Colossians 1

Colossians Chapter 1

Verse-by-Verse Commentary

Colossians is the least quoted letter of the Apostle Paul. Luther and the Reformation gave Romans and Galatians attention, resulting in millions of books, articles, sermons, and testimonies. Colossians waits in the wings as the lesser-known Epistle for many believers. Colossians is a companion book for Ephesians; the two should be studied together.

A Letter Written by the Will of God

Colossians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 1:2 To God’s holy people [saints] in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father. NIV

1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 1:2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossae. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. NKJV

Paul Shares Authorship with Others

Paul practiced team leadership. Even as an Apostle, he could have stood alone, asserting his authority and permitting no rivals. Instead, in his letter to the Colossians, he partnered with Timothy, who assisted him in its composition. Timothy stood beside Paul as this letter was written by the will of God. God used two men—Paul and Timothy—to write this letter, and Paul was pleased to acknowledge it. We will discuss Paul’s team leadership further in this chapter.

• Letters written with Timothy: Colossians, Philippians, 2 Corinthians, and Philemon. 

• Letters written with Sosthenes: 1 Corinthians.

• Letters written with Silas and Timothy:  1 & 2 Thessalonians.

The Will of God

This expression is used 21 times in the New Testament. However, it was not used in the Old Testament in the same way. Paul says that this letter was written under the direction and will of God for all believers. God provided the time and place for this letter to be written, and the content itself was God’s will. This means that the message of the letter carries God’s full approval.

Paul “received” the content of his letters not through education but “by revelation from Jesus Christ” (Gal 1:12). Therefore, the things Paul teaches should be regarded as post-resurrection instruction given through the Spirit.

In the final instruction Jesus gave to His disciples just before His trial and death, He said, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:12,13). The coming of the Spirit of truth refers to the Holy Spirit's arrival at Pentecost and is called “the truth of the gospel” (Gal 2:5,14). It is also called “the truth that is in Jesus” (Eph 4:21), centered on the Son of God. For “the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).

The Spirit blessed the ministries of the disciples and the early believers. The letters of instruction written by Paul, Peter, James, and John are the direct fruit of Pentecost.

The last words that God the Father spoke aloud to the world were: “A voice came from the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him’” (Lk 9:35). It is the Will of God for us to listen to what Paul teaches about the Son of God.

Now Before Your Eyes

Now, before your eyes, is a message from God the Father and His Son, preserved for more than 2,000 years so that we may be blessed by it each day. This letter carries its own authenticity to each reader, not because of religious authority or the endorsement of highly esteemed scholars. You and I, along with billions of readers throughout history, can know within ourselves that the content of this letter comes from God, the “everlasting God” (Isa 40:28).

God directed Paul to write the book of Colossians, and God has preserved it for centuries so that we can read it today. This book did not originate from Paul alone, as is evident from the deep respect and devotion millions of readers give to this letter every day.

Would anyone today turn to ancient Roman or Greek literature for spiritual inspiration? Who would place their faith in the Roman god Jupiter? This letter rises above all ancient Roman, Greek, and Egyptian writings. Even today it stands far above all other literature. It is cherished by billions of readers, generation after generation, because God has placed his seal on this letter.

All Believers are Saints

The word "saint" has a simple meaning: it means that a believer has made a personal commitment to be faithful to what Jesus taught. We should never forget that God’s holy people are first and foremost faithful to Jesus.

The word “saint” in Greek means “set apart.” Not the newer meaning we use today, one who has been canonized. “ Saint" was a common term in the Roman world; pagan devotees used it to describe those dedicated and set apart in service to a god or goddess.

To be set apart means to be different from this world; “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). In a general sense, the word “holy” has a practical meaning. It means believers are “God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved [by God]: clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Col 3:12). And lift up “holy hands without anger or disputing” (1 Tim 12:8). But this is only made possible because we are “sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:16). Paul used this word as a general description of believers. The term “saint” later came to be associated with exceptional individuals. Believers today are more commonly called Christians—a term first used in the New Testament in Acts 11:26.

Grace & Peace

These are twin blessings that come from two divine sources, giving them double strength.

Grace Is

 Grace is God’s undeserved favor, seen in His always freely leaning toward us. Reaching out to us because of God’s preeminent kindness in blessing us. To love us, to care for us, and to be Father to us. Grace is like a natural fountain, innate within God Himself; it is inherent in God and directed toward unworthy and unruly sinners. For “all” of us in this world have “sinned” (Rom 3:23), but now we “are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:24).

• "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Eph 2:8.

The last words of the book of Colossians are “Remember my chains. Grace be with you” (Col 4:18). Paul asks the believers in Colossae to remember to pray for him, as he wrote this letter while chained to a Roman Guard. But he does not end the letter by focusing on himself. He uses the term grace to mean “the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people” (Titus 2:11).

 Paul ends the book of Philippians with a similar greeting, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit” (Phil 4:23). Here, grace from God and our Lord Jesus Christ is to be in “our spirit.” This is a place, somewhere inside us, where “the [Holy] Spirit himself testifies with our [human] spirit that we are God’s children” (Rom 8:16)!

Peace From God

This peace has unique attributes; it is called “the peace of God” (Phil 4:7). It is a gift from God. Paul describes this unique gift as transcending “all understanding” and as one that “will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:7). It protects us when we face anxiety and depression, helping us rise above them more quickly.

This peace, sourced from God, can’t be explained on paper or in words. Because it is a Divine Influence that creates peace not of human origin.

Peace from the Spirit of God

Peace is a state of inner harmony, rooted in the “body temple” and sustained by the presence of the “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5:22). When we lose this peace, its absence creates a feeling of spiritual discomfort.

The Spirit sends peace to dwell in us and with us wherever we go. For “the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom 8:6), for “For the kingdom of God is… righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17). God, at creation, “fashioned us for the very purpose” to give “us the Spirit” (2 Cor 5:5), so He sowed in our lives room for the Spirit. So that the “God of peace, sanctify you through and through” (1 Thess 5:23), so that “Grace and peace be yours in abundance” (1 Pet 1:2).

This heavenly peace that is God-given through “His Spirit” (Phil 3:3) will “guard” our hearts and minds “in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:7). The loss of peace warns us to stop and pray for direction and discernment, or confession of something in your life that is numbing you spiritually. Peace is the guard of our hearts, spiritually alerting us when false steps have been taken. Peace comes from the “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6), made available to us because we “are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Eph 2:22).

This precious gift is something that unbelievers do not have in the same manner as believers: “There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked” (Isa 57:21). 

Paul’s First Prayer of Thanksgiving

Colossians 1:3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 1:4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people. NIV

1:3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 1:4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints. NKJV

This is Paul’s pastoral prayer of thanksgiving. Why is Paul so thankful to God? Because he sees their faith in Jesus and their love for one another. Many Christians today have religion and faith in God, but don’t have enough love for others.

“God’s holy people” (Col 1:2) are those who have Faith in Christ Jesus and love for all God’s people, believers everywhere they may be. Their faith produced a big-hearted love that extended beyond their own families and communities, reaching across the Empire.

The Apostle John said, “Dear friends, since God SO loved us, we also OUGHT TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER [ALWAYS]. No one has ever seen God; but IF we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:11).

Genuine faith is always united with love. These two belong together and shine more brightly when joined than when standing alone. They should be considered primary doctrines of the church and among the most important themes taught regularly. Paul’s final greeting to the Ephesians was: “Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love” (Eph 6:23,24).

Later in Colossians, Paul says that his “goal” for believers was for them to be “knit together in love” (Col 2:2). The image of knitting refers to repairing a tear in a garment by carefully rejoining the threads. In the same way, when division occurs in the church, love seeks ways to restore unity and knit believers together again through faith in Christ, with a “pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Tim 1:5).

Paul is Very Proud of Them

To the Ephesians, Paul proudly said, “Ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers” (Eph 1:15,16). Paul was deeply thankful for the Ephesian believers’ strong faith in Jesus and their love that was not self-centered but extended to all believers in Christ.

Again, in the third chapter of Ephesians, Paul returns to this same theme. In his longest recorded prayer, he encourages believers to let “Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, and I pray that you, being rooted and established in love…” (Eph 3:17).

Thinking of the Christian life in terms of a Roman soldier, Paul says believers are to put “on faith and love as a breastplate” (1 Thess 5:8), through which they can withstand spiritual attack and “extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Eph 6:16).

Colossians 1:5 The faith and love that springs from the hope stored [reserved] up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel. NIV

1:5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel. NKJV

1:5 Your faith and love have arisen from the hope laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel. NET Bible

The Text

According to the NET Bible, “Col 1:3–8 form one long sentence in the Greek text.” For this reason, translators of the NIV have added the phrase “the faith and love that springs” to maintain the context of the larger sentence in Col. 1:4, which speaks “about faith in Jesus and love for all God’s people.”

Faith in Christ and love for all others who also love Christ (1:4)

The Greek word for stored up is apokeimai, meaning “to be reserved, to be laid up, or to be stored away.” It is guarded by God Himself and kept safe so that it cannot be lost.

What is stored up? Your faith in Jesus and your love for all those whom God loves. This is the treasure you learned from the gospel, which guarantees you a place in heaven. Hope sees it there already.

The Absolute Truth
Dear friends, let us love one another,
for love comes from God. Everyone [all] who loves has been born of God
and knows God [personally]. 1 John 4:7

The Opposite of the Truth
Whoever does not love [God & others] does not know God [at all],
because GOD IS LOVE. 1 John 4:8 NIV

Love for all of the members of a Christian congregation is not common today. Oftentimes, the church is just full of factions and divisions in theology; liberals and conservatives in religious practice do not create a loving atmosphere. Try to find a congregation that keeps faith in Jesus and love for others central in every service. For in such groups, the gospel is understood, and hope is implanted inside us, making God’s promise of eternal life real in our minds and conscience, like other things in life.

The True Message of Gospel Gives us Hope

Hope sees that you are qualified “to share in the inheritance…in the kingdom of light” (Col 1:12). It is stored up, meaning God has laid it up in heaven’s storage.

In fact, it is already yours, though not yet fully received. Perhaps God has already written your “new name” (Rev 2:17; 3:12) and prepared the title to your inheritance. Hope sees it there as real and certain. However, hope remains alive as we continue to live in “faith in Christ Jesus” and “love…for all God’s people” (Col 1:3). This is the foundation of hope. Through these realities, we know that our inheritance awaits us in heaven.

Paul says, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people” (Eph 1:18). Hope sees our inheritance, which consists of countless responsibilities and activities in eternal life, all stored safely in the presence of God. It is as if your new name is already attached to this precious document, waiting to be handed to you. Can you see it?

Into—an Inheritance

Both Paul and Peter describe the same truth: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3,4).

Being “Born Again” (John 3:3,6) by the Spirit into living hope, based on the resurrection of Jesus, leads to receiving an inheritance. What a simple and wonderful truth. Both of these realities are the result of God’s direct action. God Himself works through “His Spirit who lives in you” (Rom 8:11).

Through this Spirit, God takes up residence in “our spirit” (Rom 8:16), so that we become “a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Eph 2:22). This Spirit is the Holy Spirit.

Through this marvelous arrangement, we are no longer unclean or incompatible with His holiness. Even more, God takes another gracious step on our behalf. Though we do not deserve it, we “are shielded by God’s power” (1 Pet 1:5). What God owns, He protects. This produces a vibrant and living hope—our assurance that God’s promises are real and trustworthy as we experience His blessings in our lives.

An Inheritance Unimaginable

This inheritance is beyond anything we could imagine on earth. Could we somehow earn the right to receive it? No, because God “chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4). We believe in the Son of God, to whom God has promised to give “eternal life” (John 3:16).

Christ Himself is God’s “indescribable gift!” given to us “because of the surpassing grace God has given you” (2 Cor 9:14,15). God was under no obligation toward us except His own desire to show grace—His favor, His blessings, His gifts in our lives today, His inheritance, His Holy Spirit, His faithfulness, and His “lovingkindness and tender mercies” (Ps 103:4 NKJV).

Hope looks to and sees the future promise of God

In Ephesians 1:18, Paul links the words “hope” and “call.” Hope looks toward the future—toward becoming members of God’s family in heaven. You begin to see and feel the vast inheritance God has called you to receive. Your heart longs for it, and your eyes envision it as a reality to come.

Together, your “heart” and the “eyes” (Eph 1:18) are focused there with anticipation. This hope is described in Scripture as:

“Living Hope” (1 Pet 1:3)
“Blessed hope” (Titus 2:13)
“Hope that is sure” (Heb 6:11)

This gives us confidence that we truly are God’s children and that His hands are guiding us toward a certain and “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13). We are called to a destiny where “the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isa 35:10; 51:11 NKJV).

• "Before they call I will answer while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
  and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord."  Isa 65:24,25

How Little Do We Know

How little we truly know of the blessings God has prepared. What do we really understand about heavenly joy and the warmth of enduring love, never mixed with disappointment, separation, or loneliness? Yet we know that we will soon possess our inheritance. Because of this certainty, we live differently here on earth. Heavenly citizens make the greatest difference on earth.

• “Giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light” Col 1:12 NIV

Hope is sensitive to unbelief. When we neglect prayer or fail to spend time in the Scriptures, hope’s vision of heaven becomes dim. Hope is a precious gift that comes through the gospel. Nothing compares to it—you cannot buy it or receive it from another person. It comes through “truly understanding God’s grace” (Col 1:6).

True message of the gospel

The Gospel is the Word of Truth to the world. All other philosophies offer no inheritance from God. The true inheritance comes through “faith in Christ Jesus” (Col 1:4), expressed through love.

The Gospel is About God’s Grace

Colossians 1:6 [The true message of the gospel, 1:5] that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it [the gospel] and truly understood God’s grace. NIV

1:6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth. NKJV

Gospel Given to the Whole World

The last time we see all the disciples together is just after Pentecost. “Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd…” (Acts 2:14). From that point forward, they scattered throughout the Roman World, and we hear nothing from most of them. In Jerusalem we continue to see Peter, James, and John, but nothing is reported about the other Apostles.

They dispersed throughout the world, carrying new languages received at Pentecost. It is reasonable to believe that news of their missionary journeys eventually reached Jerusalem. Because of this widespread activity, Paul could say that the gospel was growing throughout the whole world.

As Paul and his teams traveled across the Roman Empire, they would likely have heard reports about the work of the other Apostles, as well as the missionaries sent out from among Paul’s own converts. The Gospel spread rapidly throughout the known Roman world—which, for many people of that time, represented the entire world.

The Gospel is Bearing Fruit and Growing

The first step toward fruitfulness is understanding God’s wonderful grace as revealed in the gospel. This grace is described as “God’s abundant provision of grace” (Rom 5:17) and “the surpassing grace God has given you” (2 Cor 9:14).

Of all the qualities of God that believers treasure most, grace stands foremost. Why should God—the just Judge of humanity—choose not to deal with us only in strict justice, but instead give us His favor, His blessing, His peace, and His love through the gift of grace? This truth is almost beyond comprehension.

In Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders, he said, “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance” (Acts 20:32). The ultimate purpose of grace is that God will lead us through faith in His Son into His heavenly kingdom with eternal life.

Scripture speaks of “grace in place of grace already given” (John 1:16). Grace is poured out upon us again and again, even though we are fallen and rebellious human beings—often weak, uncertain, and prone to doubt. Any divine being with less grace might grow impatient with our distractions, indecision, and wandering hearts.

Instead, we should give God the glory He deserves for continually extending grace across the earth. Every day, in every place around the world, believers who were once lost in greed, lust, and the “pride of life” (1 John 2:16) are now recipients of His grace. The face of grace, seen in God Himself, is not quick to anger—though by human standards we might think He has every reason to be angry. Grace is stronger, vastly stronger than God’s anger and judgment.

Really, Truly Understand God’s Grace

Grace is God’s favor springing from His Love, which is the core of His being. God is many unimaginable things, but love is one thing that is consistently present in all His actions: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Grace is a description of love, for without love there could be no true grace, tolerance, or patience toward the unworthy and ungodly.

Grace is forgiveness, even for our sins we have not yet recognized and confessed.

Grace is God’s kindness expressed in countless ways we cannot fully measure.

Grace is seen in the many blessings God gives us, with a personal touch considering our needs, though we do not deserve them.

God’s love flowing from His grace is living and dynamic, as active as the beating of our hearts, filling us with thankfulness and praise.

God’s grace is not static. It is living, renewing, and powerfully at work within our lives. At times we encounter the “grace of God” in unexpected ways, suddenly becoming aware of His “lovingkindness and tender mercies” (Ps 103) in ways we had never noticed before.

