Colossians - Part I: Thanksgiving and Prayer

Reading

Colossians 1:1-14

Introduction

Colossae was a small town in the Lycus valley in what is now Turkey.  It stood about 100 miles inland from Ephesus, near the more prosperous towns of Laodicea and Heirapolis.

The church in Colossae was started by Epaphras, who probably encountered Paul in Ephesus then took the gospel message home with him.  The church was later to hit problems and it looks like Epaphras went to find help from Paul in Rome, where he was under house arrest.  Paul's response was the letter we're studying.

We have to read between the lines to understand what the problems were because Paul doesn't list them on a point-by-point basis.  He presents truth rather than arguing head-on against falsehood.

People trained to recognise counterfeit bank notes don't study counterfeit notes; they study the real things, becoming so familiar with them that they can spot forged notes easily.  Paul wants the Colossians to be well-grounded in truth so they'll be able to recognise false teaching.

So, what were the problems?  The Lycus valley was a major trade route, and a beautiful location.  It attracted all kinds of international travellers, and some of them settled in Colossae among the native Phrygians.  They came with their own beliefs, so that Colossae was what we would call a pluralistic society.

• The Phrygians were animists, who believed in spirits who operated through trees and rivers and the like and who needed to be appeased.
• There were Jews, who obviously brought all their Jewish tradition with them. 
• There were those who followed pagan practices of the Greek and Roman Gods: some of these were ascetics others were promiscuous. 
• There were astrologers from the east, and adherents of various mystery religions that espoused secret knowledge only for the initiated.

Some of these people became Christians, making a really good start, but then others tried to impose ideas from their non-Christian background; things like empty ritual, pointless asceticism and false mysticism.  This tendency is called syncretism.  It's something that's a great temptation in our modern world, and strikes at the heart of Christian faith.

In Colossae, the challenge detracted from the believer's full acceptance with God through Christ, and the supremacy of Christ in all things.  It undermined the free gift of salvation through faith and made salvation a matter of personal effort. 
Western society is increasingly one of secular humanism.  We are the captains of our own destiny, and all religions are seen as equally valid or equally worthless, depending on your point of view.  If we import non-Christian values from public opinion or secular viewpoints, we can find ourselves in exactly the same kind of trouble that the Colossians faced.

Paul writes to encourage the Colossians to keep a firm grasp on the all-sufficent Christ.  Doing this will disarm the influences that would otherwise ruin them.  He

• shows them what they have in Christ, and only through Christ;
• instructs them in practical terms what it means to be a Christian; and
• encourages this young church to maturity.

It's a letter of two halves, with the theology at the start and practical stuff at the end.  We can't skip the theology because the practical stuff relies on it.

(Paul's) Thanksgiving and Prayer

Paul's Thanksgiving

Paul starts on a positive note: he is so pleased that the gospel has born fruit in Colossae, that people there have found a genuine faith in Christ that has changed their lives.  And the evidence of that faith is the love they demonstrate for God's people.  Their faith and their love has its source in a new hope.

Hope is a much misunderstood word these days.  We use it in a way that's forlorn before we've started.  People hope they win the lottery, they hope it doesn't rain on Bank Holiday Monday, they hope Sunderland might just possibly win this weekend.  It's a sort of wishful thinking.  But the hope of the Bible is a looking forward with eager expectation!  That's what the word actually means. 
That's the sort of hope the Colossians have.   They've been reconciled with God and they have an eternal destiny to look forward to.  And, one day, it's going to happen!  The spin-off of that kind of hope is genuine faith in Christ and real love for the family of God.

Do you merely “hope” to go to heaven?  Or, are you looking forward to it with eager expectation?

Paul's Prayer for the Colossians

The rest of this passage is a gold mine with a rich seam running through it.  Every phrase conveys a wealth of meaning, and Paul has loaded it with buzz words that would have resonated with those who were being influenced by alien ideas, bringing them back to the fact that they already have everything they need in Christ.  Let's unpack what it says.

Paul writes, 'We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,'

The Remedy (Part I)

The first part of Paul's remedy for the Colossians was for them to receive full knowledge of God's will.  Fullness and secret knowledge were ideas that mystery religions would have been peddling, and Paul wants the Colossians to know that God isn't holding anything back from them.

The Source

They can know his will and, because they have the Holy Spirit, they have access to all the wisdom and understanding they need.

By implication, we can't obtain this insight from any external source; not from other belief systems, be they religious or philosophical; it comes only through the Spirit of God—the same Spirit who lives in every believer.  We don't only get wisdom and knowledge; we have the source of it all, right within us!

