Colossians 1:1-14 (Wednesday Evening Bible Study

Colossians 1:1-14

• Colossians 1:1-2
• Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother: 2 To the saints in Christ at Colossae, who are faithful brothers and sisters. Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
  • Dedicated Christians cannot write a single sentence without making clear the great beliefs which underlie all their thinking. Paul had never actually been in Colossae, and so he has to begin by making clear what right he has to send a letter to the Colossians
  • He does that in one word; he is an apostle. The word apostolos literally means one who is sent out
  • Paul’s right to speak is that he has been sent out by Bod to be His ambassador to the Gentiles. Moreover, he is an apostle by the will of God. That position is not something which he has earned or achieved; it is something which has been given to him by God. Here, at the outset of the letter, is the whole doctrine of grace. We are not what we have made ourselves, but what God has made us
  • With himself, Paul links Timothy; and he gives him a great title. He calls him our brother, a title which is given to Quartus (Romans 16:23), to Sosthenes (I Corinthians 1:1), and to Apollos (I Corinthians 16:12). The fundamental necessity for Christian service and for Christian responsibility is fellowship and goodwill to others
    • The first requirement of Christian service is the ability to get along with all kinds of people. Timothy is described not as a preacher, a teacher, a theologian, or an administrator, but as our brother. Anyone who stands detached from others can never a real servant of Jesus Christ
  • Another interesting and significant fact is that this opening address is to God’s dedicated people and to the faithful brothers and sisters in Colossae
    • In the matter of opening addresses, Paul’s practice changed. In his earlier letters, he always addressed the letter to the church; I and II Thessalonians, I and II Corinthians, and Galatians are all addressed to the church of the district to which they are sent
    • But beginning with Romans, his letters are all addressed to God’s dedicated people in such and such a place. It is so in Romans, Colossians, Philippians, and Ephesians
    • As Paul grew older, he came more and more to see that what matters is individual people. The Church is not a kind of abstract body; it is individual men, women, and children. As the years wen on, Paul began to see the Church in terms of individuals, hence this style of greeting
  • The opening greeting closes with a most significant placing of two things side by side
    • He writes to the Christians who are in Colossae and who are in Christ
      • Christians always move in two spheres. They are in a certain place in this world, but they are also in Christ. They live in two dimensions. They live in this world, whose duties they do not treat lightly; but above and beyond that they live in Christ
      • In this world, they may move from place to place; but wherever they are, they are in Christ. That is why outward circumstances make little difference to Christians; their peace and their joy are not dependent on them
      • That is why they will do any job wholeheartedly. It may be menial, unpleasant, or painful; it may be a job far less distinguished than they might expect to have; its rewards may be small and its praise non-existent; nevertheless, Christians will do any job diligently, cheerfully, and without complaint, for they are in Christ and do all things as if they do them for the Lord
      • We are all in our own Colossae; but we are all in Christ, and it is Christ who sets the tone of our living
• Colossians 1:3-8
• 3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints 5 because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and came to truly appreciate God’s grace. 7 You learned this from Epaphras, our dearly loved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 and he has told us about your love in the Spirit.