• “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.”  Titus 2:11

• “When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.” Acts 11:23

• “When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.” Acts 13:43

Believers today are receivers of God’s gifts—His grace and His love. His profound love moves us, shakes us, inspires us, and refocuses our lives. It is called “God’s abundant provision of grace” (Rom 5:17), when “sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Rom 5:20)

Grace is also extended to unbelievers as a means through which God awakens faith. It is designed to influence each person individually.

God’s grace stands at the foundation of the gospel and forms the center of its appeal to all humanity, wherever faith in God is freely expressed.

Once God’s grace has been truly understood, believers never want to be separated from it. God’s grace and mercy become our anchor, our hope, our joy, and our assurance that we are loved by God. When God’s grace, mercy, and love are truly understood, genuine worship follows. These are the people “who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil 3:3).

The grace given to us is equal to God’s gift of sending His Son. “Grace has been given according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (Eph 4:7 NKJV). That measure is immeasurable—it is as vast as the Father’s love for His Son. When we are brought by faith in Christ, we are brought near to the place where God’s love is revealed, beside His Son. Thus, “in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace [toward the redeemed], expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:7).

How do we describe God’s grace that is given to each believer?

• Grace is too broad, too all-encompassing, too varied, too rich to completely define it.

• Grace is too vibrant to measure, too powerful to be contained in one location only.

• Grace is too heavy with blessings that no scale could weigh them, as God dispenses it.

• Grace is God’s love to us when we have been unloving to Him and others.

• Grace is forgiving, not just for our honest mistakes, but our rebellious ones, our evil ones.

• Grace counts us worthy and righteous when we are not, and we know it.

• Grace is not static, not like a Christmas gift; it is dynamic and explosive. 

• Grace is pregnant with potential; it sees our future, when currently we are really a mess.

• Grace has an unusual ability to see what needs to be done to transform our current dismal state.

• Grace is like a mother that loves her growing child, even after discipline is needed.

• Grace is another name for God the Father; if it weren’t, then grace would not be so real and alive.

• Grace is holy because it comes from the person of God; it’s his possession

• Grace is God’s gift that He freely gives us, as part of Himself.

• Grace is God’s eyes on us, looking for what good His grace can do for us, even as we lean away.

• Grace is intangible, as “God” Himself “is spirit” (Jn 4:24); it can’t be photographed but can be known.

• Grace is too much, too much for us ever to comprehend or understand in its fullness.

• Grace is directly from out of the world; it is the only means to bring us into eternity.

• Grace is the best, the greatest, the most sacred, and the longest of anything that has lived on earth.

• Grace is designed by God to be very personal, very uplifting of the inner human spirit.

• Grace is God’s undeserved favor, seen in always freely leaning toward us.

• Grace is God reaching out to us because of His pre-eminent kindness to bless us.

• Grace is God’s love directed toward unworthy and unruly sinners.

• Grace is God’s desire to be Father to us, to care for us and make his “home” (Jn 14:23) with us.

• Grace is available in China, Asia, Mexico, the tropics, and deserts; all receive the “riches of God’s grace”

• Grace is from God, so huge, like the life of the Father Himself; it's unlimited, unmeasured.

• “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (Col 1:7).

• “This grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ” (Col 3:8).

• “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ” Rom 1:7

• For “all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Rom 3:24

Colossians 1:7 You learned [“understood God’s grace” 1:6] it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf [Paul and his team], NIV

1:7 As you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. NKJV

Epaphras

 Epaphras was a native of Colossae in Asia Minor. Converted under the ministry of Paul—perhaps during Paul’s lengthy stay in Ephesus (Acts 19:9–10). He returned home as an evangelist, shepherd, and pastor.

Dear Fellow Servant

 The Roman-Greek idea of a fellow servant meant belonging to the same master. Paul did not write of Epaphras as belonging to a lower religious status than Paul, the Archbishop. Paul regarded himself as being of equal status before God. The idea of ranks in ministry, with some as president or Bishop, was unknown in the early church. There was no New Testament reference to Peter holding the place of Pope. Peter claimed nothing higher than: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:1). Being an Apostle is special because they were chosen by Jesus, but Peter was one among a group of twelve.  

Paul had many co-workers, whom he often referred to in the plural as we. Speaking for the whole team, Paul said, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you” (Col 1:3). To Paul’s friends, he wrote: “Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again” (1 Thess 3:10).

This clearly illustrates Paul's servant leadership style, as he approves and recommends other workers alongside himself. This management style was what Jesus had taught His disciples: “Jesus called the Twelve and said, 'Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all'” (Mark 9:35).

A Cloud of Witnesses

The names of some of Paul’s co-workers were Barnabas, Silas (also called Sylvanus), Timothy, Titus, Luke, Aquila, Priscilla, Aristarchus, Mark, Epaphroditus, Apollos, Tychicus, Philemon, Epaphras, Demas, Gaius, Lydia, Phoebe, Tryphaena, Tryphosa, and Prisca. Paul speaks of two women, “Euodia and Syntyche,” who “contended at my side in the cause of the gospel” (Phil 4:2,3). Two of Paul's co-workers were women who worked side by side with him and all of Paul’s co-workers.

Paul did not often solo preach; instead, he surrounded himself with many competent men, women, and young people. Jesus did the same thing when he surrounded himself with a large group, sending out “seventy-two” to teach “two by two” (Lk 10:1). 

The singular form of “Apostle” never occurs in Acts; in the 35 instances in which it appears, it is always plural: “Apostles.” There was no desire to draw attention to one person above another among the early leaders of the Christian Church.  Sadly, today religious leaders are often seen striving for singular attention, to be regarded as greater than other Bible teachers.

Paul Often Closed Letters with plural greetings.

• “Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys” (Rom 16:9).

• “…our brother Timothy” (2 Cor 1:1; Col 1:1; Philemon 1:1).

• “Luke, our dear doctor” (Col. 4:14).

• “Phoebe, our sister who serves also the Church at Cenchreae” (Rom 16:1).

• Paul uses the term “we” nine times in the first chapter of Colossians. In the last chapter, Paul asked the Colossians to “pray for us…so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ” (Col 4:3). 

We would not say that the list Paul has given us of his co-workers is exclusive. There was at least one unnamed individual. Paul had written to the Corinthian believers about collecting an offering for the poor. Paul tells the Corinthian believers that Titus is coming with “much enthusiasm and on his own initiative”. Then Paul writes about an unnamed individual saying, “And we are sending along with him the brother who is praised by all the churches for his service to the gospel. What is more, he was chosen by the churches to accompany us as we carry the offering, which we administer to honor the Lord himself and to show our eagerness to help” (2 Cor 8:16,19).

Paul’s Close Friendship with Titus

 To illustrate more about Paul’s team, he relates how he “went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ” and he “had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So, I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia” (2 Cor 2:12,13), to find Titus.

Even though Paul was teaching at Troas, he had lost his peace of mind. He knew he must cut short his teaching to go on the road to find his friend Titus. It was not revealed to Paul whether Titus was in trouble or in need; what Paul did know was that his peace was troubled by Titus's absence, as Titus was supposed to meet Paul there.

Paul had a very close friendship with his co-workers. They came to depend on each other and keep track of each other. Paul seldom worked solo; most often, he labored in concert with Timothy, Silas, Luke, and other named and unnamed individuals.

Epaphras

 Epaphras was part of the Colossian fellowship, as Paul called him “one of you,” “our dear fellow servant,” and “a faithful minister of Christ” (Col 4:12).

Paul speaks of the day you heard the gospel and reminds them that you learned it from Epaphras. Epaphras traveled to Rome to visit Paul, informing Paul about the Colossians’ “love in the Spirit” (Col 1:8).

Paul gave Epaphras a compliment, affirming that he was “always wrestling in prayer” (Col 4:12) for his fellow believers. Prayer was always on his mind. He prayed with “boldness” and “confidence through faith” (3:12). He was always “working hard” (4:13) in visiting and praying for others. These were spiritual practices he learned from Paul.

Colossians 1:8 and who [Epaphras] also told us of your love in the Spirit. NIV

1:8 who also declared to unto us your love in the Spirit. NKJV

The First Thing

This was the first thing that Epaphras, a local leader, reported to Paul about the condition of the church. He did not tell Paul that tithes were increasing or how many baptisms there were. How many prophecy and evangelism seminars was the church holding?  

But instead, he told Paul that the entire congregation loved one another, made possible by the Holy Spirit's influence. This was most important to Paul.

Love in the Spirit, A Clarification

The Greek word for in, is a preposition, ev. Meaning “in, with, by, or among.” Nearly every Bible translation says, “love in the Spirit.” Some translations say, “love that the Spirit has given you” (GOD’S WORD Translation, 1995). And the Weymouth New Testament (1903) says, “love, which is inspired by the Spirit.”

With the utmost confidence, we can say that the phrase “your love in the Spirit” is an accurate translation. Paul used this same expression, saying, “I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.” (Rom 15:30)

 A Crucial Distinction

Scripture never says, “love for the Spirit,” for there is no Scriptural witness to pray to the Spirit or even to love the Spirit, as we would love God and His Son.

Asking for the Spirit

We are not to even ask the Spirit to come to us personally. Instead, we should only ask God to give us the Spirit. As Jesus taught, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Lk 11:13). This should be our standard approach for seeking the Spirit to be present in our lives.

Praying in Jesus Name

 Jesus taught the disciples to ask the Father for the Spirit on their behalf. “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever” (John 14:16). The Advocate, or helper, is another name for the Spirit. And again, “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me” (John 15:26 NKJV). The second way to ask for the Spirit is to pray in Jesus' name for the Spirit, who comes from His Father.

What is Love in the Spirit?

It is love for what the Spirit does for us, personally and collectively, among us all. The Spirit has so many functions that no matter how hard we might try, we can never list all the important things the Spirit does for us. We think it is impossible.

The most important thing the Spirit does for us is to enable us to love in a more extensive way than we could imagine. For “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom 5:5). From God’s love, given by the Spirit, we receive all kinds of good, pure, truthful, and honorable love. We are to “follow the way of love” (1 Cor 14:1). Through the Spirit, we are trained to love, to shun hatred of others, and to hate evil.

Through the Spirit

• We love like never before, with a growing, glowing, hopeful love.

• We love God.

• We love Scriptures; we love Bible study.

• We love peace.

• We love to forgive.

• We love others, some we never could love before.

• We love to be hospitable.

• We love to be compassionate.

• We love family and pray for them.

• We love what is good.

• We love and appreciate the privileges God has given us as His children.

• We love doing the right thing.

• We love doing good deeds.

• We love being kind.

• We love humility.

• We love to bear one another’s burdens (Gal 6:2).

• We love being truthful and honest.

• We love being faithful to the promises we make to others.

• We love moral purity.

• We love our husbands and wives.

• We love being faithful.

• We love people that God also loves.

• We love nature.

• We love time in prayer and always want more time in prayer.

•  We love to praise God and sing praises, often throughout our day.

• We love to be used by God to share the love we have received from God’s Spirit.

• We love to enjoy “fellowship of the Spirit” (Phil 2:1).

• We love to “walk in the Spirit” (Gal 5:16), all the time.

• We love to “live in the Spirit” (Gal 5:25).

• We love to be “filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:52).

• We love the freedom that the Spirit gives us over our old habits that were selfish and hateful.

• We love not being controlled by our sinful nature, which has before ordered us around, making us slaves to its debased demands. In Galatians chapter five and Romans chapter eight, Paul describes the victory that the Spirit gives over the flesh.

Victory Over the Flesh

In Galatians 5 and Romans 8, Paul describes the victory the Spirit gives over the flesh. “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify [satisfy, carry out, give in to] the desires [impulses] of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary [opposed] to the Spirit, and the Spirit [desires] what is contrary [hostile] to the flesh. They are in conflict [in opposition] with each other, so that you are not [able] to do whatever you [your flesh] want.” (Gal 5:16-17).

The Greek word for gratify means “to complete, to finish, to fulfill, to accomplish, and carry it out,” fulfilling the evil desires of the flesh. The Spirit challenges our flesh and defeats it. The Spirit changes our hearts. 

The Spirit removes unjust, selfish anger toward others. 

The Spirit removes the sexual addictions that have held many in complete bondage to lust, with its twins of adultery and pornography.  

There are so many ways the Spirit sets us free from our own broken self; it would be impossible to describe them all. Those “born of the Spirit” (John 3:6) know what the Spirit has done for them, countless times. They rejoice every time the Spirit’s superior power pushes back the demands of their flesh. It changes their desires and instills inside them a sincere, pure heart. Giving space for love, the antidote to all sin, to grow and grow. And we love it.

Our conflict is not with the Devil, but with the evil within us; our fallen human nature is against God. Our own nature owns us as its property. We are by nature slaves to it.

• “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jer 17:9

• “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Mark 7:21-23

• “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” Rom 7:17-18

God sends us the Spirit to rescue us from the consequences of the evil that rots our hearts, from our fallen emotions and feelings that make us indifferent or antagonistic to God's claims.

Our love in the Spirit, love that comes from the Spirit’s influence, is greater than any power on this earth because the Spirit comes from God our Father. It is the Father’s gift to us.  “Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live” (Rom 8:12,13).

More On Love of the Spirit

• This is a divine love, made available directly from God the Father to us. Eleven times in the New Testament the Spirit is called “the Spirit of God.” And fourteen times in the Old Testament, starting with the second verse in Genesis, where “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Gen 1:2).

• Love in the Spirit encompasses love for God, His Son, and love for others. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God…because God is love” (1 John 4:7,8). Because “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). It is not love for the Spirit, as one would love God.

• Love received from the Spirit influences us day after day.

• Love in the Spirit is a power that moves us, not by our own.

• Love received from the Spirit is not akin to romance. Because it is “the Spirit of holiness” (Rom 1:4). Because we are “sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:16).

• Love in the Spirit is a moving love that motivates individuals for service in the world where selfish and self-centered love predominates.

• Love from the Spirit makes us alive to live out in our lives the “fruits of the Spirit.” Which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal 5:22,23).

• Because of the Spirit’s love moving in us, we easily become good friends to others. It is a protective love of family and neighbors.

• We do not receive the Spirit of love by sermons and preaching. It is received because we are “born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

• Love in the Spirit is an overflowing love. An ever-increasing love that is never meant to be stagnant.

• Love for God and the Spirit creates a warm softening influence that percolates all through the days of our lives. It is the most precious gift, for nowhere else in this world can we receive peace, joy, and love in steady streams running into our lives.

• Through the Spirit we become a dwelling place for God. (Eph 2:22)

• We become God’s temple where God dwells by His Spirit (1 Cor 3:16)

• We are to serve God in the Spirit (Phil 3:3)

• We are to have fellowship in the Spirit (Phil 2:1)

• We are given access to the Father through the Spirit (Eph 2:18)

Love in the Spirit

The Greek preposition for in is “en”, which stands for “in, on, at, by, with, or among”. It denotes a fixed position, inside us.

Jesus told his disciples on the day before his trial: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate [helper] to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth… you know him, for he lives [abides] with you and will be in [ev] you” (John 14:16,17). The Spirit of truth exposes error and highlights truth. The Spirit “will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26).

 The Greek ev is “a primary preposition denoting a fixed position in place, time, or state, which is inside us. For example, it is recorded that “Jesus was born in [ev] Bethlehem in Judea” (Matt 2:1).

The Spirit is to be in us, that is, inside us. The Spirit’s operation is not from the outside but from within us. Because we can’t see the Spirit, we are privileged to sense His presence; through the Spirit, the presence of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, is “God with us” (Matt 1:23).

This heavenly love becomes intertwined with all human activities, coming to live in us by being “Born Again”. John says, “Let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). The Spirit will create an atmosphere, sometimes lively, at other times quiet and devotional. But always, Spirit worship is accompanied by praise and “joyful thanks” (Col 1:12).

The sign of the Spirit’s presence is a call to “love for all God’s people” (Eph 1:4). Without this, worship is “sounding brass or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor 15:1 NKJV).

Can you imagine what kind of worship the Colossian believers experienced when the entire congregation was filled with love in the Spirit? Imagine the close, trusting friendships and mutual care that would exist in the Spirit’s presence. Imagine the united love for God and the gift of His Son being felt inside the hearts of all. Imagine their thirst for Scripture. Imagine an environment where children, young women, and men are safe and nourished with spiritual values. Imagine a group of people who have no fear of rejection or of being made to feel unwanted or unfavored. 

