210419 Devotional - Colossians 1:1-11

Greeting

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2 To the saints and faithful brothers[a] in Christ at Colossae:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
Thanksgiving and Prayer

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant.[b] He is a faithful minister of Christ on your[c] behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks[d] to the Father, who has qualified you[e] to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

It's interesting how Paul starts by establishing his credentials. He's an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. As an apostle he has received direct revelation from been sent out by Jesus to declare the good news to the world. He has the authority to bind the consciences of his readers through instruction and correction.

He has to do this so thoroughly because, at this point, Paul has not visited the church at Colossea. When Bill Parkinson sends me an email, he doesn't usually say it's from pastor Bill Parkinson, co-founder of Fellowship Bible Church. The readers may not have heard about Paul, but the title of Apostle is a big deal. Direct revelation, like Paul received, is extremely rare. When someone claims the title of Apostle by the will of God, they're either someone we should really pay attention to or a heretic.

Paul also introduces Timothy. I think this is part of Paul's discipling of Timothy.

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints

Now there's some high praise! This church has a reputation of belief in Jesus Christ as the perfect, crucified, risen savior. Their knowledge of Him is reflected in their love for their brothers and sisters in Christ. That's a heck of a reputation.

Paul starts with the indicative, identifying these people as faithful believers in Christ Jesus. The apostle models this for us - no imperative of how to behave should ever come before an indicative of who we are in Christ.

So, with all of that, why is Paul writing a letter to this church? He didn't plant this church, and they haven't met him. Paper and ink are expensive in 50 AD, so what makes an apostle go through the trouble of sending an uninvited letter?

We find out later in the letter that this church does love Christ, but dangerous heresy has crept in. We know the advance of the gospel is always opposed by the enemy, and that's true here. The two heresies that have taken over Colossea are asceticism and an early form of gnosticism. Paul praises this church for its faith in Christ and love for the saints, but he's worried that bad theology could destroy both of those positive traits.

He goes into much more detail later in the book but look at how, even in his praise, he's already correcting bad doctrine.

Verse 5 - Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel.

We are three sentences into the letter and Paul reminds the readers of the foundation of their faith is the good news of Christ and His work on the cross. Again, why go to the trouble of mentioning that after praising their faith? The answer is two popular heresies, Gnosticism and Asceticism, which were popular in the early church.

Asceticism teaches that the spiritual and the physical are separate and that physical things are bad, while spiritual things are good. If we can just cleanse ourselves of the created things, we'll reach a higher understanding. It sets God in opposition to creation, as if the chief end of man is to slough off his mortal coil and join the rest of the enlightened in heaven.

Gnosticism is the belief that we can acquire a higher knowledge of spiritual things on our own, apart from the Church and the Word of God. People claimed to have visions that were more important than scripture. Theologian Michael Horton describes it this way: "There are some people on the inside track. They know more than the apostles or the scriptures. They have their own direct revelation from God, and their inside track also has its own program for the redemption of creation." The gnostic claim to have special spiritual knowledge, particularly when it stands in opposition to God's word, is an offense to the Christian faith. The knowledge of the grace of God and His plan for redemption can only come through the Gospel.

This was cultural religion in the first century Asia Minor. Follow your dreams. Feel strongly enough about something and it must be true, even if it's in opposition to scripture. They didn't blatantly oppose the work of Christ on the Cross, they accepted that's how salvation worked, but they taught that you could reach higher levels of spiritual empowerment by following these extra rules they'd received through visions. That's all just behavior modification and idolatry. Totally different from our world today.

Three reasons to seek this. Abiding sin, evil and suffering in the world. Power for missions.

Verse 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks[d] to the Father, who has qualified you[e] to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

It's hard to be an ascetic and read these verses. The ascetics believe salvation is through our work of removing the physical to reveal the spiritual within us, but these verses remind us that it is not our work that saves, and God's plan isn't to remove creation, but to redeem us. We, as created creatures, are given the inheritance of saints and transferred to the kingdom of Christ, the author of our salvation. He doesn't even say that Christ made it possible for us to achieve these things, but this is all in the past tense. We have been qualified, delivered, transferred and forgiven. Nobody can give us more deliverance than we already have in Christ.

So what can we take away from 14 verses? Grace and peace. As believers in Christ, our salvation is complete. There is nothing we can improve or remove our right standing with God. Christ has taken the wrath that we deserved and credited to us His fulfilling of the law. Don't be deceived by false prophets, but listen to the right teaching of scripture and be filled with the knowledge of God's will.

There is a great danger in the christian life of seeing Christ and our being in Christ as sufficient for some but not all of our heavenly treasures

If we seek innocence, it will be found in His virgin conception. If mortification of the flesh, it is in his empty tomb. If power for living, it is found in His resurrection. If we seek the gifts of the spirit, let us find it in His anointing.