Jesus is the Cure for Spiritual Amnesia

Consider singing this: How many of you would do ANYTHING to protect those you love? So what you’re saying is...there ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley low enough, ain’t no river wide enough to keep you from getting to them. If they need you, all they’d have to do is call; you’d be there in a hurry; they wouldn’t have to worry. Right?!

Ok...I know some of you younger folks are wondering why that’s so funny.

Of course that’s hijacked from the lyrics to the 1967 hit single by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.

But in all seriousness, this is true. For those we love, there is no distance we wouldn’t travel, no mountain we wouldn’t climb there is not one sing thing we wouldn’t do to protect the ones we love the most.

That is the exact mindset that Epaphras had when he traveled from Colossae all the way to Rome to seek counsel from Paul. In order to help you grasp the intensity of Epaphras’ concern for the church he loved, allow me to give you some perspective of the distance he traveled to meet with Paul. Colossae is located in modern day Turkey. By foot, the distance from Colossae to Rome is approximately 1,143 miles. Google estimated that it would take 284 hours. consider using an American equivelent instead of the mountains, rivers and valleys. Let me spare you the math, that’s about 12 days. He would have to cross the Agean and Adriatic seas. He would travel across valleys 33 meters below sea level and cross the Balkans mountain ranges towering at 1,544 meters. Trust me we lived in the Balkans and those mountains are MASSIVE. We affectionately called one of the biggest we called Big Duke.

Point is, there was there wasn’t a mountain high enough, wasn’t a valley low enough, wasn’t a river wide enough to keep him from reaching Paul for guidance because he loved the Church so much. And he did so because there was a dangerous heresy attacking the church and he did not know what to do about it. And so he went to Paul, briefed him on everything the believers were taught about the Gospel, we see that from Paul saying “Keeping fast to the teaching” and he briefed Paul on everything the false teachers were enticing the Colossae Christians with.

And that is why Paul is writing this letter to not only the Colossian church, but also the other churches in the region. See Colossians chapter ???

After a brief greeting and a prayer, Paul launches into a hymn about the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus the Christ.

Now I know we have learned even recently that we can identify poetry by the way it is printed in stanza form in our modern day Bibles. And you’re thinking that

DO I SPEND ANY TIME DISCUSSING THIS AS A HYMN? HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO THE BIG IDEA?

Regardless, it is a brilliant letter, including one of the greatest statements of Christology in the Scriptures

The high Christology in Colossians 1:15–20 likely has the heresy in mind, with one of its features the diminishing of Christ’s status and of his full identification with the Father. Further aspects of the letter are discussed below.

No comparable listing of so many characteristics of Christ and His deity are found in any other Scripture passage. Christ is the supreme Sovereign of the universe!