Love in the Spirit

 It is a love made available to us by the Holy Spirit because we are “born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

This is a divine love, creating warm, softening influences in our hearts, not of human origin. It is a God-centered love that percolates through all the days of our lives. It is the most precious gift and treasure that we could possess here on earth. It is golden and silver-lined. This is love that comes to us, in us, and with us from the Spirit. It is not love for the Spirit, as one would love God. It is love for God and others that comes from being in the Spirit.

It is love in the Spirit that connects with others who love God with the “same Spirit” (2 Cor 4:13). John writes: “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us [abides, resides] and His love is made complete in us. This is how we know [for sure] that we live in Him [abide, reside] and He in us: He has given us His Spirit” (1 John 4:12). God’s abiding love in us, by His Spirit, is what makes us a complete human being, “perfect in love” (1 John 4:18).

Signs of the Spirit’s Presence

 The Spirit moves in us like a “wind” (John 3:8), through hearts and emotions. It is beyond the intellect, past human reason. It cannot be controlled by any individual or organization. The Spirit does not come to our demands. When the Spirit does come, it comes on its own terms.

The Spirit’s presence will give us a real sense that something is different in our feelings and our heart's desires, giving us a God-centered love. It touches us like the power of the “wind” (John 3:8), through the human heart and emotions. It is beyond the intellect, past human reason.

The visible “fruits” of the Spirit are love, joy, and peace (Gal 5:22); these are the three sisters of the Spirit. They are the engines that pull the train of the remaining six other fruits of the Spirit—patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal 5:22,23).

A Summary

“Who told us of your Love In The Spirit” Col 1:8

 
This Love in the Spirit does not originate from any human source, brotherly love, or love for family and friends. This Spirit Love is a gift from God, thankfully. Love divine, love sublime, love that is verbally indescribable to another. Spirit Love from God becomes increasingly joined with peace and joy, radiating from inside our human emotions, governing and moving our words, thoughts, and actions toward more kindness everywhere, with continual promptings to spend more personal time in praise and thanksgiving to God our Father.

This Spirit Love must be replenished daily, by devotion to Scripture, by more prayer, and by responding to the Spirit’s high calling to be “blameless and pure” (Phil 2:15). This Spirit Love casts us adrift on the grace and great mercy of God, when we know we are so undeserving. Spirit Love is knowable, for Spirit is connected to our heart, mind, and emotions.

This Spirit Love calls us daily to do good, as often as we are able, and to “find out what pleases the Lord” (Eph 5:10). This Spirit Love dwelling inside us seeds our hearts with a living and growing plant that loves God more, that loves praise songs, with an insatiable, robust desire to know Scriptures. It imparts to us love for those who have hurt us and a thirsting love for more and more of Jesus and the grace and mercy of God. 

This Spirit Love is at the same time bringing rest and peace within us while moving us into deeper repentance and humility. If it doesn’t, it is not genuine! 

This Spirit Love will unsettle us, causing a loss of peace, when we accommodate ourselves to lustful or selfish sins. If these private warnings go unheeded, we will lose the Love of the Spirit and become spiritually dead.

Paul’s Second Prayer for the Colossian Believers

Colossians 1:9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you: We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives [to us], NIV

1:9 For this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual [the spirit] understanding. NKJV

1:9 This is why I have never stopped praying for you since I heard about you. I ask God that you may know what He wants you to do. I ask God to fill you with the wisdom and understanding the Holy Spirit gives. New Life Version

For This Reason

Because of the love they had received from “love in the Spirit” (Col 1:8), Paul asks God to give the Colossians “wisdom and understanding from the Spirit.” Paul sets the example in continual prayer for the church, not for more money, new buildings, more outreach programs, better music, or fine art hanging in the church halls. Instead, Paul sees the need for believers to continually, daily receive more Spirit-given wisdom.

Paul is not thinking about their faults and mistakes, but about the need for a deeper spiritual understanding of God's will for their lives.

To the Philippians, Paul also prayed: “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. Filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Phil 1:9-11).

Not Stopped Praying for You

 Paul had a very active prayer life, as did “Epaphras, who…always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured” (Col 4:12). The expression “fully assured” is at the heart of a joy-centered life of faith in God. We can be assured that today we are living in the “will of God,” and God has “assured” us that this is so.

Paul’s prayer for the church was modeled after Jesus’ prayer: “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours” (John 17:9). When we are “raised with Christ” (3:1), we also belong to God. He becomes our Father; similarly, God was Jesus's Father. God adopts us through His Son, living in us, “Christ in you that hope of glory” (Col 1:27). The glory is to be fully realized at the "resurrection of the just" (Lk 14:13 NKJV).

Praying for You

Jesus set the first example of praying for others. To Peter, just before Jesus was arrested and tried before the Jewish leaders, Jesus said, “I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.” It may appear that Peter’s faith did fail him in his three denials. Jesus added to his prayer, “and when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (Lk 22:32), meaning that Peter will recover from his denials and once again become a strong leader.  

In the true Lord’s Prayer, the final chapter before his arrest, Jesus prays to his Father. In this prayer, he prays for those whom he trained and taught in his life, saying, “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours” (John 17:9). Then Jesus prays for you and me, saying, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message” (John 17:20). If you believe in Jesus from the gospel letters, Jesus is praying for you right now. This is the reason why you do believe: His prayers are answered because we do believe in the “gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God” (Mk 1:1).

Wisdom…That the Spirit Gives

 When the Spirit gives us wisdom, it enhances our sense of right and wrong. It gives active ideas that arise from within our hearts, a sense of direction for where we should go. It may be what should be done for order, safety, and preservation of life and health. The Spirit may urge you to bear “with one another and forgiving each other” (Col 3:3) when someone has lied to you and kept you in darkness. When someone exercises unnecessary or abusive authority over you. 

This Spirit-given wisdom should not be regarded as the voice of God, but as the better part of wisdom, acting more wisely, to the glory of God.

Spirit-given wisdom will give you assurance that the course you are moving in is God's will. The Spirit will give you the wisdom to respond wisely to difficult situations. This Spirit-given wisdom is never at odds with “the Spirit of truth”. It is built up on a growing love of Scripture.

Mothers with several young children. Father’s going to work for the day. The Spirit is there to provide the necessary direction and help make wise decisions. It is important to be “always in prayer” (Rom 1:9), even as the great Apostle Paul was. So that at every turn in our lives, we are privileged to ask God for wisdom and understanding, to know with certainty what to do and how to do it.

Wisdom

 It is connected to knowing God’s will for our lives; this wisdom is given to us so that we can avoid foolish mistakes. It helps us quickly discern what is right or wrong. To see the effect of false beliefs. The Spirit gives us insights and warnings amid the many small decisions we make each day as we look to God in prayer. Paul prays that every believer should have this gift from the Spirit.

Wisdom is associated with self-control, the last of the nine “Fruits of the Spirit” (Gal 5:22). A large portion of self-control is based on wisdom and understanding. It gives us reasons to limit or avoid certain addictive actions. Wisdom from the Spirit offers us solutions that will work for us. This is what it means to be “led by the Spirit” (Rom 8:14; Gal 5:18).

In Paul’s first prayer for the Ephesians, he prayed to “the glorious Father” that the Spirit would give them “wisdom and revelation so that you may know Him better” (Eph 1:17). That “you may know the hope to which He has called you” and, best of all, “the riches” of our “glorious inheritance” (Eph 1:18).

• “Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men.” Pro 2:12

• “I instruct you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths.” Pro 4:11

• “Wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.” Pro 8:11

• “Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning.” Pro 10:13

• “Know also that wisdom is like honey for you.” Pro 24:14

 In Psalm 90, Moses reflects on the meaning of life. He writes that our lives are “like the new grass of the morning: In the morning it springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered” (Ps 90:5-6). In view of the uncertainty of life, we should still pray to God: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Ps 90:12). “Those who trust in themselves are fools, but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe” (Pro 28:16).

Beyond just knowing God's will, we are honored to be filled with the certain and sure knowledge that today you are doing God's will in your present duties. There is confidence in this personal knowledge, which brings peace and awareness of God’s presence.

Being filled means knowing God’s will with the certainty that you are living your life as God has directed you. At home and at work, you have heard the same call that Jesus gave to Levi, “follow me” (Lk 5:27). At the close of his life, in his prayer to His Father, Jesus was glad to say, “While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe” (John 17:12). Knowing the will of God places us under the care of our Savior. This thought gives us immense rest of soul.

This understanding and wisdom are not for sale; they cannot be marketed. What the Spirit gives us cannot be received from any university degree. We don’t receive these twin gifts, wisdom and understanding, from Oxford or Berkeley. Because the condition to receive them is faith and “love in the Spirit” (1:8). God has “lavished on us… the riches of” His “grace” (Eph 1:7,8). It is by grace that we are given a sacred sense of God's will.

What does Paul pray for? 

It is that God will give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.

To have the Spirit of wisdom—this is a spiritual gift of knowing the best path among the many angles and choices we face in life. When to be silent, to speak up, and to understand and teach Scripture as the Spirit gives insights.

When the disciples chose the first church deacons, they wanted “seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom” (Acts 6:3). We should never underestimate the Spirit’s gift of wisdom. It may be that you are given the ways of wisdom to order your life, family, and church affairs. Wisdom means having intelligent clear-sightedness, soundness of spirit, and good sense. Men who will not act with folly or take advantage of their position to enrich themselves. The companion to wisdom is love, without which all wisdom is foolishness. “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom 8:28).

 The Spirit gives the “born again” (John 3:3) believer in Jesus what we could best describe as a wisdom module. It is not the Spirit’s voice, but something instilled in the believer, giving them the skill and understanding to accomplish the task God has given them in their life-calling, with all its obligations. This Spirit-given wisdom never leads to boasting or pride in seeking others' attention. Pride cancels out Spirit-given wisdom. Furthermore, Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount If you “practice your righteousness,” your good judgment, to be praised by others, if you do, “you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Matt 6:1).

What a precious gift is wisdom, the brother of Jesus tells us, in our need, our ignorance, in our folly of many mistakes assures us that “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (James 1:5). This God-given understanding is called “wisdom of the righteous” (Lk 1:17). So that our “faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Cor 2:5).

Understanding

 This gift includes intellectual discernment that arises from the heart. This gift is given individually so that we can know for sure:

• The “true message of the gospel” (Col 1:5)

• Can “truly understand God’s grace” (Col 1:6)

• Understanding how to “live a life worthy of the Lord” (Col 1:10)

• Understanding how to “please our Lord in every way” (Col 1:10)

• “Full riches of complete understanding, to know the mystery of God, namely, Christ: (Col 2:2).

• Understanding how to “set your hearts on things above” (Col 3:1)

• “So that “the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom” (Col 3:16)

• “In purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love” (2 Cor 6:6)

Word of Caution

 We cannot always rely on our conscience as the voice and will of God. Because it is part human and is connected to our environment, education, and, worst of all, our fallen nature, it is never correct. Because there is no one who does good who is by themselves, “not even one” (Rom 3:12). Over time, our conscience becomes educated in the school of Christ, through Scripture and the study of the Gospels and Epistles. The conscience, when softened by the love of God and His compassion for you, becomes a tool believers can use to know God's will. As long as we are in prayer daily and hourly. As long as we are in the Gospels and the letters of the Apostles. As long as we are comfortable “abiding in Christ” (John 15), with “quietness and trust” (Isa 30:15).

We cannot rely on the voices we may hear in our heads that demand or order us to do something, especially when they threaten us. Any threatening or insistent voice in your head is not the way of the Lord. Beware of any test given by a priest, pastor, or prophet that adds duties or additional tests for fellowship among them beyond what Scripture has given us. Be careful, “Watch out that no one deceives you” (Matt 24:4).

When Paul met with the Elders of Ephesus, for the last time, he warned them, saying, “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men [believers] will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30). They substitute new teachings that are in error and not in the Gospels to build a network of followers.

We cannot rely on our feelings to know the will of God; they are often fickle and vain. Yet over time, our feelings become soft and tender, providing insight into God's will through prayer. Yet, feelings should always be considered a secondary reason for action and decision, not a primary one. God has many ways of revealing His will to us, and we will know it when He is leading us.

 The safest way to know the will of God for you is to first have the experience of being born again or “Born of the Spirit” (John 3:6). Having been “made alive in Christ” (Eph 2:5) and “made alive in the Spirit” (1 Pet 3:18). This experience is due to God’s mercy, love, and grace that awakens and regenerates us. It is what God has done for you, not what we have done; not even the smallest part is from man. We are in His hands.

• “Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.” Rom 8:8,9

1:9 We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives [to us].

Colossians 1:10 So that you may [1#] live a life worthy of the Lord and [2#] please him in every way: bearing fruit in [3#] every good work, growing in the [4#] knowledge of God. NIV

1:10 That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. NKJV

1:10 So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. NASU

1:10 That you may walk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God (with fuller, deeper, and clearer insight, acquaintance, and recognition). Amplified Bible, Classic

So That You May

Since you have been “filled” with “the knowledge” of God’s “will” through the “wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives” (Col 1:9)—now you may be able to live a life that pleases God. Wisdom from the Spirit will guide and direct you, even in the small matters of your life. This will make all the difference in the many outcomes and encounters we have in life. The Spirit will never lead us into darkness, but instead into the goodness of the Lord, affirming His will for you.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul says, “I urge [encourage] you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Eph 4:1,2). There is a deep sense of life satisfaction that comes from doing good to others. It brings health and life to us, giving us a healthy glow inside our spirit.

Live a life Worthy

Live a life that reflects the grace and “love” (1 John 3:1) God has placed in us. Like young lovers, they don’t view their marriage license as an obligation; instead, they are eager to express their love in heartwarming ways. We should be eager to please God.

Paul takes a different approach than the Torah of the Old Testament, which commands obedience. “Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee” (Dt 4:40 KJV).

Instead, Paul takes a soft-hearted approach, challenging us to live our lives to honor and please God. Rather than just the command to obey. Since we have been given “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better” (Eph 1:17), believers receive wisdom and willingness from the Spirit.

Through the Spirit, Scriptures are opened to us. We receive a personal understanding or revelation of God's love and goodness. God gives us a strong “desire for goodness” (2 Thess 1:11) to bear fruit in every good work we can in life. We don’t need a commandment to do good; we naturally want to do good to others, if we can. This is made possible by the Spirit given to all believers after Pentecost.

To Please Him

To want to do good for others from the heart pleases God.  We are to “never tire of doing what is good” (2 Thess 3:13). We are to be persevering in doing good. We are “not (to) grow weary of doing good” (2 Thess 3:13). It was remembered that Jesus “He went about doing good” (Acts 10:38) all his life.

• “This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.” Titus 3:8

• “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” Heb10:24

• “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.” Rom 15:1-2

• “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” James 3:17

How simple it is to please God! There is no need for detailed theological statements. No need to be reminded to keep the Ten Commandments, which is a narrow standard. Doing good is a broad standard, for there is no limit to doing good, for “the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth” (Eph 5:9).

This is what pleases God: to be “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Phil 1:11). This is not doing good works to be saved, to rest assured that we have earned God’s favor. Nothing can earn the favor of God, except faith in His Son with repentance at the cross of Christ.

God wants believers who have the Spirit's wisdom to be fruitful, bearing a crop of many good deeds for others. Sharing the gospel, which is full of mercy and love. The magic is in doing good; through the Spirit in our lives, we will increase in the knowledge of God.

• “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does not bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful…This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”John 15:1-2, 8

Doing good, because we are prompted by the gospel story and love for God, gives us pleasure. It does not feel like an obligation; instead, it is a natural impulse to support others in need of comfort, care, and love. It opens our eyes to see where God wants us to do good, and we long to do so. God has placed inside us a sense of pleasure in doing good, which is life-giving.

The opposite is true: when we fail to do the good we know we should be offering to others, we risk falling from grace, because we fail to show grace to others.

When doing good to someone is inconvenient for us or tests our patience. We should repent as soon as we are made aware of our failure. Instead of being upset with others for the inconvenience to our time and money, be thankful for the opportunity to do good. Being patient with others puts us in the category of saints. “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Rev 14:12). Patient people are the saints; they keep God's commands to do good, to love, to show mercy to others, and to forgive.

• “Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Eph 5:20

Bearing Fruit in Every Good Work

Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount to never be abusive, hurtful, mean, unkind, or impatient with others.

