The Mystery: Revealed

Colossians 1:29 “To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.” 

Here is Paul using that word labor again, which has a birthing connotation. Like birthing a baby, which is an act of love, Paul was an important part of the birth of the church. However, he says he wasn’t birthing the church by himself, but that God had given him the energy to carry it out. The great thing about God is He gives you dreams and then He gives you the energy to carry it. Even more than just giving you energy, God actually works through you to birth the very dreams He has given you. 

That brings me to today’s questions. These are a couple of the same questions I recently asked my staff and now I will ask you. What dreams are you dreaming that you haven’t told anyone? If you could do anything and God would bless it, what would that be? Tell us.

“Now I rejoiced in what was suffered 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.”

This has been a very difficult verse to understand. “What are you saying, Paul? Are you saying that Christ’s afflictions were not enough? That you have to suffer, too, to make up for it? That the atonement wasn’t complete? Didn’t Christ say, ‘It is finished’?” 

I don’t think that is what Paul is saying. The key to what he is saying is found in the last part of the verse: “for the sake of his body, the church.” There is still going to be suffering for the sake of the church. In fact, when he was writing this, he was actually in jail for spreading the message of Christ and birthing the church in new areas. Paul even calls it labor pains. When Paul was saying, “I rejoice in what was suffered for you,” he is saying that even though I am in prison for preaching to you, I am okay with that. In fact, I rejoice in that. I will gladly take the afflictions meant for Christ and the church on my own body. 

That is how much he understood what Christ did for him. That was why he had such care for the church. He was willing to suffer for the church.

How about you? Most of you will never have to die for the sake of the church, at least not in this culture during this time in which we live. But what kind of sacrifices have you made for “the church?” Have you given of your time, finances, or resources for the sake of the church? If you have, do you regret making those sacrifices? What would you say to someone about making sacrifices of your time or money for the sake of the church?

Tell us about it.

In the “Linked” series we talked a lot about reconciliation between family members who haven’t spoken in a long time. I had many people e-mail me stories of long time estranged relationships being restored because of the steps of reconciliation that were taught in the message “Tattoo You.” The emotion of relief stemming from finally reconciling with a father or a child they hadn’t spoken with for years was overwhelming.

What is even more amazing are the stories of someone who was the offended party and yet makes the first steps of reconciliation, not insisting on being right or waiting until the offending party apologizes. To them, the restoration of the relationship is more important than being right. The only way that can be successful is by truly forgetting the past and focusing on the future of the relationship.

Although it can be difficult to forget the past, forget the wrongs, etc., that is exactly what God did with us. Check out today’s reading:

Colossians 1:21-23 “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved 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, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.” 

We were the offending party. Our actions created the rift. We were the ones who alienated ourselves because of our evil behavior that we exhibited toward God. Not only is God the initiator of the reconciliation, but He orchestrated it so we didn’t stay that way. He took the punishment for our actions so that He could restore the relationship with us. 

This is the message of grace in a nutshell. We come to Christ hearing that message, but Paul says to make sure you continue living your relationship with Christ by that same understanding. Don’t go back into relating to God by what you do. This grace message is the only thing that will bring you hope!

Is there any way that even though you “were saved by grace through faith,” you still relate to God by what you do? If so, what did you do about the situation? Tell us about it. Maybe it will help someone else who still struggles with that.

How do we know what God looks like? 

Colossians 1:15 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” 

Who created all the things on the earth and for what reason? 

Colossians 1:16 “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.” 

What keeps this planet from not just spinning out into space?

Colossians 1:17 “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” 

Who should be in charge of the church? If Jesus rose from the dead, what are the implications of that? Is it true that we will also rise from the dead?

Colossians 1:18 “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy.” 

How can Jesus be man and God? Is He part man and only part God? 

Colossians 1:19 “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.”

Why did Jesus have to die? What was God’s motivation for giving His Son that way? 

Colossians 1:20 “And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on a cross.” 

What is eye opening about this paragraph of scriptures is how Paul makes this case of the supremacy of Christ. Even though He is at the top of the pecking order, above everything on earth, the whole purpose was to give up His life in order to reconcile us back to the Father. That is true sacrifice. We said this once on a Sunday; “Sacrifice is giving up something you love for something you love even more.” 

God gave up something He loved for something He loved even more. 

What have you given up? Has there been a time you made a sacrifice of something you loved and gained something you loved even more? Is there something you are sacrificing right now? Tell us about it.

