Introduction
Today we’re beginning a new series of sermons on Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Colosse was a city in the Roman province of Asia Minor which is now Turkey. The city was near Ephesus and Laodicea and it was an important economic city with a significant Jewish population. We don’t think Paul had visited the city before he wrote this letter. We think this, because, if you take a look at verse 1 of chapter 2, you’ll see that he tells his readers in Colosse that he wants them to know how much he is struggling for them and for those in Laodicea and for all who have not met him personally. So, he hasn’t met them personally and had only heard about them from Epaphras, whom he mentions in verses 7 and 8 of chapter 1. Commentators believe that Epaphras probably became a Christian through Paul’s ministry. He then became a minister of the gospel and planted the church in Colosse. Epaphras then visited Paul and told him about the believers in Colosse. And, as a result of what Epaphras told him, Paul wrote this letter to them.
In verse 3 of chapter 4 Paul says that he was in chains when he wrote this letter. And right at the end of the letter, he asks his readers to remember his chains. Commentators believe that he wrote this letter when he was under house arrest in Rome and that, during the same period of time, he wrote his letters to the Philippians and to the Ephesians and to Philemon.
And Paul’s reason for writing this letter to the Colossians was to warn the believers about some kind of false teaching which was threatening the church. While the details are not clear, it seems the false teaching was a form of Jewish mysticism, combining elements of Judaism with paganism. It seems to be related to Judaism, because Paul mentions circumcision in verse 11 of chapter 2; and New Moon celebrations and the Sabbath in verse 16 of chapter 2. He also refers to various food laws in verses 20 to 23 of chapter 2. But then he also refers to wisdom and knowledge in verse 3 of chapter 2 and he mentions hollow and deceptive philosophy in verse 8 of chapter 3. In the same verse he also mentions the basic principles, or the elemental spirits, of this world. So, the false teachers have taken the so-called wisdom and knowledge of paganism and combined it with Jewish doctrine and come up with their own brand of teaching. And Paul wrote his letter to warn the believers so that they’re not taken in by the false teaching and led away from Christ, in whom dwells the fullness of God and through whom God has reconciled all things to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through Christ’s blood, shed on the cross.
And, of course, comparing the true gospel with every form of false gospel helps us to see the glory of the gospel. In order to know something well, you need to compare it to something else. When someone is doing a coffee tasting on Youtube, they don’t taste one coffee only. They taste two or three cups of coffee. And by comparing them, they can see that one is sweeter than the others; and another has a more chocolatey taste than the others; and another is fruitier than the others; and another is more bitter than the others. You need to compare and contrast them to understand them. And by comparing and contrasting the true gospel with false gospels, we get to see the glory of the true gospel and why the good news about Jesus Christ is so much better than any alternative which anyone has ever come up with.
Today we’re going to study the first eight verses. After the opening in verses 1 and 2, Paul expresses in verses 3 to 8 his gratitude to God for the believers in Colosse. And his prayer for gratitude can be divided into two parts: verses 3 to 5 and verses 6 to 8. In verses 3 to 5 he gives thanks to God for their faith and love. And he gives thanks to God for these, because their faith and love have come from God. And in verses 6 to 8 we have further evidence that their faith and love have come from God.
Verses 1 and 2
And so, we have the opening to the letter in verses 1 and 2. And Paul follows the normal method for opening a letter in those days. Letters in those days always began with the name of the author; then the name of the recipient or recipients; and then there’s a greeting.
So, this letter is from Paul. And Paul describes himself as an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. By calling himself an apostle, he means that he was one of that small group of men who had been appointed by God as official eye-witnesses of the resurrection and who had been sent out by Christ to proclaim the good news and to summon people everywhere to repent and believe. The apostles had all seen the Risen Lord Jesus Christ with their own eyes and could testify that Christ died and had risen and is alive forevermore. Most of the apostles had once been the Lord’s disciples and they had been with him throughout his earthly ministry. Then, after Judas’s killed himself, Matthias was chosen to replace him. And then, when Paul was still an unbeliever and a persecutor of the church, the Risen Lord Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus and converted him so that he became a believer and the Lord appointed him to be an apostle.