“Blessed are those who mourn,

Blessed are the merciful,

Blessed are the peacemakers”

In general, doing good will bear wonderful fruit. It will make our home happy and society a better place. Believers will look to do good. To be fruitful in kindness, wherever they can. We will follow the Golden Rule as taught by Jesus, which does bring fruitfulness into our lives. 

• “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matt 7:12; Lk 6:31

Doing good work parallels the Good News of the gospel. “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness” (Matt 9:35). The gospel brings good things to people and inspires us to do good.

May the Spirit who gives us “All Wisdom” and All “Understanding” equip us with the talents, skills, and abilities—everything we may need — to do good works. That the good “Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (Heb 13:20-21).

 Growing in a Knowledge of God

For us today, this is found in studying Scripture with prayer.  This is the idea of steady, daily walking, learning to “walk by the Spirit” (Gal 5:16) and to walk “in paths of righteousness” (Ps 23:3). Through this, we can experience regeneration and grow in spiritual strength. While under the direction of the Spirit’s “wisdom” (Col 1:9), given freely to us, we will grow in the knowledge of God. Knowledge of God is combined with our faith and trust, as Jesus said, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace” (Luke 7:50). This is the source of lasting fruitfulness, bringing an ever-present longing to know more about God.

Paul sees our life of faith as progressive. Always growing. For a good fruit tree will bear fruit year after year. Always learning more about Jesus, experiencing love, and knowing God's will for you.  As Jesus has taught us, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples” (John 15:8).

This is made possible because it is “God who gives you His Holy Spirit” (1 Thess 4:8), which alone can make us very fruitful. For the Spirit is always fruitful.

• “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Gal 5:22-24 NASU

Colossians 1:11 [We are] being strengthened with all power according to his [God’s] glorious might [strength] so that you may have great endurance and patience [with joy], NIV

1:11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and long suffering with joy NKJV

1:11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of all patience and steadfastness, joyfully NET

The Text

From the preceding verses, Paul prays for the believers to be filled with the “knowledge of God’s will,” which comes from the “Spirit” giving us “wisdom” and “understanding.” Thus, we can live a “life worthy of the Lord”, doing “every good work” for others and looking to “please” God, always, “in every way” (Col 1:9-10). This is made possible because of God’s all-power.

To us is made available a triple power: God’s All-Power, the power of Jesus, who said, “All power in heaven and on earth is given to me” (Matt 28:18 NCV). The third power is the “power of the Spirit” (Lk 4:14), which is also given to us.

God’s Move is First and Foremost of Importance

“In the beginning” (Gen 1:1), God is seen moving first. He is the first cause. God is so far ahead of our needs because “He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy” (Eph 1:4). God offered us “eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time” (Titus 1:2). We cannot ever be ahead of God. We cannot be unseen by God or out of sight. God’s first move is to strengthen us before we even know we need it. God knows we are weak by nature and moves first to give us strength.

What is God’s First Move?

God’s first move is to display to us His all-power, which is not sourced from human strength. It comes from His own glorious strength, from His own self-powered, eternal existence, because He is our “glorious Father” (Eph 1:17). He is the Father of our faith, of salvation from sin, and of eternal life.

The source of God’s all-power, sent to us, is His glorious might. Power that rightfully belongs to God. This is reliable and honorable, coming from the largest and brightest light in the cosmos. It is limitless. Thus, we should “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name” (Neh 9:5).

God does not spare His resources to do something great and good for us. To spend and be spent for our good, God does not consider it wasteful of His natural resources. God is All-Powerful; more than that, He is backed by His honor, His dependability, and His reliability, which have been proven true to millions and millions who turn their faces toward Him.

There is no limitation, no exhaustion; God does not need to refill His All-Power. His power can blow past every obstruction, remove every barrier in its way. God’s All-Power is not on half power but always at full power, more than needed. A power that reflects the glory of God, His goodness, and his honor: “Through the power of the Spirit of God” (Rom 15:19).

Sadly, we humans often miss the intervention of God’s power in our lives. Because we credit it to circumstances in our favor. Worse yet, we think we are blessed because of our skill and intelligence. However, Scripture says, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us” (Eph 3:20). This gives us every reason to trust God.

God’s All Power is Not Sent For…

Paul does not say that God’s all-power is given for miracles or military success. It is not given to us so we can be like Samson. As when Samson, who “took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron” (Judges 16:3). It is not given so we can be the best and greatest in our profession and business.

God’s All Power Is Sent For…

It is given to us so that we may possess endurance and patience in our souls. That is a joyful patience. A steadfastness that waits for the Lord's coming. For God to open doors and answer prayers, to provide direction or financial help. “By your endurance you will gain your lives” (Luke 21:19 NET). And “he who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matt 24:13 NKJV).

God will give us power and strength to endure hardships with apparent broken hopes. It is by God’s All-Power that He gives us great endurance in faith, in love, doing “every good work” (Col 1:10), even when the results are meager. We are to “imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised” (Heb 6:12).

God’s All-Power is given to make us strong and to keep the faith.  In the parable of the seeds, Jesus taught us that “the seeds on good soil stand for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop” (Lk 8:15). Because “he who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matt 24:12 NKJV).

Paul was very proud and boastful of the Thessalonian believers, but because of the large offering or growing attendance, he could “boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring” (2 Thess 1:4). This is not a theme that modern Christianity is likely to publicly boast about.

Paul learned that God’s power is more clearly seen not in wealth, not in political power, not in social status, but in weakness. Listen to Paul’s prayer to God.

• “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:8-10).

Joyful Patience

God has given the first church in Revelation a warning for us all: “I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Rev 2:4). So, if this does not happen to us, remember to call on God’s All-Powerful to give you His endurance. Not just endurance, but with joyfulness, makes it unique and special. Even while answers to prayers seem to take a long time. We are not sad but joyful while we experience patience in the long term. Joyful when every reason tells us to be impatient with delays and difficulties. “If we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Rom 8:25).

God’s All-Powerful Will Strengthen Us

God will make us strong and empower us to keep the faith, even in the face of loss and disappointment. He enables us to have endurance. Because we hold on to God’s promises with patience, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb 13:5). I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (Eph 3:16).

In a very clear way, God Himself has accepted the task of assisting, providing strength from His all-power available to us. So, we can be faithful, patient, and persevering. So we do not lose sight of our heavenly goal, the promise of eternal life. “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance” (2 Thess 3:5).

• “We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Rom 5:3-5

Colossians 1:12 And giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 1:13 For he [God] has rescued us from the dominion [authority, kingdom] of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 1:14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. NIV

1:12 Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers [Greek: share] of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 1:14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. NKJV

The Text

In the last verses, we learned of God’s “All-Power,” with nothing lacking. It is given to us so that we “may have great endurance and patience.” To enable us to hold on to God's promises in the face of difficulties. God has pledged His power to protect and shield us, a source of strength we do not have in ourselves. Now Paul continues to paint a picture of God’s great power and His action on our behalf in rescuing us from the kingdom of darkness in which we have long lived. 

Giving Thanksgiving to the Father

Before Paul describes God's actions, he begins with thanksgiving. Only God can do what is needed to bring us close into the circle of His special love.

Our thanksgiving is based on God’s rescue, so that we have a right to claim His inheritance. It is a fact that none of us can qualify ourselves to be claimants to God’s inheritance. It is the reason why we should celebrate with praise, thanksgiving, and joyful songs. Again, and again.

 It is by God’s “All-Power” (Col 1:11), not by our own free will, that we are conveyed into the kingdom of the Son He loves. “Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God” (2 Cor 3:5). How true this is!

How God Qualified us

The Father makes us ready and fully qualified, whereas before we were disqualified, to receive any portion or any share of the inheritance of the saints in the light. It is not that we qualified ourselves, but that God qualified us. Our Father makes us able and fit to freely enter. “Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God” (2 Cor 3:5).

God's power to move us is found in the gospel. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes…For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last…The righteous will live by faith” (Rom 1:16-17).

God’s Deliberate Choice

How has God transferred us, brought us into, and moved us into the Kingdom of Light? Of course, it can only be by His deliberate choice. He picked us up; He rescued us from our birthplace in the kingdom of darkness. He moved us into the kingdom of the Son He loves.

Although this points to the second coming of Christ, where “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt 13:43), it is more than that single event: the resurrection. God is continually keeping us safe and shielding us in the kingdom of light into which He has moved us, even as we still live in the environment of darkness.

We are born under the authority of darkness over our lives, which blocks out the rays of God’s love. We were living “dead in your transgressions and sins… gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts… But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:1,3,4-5). God’s love and mercy cannot be separated, and we are glad of it.

What Is the Kingdom God Moves Us Into?

It is the Kingdom of Christ Jesus, where we are given pardon for all our sins and full justification.  But more, we now stand beside our Savior, where all the love of God is being showered on us equally as much as on His Son. It is our Father’s love for His Son that qualifies us to inherit His kingdom of light, because God places us next to the Son He loves. For the “Son is the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:16), and He loves us through His love for His Son.

Kingdom of Light is Internal

The most important thing within that kingdom is found in the love of God in Christ Jesus, which we share with other believers in the “heavenly realms” (Eph 1:3) as “co-heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:17).

When God calls “you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Pet 2:9), you become “the elect of God” (Col 3:12). In Christ by faith, we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins, forgiven in a second. In Christ, you are showered with the same love God has for His Son, so that you “may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory” (2 Tim 2:10).

What a wonderful privilege to be placed in such a rarefied kingdom, where the love of God the Father is so evident in His Son. The point is, we are not bystanders to God’s demonstrative love for His Son. No, we are not on the sidelines. No, we are not guests applauding God's actions. No, we are not left in the dominion of darkness where we are totally unaware of the grand display of God’s love for all of us. 

We are invited to be part of this experience. Not in some future time and not until we are in eternity. Yes, right now in Christ by faith, we are present amid the display of God’s love. “This is how God showered [displayed] His love among us: He sent His one and Only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love, not that we loved God [we didn’t], BUT that He loved us [first]” (1 John 4:9,10).

This Is Love—Seen in the Kingdom of the Son He Loves

God does not only love the worthy, the good, the excellent, the trustworthy, the gracious, the lovely, the blessed, the talented, the useful, or the kingly and queenly—God loved humanity, messed up, sinful, defiant, broken, heartless, cruel, unfaithful, disloyal, mean-spirited, immoral, criminal, and unjust. He loves them all. Even when we have committed unforgivable wrongs, His love reigns supreme toward sinners. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still [bad] sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).

To prove it, God gave something of Himself in His Son, in that His Son is part of Himself. Part of God in a way not understood in human relationships.  It was God’s one and only Son, one of a kind. God did not have two sons so one could remain behind. If God lost His Son, there could be no replacement. True love is self-giving, the opposite of selfishness and self-serving. There is no example in human experience that matches the self-sacrifice of God Himself.

When we look at the life and public teachings of Jesus, here is where the miracles of change take place. Love springs up into our hearts, in stealth mode. We don’t feel it all at once, but slowly our attitudes change, and the seed of Divine love placed into our hearts begins to grow. Because Jesus retained all the qualities of love from His Father. By and through looking at him, faith and love grow.

God’s charisma of love is first seen in His Son. From there it spreads out into the world. It has no limitation on time, space or location. Everyone looking at His Son will find life, coming from the Father through His Son. “This is [God’s] testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life [eternal] is in the Son. Whoever has the Son has life” (1 John 5:11,12).

“Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believers that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:5). “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day” (John 6:40).

While John the Baptist was in prison, he began to question whether Jesus was the Messiah. So he sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” They stayed with Jesus for a few days and then returned to John, telling him what Jesus said and did. “Jesus answered and said to them, 'Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me” (Matt 11:2-6).

John was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. A Messiah not of military power, not of wealth, not of a large following of very wise, educated men. No, instead, a person who loved the sick, who healed all who suffered physically or mentally. “News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon [evil]-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them” (Matt 4:24).

 When you look at Jesus, your eyes will open. Thank God when they do; it is He who opened your heart to love.

When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast save in the death of Christ, my God!

All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them through his blood.

See, from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down.

Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small.

Love so amazing, so divine,

demands my soul, my life, my all.

Isaac Watts (1707)

Our Inheritance

The Greek word means to have an oversight of an allotted part of what God owns. Paul prayed that “the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people” (Eph 1:18).

This is part of Paul’s prayer in Ephesians chapter 1. Paul is asking God to open the eyes of the Ephesians so that they can see the riches of their inheritance awaiting them in heaven.

Our heart is a reference to our inner self, “our inner being” (Eph 3:16). This is not just an intellectual concept; it is something that we experience. So that you may see the rich inheritance God is planning for you in your heart. Meaning, on an emotional rather than merely intellectual level, it is a matter of the heart.

The riches are God’s personal riches. Consisting of everything in his limitless cosmos, with an uncountable number of galaxies. Someday, yet to be revealed, we, the redeemed of the Lord, have been given, freely given, a share of all that belongs to God.

How is this possible? Are we not “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:17)? Have we not been “Born of the Spirit” (John 3:8) for this same Spirit also called “the Spirit of God” (Rom 8:14), as Jesus has said it is “the Spirit gives life” (John 6:63)? What vivid picture can we have of the rich inheritance we receive in the kingdom of light? Pray that God will give you a clearer mental vision.

Kingdom of the Son He Loves

John said the same thing. “See what great [privilege] love the Father has lavished on us [in abundance], that we should be called children of God! And that is what we [really] are!” (1 John 3:1).

This opening expression is a question. John is asking whether anyone can describe this kind of GREAT love God has for us. The Answer John is looking for is “NO”. Nobody can, nobody ever will. Not now, not ever.

The question is, what manner of love can this be? Expresses the idea that there is no comparison to anywhere in the long history of our world—to God’s love. It is so great; its greatness is unparalleled in human experience. It implies great astonishment that such love would be given to us. 

The love of God is so matchless in human experience that John cannot find a comparison. It is beyond explanation. It is love that does not come from this world. God’s love is expressed in preparing us, by faith, by forgiveness, by redemption, by “cleansing” (1 John 1:9), turning our lives from “darkness” and “hate” (1 John 2:9) into love. 

Then he picks us up and carries us into His presence. “And to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy (Jude 24). That is a mutual joy, the joy from God, the fruit of His love, in having you in His presence and in your joy while being in God’s overwhelming presence—facing into eternal life. As an adopted child of God, for “if we are [His] children, then we are heirs—heirs of God” (Rom 8:17). Now we can anticipate the wonder and exploration of being members of God’s family, as eternity opens before us with all power, honored by God. 

The Kingdom of Light is Our Shield

Peter says, “This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet 1:3-5). King David knew about God’s shield, saying, “But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high” (Ps 3:3).

Paraphrase of Paul’s Prayer: Col 1:9-14

We have not stopped praying for you: We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Holy Spirit gives. Through the Spirit, who gives you spiritual understanding and wisdom, you will be able to live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way. (Lord, this is our desire).

• Through the Spirit, you will bear fruit in every good work.

• Through the Spirit you will grow in endurance, perseverance, and patience in all things.

• Through the Spirit you will grow in the knowledge of God, knowing God better and better.

• Through the Spirit you will be strengthened with all power that raised Jesus from the dead.

While you give joyful thanks to the Father, who has granted you even now a share in our future inheritance in God’s kingdom of light. Always remember that God has rescued you from the dominion of darkness and brought you into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, freedom and the forgiveness of sins.

 Part I

Colossians 1:15-17 

(1#) The [visible] Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 

(2#) For in him [the Son]  all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; 

(3#) all things have been created through him and for him [the Son]

(4#) He [the Son] is before all things, and in him [the Son]

(5#) all things hold [held] together [in Him]. NIV

1:15    (1#) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

1:16 (2#) For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.

(3#) All things were created through Him and for Him.

1:17 (4#) And He is before all things, and

(5#) in Him all things consist. NKJV

(1#) The Son is the exact likeness of God, who can’t be seen. The Son is first, and he is over all creation.

(2#) All things were created in him. He created everything in heaven and on earth. He created everything that can be seen and everything that can’t be seen. He created kings, powers, rulers and authorities.

(3#) All things have been created by him and for him.  

(4#) Before anything was created, he was already there.

(5#) He holds everything together. Col 1:15-17 International Reader’s Version

The Premise

1st, the Son of God is the image of the invisible God. “Anyone who has seen me [Jesus] has seen the Father” (John 14:9). We can only know the Father through His visible Son, whom God has sent to us, for Jesus is the exact likeness of God in character.

As John has testified that “we have heard…we have seen with our eyes…we have looked at… our hands have touched…the Word of Life…we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us” (1 John 1:1,2).