  • Here we are presented with the essence of the Christian life. The fact which delights Paul’s heart and for which he gives God thanks is that he has been told that the Colossians are showing tow great qualities in their lives, faith in Christ and love for they neighbors
  • These are the two sides of the Christian life. Christians must have faith; they must know what they believe. But they must also have love for others; they must turn that belief into action. It is not enough simply to have faith, for there can be an orthodoxy which knows no love. It is not enough only to have love for others, for without real belief that love can become mere sentimentality
  • Christians have a double commitment—they are committed to Jesus, and they are committed to other people. Faith in Christ and love shown to others are the twin pillars of the Christian life
  • That faith and that love depend on the hope that is laid up in heave. What exactly does Paul mean? Is he asking the Colossians to show faith in Christ and love for others only for the hope of some reward that is going to come to them some day? There is something deeper than that here
  • Loyalty to Christ may involve us in all kinds of loss, pain, and  suffering. There may be many things to which we have to say goodbye. They way of love may seem to many to be the way of a fool. Why spend life in selfless service? Why not use it to achieve personal gain by the worlds’ standards? The answer is because of the hope that is set before us
  • The Christian hope is that God’s way is the best way and that the only real peace, joy, and true and lasting reward are to be found in it. Loyalty to Christ may bring trouble here—but that is not the last word. The world may laugh contemptuously at the folly of the way of love—but the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom. The Christian hope is the confidence that it is better to stake one’s life on God than to believe the world
  • The Essence of the Gospel
    • Verses 6-8 are a kind of summary of what the gossip is and does. Paul has much to say about the hope which had already come to the Colossians, to which they have already listened and which they have already accepted
    • The gospel is good news of God
      • Its message is of God who is a friend and lover of the souls of men and women. First and foremost, the gospel sets us in a right relationship with God
    • The gospel is truth
      • All previous religions could be entitled “Guesses about God”. The Christian gospel gives us not guests but certainties about God
    • The gospel is universal
      • It is for all the world. It is not confined to any one race or nation, nor to any one class or social status. Very few things in this world are open to absolutely everyone. The message of the gospel is is open to everyone without exception
    • The gospel is productive
      • It bears fruit and increases. It is the plain fact of history and experience that the gospel has power to change individuals and the society in which they live. It can change sinners into good men and women and can slowly take the selfishness and the cruelty out of society so that all its members may have the chance that God would wish them to have
    • The gospel tells of grace
      • It is not so much the message of what God demands as of what He offers. It tells not so much of His demand from us as of His gift to us
    • Thee gospel is humanly transmitted
      • It was Epaphras who brought it to the Colossians. There must be a human channel through which the gospel can be communicated. And this is where we come in. The possession of the good news of the gospel involves the obligation to share it. That which is divinely given must be humanly passed on. Jesus needs us to be the hands, feet, and lips which will bring His gospel to those who have never heard it
• Colossians 1:9-11
• 9 For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully
  • It is a very precious thing to hear the prayers of a saint for friends; and that is what we hear in this passage. It may well be said that this passage teaches us more about the essence of prayer’s request than almost any other in the NT
  • From it we learn that prayer makes tow great requests. It asks for understanding and insight into God’s will and then for the power to perform that will
    • Prayer begins by asking that we may b filled with an ever-growing knowledge of the will of God. Its great purpose is to know the will of God. We are trying not so much to make God listen to us as to make ourselves listen to Him; we are trying not to persuade God to dow what we want but to find out what He wants us to do. It so often happens that in prayer we’re trying to change the will of God  instead of saying “Your will be done”. The first object of prayer is not so much to speak to God as to listen to Him
    • This knowledge of God must be translated into our human situation. We pray for spiritual wisdom and understanding. The Greek word for spiritual wisdom could be described as knowledge of first principles. The Greek for understanding is what the Greeks sometimes described as critical knowledge, meaning the ability to apply first principles to any given situation which may arise in life.
      • So when Paul prays that his friends may have wisdom and understanding, he is praying that they may understand the great truths of Christianity and may be able to apply them to the tasks and decisions which meet them in everyday living. It is possible to be an expert in theology and a failure in living, to be able to write and talk about the eternal truths and yet helpless in applying them to the things which meet us every day. Christians must know what Christianity means not in a vacuum but in the business of living
    • This knowledge of God’s will and this wisdom and understanding must result in right conduct.
