Colossians (Wed/Prayer)

Paul writes to shore up and reinforce the faith of the Colossians.

Their faith isn’t on the brink of extinction or trapped in error, but and outside “philosophy” (2:8)

defames and denigrates the Colossians’ hope in Christ and threatens their assurance.

What ever this error is (and we can only speculate), but whatever the error is:

it devalues Christ’s supremacy and the adequacy of salvation through Him.

This philosophy promotes other observances to achieve well-being.

So the congregation needs encouragement

For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ,

— I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts,

So, the congregation needs encouragement about the certainty of their faith

to give them full assurance and a thankful spirit for what God has done for them.

— 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. — 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. — 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.

[This peace rules where the message of Christ dwells (v16); the church should display harmony and thankfulness as a result].

— 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

[To do all things “in the name of the Lord Jesus,” then, does not mean simply to utter Jesus’ name but to act always in concert with the nature and character of our Lord.]

The Pillar New Testament Commentary: Colossians and Philemon 3. Putting on the Practices of the “New Self” (3:12–17)

To do all things “in the name of the Lord Jesus,” then, does not mean simply to utter Jesus’ name but to act always in concert with the nature and character of our Lord.

— 2 Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving;

[Devote yourselves to prayer. Recalls the description of the first disciples after the resurrection (; ; ).

[watchful] vigilant. Praying with resolute persistence (; ), not being caught off guard by a time of trial ().]

So, we give thanks that we are partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

— 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. — 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. — 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. — 2 Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving;

Thankful to be rooted, built up in Him and established in the faith and abounding in it.

— 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. — 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Thankful to be rooted, built up in Him and established in the faith and abounding in it.

So our thanksgivings are rooted in the person of Christ.

First, Christ is supreme in creation.

— He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

Christ is the exact and visible expression of God, as ‘the firstborn over all creation’ a phrase that declares His pre-eminence in rank; as the Creator of the entire universe

of heavenly thrones and principalities;

as He is the goal of the whole universe, “All things were created through Him and for Him.”

He is preeminent and is the end of all things. I don’t use Him to accomplish my purposes. No, no, I was created for Him, not Him for me!!!

Oh how we don’t give Christ the preeminence in all things!!!

— And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

As the person who is “before” everything in time and status and is the sustainer of the universe, who maintains its permanent order, stability and productivity.

Does Christ come before your money? Time. Do His desires come before your desires?

As the person who is “before” everything in time and status and is the sustainer of the universe, who maintains its permanent order, stability and productivity.

Secondly, Christ is supreme in redemption:

— And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

As the head of the body, the church, He is our authoritative ruler and director

and… as ‘the beginning’ (v18)

He is the originating cause of the church and the constant source of its life;

as ‘the firstborn from among the dead’

He is the pioneer of a resurrection to immortality; as the possessor of all God’s fullness (v19); and

He is the agent of God’s reconciliation (v20).

This emphasis on Christ’s unchallenged superiority is also found elsewhere.

Christ is ruler over every cosmic power and authority (2:10).

He is the source of the nourishment, unity and growth of his body, the church (2:19),

where he is everything, all that matters (3:11).

As the Son whom God dearly loves,

He possesses and rules over a kingdom of light (1:12–13).

Being ‘seated at the right hand of God’ (3:1) he occupies a position of unparalleled dignity, honor and power (*cf. ).

He is the source of corporate peace in His church (3:15) and

He will dispense to believers their inheritance as a reward for their service (3:24).

Also it is in Christ and Christ alone that the full treasury of God’s wisdom and knowledge is stored (2:2).

Thankful for the peace of God in our hearts, this is our calling.

So with our hearts and minds full of the things of Christ let come to praise and give thanks to God for our great Savior and Lord.

Therefore, let us vigilantly pray with thanksgiving.

Therefore, let us vigilantly pray with thanksgiving.

But for tonight, we’re just going to look at the first two verses.

— 1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

As is typical, the letter begins with an identification of the sender and of the recipients, along with a greeting.

v1 “Paul” he begins with identifying himself.

Then he establishes his right to address the Colossian Christians by noting that he is an apostle.

A word that means an accredited missionary/messenger.

In an official sense this is one who is called by Christ Himself to represent Christ and proclaim Christ and thereby serve as the “foundation” of the new people of God.

— 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,

“an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God” (v1)

So Paul’s a special messenger of the risen Lord.

Paul’s apostelship was not a matter of choice on his part, but on God’s part: it was “by the will of God”.

It was the will of God to use the apostles to plant the Christian church and

to confirm the Christian doctrine.

And Paul attributes this, not to his own merit, strength, or sufficiency; but to the free grace and good will of God.

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

and Timothy our brother,

Here’s Paul’s humility, even calling Timothy his “son” in the faith elsewhere ().

