Col 1:15-29, 2:6 theme verse Col 1:18
The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.
In this nineteenth Sunday after the Pentecost, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last week, we learned that we always rejoice in Him in any circumstance and situations, as Paul could rejoice even in sufferings, because of Christ in him. This week after we look at how preeminent Christ is and how we have to live then, through the Epistle to the Colossians, I hope we can learn few lessons.
1) The Epistle to the Colossians is one of four Captivity Epistle – Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, which he wrote under his house arrest in Rome. Among Paul’s three missionary journeys, in the first missionary journey of AD 46-48, Paul proclaimed the gospel in Southern Galatia. And then during the second missionary journey of AD 50-52, he visited again the churches in Southern Galatia to comfort them and then crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Macedonia and preached the gospel at Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athen, and Corinth and then returned to Antioch via Ephesus. And then from AD 53 to 57, he went again the third missionary journey in which first again after visiting the Southern Galatian churches, he went to Ephesus and stayed there for 2 years to teach the Bible at Tyrannus. At that time, as Luke wrote in Acts 19:10 that “all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks,” and also Paul said in Col 1:7 that ”you the Colossians learned the gospel from Epaphras,” we generally presume that when Paul was teaching the Bible in Ephesus, Epaphras, who lived in Colossae, came to Ephesus, heard Paul’s preaching, became a Christian, and then returned to his hometown Colossae to spread the gospel of Christ so that the Jews who practiced circumcision and also the Gentiles who had been immersed in Greek philosophy and pagan religious rites converted and established church there and also in the nearby city of Laodicea, a church was established too.
2) And then after few years later, Paul who was under the house arrest in Rome, heard about the Colossian church and her challenges, from Epaphras who came to Rome to visit him that some believers who had a history of worshipping various spirits and believing in the existence and power of evil spirits were following heretical teachings that denied the preexistence of Christ, emphasized human philosophy and also urged the worshipping of angels and the observance of Jewish rules, so that he wrote the Epistles to the Colossians and exhorted the Colossian believes to live in Christ since Christ is preeminent to all the creatures and the powers and that all the believers had to live as New self in Christ after they have participated with Christ in His death, resurrection, and fullness.
3) First, looking at the characteristics of this Epistle to the Colossians based on the ancient epistolary custom, after starting with the most common opening section, Paul wrote also the most typical thanksgiving format in which he thanked God for their faith, love, and hope in Christ and prayed God to give them the wisdom and understanding so that they might know His will, pleasing God and bearing fruits of good deeds and to be strengthened with all powers after growing in the knowledge of God. And finally in the closing section, he ended his letter with introduction of Tychicus and Onesimus and greetings from Epaphras and his co-ministers, with benediction of God’s grace to them.
4) And briefly summarizing the main themes of the body of this Epistle, first, Paul said that Christ is the image of the invisible God, through whom all things were created and stand, and in whom the fullness of God resides and all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden, and that Paul was called to proclaim this mystery so that all human beings who have faith in Him might be made perfect in Him. Therefore he exhorted them not to follow the philosophy, Jewish regulations, and angel worship, but to live in the Lord, as they have received Christ Jesus as their Lord. And he explained that life is to put off the old self and live as a new self, living in love, being filled with the peace and the word of Christ. Here, what we have to recognize about this part is that Paul, who told the Ephesians not to get drunk, instead to be filled with the Holy Spirit, now exhorted the Colossians to be richly filled with the word of Christ, through which we can know that Paul wanted the Colossians who needed the right discernment with the Word of Christ in order to discern the pagan herecy and stand upright before Christ. And then finally he exhorted Christians who have put on new self in Christ to live a life of mutual submission and mutual respect in their family life and social life.
5) By the way, especially in today’s text, Paul introduces that Christ is preeminent, because He is the image of the invisible God, through whom we can see God, and He is the firstborn of all creations, as Psalm 2:7 says “You are my Son, today I have begotten You” so that He is God, born from God from the beginning, I mean, from the eternity. And in Him, dwells the fullness of God, and all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. And all things were created from Him, through Him and for Him and stands in Him. And also He is the head of church, the body of Jesus, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, that He might reconcile all things to God and present the believers holy, blameless and free from accusation.
6) Therefore, he became His minister to preach Christ, warning everyone, and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that he may present everyone perfect in Christ. For this he said he toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works in him. Finally he exhorted the Colossians to walk in Christ as they have received Christ Jesus the Lord. Here the Greek word in the phrase “Walk in Christ”, meaning to walk or to live, in present tense, means to continue to walk in Him or to continue to live in Him so that as mentioned in ver 1:10, it means to obey Him as they accept Christ as the Lord and then live a life that outwardly shows that they have accepted Christ as the Lord.
7) Therefore, when we confessed our faith in Him, since we accepted Him as our Savior and Lord. So after reviewing we live the life of gratitude to His salvation and also the life of obedience to Christ who is our Lord above all, I pray that we all may live a life of gratitude to our Savior and also a life worthy of Him, following His leading to become more like Him every day and to let Him live in us.
Key Questions as Small Group Activity
Q1 According to today’s text, we can know that when we confess our faith in Christ, we received Christ Jesus the Savior and the Lord. So after reflecting whether we live the life of gratitude to our Savior and the life of obedience to our Lord, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.
Q2 And also in today’s text, Paul exhorted that we have to live in Christ or walk in Christ. So reflecting what it means to live in Christ or to walk in Christ, I hope we could share our thought and experience with each other to learn from each other.
Love you. Thank you. God bless you.
Prayer Note
Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!
Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or even during the week )
Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!
Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),
please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized ).
I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon )
Please help me to live in that ( learned way of life )
I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.
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