Colossians 1:9-14 “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the  knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into His kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” 

Whew. Today’s portion of chapter 1 is literally a list of the things that Paul prays for this church. I have actually used this as a guideline to pray for people. This prayer is known as the Pauline (don’t know who that is – maybe it was his twin sister) prayers. Many of these epistles have them. Let me show you how to do this. I am going to pray this prayer for you, the blog reader. Here we go…

“Lord, I ask that you would fill them with the knowledge of your will for their life. I know that there are some people who are actually wrestling with that and they would have spiritual wisdom and understanding when it comes to knowing what your will is for their lives. God, I pray that they would live a life that would please you in every way and that every work they put their hands to would bring fruit. I pray for growth in their knowledge of you, that they are growing every day. God, that they would have great endurance and patience during this time because they are being strengthened by your glorious power. As they have the patience to endure until the end and receive the inheritance that they have as saints in your kingdom, that they would joyfully give thanks to you in all things. Thank you, God, for rescuing them out of darkness and placing them in the kingdom of your Son, whom you love. Because they are now residents in the kingdom of your Son, they have redemption and forgiveness of sins and the knowledge of that, totally change their lives. In Jesus name, amen.” 

See how easy that is?. Now you can never say you don’t know what to pray. Just pick up this book and insert names. In fact, why don’t you do it now?

I think we are going to tackle today’s devotion a little differently. I think today I will just read through verse by verse and then we will break it down and see if we can come up with some application at the end.

Colossians 1:3-8 

Verse 3 “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,”

I love it. I don’t really think about thanking God for people whenever I pray for them. To be honest with you, I don’t pray enough for people. If you are honest, I bet you could say the same thing. Imagine how our outlook on people would change if every time we prayed for someone we thanked God for them. We would then have to have something to be thankful for regarding them. That would make us always looking for and focusing on their positive attributes. 

Verse 4 “because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints.” 

That verse has always excited me as well. This church was being talked about so much that Paul had heard the talk. Unlike a lot of times when people talk about churches, this was positive. What was the talk? How faithful they were and their love for other people. Wouldn’t you like to hear that? ”Oh, Shoreline Church? They are not very traditional, but boy, do they love people.” 

Verse 5 “the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel”

This faith that you have and this love that you have for God’s people, where did you get it? Paul says it comes from the hope that is in the message of Christ. The natural outworking of hearing and understanding the message of Christ brings faith in Christ and love for other people. That is the fruit. 

Verse 6 “that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace it all its truth.” 

It is happening in other places besides Colosse. The same message that they heard in Colosse and the results they were seeing, were being experienced elsewhere. It all came when they heard the message of grace. The message that was spoken in Shoreline on Sunday was the grace message. That you were a sinner not because of what you did, but because it was your nature. But when you became a Christian your nature became like the nature of Christ, based not on what you do or don’t do, but based on the truth that you are now in the lineage of Christ and therefore like Christ, perfect. This message will change the world. 

Verse 7-8 “You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the spirit.” 

This makes it sound like Paul never even went to Colosse. Apparently it was Epaphras, a partner with Paul in the ministry, who taught the people of Colosse. 

When the message of true grace is preached, like what was spoken on Sunday, it brings hope. Before grace, there was no hope. All we could see was how pitifully short we came up. When people hear the message of true grace, they realize they will never measure up, but they don’t have to! Christ measured up for them. This message is revolutionary. This message is freeing. 

The question is, are people talking about us? Are they talking about Shoreline? Are they talking about how much we love people because we have heard the message of grace in all its truth, understood it, and now there is fruit to show for it?

What fruit are you seeing in your life that shows the message of grace is working in you?

It is amazing what you can accomplish when you know what the will of God is. I would even go so far as to say, without knowing the will of God, it is impossible to totally believe God and therefore very difficult to endure through tough situations.

Let me explain: Have you ever faced a decision that you weren’t sure what to do? Take a certain job; move across the state or country; start a company; buy a house. All decisions when knowing the will of God would make it easier to know what to do. When you aren’t sure what God’s plan is when it comes to decisions like that, it is difficult to stand and believe through tough times. When we are not sure what God’s will is, we start to rely on things like circumstances. We pray things like, “God, if it is your will, open a door of opportunity.” Now, there is nothing wrong with praying that if you don’t know what God’s will is, but you can’t do what Paul told Timothy and “fight the good fight of faith.” Just because it is God’s will doesn’t mean every door is going to open for you and every endeavor will be smooth sailing. The only way to fight the good fight of faith is to know the will of God. When there is opposition, you can stand and fight because you know you are supposed to. You won’t back down saying, “Well, I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”

In today’s first devotion of Colossians 1, Paul writes about God’s will that he is an apostle. Colossians 1:1-2 “Paul, as apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.”

I know this doesn’t sound like much and all he says is that he is an apostle by the will of God. But if you look at how much opposition he faced as an apostle, it brings a little perspective to this statement. He even makes a list of some these oppositions and sufferings in 2 Corinthians 11 starting in verse 16. Check them out sometime when you think life is rough. Do you think that in all of these times of opposition, when almost every time he went to a new city to preach, attempts on his life were made because of his message, that he ever became discouraged or even doubted his calling? I think he might have been tempted to doubt. What kept him fighting the good fight of faith? It was that he knew it was God’s will to be an apostle and start churches. That knowledge of God’s will for his life didn’t come because of all the circumstances lining up perfectly. He knew it because he spent time with God.

My prayer for you this month is that as you spend time with God, the “mystery” of His will may be made known to you so you will be able to stand and fight the good fight of faith.