Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome

I am not much of a sports fan.

Although I played a lot of different sports growing up I have never really enjoyed watching others play.

When played, sports do help us develop the mindset of working together toward a common goal.

In a church or other body of believers our “spiritual team” should have a common goal for all its members like to “know Him and make Him known.”

God enables people around to to meet His goals for us to grow in Christ.

Today we will get to briefly study the Apostle Paul’s work in his ministry to help all he met or wrote to become “mature in Christ”.

Pray

Understand the Context

I am going to following the quarterly’s passage grouping for our lesson so that those with books can follow along more easily however, if you are reading the verses in a translation other than the CSB the passage may end in the middle of a paragraph for you.

The ESV which I use a primary translation ends the pericope - or thought grouping - at verse 5.

It really depends on how you interpret the Greek sentence structure and the tools that I have in my software showed how both can be correct.

In the opening paragraphs of the Letter to the Colossians, Paul sought to build rapport with a local church he had not personally helped establish.

He did so by assuring the members of his regular remembrance of them in his prayers, as well as assuring them that Epaphras, one of their number, was a valued co-laborer in the gospel.

He reminded them that the power of the gospel frees people from sin and opens the way for them to be reconciled to God.

He challenged the Colossians to remain faithful to the hope of the gospel by reminding them of the centrality of Christ, in whom they shared together in redemption and the forgiveness of sins.

The concluding verses of Colossians 1 and opening of chapter 2 set forth spiritual transformation as the goal of the gospel.

P [LifeWay Adults (2020).

(p.

84).

Explore the Bible: Adult Leader Guide - ESV - Fall 2021.

LifeWay Press.

Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]

Continued persecution of Paul by Jews and to some extent Romans keeps Paul in prison and prevents freedom of travel so he must rely on messengers like Epaphras and Philemon for both financial support and news.

Let’s study how Paul encourages a young church he has never visited to work hard at continuing to grow in faith.

Explore the Text

This verse was probably the one I had to look at the longest this week in order to clear up all the misconceptions I had when I first started studying.

Hopefully, my efforts will help clear ups some of the same questions that may have come to your mind.

The first thing I noticed is that the Greek word Paul used here translated as “suffering” was not the same as he had used in other passages like Phil 3:10 “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,” .

This word for “sufferings” (thlipsis [TG 2347, ZG 2568]) never refers elsewhere to what Jesus suffered on the cross, but it is used to refer to the sufferings of the end of the age (Matt 24:21, 29; Mark 13:19, 24; Rev 2:22; 7:14), which, in Jewish thought, would precede the appearance of the Messiah (the so-called “messianic woes”) - Hoehner, Harold W., Philip W. Comfort, and Peter H. Davids.

Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1&2 Thessalonians, Philemon.

Vol.

16.

Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2008.

Print.

Paul is already looking forward to Christ’s return and sees his current incarceration as a proof of that inevitability.

He also sees it as part of his ministry for the church knowing that it is for their benefit and because of his faith in Christ that he is imprisoned.

The next part of the verse took the most study for me.

I know that there is no lack or imperfection in anything about Christ, His work, or His provision.

We read last week about His preeminence in all things and how He reconciles all things to Himself.

We know from the rest of Paul’s writings that he too does not believe there is anything missing from Christ’s work of redemption for all mankind, so where is the “lacking” he has written about here?

Our first clue comes from the context.

Paul wrote in Phil 1 6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

The work is done by Christ as He reconciles us to Himself (Col 1:20).

But in this verse Paul says “I” am doing the filing; therefore, the lacking is his.

We also know how Paul likes to use contrasting thoughts to make a point.

After telling us all about the sufficiency and preeminence a few verses ago, Paul is showing us by contrast how “lacking” his work is for Christ’s church.

This is a statement of contrast between all that Christ has supplied through His sacrifice and all the Paul has yet to suffer on His behalf for the ministry to the church.

The lack is not in Christ’s sacrifice but in the suffering and sin of the world in the present and future which it has already covered.

Another was it may be said is “Christ’s payment was so great; we have a lot of catching up to do.”

‘what is wanting in the afflictions of Christ to be borne by me, that I supply in order to repay the benefits which Christ conferred on me by filling up the measure of the afflictions laid upon me’.

- Strong, James.

Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon 1995 : n. pag.