2nd, the Son of God is Firstborn over all creation; he existed prior to all other created things. We ask ourselves: was there a beginning, a time before anything existed? Certainly not, since God is called “the everlasting God” (Isa 40:28) and the “eternal God” (Dt 33:27), and, like the Father, is over all creation.

All Things: He was First, Firstborn, Before All Things.

• In Heaven: Things invisible.

• On Earth: Things visible.

• All Authorities: Whether thrones, powers, rulers, and authorities; in heaven or on earth. Unlimited authority because He pre-existed, and he gave authority for everything else to exist.

All Things: That Have Life, Created in Heaven and on Earth.

• Through the Son: God, the invisible, through His visible Son, brings life to everything.

• For the Son: All life was through him, of and for His visible Son. This phrase is in the third person, indicating God's influence was present through His Son.

All Things: He is Connected to Everything Created.

The Son holds all things together, everything he has created. This is a power of Divinity unfathomable to our minds. Considering the yet-to-be-discovered size of the Cosmos, of the billions of separate galaxies, each containing billions more suns and planets, more than can be counted. He holds all things created together. 

Conclusion: “For God [The Father] was pleased to have all His [God’s] fulness dwell in him [His Son].” (Col 1:19). Since God’s fullness is in the Son, when the Son creates all things, the Father is present with His Son, in God’s fullness.

The Son: Is the Image of the Invisible God

The Son is a mirror-like representation of God the Father, “glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor 4:4).

The Son is not God the Father, and God the Father is not the Son. “For God was pleased to have all His [God the Father’s] fulness dwell in him [His Son]” (Col 1:19). All the fullness, all the abilities, all the qualities, all the eternal nature of the Father—All of it is found in the Son of God.

Nothing that is in the Father God, “the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth” (Isa 40:28), is not in the Son of God. As God spoke out loud to everyone, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17). Everything in the Son reflects the will of the Father, the invisible God, as Jesus affirmed, “The one [Father] who sent me is with me; the [Father] has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him” (John 8:29).

God’s Testimony About His Son Is Public

If “we accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which He has given about His Son” (1 John 5:9). More has been written, spoken, preached, taught, listened to, read, printed, and publicly proclaimed—than any other person in all human history.

God’s testimony concerning His Son is greater and has been explained more thoroughly than that of any other person, living or dead. God’s testimony is compelling, engaging, and moving on the most hardened hearts.

Nobody can match the testimony God has given to His Only Son, whom He loves. It is impossible. Because humans have limited influence on their time and place in history. God’s Son transcends all time, is found throughout all history, is found in every culture, and appeals to all tribes and languages of the earth. It is as present on earth as the sun and rain. 

It is impossible for anybody encompassing all of humanity to blot out the testimony of God about his Son. It can’t be done. No, it can’t!

All Who Believe in God’s Son—Is the Work of God the Father

Every year, there are more believers, more lovers of God, more and more voices heard in prayer, song, petition, praise, and conviction that move millions all at once in the individual spaces they occupy on earth. This is evidence of God’s successful campaign honoring His Son.

Jesus said, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one [His Son] He [God] has sent” (John 6:29). The expression work of God is understood as God always creating faith in His Son. It is His primary labor on earth to open human minds to receive faith in His Son. When we receive faith in God’s Son, we are the product of God’s work. “He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself… the testimony that God has given of His Son” (1 John 5:10 NJKV).

Peter testified, “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:36).

Two Creator-Redeemer God’s

There are two eternal Gods—the Father and the invisible God who is the firstborn over all creation. The two are in unity and full harmony, as if their identities were the same.

But they are different, as was made plain by the redemption of the Son of God, so that the Son can “present you [and me] holy in His [God’s] sight, without blemish and free from accusation” (Col 1:22). As the Amplified Bible reads: “Now has [Christ, the Messiah] reconciled [you to God] in the body of His flesh through death, in order to present you holy and faultless and irreproachable in His [the Father’s] presence” (Col 1:22 AMP).

Only the Son of God, one in the exact image of God the Father, could present sinners who have faith in Him—before His Father God.

The whole idea of sending His Son for our redemption was God’s idea as much as it was His Son's. The Father was fully involved, as much as the Son, and is fully involved in our prayers and needs. These two Gods are not indifferent to us. As in Paul’s prayer of thanksgiving, “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 5:20).

Message to the Word—Worship the Creator God

In Revelation, there is seen an “angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth… He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory… Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water” (Rev 14:6,7).  

First: this is the call to worship the Son of God, who is firstborn over all creation; for him [the Son] all things were created, in heaven and on earth. He created “the sea,” where earth receives up to 80% of its oxygen, and the “Spring of Water” that provides fresh water all over the world. 

This is a call to worship. A call for “those who live on earth” to accept “the gospel of God” (Rom 1:1) and “the gospel of his Son” (Rom 1:9) or “the Gospel of Christ” (Rom 15:19). “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith’” (Rom 1:17).

Second: Since the Son is the Image of the invisible God, thus our worship includes the Father God, who sent His Son. “This is [God’s] testimony, God has given us eternal life, and this life [eternal] is in the Son [of God]. Whoever has the Son [by faith] has life [eternal]” (1 John 5:11).

Doubled Blessed

Best of all, for sinners here on earth—"Out of his [Christ] fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given” (John 1:16). Grace can be called the “riches of God’s grace” (Eph 1:7) and called the “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9). Grace is double-sourced so that believers in the Son of God are double blessed.  Grace from God the Father and grace from the Son of God. “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people” (Titus 2:11).

God and His Son: Invisible and Visible; Both Before All Other Things Existed

God the Father and the Son of God, as best as we can understand, are a mystery to us. There is nothing on earth that can represent the union between God and His Son. Except, to a very limited degree, identical twins.

God and His Son are not the same; they have different names. They are always presented separately, yet so similar it appears that no differences exist. The Father God shares all his honor and authority with His Son, and the Son returns it to the Father. As Jesus prayed, “Father…glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you” (John 17:1).

Jesus Prays to His Father in the 3rd Person

Jesus “prayed: ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify [honor] your Son, that your Son may glorify you. As You have given Him [God’s Son] authority over all flesh, that He [God’s Son] should give eternal life to as many as You [Father] have given Him [Jesus Christ].  And this is eternal life, that they may know You [Father], the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:1-3).

• Eternal life is sourced to humanity—from both God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

• Eternal Life is sourced to humanity—By knowing the “true God,” the “Father,” and “His Son” He sent to redeem us from our sinful ways, which are inclined to find pleasure in sin.

God Sends His Spirit to Ground Us in Love For His Son

Paul prayed, “I pray that out of his [God’s] glorious riches He [God] may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Eph 3:16-19).

God sends His Spirit to dwell in your hearts, so that we can know the depth of the love of Christ, God’s Son. This includes being filled with all the “fullness of God,” the Father Himself. Love for Christ and love for the Father are always to be held together. 

Dual Worship: Both the Father and His Son

One of the most significant changes in Judaism, a monotheistic religion, was the focus on dual worship. Since AD 30, billions and billions and billions of people have believed in the true God. They have said the name of God the Father and the name of Jesus in the same breath.

• God the Father sends Jesus to give us mortals Eternal Life

• Jesus takes from His Father Eternal Life for us.

• We hold out our hands to Jesus to receive the eternal life, which comes from the Father through the Son to us.

• Simple as it may sound. Eternal life is available to everyone by faith in Jesus. God honors the promises He made in John 3:16.

The Invisible God Reaches For Us Through His Son

The invisible God in the heavens holds out His hands to Jesus, through which He holds His hands to us here on earth. It is but a short step; even the blind, crippled, and confused can find it. It is not a long journey; there is no gate or wall to enter or climb. “‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord, ’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:8-9). Notice the interplay of words. Belief in Jesus and belief in God who raised His Son from the dead. The Father was deeply involved in Jesus' resurrection. In the gospel story of Jesus' life and resurrection, God the Father was involved at every step. 

Repeat after me: “Jesus is Lord, my Lord. The Lord of my life, today and forever.”

God Gives a Clear Message to the World

 “We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son” (1 John 5:9-10).

“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son, has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:9-12).

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know [be assured] that you have eternal life. This is the confidence [boldness, assurance] we have in approaching God [in prayer] that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know [truly] that He hears us—we know that we have what we asked of Him” (1 John 5:13-15)

God the Father and God the Son are Co-Creators

Paul further explains this union, saying, “for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live” (1 Cor 8:6).

Their roles are different: when the Son of God came to earth and became a man, “bringing salvation to the ends of the earth” (Acts 13:37). God remained in heaven, yet was also present in His inseparable Son as He came to earth. All due to his own divinity, equal with the Father, He could provide atonement for our sins. Now the Father can offer to have us join His family as His Children, “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:17).

Let us bear in mind that if the Son has set us free from sins and justified us, declaring us faultless before His Father, then the Father will adopt us. What does this adoption mean? We will find out some day. How much of the likeness of God and His Son will we share, as children of God? John says, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2). Meaning that we will be similar in ways we don’t know today.

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen” (1 Tim 1:17). Why? Because God has opened His home, His heart, His very being for us sinners to share with His Son. Not for a few years—but as eternal as God is Himself. God does love us, no doubt about it. Jesus said, “The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them” (John 14:21).

It is only because of Jesus’ connection with the Father as His Son that we can call this invisible God our Father. An honor not available to anyone but sinners: through death and resurrection into new birth, we are united with the Son and, through his connection with the Father, “the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, is, and is to come (Rev 4:8). This is a summary of God’s eternal nature. He was always in the past. He always exists in the present. He is always in the future. We don’t have to understand it to know it is true. 

God’s Power Through Him & For Him—His Son

In this expression we see the invisible God acting through His visible Son. “For God was pleased to have all his [God’s] fullness dwell in him [Son]” (Col 1:19). God’s fullness, which is invisible, is seen in His visible Son. “The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands” (John 3:35). Nothing belonging to the Father does not also belong to His Son.

The invisible God created all things through the Son, with the Son, and for or on behalf of the Son. Thus, both God the Father and His Son are called creators; they are co-creators of everything that exists. God created life through the Son; together, they are the creators. The Father did not create anything alone; it was a joint creation between the Father and His Son, with all things created through and for His Son.

The Father God does not act alone; he always acts in concert with His Son. Although separate — one the invisible God and the other the Son—they never act apart from each other. As Jesus declared to the temple leadership, “The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him” (John 8:29).

God is the ultimate delegator of authority, not taking all the honor of creating all things upon Himself; instead, His creative power is seen in His Son. In the life of Jesus, He followed the same example as His Father by giving authority to His disciples and telling them to do all in the name of Jesus (see John 14:13,14).

Let it be known that the Father delegated all power and “all authority” to His Son (Matt 28:18). Thus, we, believers in Christ, are included in all the honor given to God’s Son, including you and me.

Why does God co-create through the Son? Although we don’t know the mind of God, it is to our advantage. By faith, we can join the Kingdom, the government of God, and be welcomed as God's extended family.

God co-saves us, sinners. He sends his Son, through whom we believe, and in receiving His Son, after the resurrection, God receives us in His Son. “In him [Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (Eph 1:7). We receive from our Father His personal righteousness called “the righteousness of God” (Rom 1:17; 2 Cor 5:21).

Firstborn

A title in Ancient Israel that allowed the eldest son to inherit the father’s entire estate. The property was not divided equally as is our Western standard.

For the Son of God, the title of firstborn implies authority in the cosmos. The one who has the birthright or title to manage and control all creation. Nothing in all the cosmos was before Him. The Son is the highest in authority, above all else. The Son’s existence is prior to everything; both the Son and His Father are before all things. No creation is above His authority; God’s Son has an unchallenged right to hold this position.

God Created All Things Through and For His Son

The display of the “invisible God” (Col 1:16), who created everything through His Son, is especially important to us. All of us sinners who have been “loved by God” (1 Thess 1:4) are adopted through faith in Christ and thereby become entitled to an inheritance to which we have no natural title or rights, because we are earth-born. We have a beginning and an end in death. Yet, in God’s mind, “before time began (1 Cor 2:7), God gave a way to us, former sinners, to be accepted, adopted, welcomed, and loved by God himself because we are in His Son by birth of the Spirit. By the new birth, and by faith alone, which justifies us, forgives us, and redeems us, we can do good works and abide by faith in the Son of God.

Who could even conceive of such a plan, from so far back in time when the cosmos was empty? Only God could!

So, if you are “in Christ” (Rom 8:1) and are “born of the Spirit” (John 3:8), we will do good works. We will love others and love God supremely. We are in good hands, and they will never let us go.

Jesus has promised, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:27-29). Jesus is telling us that God the Father participates in keeping us safe. Jesus has a protective nature. John says from experience, “The one who is born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them” (1 John 5:18). God is far greater than any problem that could separate us from Himself.

If you get lost, God and His Son will bring you back. God has done this to so many people; we can’t keep count, ever. In heaven we will join millions in worship and “lay their crowns before the throne and say:

• “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”  Rev 7:10-11

Thrones, Powers, Rules, Authorities

All the citizens of the cosmos are subjects to their creators, the invisible Father with His Son.

Soon, enormous changes are about to take place in God’s limitless cosmos He and His Son have created. We as former sinners are soon to enlarge the small ruling family of the heavens. God is about to have a large family, the size of which he promised Abraham. When God told Abraham that his children would number the stars. God was also thinking of Himself when He would welcome His redeemed into their inheritance as part of His personal family of God.

“He [God] took him [Abraham] outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars—If indeed you can count them’. Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be [this is how many descendants you will have]’. Abram believed the LORD [85 years old, no children], and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Gen 15:5,6).

The deposit of God’s righteousness, a part of Himself. We today share in God’s endless, boundless, inexhaustible credit of being declared righteous by the Invisible God to you and me and thousands of generations. Listen, and you will know that God has declared you all right in his eyes. By faith alone, nothing to do except hold on to the promise.

All Things Have Been Created

A catchphrase: nothing is excluded in the whole wide cosmos. “[God] Through him [Christ] all things were made; without him [Christ] nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3).

All Things Hold Together

The Greek means to continue, endure, exist, or to hold together. In essence, the Son is the source of eternal life; connected to Him, the entire cosmos is under His authority to give and sustain it. 

Created things owe their existence and life to Him.  All living creations are connected to Him as their original source. Yet more, He holds them together in ways “past finding out” (Job 9:10; Rom 11:33). How He holds all things together in such a vast cosmos of unlimited space and unnumbered galaxies is unknown, an understatement. Yet in spite of the responsibility of holding the entire cosmos of trillions of Galaxies together, both God and His Son, unitedly, care for us.

God’s care and His love for us, for the fallen, and for easily misled children on earth. This calls for praise and thanksgiving, which is unceasing, to say the least.

Invisible Father and the Visible Son

Part II

1:15 The [visible] Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 

1:16 For in him [the Son]  all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him [the Son]

1:17 He [the Son] is before all things, and in him [the Son] all things hold [held] together. NIV

Colossians 1:18 And he [the Son 1:15] is the head of the body, the church; he [the Son] is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 1:19 For God [the Father] was pleased to have all his [God’s] fullness [glory] dwell in him [His Son]. NIV

1:18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.1:19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. NKJV

1:18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things. 1:19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Son. NET

Preeminence in Everything

There is fullness of God the Father in and of Himself; He needs nothing else to complete His mature perfection, having been uncreated, not having come into existence by creation or a point of beginning.   God was pleased to see in His Son all His fullness, not half of it, but all of it. This pleased the Father God for His Son to have preeminence “in all things” (Col 1:17), in everything.

• First of all, the Son has supremacy and preeminence over all things that have been created. Because God's fullness of deity and eternal existence lives in Him. We must not look at Jesus as second in command in heaven, with the Father first and His Son second. Jesus rose and took His lawful place at the “right hand of God,” next and equal to God the Father. This means everything to us, for by faith in Jesus the Son of God, we are given the privilege of being next to Christ, where alone it is possible to bring “many sons and daughters to glory” (Heb 2:10).  

  • • • “Just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity” (John 17:21-23). So we may be brought into a unity, a unity that existed between the Father and Son. What does this mean? What will this look like? What will be our new status when we are in harmony and unity with both the Father and His Son? We will have to wait and find out!

• The Son to be the head of the whole body of believers, the Church. We are thankful that God has not left His church, where we, His children, gather to worship, in the hands of priests, clergy, or church leaders. None of us are worthy, or even capable, of managing God’s free offer of salvation, symbolized by wine and milk. “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost” (Isa 55:1). Some church leaders always want to attach preconditions to God’s generous offer to sinners.