      • Paul prays that his friends may conduct themselves in such a way as to please God. There is nothing in this world as practical as prayer. It is not escape from reality. Prayer and action go hand in hand. We pray not in order to escape life but in order to be better able to meet it
    • To do this, we need power. Therefore, Paul prays that his friends may be strengthened with the power of God
      • The great problem in life is not to know what to do but to do it. For the most part, we are well aware in any given situation of what we ought to do; our problem is to put that knowledge into action. What we need is power—and that we receive in prayer. If God merely old us what His will was, that might well be a frustrating situation; but He not only tells us His will, he also enables us to perform it. Through prayer, we reach the greatest gift in all the world—knowledge plus power
  • The Three Great Gifts
    • What we might call the asking part of Paul’s prayer ends with a prayer for three great qualities. He prays that his Colossian friends may have great endurance, patience, and joy
    • Endurance and patience are two Greek words which often go together. Fortitude is hupomone, and patience is makrothumia. There is a distinction between these two words. It would not be true to say that Greek always rigidly observes this distinction; but it is there when the words occur together
      • Hupomone (Endurance) does not mean patience in the sense of bowing our heads and letting the tide of events flow over us. It  means not only the ability to bear things but the ability, in bearing them, to turn them into glory. It is a conquering patience. Hupomone is the ability to deal triumphantly with anything that life can do to us
      • Makrothumia (Patience) has a basic meaning of patience with people. It is the quality of mind and heart which enables us to cope with people in such a way that their unpleasantness, malice, and cruelty will never drive us to bitterness, that their folly will never drives us to irritation, and that their unloveliness will never alter our love. Makrothumia is the spirit which never loses patience with, belief in, and hope for others
      • So Paul prays for endurance which no situation can defeat and the patience which no person can defeat. He prays that Christians may be such  that no circumstances will defeat their strength and no human being will defeat their love. Their endurance in events and patience with people must be indestructible
      • Added to all this, there is joy. The Christian way is not a grim struggle with events and with people; it is an radiant and sunny-hearted attitude to life. The Christian joy is joy in any circumstances. It is easy to be joyful when things go well; but Christian radiance is something which all the shadows of life can never quench
  • So the Christian prayer is: Lord, make me victorious over every circumstance; make me patient with every person; and give me the joy which no circumstance and no one will ever take from me
• Colossians 1:12-14
• 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. 14 In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
  • Paul turns to grateful thanksgiving for the benefits which Christians have received in Christ. There are two key ideas here
    • God has given to the Colossians a share in the inheritance of God’s dedicated people
      • There is in this whole passage a very close correspondence with Paul’s words in Acts 26:18:  “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’”
      • The first privilege is that there has been given to the Gentiles a share in the inheritance of the chosen people of God. The Jews had always been God’s chosen people, but now the door has been opened to all people of every race
  • The second key idea lies in the phrase “transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves”
    • The word which Paul uses for transferred in the Greek is a word with a special use. In the ancient world, when one empire won a victory over another, it was the custom to take the population of the defeated country and transfer every man, woman, and child to the conqueror’s land. Thus the people of the north kingdom were taken away to Assyria, and the people of the southern kingdom were taken away to Babylon. So Paul says that God has transferred the Christians to His own kingdom.
    • That was not only a transference but a rescue, and it meant four special things
      • It meant a transference from dearness to light
        • Without God, people hesitate and stumble as if walking in the dark. They do not know what to do; they do not know where they are going. Life is lived in the shadows of doubt and in the darkness of ignorance
        • When Thomas Blimey, the 16th century martyr, read that Jesus came into the world to save sinners, he said that it was like the dawn breaking on a dark night. In Jesus, God has given us a light by which to live and by which to die
      • It meant a transference from slavery to freedom
        • It was redemption, and that was the word used fro the liberation of a slave and for the buying back of something which was in the power of someone else. Without God, we are slaves to our fears, to our sins, and to our own helplessness. In Jesus there is liberation
      • It meant a transference from condemnation to forgiveness
        • Human beings in their sin deserve nothing but the condemnation of God; but through the work of Jesus they discover God’s love and forgiveness. We know now that we are no longer condemned criminals at God’s judgement seat but lost sons and daughters for whom the way home is always open
      • It meant a transference from the power of Satan to the power of God
        • Through Jesus, we are librated from the grip of Satan and are able to become citizens of the kingdom of God. Just as an earthly conqueror transferred the citizens of the land he had conquered to a new land, so God in His triumphant love transfers us from the realm of sin and darkness into the realm of holiness and light