Colossians 1
1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
3We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints- 5the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel 6that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth. 7You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8and who also told us of your love in the
Spirit.
1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
3We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints- 5the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel 6that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth. 7You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8and who also told us of your love in the
Spirit.
9For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
During our Staff Meeting this morning, we read through Colossians 1:1-14. As we discussed this passage, here are some of the themes we identified:
- Faith, hope, love
- Comes through the Gospel, through Jesus
- Reminder of how their lives changed when they heard the Gospel
- Reminder of the importance of praying for people
- And for praying for God’s will and the production of fruit
- Having endurance and patience
- Sharing in God’s inheritance
- Redemption and forgiveness
- About the way we should be praying for people in ministry
- Confident of the hope of what God has reserved for us in heaven
- Hope in the future that comes from God’s promise
- Because we live to honor the Lord we live in kindness – kindnesscomes through faith in God
- Gospel spreads through people – reaching out to other people
- Some people hear, but don't understand
- Paul understands God's grace
- We needed rescuing though we did not know it
The faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for us (believers) in heaven really stood out to me personally. Because of loss of family, friends, health and lives, people desperately need to know that there is hope in an afterlife where mourning, crying and pain will be extinguished forever. Pain, grief and death are a given in this life, regardless of whether one is a Christian or not. It's the belief in Jesus's promises that has given me the hope that I'll see my mother, sister and friends who died in heaven. That will be a day of rejoicing and festivities and, knowing this, my faith and love increase all the more for others who desperately need to know and embrace the truth of the gospel.
ReplyDeleteAmen to all of that - Angie, you said it well!!
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