• Jesus told a parable saying, “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready '” (Lk 14:16-17). Come right now, for God has anticipated your arrival because of your faith in His Son, who possesses all His fullness.

  • • • “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” John 17:24

• Firstborn from the dead. Christ was born into the world as a man, setting aside His God-fullness, although still His by virtue of His eternal nature in His completeness with God. After He rose from the grave, He returned to the fullness He possessed with His Father. He was the first of all humanity, as the Son of Man on earth, to not be held in the grave as dead forever. Death could not hold Him; He became “the firstborn over all creation” (Col 1:15). Now, by our faith in God and His Son, we are given a promised resurrection, to be reborn, not as children of men but as children of God. Not as new citizens, but as new family—the first family throughout the entire cosmos.

• In Everything—In all things. He is to have preeminence and supremacy, no exceptions at all. He is above everything: “thrones, powers, rulers, authorities, invisible or visible” (Col 1:16). All the galaxies seen in unlimited space acknowledge His supremacy.

Head of Every Church

For the whole body of Christian believers worldwide, Christ holds supreme authority. No one can claim to speak or teach with the same authority on His behalf. Every religious leader should remember this and never ever make themselves the center of attention. Never claim the authority to teach new commands that Jesus did not teach. This is a frequent weakness of organized churches.

As our head, the Son possesses the fullness of God in Himself. Thus, He deserves prime time in the church. More time than prophecy, more time than praying to saints, more time than religious history, more time than the good books of Moses. The Law, or the Ten Commandments, is not the fullness of God; Jesus is.

Believers are part of his body, joined to His body by faith in Christ. It is all because “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,” which is “in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (Eph 1:7).

Here is the point: When we have faith in the Son of God, who Himself has the fullness of God, we become part of God the Father’s embrace. All because we embrace His Son. How simple can this be? How uncomplex and simple is it to receive eternal life? The “Good news is proclaimed to the poor” (Matt 11:15), who know they need a Savior and have nothing to offer in service or obedience to merit the Father’s embrace.

God Is Very Serious About the Church Believing in His Son.

God’s Two Commands Given to Us

First and Second Command From the Father to Us: The apostle John presents God’s Two Commandments to us. “And this is His [God’s 1st] command: to believe [have faith] in the name of His [God’s] Son, Jesus Christ, [2nd] and to love one another as He [God] commanded us [He gave this commandment to us]” (1 John 3:23).

To believe in the name and authority of His Son, Jesus Christ, is the command of God the Father. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Not Moses, not Abraham, or King David. The words, the life, the death, the resurrection, and the promise of His return to earth bring us promised eternal life. They are all wrapped up in the authority of Jesus, the Son of God. Nowhere else is there salvation.

Nobody that has ever lived can say, “The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life” (John 6:63). John summarizes the life and teachings of Jesus as simply calling it “the Word of life” (1 John 1:1), who alone can “forgive us of our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). “As the Apostle Paul publicly declared, “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you” (Acts 13:38).

This is a command from God Himself. He wants us to fix our eyes on Jesus. To follow Him in discipleship. To study His words, His parables, His teachings. To listen to His Apostles, whom He trained. To believe in the promises. To receive the promised Holy Spirit. To believe His promise of His return to earth and of raising from the dead all who died in faith.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace

Helen Howarth Lemmel (1863-1961)

First-born From Among the Dead

Christ is the reason why believers will be able to rise from the grave. After Christ died as a man, He is Lord over all. He came first, enabling us to follow Him. He is preeminent, meaning He holds first place among all other believers. And we know this to be true from our hearts, not our eyes.

Now that death is defeated, “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor 15:54). Soon, death will be utterly and forever vanquished. Soon, death will lose all its power and threat. Soon, death will no longer exist. It cannot exist ever again. Because Christ has risen from the dead, and we have, by faith, also risen to a “new life” (Acts 5:20), starting right now. Jesus has promised: “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me [Father God] has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24).

Now Christ has risen with God’s pleasure as the Firstborn of all humanity. If Christ had not risen first, we would be hopelessly dead forever.

In everything—Jesus Reveals the Father

• “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him” (Lk 10:22). Both the Father and the Son know each other, without one revealing himself to the other.

• “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power [His will], and that he had come from God and was returning to God” (John 13:3). Jesus, as the Son of Man, was aware of His fullness with God the Father and that He, before birth on earth, was with God. Even at His birth, it was declared of Him, “God with us” (Matt 1:23). God the Father was with every breath and every word the Son of Man spoke while on earth.

• “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” John 14:9-11

God Was Pleased

God was pleased that we sinners could be united by faith to His Son; because of the fullness in the Son, we are also united with the Father. This is what the Father desires and finds great pleasure in: adopting us through His Son. “He [God] predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His [God’s] pleasure and will— to the praise of His [God’s] glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves [His Son]” (Eph 1:5-6).

All the Titles and Crowns of the Son of God

 Christ is fit and qualified to be our Savior. “On His head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself” (Rev 19:12). There are many titles of authority that Jesus possesses, from His Father. In addition, He has a name that has never been revealed to us, the name that the Father calls Him by between Himself and His Son.

Crowns of Authority, Reason For Full Supremacy, In Position and Status

1.      Image of the invisible God (Col 1:15)

2.      Firstborn of all creation (Col 1:15)

3.      In Him all things were created and have been created (Col 1:16)

a.      Heaven and earth

b.      Visible & invisible

c.      Thrones or powers

d.      Rulers or Authorities

4.      All things created through Him and for Him, God creating through the Son (Col 1:16)

5.      He is before all things (Col 1:17)

6.      He holds everything together (Col 1:17)

7.      Head of the body, the church (Col 1:18)

8.      The beginning and firstborn from the dead. (Col 1:18)

9.      He has Supremacy; He is preeminent over everything (Col 1:18)

10. All fullness dwells in Him; all authority, all power, all of everything is subject to Him. (Col 1:19)

11. He has reconciled to Himself all things (Col 1:20)

12. He is the king of peace, having made peace on earth and heaven by the cross (Col 1:20)

No one else in the cosmos can experience this unique place as Jesus. So that we, as sinners, can experience it in our resurrected state—adopted children of God the Father and His Son. As Christ is not separated from the Father or the Father from the Son, so likewise we will not be separated from either Father or Son. Since Christ is supreme over all creation, the head over everything that has ever existed, and has all authority, so likewise we, in Christ, will share a place in His authority and honor not conceivable, nor ever can be. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:10). 

All the new creations, all who are “born again,” of the Father and Son will be with them. With the redeemed adopted on earth and made fully pledged children of God in heaven, we will carry an “eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor 4:17) and a responsibility unlike that of all earlier creations of God’s endless creations.

• “For from Him [out of God Himself] and through him [God's plans and workings] and for him [Christ's honor and supremacy] are all things to him be the glory forever! Amen.” Rom 11:36

• “To be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” Eph 1:10

• Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Matt 19:28

• Note: This is spoken directly to the disciples to be understood in a broader context. The redeemed, even as former sinners, can share in the Father-Son roles of authority as the judges of all the earth. They are qualified to do this because they are “Children of God” (Gal 3:26).

• “For those [us] God foreknew [chose] He [God] also predestined to be conformed to the image [likeness] of his [God’s] Son, that he [God’s Son] might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters [all believers].” Rom 8:29

When we are Born Again of the Spirit (John 3:8), it was made possible by Christ first, when at his baptism He was filled with “the Spirit” (Matt 3:16). Christ was even placed in the womb of Mary by “the Holy Spirit” (Lk 1:35). We likewise have the privilege of being “Born of the Spirit,” all because we are “in Christ,” abiding by faith, since He Himself was “full of the Holy Spirit” (Lk 4:1). To receive the Holy Spirit we need to be first in Christ Jesus.

• “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” Rom 8:1 NIV

• “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” Gal 3:14

Father and Son Join Their Efforts to Rescue Humanity

1:19 For God [the Father] was pleased to have all his [God’s] fullness dwell in him [His Son].

Colossians 1:20 and through him [Christ] to reconcile to Himself [God] all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his [Christ] blood, shed on the cross.

1:21 Once you were alienated [estranged] from God and were enemies [hostile] in your minds because of your evil [wicked] behavior [planning and action]. 

1:22 But now he [God] has reconciled [justified] you [to Himself] by Christ’s physical body through death [on the cross] to present you holy in his sight [God’s], without blemish and free from accusation [justified]. NIV

1:20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. 2:21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 2:22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight. NKJV

At the start of Paul’s five-verse discussion on the Son as the image of the “invisible God” (Col 1:15), Paul now speaks to the individual believer. What does all the preceding discussion of the very close relationship between the Father and the Son mean for us?

In Colossians 1:20-23, Paul speaks six times to “you” or “your,” which were not used at all in the earlier discussion. There is a shift in focus, away from the relationship between God and His Son before time began. The emphasis is on God’s grand plan to provide ample opportunity for all to see His Son and believe.

1:20: God’s Plan. To bring peace, complete reconciliation, acceptance, and love between those in heaven and those on earth.

1:21: The Problem God Faced: We humans on earth are at war with God, His character, and the values of his kingdom. In every way, we are estranged from all of heaven and God Himself.

It is a fact that we, as sinners, are alienated and have been our whole lives. We are emotionally disconnected from God, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” for “there is no one [none] righteous, not even one…there is no one who seeks God” (Rom 3:23,10-11). We may feel indifferent to the very idea of a God in heaven who is to be worshiped and served, in love with all our hearts.

1:22: Now, the first move on God’s part is to announce to the ungodly world, “dead in transgressions and sin” (Eph 2:1), peace—before a holy God.

God displays His Solution. He offers us peace on earth with Himself and all in heaven who may disapprove of our rebellion. It is a peace with complete pardon, from God’s perspective. He offers us full acceptance, without confession or even perceiving a single one of our sins or many of our flaws. God first must “reconcile to Himself…all things on earth…making peace through Christ.”

Do you feel alienated, absent from God in your life? No, no, don’t accept your feelings as true. Instead, accept Christ’s death for your sins on your behalf, and then accept God’s full approval of you. This is God’s solution to our alienation.

First: We—All of Us—Here Have a Serious Problem

It is a fact. We are alienated from God, in every way conceivable. Were it not for God’s love for us, even while we are alienated from God and regarded as His enemies—we would all be doomed and ruined, forever.

• We are alienated due to our evil and wicked behavior.

• We are God’s enemies on our minds; our thoughts are not pure.

• Our repeated actions of ill intent toward others, in high-handed ways, make us God’s enemies.

This is not a good position for us to be in when we “all” will “stand before God’s judgment seat” (Rom 14:10). There, we will have no excuse.

 We have done wrong because of a power within us. It is the way we are. Human history is full of murders, rapes, stealing of property, and crimes for no reason but from the suggestions of a darkened heart.

Enemies In Our Minds (1:21)

Our understanding, our thoughts, and our imaginations are the opposite of truth. All evil stems from our minds, from our inner thoughts. We would do more evil if we could get away with it. We would strike back at those who have hurt us. We would take advantage of another if our actions would bring no consequences. We have all experienced this in our imagination.

“All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations” (Isa 65:2).

God, Before All Things Were Created—Had a Plan, One that Would Work

God’s plan was good for us, but not so good for Him. His plan involved a great deal of costly personal involvement. God’s plan was painful to Him, yet it was “according to His good pleasure” (Eph 1:19). His plans were “in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (Eph 1:9). Grace is embedded in God's management style.

God does not see things only as they are now; we are His enemies due to our inability to love. God also sees us as He has planned for us. He sees us standing in His presence, not as sinners. No, but in His sight without blemish and free from accusation. Think of this. Ponder this for a moment. You stand perfect in His sight, under the cross of Christ. Which God has provided, at great cost to Himself and His Son, to save you: “For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (Rom 5:10).

God had a plan built just for his enemies, to do them good. To give them “eternal life” and to make them His children. To include them, not like the created angels, but those who are so close to Him that he writes them into His will as “heirs of God” (Rom 8:17). Why? Because the atonement God provides is made possible only by making us His personal family.

God’s plan He set in motion was “in love, He predestined us for adoption to sonship” to Himself, “through Jesus Christ…to the praise of His glorious grace which He has freely given to us in the one he loves [His Son]” (Eph 1:5-6).

We must not miss this point. God’s plan is for us to find, in Christ and by faith alone, forgiveness of sins, to bring us to Himself. God wants to love us in person. God wants to embrace us in His arms to share His life and love with us.

First: We have Become Reconciled to God the Father (1:20, 22)

God’s first action. He sends His Son to us, to His enemies, here on earth. Not an ordinary son. But a Son who is “firstborn over all creation” and the “image of the invisible God,” the Father (Col 1:15). This closeness between the Father and His Son is unlike anything here on earth or in heaven. It brings to view a God who was also in Christ, drawing us, through His Son, to Himself. God is totally committed to reconciliation and will never back down.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Eph 1:3). Think about this. God’s plan was to “rescue us from the dominion of darkness” here on earth and in ourselves, “and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves” (Eph 1:13). Thus, through His Son, we receive “freely” (Rom 3:24) forgiveness of sins and share in the peace of God, which is beyond understanding.

Paul and Barnabas were preaching in Antioch and loudly proclaimed: “My friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able [could not] to obtain under the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38-39).

Reconciled to Himself by Christ Physical Body (1:22)

In the verses above, Paul explains how very close God the Father is to His Son. The Son is the “image of the invisible God.” God created all things “through” His Son and “for” His Son. Even on earth, Jesus bore the image of God: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Jesus also said, “The one who sent me [God the Father] is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him” (John 8:29). Jesus could affirm to his Father, “You loved me before the creation of the world” (John 17:24).

In that God and the Son are close to each other in ways we have no example of on earth. When the Son suffered for our sin in his physical body through death, his Father also suffered. There was no way for God the Father to feel pain, since “God is Spirit” (John 4:24), but only through the anguish of His Son could God the Father know firsthand pain.

Yet God did not feel angry with us for causing Him all this trouble. God does the unthinkable. He reconciles us to Himself. Because of our great debt of sin, God and His Son paid a great price to claim the right to restore all who have faith in His Son to be holy in His sight.

But more, much more. Listen to Jesus words to His Father. “My prayer is not for them alone [his disciples]. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (John 17:20,21). The pain that purchased our deliverance from darkness is more than enough to unite us; somehow, we will know in heaven, in the oneness between God and His Son.

Is God angry with our addictions to sin that caused Him to alter the dynamics of His relationship with His Son? No, God is pleased to make us His children, purchased through pain, like birth pains; we indeed become “Born of God” (1 John 4:7; 5:1). 

Now, all things in heaven and earth are at peace. We are reconciled to God, just as He wanted. We are wanted. We are wanted by God and His Son, to be with them—forever. Forever free from all and every accusation. As if we were always “fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household” (Eph 2:19).

Free From Accusation

When we clearly see our true spiritual condition, can we come to appreciate God’s plans for our redemption? God, by His love, can overlook past conditions when we were “dead in your transgressions and sins” (Eph 2:1). And God can see hope. God has moved to put His plans in place so that we can stand before all the cosmos and all the Angels, free from accusation; our life record has no transgressions listed.

As God has declared, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Ps 103:12). And “For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more” (Heb 8:12). “And I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more” (Isa 43:25).

But more, without even a blemish left from the sins we used to practice, so we appear to all without any blemish. With perfect form, a face of joy, and innocence in every way possible; it means being “accepted in the beloved, or One He [God] loves” (Eph 1:6).

5:17 If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 5:18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself [God] through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 5:19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he [God] has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 5:20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Cor 5:17-21

Reconcile All…Things in Heaven (1:20)

“Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him” (Rev 12:7-9).

Ever since there was war in heaven, there has been a need to bring about reconciliation and restore harmony throughout heaven. Christ’s death on the cross has sealed Satan’s doom. He has no claim, no right, to hold sinners as his subjects. We are free from his entanglements.

Eternal life was given to angels; since the coming of Christ, it is now offered in new terms: “faith in Christ.” This doomed Satan; because he refuses to have faith in Christ, he forfeits eternal life because he lacks faith in the Son. Now all in heaven and on earth are reconciled to God.

A Common Theme of Paul

A common theme of Paul is God’s plan to bring “unity to all things in heaven and on earth” (Eph 1:10). Sin alienated us from God (Col 1:21). Now, God is no longer alienated from sinners on earth because of Christ's death on their behalf. By making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. This peace is accessed by faith alone, giving us access to God and the “hope” (1:5) of eternal life; John wrote: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). Now all is reconciled. Satan, along with all unbelievers, is judged. The redeemed of the Lord are with the Lord, honored, and accepted as God’s rightful and lawful children, forever.

