Colossians and Thanksgiving

Greetings

To start today I have a quick question, how do you greet someone when you see them?

Does the way someone greats you have an impact on whether or not you are going to listen to them?

Often when we read we read letters we overlook the personal details such as greetings and conclusions. However, we shouldn’t. These greetings tell us that Paul isn’t just writing to an impersonal audience but to an audience that he knows and loves. This is the way God speaks through his word to us not as some general audience but one he knows and loves intimately.  Paul greets others in such a personal way. Not with just a simple hello but in a way that shows genuine concern for someone.

Paul is introduced here as an apostle. An apostle is one who has been given direct authority from Christ. There are no more apostles to this day, although some other faiths or cults will claim to have them. Paul as an apostle of Christ had the power and authority to either correct or encourage the people in Colossae. Notice in the text that Paul includes Timothy. We know through scripture that Timothy was a faithful companion to Paul and his name in mentioned in other letters. Timothy’s name is similarly linked with Paul’s in the letters of 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Philemon, and \) 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Unlike Paul Timothy is not an apostle, but by studying other scriptures we know As we discussed last time he is writing to the Christians in collossae. He finishes by saying grace to you and peace from God our father. God is the one who gracefully brought these believers to God. True peace is only found by knowing God. After his introduction he switches to a time of thanksgiving and prayer. The rest of the time we are going to discuss the thanksgiving he has for the church and how that applies to us today.

Thanksgiving!

In verse 3 we see that He thanks God for the brethren. If we read Pauls other letters we see similar words of thanksgiving. He does does this in all of his letters but 1. which is Galatians. Verse 3 also tells us that he thanks God for the people of Colossae. If you notice Paul doesn’t first credit the people of God for their faith, but rather he focuses on God first. Pauls gives us a great examples how we are to thank God first, because he is worthy of it. Notice as well he mentions the Father and the Son. Remember a good portion of this book is going to be dedicated to the Lordship and supremacy of Christ. So mentioning this at the beginning of the book is important. Notice as well that Paul does not separate God the Father and Jesus Christ. Rather he elevates both throughout the book. As we read this book together we will see that Paul is correcting the beliefs the church may have about Christ, but he doesn’t do so at the expence of God the father who is also referred to as God himself.

Within the one being of God, there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Verses 4-8 tells them why he is thankful. He mentions 3 things

Finally in verse 3 we see that when he prays for him them he prays in thanksgiving to God.

How should we pray?

How does the Bible tell us to pray?

Verses 4-8 tells them why he is thankful. He mentions 3 things

the first being the good report that had come to him of the well-being of the Colossian Christians.

he said they had.

1. Faith. There faith was in Christ Jesus.

2. Hope There hope is lead up in heaven.

3. Love. There love was for one another.

These attributes are important to the Christian life. What does say? So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.

The characteristics of faith, hope, and love are mentioned all throughout scripture. One of these examples is found in .

1. By faith we are justified. by faith he have access to God.

2. hope. we rejoice in hope. we see that character produces hope. Hope does not put us to shame.

3. love. Gods love. Out of Gods love he gives his spirit. If we read on just a little bit we see that Gods love is displayed while we were still sinners Christ died for us! The greatest of these is love, because God loves us.

Second, the gospel conveys the knowledge of “God’s grace in all its truth.”

Truth seems to be the hardest thing to come by today, and I am sure that it was the same at Collossae. The church at the time was being attacked by false teaching that was not the truth. It was what paul called empty deceit. all truth that is not rooted in scripture is empty, and cannot produce life. Truth is something that the church needs, and it is something that the whole world needs. As believers we know the truth sets us free, it tells us the good news. The greatest truth is the life giving message of the gospel. This gospel that was proclaimed to the church was now being proclaimed to the world. This is an important statement because some were teaching that the truth was only obtainable by the spiritual elite, but this is not true. The gospel is to be proclaimed across the whole world.

A third item in Paul’s expression of thankfulness concerns the work of Epaphras, through whom the Colossians had been instructed in the gospel.

Who is Epaphras. Well we do not know much about him, except that he is a faithful minister of the gospel. Who has relayed the faithfulness of the people back to Paul. Even though we do not know much about him it does not mean that he wasn’t doing the work of God.

People like Epaphras have been doing God’s work for along time. We should be thankful for all the pastors, missionaries, and christians around the world who labor for the gospel. Each and every one of us has the responsibility to carry out the gospel in truth. We should be like Paul and be thankful to God that he provides other believers that minister to us, and be thankful for one another as we live this life together.