He cannot. He is perfectly holy and cannot live inside anyone unholy. The only way Holy Spirit can live inside of us is because we have been given a new fully righteous spirit, and that is His dwelling place. 1 Corinthians 3:16 says, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that His Spirit dwells within you?”  2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come.” We, as God’s children were ransomed through the blood of His son and inherited the righteous standing of Christ.

 

To stay mired down in our sinful nature, to spend our days focusing on and choosing to live in our sin because it’s just “who we are” is wasting the freedom that Jesus bought for us as new creations who have been given the gift of His righteousness. We now have a choice we didn’t have before; to walk after the Spirit and let Him guide us or continue in our flesh. “Saint” is our new identity as a member of the family of God. We are saints, and it is not just Paul who calls us this. It appears 81 times in the bible! Jesus calls us to walk out of that truth. In 1 Peter 1:14-16, it says, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”” If it were not possible to be holy, it would not be asked of us. While this life of holiness is simple to understand, it is impossible to walk out a life without Holy Spirit’s transformative power at work in us.

 

Questions to consider: What did you grow up understanding about sinners and saints? What is your understanding as an adult? Has that understanding changed your walk with Jesus?

 

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

 

Verse 3 begins with prayers of thanks to God and affirming that Jesus is the Son of God. Paul is thankful for the growth of their faith, of their love and of their hope. It is God who is the author and “grower” of our faith, and Paul is giving thanks for what he has seen and heard. What a joy and delight it is to have spread the gospel message, and to watch it take root and grow, to see the outpouring of love to others because of that faith, and to see those he discipled being firmly rooted in this truth.

 

It is the great commission in action, not just telling people about Jesus, not just handing them information on how to accept Him as Lord and Savior and not just inviting them to come to your church. It is the hard, delightful, and sometime painful work of walking alongside someone as they grow in the Lord, being there when they trip and fall, helping them get back up and encouraging them to keep going. It requires great patience, love, and a non-judgmental attitude. Imagine if we trained up other believers to do this with us; imagine if they each mentored/discipled one person, and when those were “trained up,” they did the same? It is the work spoken about in Ephesians 4:13, “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” We are all called to reach out into the darkness and share with someone who Jesus is and what He has done in our life. In 1 Peter 2:9, it says, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”  There is such joy and delight in the work of the Lord, the value of eternal work. Paul says this so beautifully in 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20, “After all, what gives us hope and joy, and what will be our proud reward and crown as we stand before our Lord Jesus when he returns? It is you! 20 Yes, you are our pride and joy.”

 

Questions to consider: What excellencies has Jesus done in your life?  Consider who are the people you encounter regularly that you can share those?

 

Continuing with Colossians 5b, it says, “Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.”

 

The gospel was spreading from town to town, taking hold, and growing and Paul along with all those who were sharing the gospel were seeing it spread. It bore fruit on its own because it was God’s plan; because the truth of the Gospel comes with Holy Spirit power, much more than just words on a page.

 

Epaphras was a Gentile convert who started a church in Colossae. He and others were not responsible for the “increase;” their job was to spread the good news and disciple those that came to Christ. What an exciting time that must have been! And it is still for us today! There are many who are living in bondage from alcohol, drugs, sex, money, power, from damaging hurts as children that have laid roots of misbelief of their low value, their unacceptability, and their unlovable nature. The gospel’s promise of healing and freedom has not changed! God still heals those hurts and addictions today as He did then. As we come alongside these people, love them unconditionally, teach them about Jesus, and He will do the rest just as He is doing in us. He is the fruit producer, the source and we are just the branch.

 

Questions to consider: What different ways could you reach into your circle of influence to bring the truth and love of Jesus? What might you need to do to prepare for dealing with those coming from these types of bondage?

 

Continuing with the verses, "9 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, 10 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; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

 

Paul prayed asking for four specific things for this body of believers:

• To be filled with the knowledge of God’s will with spiritual wisdom and understanding that results in a walk that reflects the Lord’s work and gives Him glory.

• To bear fruit in good works and increase in knowledge of God.

• To be strengthened with the Lord’s power in endurance, patience, and yet through it all, remain joyful.

• To give thanks to the Father, always remembering what He did by sending Jesus to the cross for us – paying the ransom to satan, forgiving our sins, and redeeming us from satan’s kingdom into God’s kingdom.

