Tag Archives: Colossians

Isaiah 6, Colossians 3-4

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Having been provided with knowledge of the future and the glory of God, Isaiah feels inadequate to serve God.  “Woe is me… I am a man of unclean lips“.  Yet the seraphim reassures Isaiah that God can work with him, “your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”  So when the voice of the Lord cries “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?“, Isaiah willingly volunteers to be God’s messenger.

This is similar to our own situation. We’ve been called by God to serve Him, offered hope and a part of God’s future. Yet we feel unable to serve God, too inadequate to even share the message of hope we’ve been given.  Like Isaiah, we should be reassured that God is with us, and be eager to share our hope with others.

Paul offers the Colossians advice on living this way. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom… do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus… continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving“.

Colossians 1

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Paul constantly prayed for the Colossian ecclesia, “that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks for the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.“

This prayer is full of encouragement and advice. The Colossians were commended for their love of the gospel, bearing fruit and increasing since the day they heard the gospel, and as such they’re a great example for us.  Let our prayers for each other reflect Paul’s prayer for the Colossians, that together we might all bear fruit and endure with joy, knowing that we’ve been offered a part of God’s eternal inheritance.

Colossians 3-4

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“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” The things on the earth are our everyday experience – walking around, living our lives. By ourself, we can’t reach the sky, the stars, they’re something foreign to our everyday experience.

We are exhorted to put away the earthly things. Our goal should not be to live for this current existence, limited to the surface of the earth.  Instead, living for an existence which is only within reach because of God’s grace, an existence motivated and bound together by love. Paul offers advice for focusing on the things that are above: “Continue steadfastly in prayer“; “Walk in wisdom“; “Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”  The things that are above require constant effort achieve and maintain.  It’s not easy for us to live “after the image of [our] creator”, but the reward is similarly great.

Isaiah 5, Colossians 2

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“My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.” That vineyard represented the house of Israel. Its hedge was removed, wall broken down, rain stopped, left to become a waste.  All because Israel rejected what God had done for them.

Paul encourages us to walk in Christ Jesus, “rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught“.  We’ve been buried with Christ in baptism, and raised with Christ through faith in God.  We’ve been given “the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ“. Like Israel, we’ve been given everything necessary to be faithful and produce fruit.

It’s powerful, motivating, uplifting and encouraging  to reflect on all the things God has done for you and I.  We who were once dead,  “God made alive together with [Jesus], having forgiven us all our trespasses“. Let’s truly live for Christ, showing his love by our actions and care towards one another.

Colossians 1

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“You, who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, [Jesus] has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith.”  Through the work of Christ we’ve been reconciled to God. Paul is so confident in God’s word, that he speaks as if we’ve already been presented holy and blameless, provided we continue in the faith.

Paul did not cease to pray for the Colossians, that they “may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”  This prayer is just as applicable to our lives today, and I think it is important for us to pray for each other in much the same way, that we all may “share in the inheritance of the saints in light.“