More Titles for Christ

• All things—were created by him (1:16)

• All Things—have been created by him (1:16)

• He is before All Things (1:17)

• In him All Things hold together (1:17)

• Through Christ, God has reconciled All Things to Himself [God] (1:20)

• All these titles give us assurance of acceptance.

• In Him we can find redemption through his blood shed on the cross.

Paul Reflects on his Commission from God to Teach the Gospel 

Colossians 1:23-29

1:22 But now he [God] has reconciled you [to Himself, past tense] by Christ’s physical body through death [on the cross] to present you holy in his sight [God’s], without blemish and free from accusation.

Colossians 1:23 if you continue in your faith [in Christ], established [grounded, standing] and firm [steadfast, settled, stable], and [so you] do not move [drift] from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard, and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven [the earth], and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. NIV

1:23 If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. NKJV

If—The Condition

This is Paul’s only conditional statement in this entire letter that uses the word IF. To those of us who want to be found in God’s sight free from accusation, there are just two conditions.

The 1st condition: Have faith in Christ. Come to Christ through faith. This is not hard to do, for faith is a gift from God, as much as His grace and love toward us. Just look at the Son of God; there your faith will grow and be transformed into an internal witness and become steadfast.

The 2nd condition: Become grounded in Scripture knowledge, in your daily walk of faith, in your patience and perseverance to trust God in every circumstance. When we are grounded in Scripture alone, not in modern prophets or church doctrines, we will not be deceived by false gospel teachers.

It is simple enough for all to grasp and hold fast to the promise of eternal life. “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk [spiritual gifts] without money and without cost” (Isa 55:1). Just come, just as you are. Come with just a “mustard seed” (Matt 17:20) of faith so that your faith will grow.

Paul does not give long lists of commands. What one is forbidden to do or must do merely because a church may demand. He does not require acceptance of well-worded creeds and doctrines. He does not require tithes on our income or that we should stand for religious liberty.  

Continue in Your Faith

The Greek word for continue is epimenó, meaning “to remain, to continue, to persist, to stay and to persevere.” Paul restates this first condition to the Corinthian Church: their need to stand firm. “Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain” (1 Cor 15:1,2).

Paul sent Timothy to the church to spread “the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith” (1 Thess 3:2). The gospel is all about Jesus Christ and the call to daily maintain and grow in faith.

Hebrews: Continue in the Faith

• “We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end” (Heb 3:14).

Not to Drift Away from Hope of the Gospel

Hope is the child of faith. The future is reality to hope. Faith, when grounded, will yield full- colored living hope. Hope cannot exist without faith. Hope will cease to exist under unbelief. 

Hope will dim and fade away with doubt and unbelief. These are daggers that will destroy us.

God gave Israel a picture of the promised land: “a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex 3:8). They believed the land was good. The spies who were sent into the land returned with “a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes, two of them carried it on a pole between them” (Num 13:23). But hope failed them. All they could see were many problems of going up against such a strong military force.  “So, we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief” (Heb 3:19). Unbelief that lost hope in God's promise to be with them and give them a promised land to live in.

The Many Faces of Hope

• “In his name the nations will put their hope.” Matt 12:21

• “Hope of the resurrection of the dead” Acts 23:6

• “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations” Rom 4:18

• “Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5).

•  “We wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” Rom 8:23,25 

• “Be joyful in hope” Rom 12:12

• “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Rom 15:13

• Love “always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Cor 13:7

•  “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Cor 13:13

•  “He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us.” (2 Cor 1:10)

• “For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.” Gal 5:5

• “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.” Eph 1:18

• “Faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel.” Col 1:5

•  “Your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thess 1:3

• “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” 2 Thess 2:16,17

•  “We have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.” 1 Tim 4:10

•  “In the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time.” Titus 1:2

• “We wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13

•  “Having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:7

• “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” Heb 10:23

• “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Heb 11:1

•  Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”  1 Pet 1:21)

• “All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”1 John 3:3

Truth, Hope, and the Spirit

Truth and hope are very closely connected. Hope is the Spirit-given assurance that you will receive answers to prayer and a resurrection from the dead. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:13).

“He [God] saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5-7). This is our future hope: to enter into our Father’s presence and see Him in person.

Love for others, as God loves, and faith in His Son are burned into the hearts of every believer around the world. “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope” (2 Thess 2:16).

Every Creature Under Heaven Has Heard Paul Preach the Gospel

Paul could not be saying he has preached in all of Asia, North Africa, Italy, or Greece. He did not live long enough, and furthermore, his ministry was severely shortened by imprisonment.

The gospel you heard, which has been proclaimed, is Paul’s expression of hope, not just a wish or a dream. It is hope that can see the future as reality. He sees that the gospel has been given again and again to every place inhabited by men and women. All north, all south, all west and all east of any location on this globe.

Paul knew the gospel story was destined to be carried everywhere. His hope is not hope today; it is reality. Where on earth is the internet, the printed page, or the spoken word—not to be found? Nowhere.

It is everywhere. Always available, even if forbidden by a government. It cannot be hidden, for God speaks through the Word of His Son in Scripture. He speaks to our conscience individually. In some cultures where the Gospel is forbidden, God speaks about His Son in a dream.   

The Gospel Proclaimed To All the World: It Is God’s Testimony

As John says, “If we accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God [Himself], which He has given to us about His Son” (1 John 5:9).

God’s testimony is far greater than that of any great person of the past. They are just footnotes in history. Whereas Jesus is living in song, words, prayers, and in the hearts of billions. Every day. Every month. Every year. Every Century. Every village. Every city. Every place.

Because it's God Himself giving His witness to His Only Son. Nobody, no person, can ever stop God’s testimony to earth about having faith in His Son. Paul’s letters are part of God’s testimony to you, to me, and to the whole world.

According to Google AI, “An estimated 5 to 6 billion copies of the Bible have been printed worldwide since Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable-type printing press around 1455.”  This does not count the unknowable number of times the Bible has been accessed in digital form. Neither can the number of printed volumes that have quoted from the Bible as a source of inspiration be known. Neither can be known how many times, daily, hourly, the Bible is read in a public worship service. No other book has ever been so highly valued in human history, bringing to view Christ “the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).

In Scriptures and millions of voices, God Himself is speaking to the world. There is nothing greater, more truthful, more long-lasting, with irresistible power, because all “Power belongs to you, God” (Ps 62:11).

More has been written about Jesus, spoken, preached, taught, listened to, read, printed, and publicly proclaimed than about any other person in all human history. God’s testimony concerning His Son is greater and has been explained more thoroughly than that of any other person, living or dead. God’s testimony is compelling, engaging, and moving on the most hardened hearts.

Nobody can match the testimony God has given to His Only Son, whom He loves. It is impossible. Because humans have limited influence on their time and place in history. God’s Son transcends all time, is found in all history, is relevant to every culture, and appeals to all tribes and languages of the earth. It is as present on earth as the sun and rain.

It is impossible for anybody encompassing all of humanity to blot out the testimony of God about His Son. It cannot be done. No, it cannot! Why? Because the “glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor 4:4) has proclaimed this Gospel Himself. He has given Paul’s letter a weight of influence unseen in any human literature past or present.

Hope and Our Future with Prayer and Watchfulness

The word hope looks to the future, where we “see God as He is” (1 John 3:2).

John knows his dear children have vibrant hope. With a clear vision, they see Christ when “he appears” in full-color hope. Thus, he wants them to watch themselves, as Jesus said, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt 26:41).

Hope sees our inheritance, stored up in a safe location in the presence of God and all the heavenly Angels, with your name affixed, giving you all the rights and privileges of a son or daughter of God the Father. Soon to be handed over to you. Can you see it?

Hope looks to the future of becoming family to God in heaven. You see and feel the vast inheritance that God has called you to come and receive. Your heart longs for it; your eyes envision it as reality. Together, your heart and eyes are focused there in anticipation. This vision is God-given to you, an indication that God is planning for you to be there.

Hope knows that you are “qualified … to share in the inheritance…in the kingdom of light” (Col 1:12). It is an “inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you” (1 Pet 1:4). God has laid up our inheritance in heaven’s open storage.

It is yours already, but not yet. Perhaps God has your name on the title to your inheritance. Hope sees it there. However, hope is kept alive as we continue to enjoy “faith in Christ Jesus” and “Love…for all God’s people” (Col 1:3). This is the basis of hope; by this means we know we have our inheritance waiting for us in heaven.

Now, right now, ask God to give you a certain and living hope for this new life, eternal life, consisting of an inheritance unimaginable.

• “Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from Him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress; I will not be shaken.” Psalms 62

Colossians 1:24 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. 1:25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— NIV

1:24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, 1:25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, NKJV

1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body—for the sake of his body, the church—what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. 1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship from God—given to me for you—in order to complete the word of God. NET

Now

Because “the gospel…has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven [the earth], of which I Paul have become a servant” (Col 1:23)

I Rejoice What I am Suffering for You

Paul viewed his Roman imprisonment, his loss of freedom, and the hardship of prison life as the direct result of his preaching the gospel. If he had remained in Judaism, Paul would have been an esteemed Rabbi, living in safety and comfort.

If Paul had thought only of himself and his ease, without the discomfort of imprisonment, he would have stepped away from his role as an Apostle. He would have counted the cost as too great and stopped teaching the gospel.

But Paul did not. He viewed his sufferings as appointed by God, because of his faith in Christ. He said, “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea” (2 Cor 11:24,25). Yet Paul never complained about his harsh treatment and did not blame or name his accusers.

Just as his Lord Jesus Christ suffered for us, so Paul was willing to suffer for Christ. Paul followed His example as Jesus suffered for the body, the church, “the household of faith” (Gal 6:10 NKJV). You, I, and all the others who come to believe are the direct result of the suffering of God and His Son.

This is the Truth—The Sufferings of Christ are for Us, the Body of Believers

We would not have redemption and reconciliation to God unless Christ first suffered for us. So, Paul suffered in his ministry so that he could teach the gospel of Christ to you and me. And millions, billions of uncountable people have come to faith in Christ due in part to Paul’s ministry, not an ordinary ministry. Like a district pastor who lives with several cars, has a nice home, is appreciated by the congregation, and earns an above-average salary. He and his family live in peace, enjoying all the comforts of life and long vacations.

Paul’s letters and his ministry have a staying power, a freshness, an insight into heavenly things, unreported anywhere by anyone else. This kind of ministry, as an Apostle called by God, carries a cross. A heavy one. Yet this does not destroy Paul; it elevates him to the highest esteem, intellectually, morally, and socially—far above any other inspired prophet, priest, professor, or teacher of the Gospel—after New Testament times. Paul’s thirteen letters, about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, are unmatched, unrivaled, above and beyond all other books on theology. His teaching gives us peace, trust, faith, endurance, and hope, and, most of all, points us to the way of salvation because God has chosen to breathe life into His words.

Let Us not be Mistaken.

Paul has life in his words because they are based on the gospel given to us in the life of Jesus Christ and His Father. They are not Pauline in origin. They point to the Christ Jesus in nearly every sentence. This is the source of their power. A power that is made perfect in suffering. Just as it is said about Jesus, “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Heb 2:10 NKJV). Without the sufferings of Christ, there would be no salvation for anyone.

I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.

What does this mean? Paul knew that in his ministry he would be unjustly abused and unfairly suffer pain and discomfort. He knew, even while still in prison, writing this letter, that there was still more suffering to come.

He did not quake before it. He did not shun the cross of suffering. He did not compare his life to that of other believers who sleep safely in their homes, next to their wives and children.

• “But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” 1 Pet 4:13; see 5:10.

• “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” Rom 8:17

• When Paul was preaching in the Town of Lystra, the people were influenced to reject Paul, so they stoned Paul, leaving him to die.  Paul returned and “preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples… strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. ‘We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,’ they said. Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust” (Luke 14:21-25).

Paul boldly accepted the path laid out for him, prophesied by Ananias.

The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”

But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles, to their kings, and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up, was baptized, and after eating some food, he regained his strength. Acts 9:11-19

Where would our understanding be without the instructive letters of Paul? If Paul had not withdrawn from suffering, we would not be reading his prison letters, Colossians or Ephesians, right now.

Self-denial and Suffering for all Disciples

Jesus did not promise his followers that their lives would be all roses and prosperity. He often taught the exact opposite. “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matt 16:24).

Following Christ often leads us to separate from friends who pull us down. It may be an old girlfriend or boyfriend who holds power over your emotions and demands your loyalty. It could be movies that are violent, sexual, and suggestive, that cause us to relive them for days, removing the love of God and joy in Scripture.

The call to “put them to death” or “rid ourselves” (Col 3:5-8) of them may require considerable, consistent, and frequent self-denial, claiming power from God. Thankfully, we are not left alone in this task; we have the promises of God.

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” Rom 8:11-13

Beware of Prosperity Teachers—False Prophets

A prosperity preacher teaches that faith and positive thinking lead to financial and material blessings and wealth. Their messages focus on the idea that God wants his followers to be healthy, wealthy, and successful. They teach that financial success and physical health are always God's will for faithful Christians. The atonement of Christ on the cross is interpreted to include not only forgiveness of sins, but also the guarantee of physical healing and financial prosperity in this life.

Poverty and sickness are viewed as curses to be broken through faith and righteous actions, rather than as potential parts of the Christian experience. One very popular prosperity preacher has a net worth of roughly $100 million. He lives in a $10 million mansion.

This teaching is what Jesus warned about: “Watch out for false prophets” (Matt 7:15), for they “will deceive many” (Matt 24:5).

Peter Did Not Teach the Prosperity Gospel

In Peter’s general letter to the world, he said, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Pet 2:21).

Jesus Did Not Teach Prosperity Gospel

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also” (John 15:18-20).

Persecution is the opposite of prosperity. However, persecution will take many different forms. It could be a co-worker who makes your life difficult. It could be an un-Christian wife or husband who oppresses and forces you to comply with their wishes.

Paul Did Not Teach the Divine Right to Prosperity

Paul said that we become heirs of God if we endure suffering. “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Rom 8:17).

Paul modeled a prayer for us, saying, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3:10,11).

How did Christ Suffer?

What was Christ’s suffering? “He suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Heb 2:9).

What was Christ’s suffering? “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Pet 2:23).

We suffer with Christ when we do not retaliate against an injustice done to us.

We suffer with Christ when we choose to follow Christ, even when it goes against our sinful nature, ingrained habits, and personal pleasures.

Suffering for You—Colossian Believers

Paul had a far different view of human suffering than is contemplated by modern believers. Christ suffered on the cross for the salvation of humanity and the church. Paul thought of his imprisonment for the good of the Colossian congregation. Paul wrote this letter while in prison because he was unable to visit personally. His suffering in prison has resulted in good for the whole church centuries later, when we read Paul’s letters.

In this way, Paul’s imprisonment is a source of strength for the church, which, in turn, is “the body of Christ” (1 Cor 11:29). We are all part of it as believers who dwell in Christ.

Paul was happy at the thought that his sufferings would bring blessing to “the body of Christ” (Eph 4:12). Now, when we read his four prison letters, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, we are repeatedly drawn near to God and His Son.

• “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction [difficulties], faithful in prayer.” Rom 12:12

Paul’s Prayer that He Would teach the Word of God in its Fulness, as Model to Imitate

Paul did not pray for wealth, prosperity, new clothes, or a carriage that was conveyed from village to village. Instead, Paul recalls, “I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked” (2 Cor 11:27). Does this sound like a prosperity gospel message? One famous false teacher asked his followers to buy him a jet so he could travel faster than commercial flights. Some false teachers live in large, multi-million-dollar homes with many expensive cars and boats.

Paul did not ask, never did he ask, the people for tithes or offerings for his ministry. Instead, he worked day and night so he would not need to ask them for support. To the Thessalonians, he recalls.

“We cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share not only the gospel of God but also our lives with you. Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous, and blameless we were among you who believed. (1 Thess 2:8-10)

“For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked day and night, toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate” (2 Thess 3:7-9)

Paul’s Model Prayer for Grace in Suffering

Paul’s Prayer to God is the opposite of the prayers of the prosperity preachers. They live in luxury, they worship in million-dollar churches, they collect huge royalties from their books, they employ family at their church, demanding large salaries as they teach the wrong way of salvation.