Here he calls Timothy “our brother”. Paul looked upon those whom he served as his family.

And as such, he treated them with kindness and respect.

2 To the saints

2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Saints are those who by the Lord have been set apart to glorify him. They are the consecrated ones, the ones, whose task it is, to proclaim God’s excellencies.

— But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

Saints, then, are persons upon whom the Lord has bestowed a great favor and who have been entrusted with a weighty responsibility.

“saints” or ‘holy’ is their position but then see their practice (it matches or lives up to their position as “faithful brethren”).

But before we can talk about being put to holy use or growing in grace, we must see that sanctification is first of all God’s act of setting us apart from the world for Himself!

Many verses teach the fact that the reason that we’ll appear perfect before the Lord and in fact do so, even now, is all due to the fact that God chose it to be that way! (; ; ; ; ; ; ).

and faithful brethren

To Israel God says that as long as the people obey his law, they will be “my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” ().

It is this same description that Peter applies to the church because of Christ’s faithfulness, even to those who “were not a people” and “had not received mercy” ().

In his baptism, their baptism is sanctified. In his active obedience, they are holy. “And for their sakes I sanctify myself,” says Jesus, “so that they also may be sanctified in truth” ().

In his death, burial, and resurrection they die and are raised to new life.

They have been saved out of the world.

Therefore, even before Jesus tells the disciples about their own fruit-bearing life as part of the Vine, he declares, “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you” ().

In his message to the Ephesian elders, Paul said, “And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified” ().

He addresses his letters to the churches as those “who are … called to be saints” (), “to those sanctified" and in our text it’s “the saints and faithful brethren” that are in “Christ Jesus” (; cf. ; ; ; ).

Similarly, Peter addresses his first letter to Christians of the Jewish dispersed as those “elect … according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood” (), and

his second letter “to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” ().

So any degree of growth in grace is all due to truth, that absolutely sets us free, is that

in Christ Jesus, we’ve been set apart by God for His glorious purposes!

All that is found in Christ is holy, because it is in Christ. He is our sanctification—“the Lord is our righteousness” ( with ), our Holy Place.

The sprinkling of Christ’s blood is vastly superior to that of the blood of goats and bulls in sanctifying, since it purifies “our conscience from dead works to serve the living God!” ().

“And by [God’s] will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” ().

“our conscience from dead works to serve the living God!” (). “And by [God’s] will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” ().

It is this “blood of the covenant by which he [the covenant member] was sanctified” (v. 29).

Jesus suffered outside the camp “in order to sanctify the people through his own blood” ().

God 9… saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, 10 but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, ()

Where most people think that the goal of religion is to get people to become something that they are not,

the Scriptures [biblical Christianity] calls believers to become more and more what they already are in Christ.

Because they were definitively [decisively, once for all] sanctified or set apart as holy to the Lord.

So way more important than their physical location (Colosse) is their spiritual location: they are “in Christ”.

Where’s our new location (v13)?

Then we don’t want to pass over, what we might thing to be a standard greeting.

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

in Christ who are in Colosse:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is something that he pronounces over them! Grace and peace are two of the loveliest words in the Christian vocabulary.

Grace is a key theological concept for Paul. It expresses a fundamental characteristic [FOREVER] of God’s new covenant people:

that their status is ultimately dependent on God’s own unmerited intervention on their behalf.

— 1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Paul’s frequent references to “giving thanks” is an indirect and useful reminder of this basic theological theme.

Paul’s many “thanksgivings” an indirect and useful reminder of what our response should be to this basic theological theme- grace.

Greeting fellow-believers with this word, celebrated the work of grace in their lives.

“You are a recipient of God’s unmerited favor. Praise God for his grace! This is indeed wonderful!”

It was also a commissioning to live under grace.

May you have the disposition which makes you a ready receptor of God’s grace.

The dependency which makes you a ready receptor of God’s grace.

The humility which makes you a ready receptor of God’s grace.

The other half of the greeting, “peace,” came originally from the Hebrew shalom, which meant more than simply the absence of trouble, but well-being which springs from a sense of the presence of God.

Paul’s wish for the Colossians was that they would comprehend more fully their peace and enjoy it in all its depth.

These saints and believing brothers in Christ at Colosse grace, that is,

God’s spontaneous,

unmerited favor in action,

his sovereign, freely bestowed lovingkindness in operation, and

its result, peace.

That is, the assurance of reconciliation through the blood of the cross,

true spiritual wholeness and prosperity, these two blessings (grace and peace)

flowing down from whom? (v2) {God our Father}

Thus the Greek salutation, “greeting” and the Hebrew, “peace” are here combined, deepened and enriched.

The grace is that referred to in . “For by grace have you been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”

The peace is that great blessing which Christ as a result of his atoning death has bestowed to us — Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

It surpasses all understanding —and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.