The Spirit brings us spiritual wisdom and spiritual understanding of who God is and what he's like, and so it can become clear to us what his will for our lives is. 
So, how do we obtain this wisdom and understanding?  Well, the best thing to do is to give serious attention to our relationship with God: reading scripture, listening to his word, meditating on it, asking the Spirit to bring revelation to our minds as we read and think and listen; acting on what we learn; spending time with God in prayer, rubbing shoulders with him, as it were.  By being a determined disciple!

The Result

What is it all for?  Well, Paul tells us it's, 'so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way.'  If we know and understand God's will for us, we'll be able to recognise false influences for what they are and reject them.  By doing God's will we'll live lives that are worthy of Christ, and we can actually please him: not to earn his favour but because we already have it!

Examples

And Paul gives us four examples of things that please God, and which also show us what his will for us is.  They are:

1. bearing fruit in every good work
2. growing in the knowledge of God,
3. being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might,
4. giving joyful thanks to the Father,

All these things are active, on-going things.  Let's have a look at each of them.

(1) bearing fruit in every good work

I like the way Paul expresses this.  He makes it clear that we are not doing good works to earn our place in heaven.  Our good works are the fruit of the salvation that God has already given us freely.  In Ephesians, Paul puts it like this: 'For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith … not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.'  We each of us have work to do.  Are we doing it?  Is our salvation bearing fruit?  We're saved for action!

(2) growing in the knowledge of God,

Paul expresses the same idea in Ephesians.  He writes, 'I keep asking that … God … may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.'  Growing in the knowledge of God is not about filling our heads with theology; it's about knowing our God better!  He calls us into relationship.  He wants us to know him in ever-increasing measure.
 
In our human relationships, we can stay very superficial.  We may work colleagues who are not really our friends.  Even here in church we can be on nodding terms and not really know each other.  But in a house group, we spend more time together, get to know more about each other and learn to trust each other; acquaintance grows into friendship, and some of us may even become 'Best Friends For Ever'; we become family, looking out for each other and genuinely caring.

But for that to happen, we have to put the time in; we have to make the commitment.  So it is with God.  He's shown his commitment to us at Calvary, and he wants us to move beyond the superficial to the intimate.  And with Jesus, for ever means for ever! 

And, you know, joining a house group will help you get to know God better too!

(3) being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience

There are two particular greek words used in this phrase.  'Being strengthened with all power' uses the word dunamis which is all about ability or enabling.  We get words like dynamo from this word.  In the old days, we used to have lights on our bicycles that were powered by a dynamo.  This was OK, except you had to work harder to drive the dynamo, and the lights went out when you stopped.

'According to his glorious might' uses the word kratos, which means strength or might.  So, in our analogy, the phrase suggests that our bike is a tandem and someone else with a limitless supply of strength is helping with the peddling.  So we can keep going when the road gets hard, and the lights never need go out!

I have friends in Newcastle whose daughter died, many years ago, at the age of eight.  People said to them, “How can you believe in a God who allows this to happen?”  Their response was, “How can we get through this without God?”  God's strength has kept them going even to this day.

Being a disciple is a life-long commitment.  Sometimes, it's difficult.  Sometimes, there's persecution.  We need staying-power, the enabling that God gives and underpins with his own strength.  It comes from living in relationship with him: 'those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength.'

(4) giving joyful thanks to the Father

As a trainee Local Preacher, you learn that Thanksgiving is an important part of worship.  Your services are assessed once a quarter, and one of questions asked is, were all elements of worship included in the service, and if not why not?  You could get the impression that thanksgiving should be included because it's the right thing to do.  But actually, we should hardly be able to contain ourselves from overflowing with joyful thanks!  Why?  Because, as Paul tells us, God through Christ has done for us what we couldn't do for ourselves, and what no one and nothing else could do for us.  God has

• settled our past, paying the penalty of our sins and the cost of our freedom through Christ's death on the cross; we're forgiven and redeemed!
• re-aligned our present, breaking the power of sin in our lives by rescuing us from the dominion of darkness and bringing us into Christ's kingdom;
• secured our future, because he's made us fit, qualified us, to have an eternal share in the kingdom of light.

The religions and philosophies the Colossians had previously followed held them captive under the dominion of darkness.  There was no escape: they needed rescuing.  Only God could do that, and only through Christ.  If they reflected on Paul's words, perhaps they would have realised that the old ways, the other ways, were useless.  Why go back to the things of darkness?

Summary

• The Colossians started well but were being influenced by alien ideas
• The Remedy – Part I: to receive full knowledge of God's will
• The Source – Wisdom and understanding brought by the Holy Spirit
• The Result – lives worthy of the Lord that truly please God
• Examples
• fruit of good works
• knowing God even better
• strength to keep going
• joyful thanksgiving because of God's grace.

We need to learn these lessons too, because there are influences out there and in here that can lead us off course if we're not careful.  We must discover and stay true to God's will so we can live the best and fullest expression of the life God has called us to.

The question I leave you with is, what are we going to DO about what we've heard today?