         Instead, listen in to Paul’s private prayer to God:

“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor 12:8-10)

God told Paul that trusting in His grace will enable him to cope with his handicap. God’s grace will give him the extra encouragement he needs to preach the gospel. He lived with and above his physical thorn, which caused him discomfort at every step. Paul looked to God’s grace to be evident in his ministry. It is clear that God’s grace steams and boils out of Paul's letters and life. This is witnessed by millions every day as they read and meditate on Paul’s Letters, which move them to find the grace of God for themselves.

As usual, Paul boasted in this God-given plight, knowing that when he trusted God, His grace was more than enough to compensate for it. Boasting about his handicap is far better than complaining, which Paul refused to do.

If only Paul could see the world of believers in our day, holding their Bibles with reverence, turning their pages, being inspired to love God. See them treasure and love the story of salvation. Paul would emphatically say: “The Lord’s grace was overwhelmingly sufficient, with room enough to save billions of believers.”

(Repeated) Colossians 1:25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— NIV

1:25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God, which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God. NKJV

1:25 I became a servant of the church because God gave me a special work to do that helps you, and that work is to tell fully the message of God. New Century Version

Commissioned by God to Teach Us

Just think of how many commentaries exist just in two of Paul’s books, Romans and Galatians. They are countless. Paul’s letters engage the greatest thinkers and teachers of every generation. They hold an endless wealth of information about God and His Son. Those religious teachers that neglect Paul are most likely to “follow cunningly devised fables” (2 Pet 1:16).

Paul’s letters have led countless billions to trust in God and to love Him. Paul has fulfilled his mission and his commission from God very well, indeed.

Nobody can equal the content of just the book of Colossians. Let alone Ephesians. The hand of God and the Spirit of God pour out of the instruction Paul gives to us. If we were to take all the spiritual books ever printed since the day of papyrus scrolls, no secular author can compare to the Apostles of Jesus.

Considering all the books and authors — none can equal Paul. But we must see that the effectiveness of Paul’s letters is all due to the commission of God Himself. God willed it. God inspired it by His Spirit; God provided the ideas that so warm our hearts and, best of all, give us peace.

They open our spirits to know the truth and provide us with peace, joy, and “love in the Spirit” (Col 1:8). However, Paul’s words and instructions are not designed to make us wealthy, except spiritually wealthy in understanding God's power in our lives.

Paul Was Commissioned by the Working of God’s Power

“I became a servant [or minister] of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of His [God’s] power. Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given [to] me: [for the purpose] to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ” (Eph 3:7,8).

When Paul writes his letters, he does not relate what he learned from books or his studies in Jerusalem. Instead, it was all by grace, not external, as in knowledge of a subject, but inside Paul.

How can we know that Paul did receive this gift of grace he claims? We know this because the words Paul wrote in this letter are never out of date, even though it is 2,000 years old. It appeals to us powerfully and personally, enlightening us from the inside out in our understanding of this treasure for ourselves. It transcends time and culture, appealing to men, women, and children of any culture, any language, any location, with or without education. It is heart-based. The mind agrees with the learned instruction, while the heart is convinced and moved with emotion and conviction.

Through Paul’s letters, we come to a better understanding of God’s grace. This is seen in God always leaning toward us freely. Reaching out to us because of God’s preeminent kindness to bless us, love us, care for us, and be Father to us.

Paul felt that he was less important than the humblest, least likely believer among all other Christians to receive such a profound understanding of God’s grace in Christ. To date, millions of copies of Paul’s letters have been printed. There are millions and millions more articles, sermons, and even thousands of theses prepared for universities. Yet none of them are as complete as the less than 50 pages of Paul’s letters, just as they read, because they present the boundless riches of Christ and the Grace of God—in all humility.

Paul considered that the source of his letters was not his academic accomplishments—but the gift of God. Its source was the grace, undeserved favor, of God.

“For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man [Adam], how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!” (Rom 5:17).

The one man, Jesus Christ, is the means by which God’s abundant provisions of His wonderful, powerful grace come into our hearts, our outlooks on life, our souls, our inner being, our physical bodies, our values, our choices, our loves, our hopes, our dreams and our visions of the future, our worship, our prayers, our songs—permeating everything we own, we possess, we claim as our own, our families, and our homes. The light of God’s grace in Christ is so bright that it is like standing in the full sun. Such was the message that Paul came to teach us.

Colossians 1:26 [Word of God in its fullness is 1:25]…The mystery [secret] that has been kept hidden for ages and generations but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 1:27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery [secret], which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. NIV

1:26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 1:27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. NKJV

Christ in You, Our Hope of Glory to Come

• Our only hope for glory is to have Christ living in us.

• Christ living in you, the hope of glory

• His glory living inside you is our hope of glory.

• The hope and guarantee of glory.

• Your hope of sharing in God's glory.

• Christ in your hearts is your only hope of glory.

The Text

The NKJV is a more accurate description, saying "God willed," meaning that God made something happen. Just like creation when “He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast” (Ps 33:8 NKJV).

God wanted, but more importantly, God made it possible for the whole world to hear the gospel message. Thus, all can see for themselves the glory, the honor, and the super-brightness of “the kingdom of light” (Col 1:12). What it really means to have Christ Jesus in our hearts consists of two things: more love for others all around, and more peace. All of which is settled inside us. God will make the whole world know this, have the opportunity to experience it, and live our lives with this divine hope that transports us into God’s “eternal kingdom” (2 Pet 1:11).

Secret Mystery Revealed

Paul was “commissioned” by “God” (Col 1: 25) to open to the world the mystery of how God was going to bring the Jews, His people since the time of Abraham, and expand beyond the borders of Israel to encompass the rest of the world’s people, cultures, and nations. His plan was to bring all peoples by faith to “receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 1:11).

Since the time of Paul, every nation, language, and people from every geographic area of the world has had thousands of followers of God and His Son. God’s mystery, unknowable in the times of the prophets and kings, is a reality today. God’s purposes have been fulfilled.

Wall of Hostility Between Peoples of Faith—Broken Down

 Starting from Ephesians 2:11-22 through  3:1-12, a total of 24 verses, Paul has shown us God’s plan: how He is going to unite both Jews and Gentiles by breaking down the “wall of hostility” (Eph 2:14) between them and creating “one new humanity, out of the two, thus making peace” (Eph 2:15). This has wider applications of uniting all of humanity “in Christ through faith” (Eph 3:12).

Now that Jews and Gentiles, and all people of the world, all have the same privileged access “to God with freedom and confidence…through faith” (Eph 3:12). Thus, it is imperative that we learn how to get along with each other.

The prayer that follows, in Ephesians 3:14-21, was the means by which God brings all humanity “together of one body and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus” (Eph 3:6). It is the fruit of the Gospel, the “everlasting Gospel” (Rev 14:6 NKJV). This is the gospel that we take to heaven with us, not alone, not on our own, but together, with the “bond of peace” (Eph 4:3) and the love for others that God loves.

Paul Writes as the Whole World Had Already Heard This Message

Paul’s faith-vision of the future advancement of the Gospel: he saw it fully accomplished. Therefore, this should be the faith-vision of every gospel teacher for his city and town.

We wish we could take Paul on a global trip to visit congregations around the world. Peoples of the world, thousands of cultures with hundreds of languages—all centered on One Man, Jesus the Son of God. Paul is most likely to say to us: “I already knew the Gospel would touch billions.”

God has revealed this mystery so openly today that we cannot even imagine a time when it was not known. Yet in OT times, they could not see how the God of Abraham would be honored by peoples from around the world, century after century.

• “In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring” (Rom 9:8).

Christ in You the Hope of Glory

This mystery, of Christ actually dwelling in our body temple, was not well known in Old Testament times. They could not see that every Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite, and Moabite, including all pagans in Rome, Greece, and Egypt, and everywhere else, could be fully “reconciled” (Col 1:21) to God simply by faith in Christ. Such a concept would have been inconceivable without all the Mosaic laws of temple Sabbath worship, sacrifice of lambs, and ceremonial uncleanness. With their “special days and months and seasons and years” (Gal 4:10), it seemed impossible.  By what means could it be possible to create a worldwide people who worship God all together with “one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:4-5).

Mystery…Was Hidden

How can God reconcile us when our sins have separated us from Him? As Isaiah spoke to the people of Israel, “your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you” (Isa 59:2).

Answer: We “have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1). We have the privilege of Christ living in our hearts, our souls, our spirit, our bodies, our outlooks on life, our families, and the work of our hands—to have Christ in you, the hope of glory. There is glory now and increasingly more glory to come. Glory day by day, morning, noon, and night. Soon we will be “brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Rom 8:21).

• “For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” (Rom 11:36).

Christ in You—A New Kind of Worship

Jesus the Messiah inaugurated a new style of worship, telling the Woman at the Well, “a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24). Now Worship would no longer be formal, or ritual- based. Instead, changes us into a glorious state of “peace” (Eph 1:20; 3:15) and “love” (Eph 1:4, 8, 13), with “joyful thanks to the Father” (Col 1:12). All Old Testament worship was “a shadow of things to come” (Col 2:17).

This new kind of worship is emotional and heart-based, where love, joy, hope, faith, and trust reach out to God from within us because the Spirit’s temple indwells in the believer. The Spirit in us causes us to reverence and love God.

Jesus taught that “the first and greatest commandment” of all the commandments was to “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself '” (Matt 22:39, 37-38).

This kind of love is only possible through the Spirit, because “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5).

Love of God, in the Spirit and from the Spirit, is the foundation of true worship. This is gospel-based worship. Christ in you brings a new kind of worship, filled with “powerful energy” (Col 1:29). Where God is able to “lavish on us…all wisdom and understanding” (Eph 1:8). So that every believer in God can personally experience “love in the Spirit” (Col 1:8).

Jesus Teaches Us How to Have “Christ in You the Hope of Glory”

Jesus: Sermon on the Bread of Life

• John 6:40: Everyone that looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.

• John 6:51: I am the living bread from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh  [my life], which I give for the life of the world.

• John 6:53: Eat my flesh and drink my blood, or you have no life in you.

• John 6:54: Eat my flesh and drink my blood, then I will raise them up at the last day.

• John 6:55: My flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink.

• John 6:58: Whoever feeds on the bread that comes from heaven will live forever.

• Note: To “eat the flesh” is symbolic of having a daily hunger and thirst for all things about Jesus and the Apostles. Every day we are hungry for the New Testament and the Psalms; from these sources eternal life is found, and only here.

Simple Lesson

God has prepared a meal for us to eat and live forever. It is the New Testament. It is the life and cross of Christ. Eat and live forever. It is that simple.

Our private prayers, combined with our eyes daily on Scripture, are the key.

Our public worship should be mostly the New Testament, for Paul was a “servant by the commission of God…to present to you the word of God in its fullness” (Col 1:25). Eat and live. Live by these truths and lessons and live forever.

Real Drink and Real Food

Eating refers to the experience of reading the gospels and the letters of the Apostles. In the process, you will know you have been strengthened. Just as when you are very hungry and after you eat, your strength returns. You feel full and rested. So, it should be when you read the Word, not to prove a point of doctrine. Instead, to understand and take in the ideas, thoughts, and words on the page—and bring them into your life. In this process, you are drinking; it brings into you a stream of eternal life. In “Christ you have been brought to fullness” (Col 2:10), this fullness is renewed daily.

Daily Feed on the Bread from Heaven

To eat and feed on the life and teachings of Jesus is a daily experience. If we spend much of the day without feeding on some promise, without prayer, we should know that we live only because we live in Christ by faith. Living faith that knows what real faith is. You will know how well you are daily feeding on the bread from heaven:

• By “how firm” or steadfast is “your faith in Christ” (Col 2:5).

• By the fact that your mind is “set on things above, not on earthly things” (Col 3:1,2).

• By having often experienced the “putting to death” of the ten sins of your flesh (Col 3:5-8).

• By knowing you are chosen and loved by God because you daily seek to “clothe yourself with the ten ways to live your life (see Col 3:12-15).

• By daily seeking to “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col 3:17).

John used the term “you know” eight times in his letters, pointing to the truth that when we feed daily in prayer, in trust, and with love for God and others, we will know it. “You know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins” (1 John 3:5). You know that God has changed your life and removed the sins that have controlled it. You know that Christ is in you; He is your hope of glory. This is a glory that will come at the “resurrection of the righteous” (Lk 14:14).

Colossians 1:28 He [Christ 3:27] is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. 1:29 To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me [“Christ in you” 3:27]. NIV

1:28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 1:29 To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily. NKJV

1:28 We proclaim him by instructing and teaching all people with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature in Christ. NET Bible

Paul Introduces Himself

The Greek word for mature is teleios: meaning “perfect, complete, mature, or full-grown.” The root for teleios is tel, which means “reaching to an end or an aim." One author illustrates this with an old pirate's telescope, unfolding and extending one stage at a time. At each stage, it is at full strength, at its full capacity for effectiveness. This is compared to understanding the gospel as taught in this letter. Each time we pray and read this letter, we understand more. We see more clearly. We have a more mature understanding, and we learn that our former understanding was shallow in some points of faith.

It is by God’s “all power” (Col 1:11) that He gives us spiritual understanding as we patiently pray over the instruction God gave to Paul for our maturity. Recently we watched a sermon from a well-known Christian; he taught for over an hour with no Bible open and several brief references to Scripture. This kind of teaching will retard spiritual growth.

Paul declared that Christ worked powerfully and mightily in him. god’s wisdom and power are found in the Apostle Paul. If we want to have spiritual strength, we will often be found in Paul, the writings of Paul that point to the Gospels.

Growing into Spiritual Maturity: Includes the Following

The following list gives plenty of room to grow into spiritual maturity. The list is just from Colossians, and it is far from complete. No list is ever complete. We can never say we have arrived at a point where there is nothing more to know about Christ the Son of God. As if we have it all together. As if we own all the fullness of every truth. Of course not!! This is very presumptuous; it violates the first Beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:3).

1.      Faith in Christ Jesus (1:4)

2.      Hope in what God has stored up for us in heaven (1:5)

3.      Truly understanding God’s grace for ourselves (1:6)

4.      Love in the Spirit, among us (1:8)

5.      Understanding the knowledge of God’s will every day (1:9)

6.      Knowing wisdom and understanding from the Spirit (1:9)

7.      Pleasing the Lord in every good work and looking to do more good (1:10)

8.      Pleasing the Lord in growing in the knowledge of God in the Scriptures (1:10)

9.      By God’s all power we can have great endurance and patience (1:12)

10. That we would be united in love, with no hatred, no abuse, and no favoritism (2:2)

11. Learning how to stand firm in your faith (2:5)

12. Being rooted and built up in faith with overflowing thankfulness, for everything throughout the day (2:7)

13. God making us alive with Christ and forgiving all our sins (2:13)

14. Setting your hearts on things above where Christ is at God’s right hand, where nothing is impossible (3:1)

15. Knowing for a fact that when Christ appears, we will appear with Him (3:4)

16. Know how to put on the New Self in the knowledge and image of Christ, where old habits are gone (3:10).

17. Know how to clothe ourselves with compassion, forgiveness, and kindness (3:12-14)

18. Let the peace of Christ rule our hearts and always be thankful (3:15)

19. Let Christ dwell in us by psalms and songs from the Spirit, with gratitude (3:16)

20. Always, by word or action, give thanks to God (3:17)

21. Devoting yourself to prayer; being watchful and thankful (4:2)

22. Making the most of every opportunity God has provided for us (4:5)

Energy of Christ Worked Powerfully in Paul

The Greek word for energy used in the NIV is energeia, which sounds like "energy" in English. It means “energy, working, operation, or activity.” It stands for a power that is felt, that brings conviction of sin, and we become “filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:52). We now “worship in the Spirit” (John 4:24). This happens to us, to millions of us, all at the same time, for “there is one body and one Spirit…one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:4-6).

This is power off the charts. Power that moves and matures billions of believers around the world, on the same day, into faith and love for God and His Son.

• “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power” (1 Cor 4:20)

“In repentance and rest 

is your salvation, 

In quietness and trust is your strength.” 

Isa 30:15 NIV

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 This explains why there are no footnotes in our commentary.

We hold that Scripture is all-sufficient.

Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone)

Sola Fide (Faith Alone)

Sola Gratia (Grace Alone)

Solus Christus (Christ Alone)

Soli Deo Gloria (To the Glory of God Alone)

All Bible quotations are from the New International Version, unless otherwise indicated.

 Written by: Brothers & Sisters in Scripture Fellowship

The End of Colossians Chapter 1

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Colossians 2

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1 John 1

Ephesians 1

You Must Be Born Again

God said: Listen To Him

Luke 6

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