 

Let’s look at each of Paul’s prayer points. Prayer point 1: How can we be filled with the knowledge of God’s will with spiritual wisdom and understanding that results in a walk that reflects the Lord’s work and gives Him glory? How can we learn what is God’s will for our life?”

 

We often learn this in two ways: the first way is from studying scripture to learn about the Christian life. We will rapidly increase in knowledge and understanding when we study and understand the heart of God and what he loves and hates, when we study and understand the choices Jesus made in His ministry, His teachings, and when we study the teachings of Paul, the writer of Hebrews, James, Peter, John, and Jude. We are not reading the “rules of Christian living;” rather we are experiencing the living Word which encourages, convicts, corrects, and teaches us with purpose. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man (or woman) of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

 

The second way is prayer where we learn specifically what God wants for us, the works He intends for us to do. He may use others and open doors to new opportunities, but He will confirm to us in our hearts through prayer. I believe that one way succeeds best when supported by the other; we can learn how to walk a Christian life from His Word, but with prayer, we learn specifically how to walk OUR Christian life He has for us.. And likewise, we can learn what God has for us to do, and with the foundation of scripture, we can carry the mantle that He has for us.

 

Questions to consider:  God often prepares us for something we will experience in our life by preparing us through a teaching in scripture. Can you think of a circumstance in your life where you have experienced this?

 

Prayer point 2: How can we bear fruit in good works and increase in knowledge of God? Fruit bearing comes through time with our Abba Father because He is the fruit producer. When we spend time with Him, He is the agent of change. As we yield to His working in us, we grow in His likeness. Fruit in good works begins with fruit in us. In scripture, we are reminded that we are the means by which the world learns about Jesus, but it is Jesus who prepares the way for our work to produce fruit. It is Jesus who touches each person’s heart, convicts them of their sin, and offers them redemptive healing. It is Jesus who grows their faith just as He grows ours.

 

Questions to consider: Is there a fruit that you have seen manifest and grow in you from spending time with the Lord?

 

Prayer point 3: How can we be strengthened with the Lord’s power in endurance, patience, and yet through it all, remain joyful? Through an intimate relationship with our Lord and Savior. Each moment of every day as we encounter life in this world, we have a choice to trust and follow the Spirit or resort to what we have always done-figuring it out on our own. I wish there were a special secret or formula to impart on how this is done; there is not. It is given by the grace of God, as we depend on and trust more in Him.

 

For me, the process started when I began to trust that God had only good for me. James 1:2-4 provides a good example of seeing God’s goodness that results from painful trials. “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Paul provides another example when he says in Romans 5:3-5, “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

 

God is not the author of my trials but He allows them to grow me into the image of His Son. 1 John 5:19 says, “We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” When I fixed my mind on Romans 8:28-29 which says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” I stopped asking, “Lord, why am I going through this trial?” and started asking, “Lord, what are you trying to teach me, what do you want me to learn?”

 

There are not sufficient words in the English language to express the joy in knowing that the God who created the heavens, the earth and all that is in it, cares so much for me that He chooses to take the trials that life here on earth in the enemy’s domain, and uses them for my good, to teach and strengthen me.

 

Questions to consider: Have you experienced God’s goodness through a trial? When you look back, how did that change you?

 

Prayer point 4: how do we give thanks to the Father, always remembering what He did by sending Jesus to the cross for us – paying the ransom to satan, forgiving our sins, and redeeming us from satan’s kingdom into God’s kingdom? There are many wonderful ways that individually and as a church we may do this. Jesus gave us one, and in churches, this one is seen most often – Holy Communion also called the Lord’s Supper. As we drink the juice and eat the bread, we are asked to remember what He did for us with thanks, with celebration. Yes, it is a time also to consider anything we are holding onto that is not of His character in us, and we release that to Him. But the purpose is to stop and remember the gift of life that came through His death. Not just His death, but all that happened because of His death. The amazingly generous, gracious and merciful gift that God gave us; that ALL we have to do to be transported from the Kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of light and have eternal life is to “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead”. NOTHING ELSE. My goodness, can you think of anything here on earth that works that way? It deserves our focus, our pause, our contemplation of all that it means for us.

 

Questions to consider: What are ways that you give thanks and celebrate the Lord’s redemption of you?