By saying that he was an apostle ‘by the will of God’, Paul makes clear that he did not make himself an apostle. He did not take on this role on his own initiative. He was not self-appointed to the role. Instead it was God who appointed him. And, of course, since he’s an apostle by the will of God, then he has a certain standing in the church. He has a certain authority. He has an official role to fulfil. And so, the believers in Colosse should pay attention to what he has to say in his letter, because he’s writing to them as Christ’s apostle or as Christ’s ambassador. Christ himself is addressing them through Paul. And Christ is addressing us through Paul as well. Christ comes to us in the reading and preaching of his word to speak to us. And we should listen to him.
The opening greeting is not only from Paul, but it’s also from Timothy too. So, we can imagine that Timothy was with Paul. He may even have been Paul’s scribe. And as Paul began his letter, Timothy asks him to send his greetings too. But while the opening greeting is from the two of them, the letter is from Paul.
And Paul describes the recipients of his letter as the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse. More literally, he describes them as the holy ones in Colosse and the faithful brothers in Christ. They are holy, because they’ve been set apart by God to belong to him. That’s what the word ‘holy’ means: set apart. And we too are God’s holy ones, because God sent his Holy Spirit into our lives and enabled us to believe in Christ for salvation. And by enabling us to believe, by uniting us by faith to Christ, he has set us apart from the rest of the world who do not believe. And that means that the whole world can be divided into just two groups: there are those who do not believe; and there are those who have been set apart by God and who believe in his Son. And God then works in the lives of believers to set them apart more and more from all that is unholy and wrong and sinful. So, we’re set apart in those two ways. Firstly, we’re set apart from those who don’t believe because God enabled us to believe. Secondly, we’re set apart from all that is wrong because God works in our lives to renew us in his image and to enable us to do his will here on earth.
And Paul describes the believers in Colosse as faithful brothers. That is, faithful brothers and sisters. We are brothers and sisters in the Lord, because whenever we believe, God graciously and freely adopts us into his family. He becomes our Heavenly Father and we become his children, whom he loves. And we are faithful when we are full of faith and when we remain faithful and loyal and true to Christ our Saviour.
And notice how Paul says the believers are in Colosse and in Christ. Believers have a kind of dual identity. We belong to a place like Colosse or Belfast. And so, we have things in common with the people who live in the same town or city as us. We might have the same kind of accent and wear the same kind of clothes and we go to the same shops and so on. But we also belong to Christ, because we’re united with him through faith. And belonging to Christ should also affect what we do and how we live our lives, because we should aim to please him in all we do and say. We are Christ’s representatives on the earth; and as we go about our daily lives in Belfast or wherever we live and work, we are to live for him.
And in the final part of the opening of the letter, Paul greets them with a kind of benediction. He writes: grace and peace to you from God our Father. Grace refers to God’s kindness to us and to the way he graciously helps us every day. And when Paul mentions peace, he probably has in mind the Hebrew word shalom which refers to that general sense of well-being: that sense that all will be well. And we know that all will be well for us, because through faith in Christ we have peace with God. God is not against us, but for us; and we can therefore count on his gracious help each day to overcome every trouble and trial we may face.
Verses 3 to 5
That’s the opening to Paul’s letter. In verses 3 to 5 he expresses his thankfulness to God for them. And he mentions two things which he has heard about them. He says in verse 4 that he has heard about their faith in Christ Jesus. And then, he also says in verse 4 that he has heard about the love they have for all the saints. When the word ‘saint’ or ‘saints’ appears in the New Testament, it refers to believers. So, Paul gives thanks to God for their faith in Christ and for the love they have for their fellow believers.
By giving thanks to God for their faith and love, Paul makes clear that if it were not for God, none of us would believe and none of us would be able to love others. God is the one who graciously and freely gives us faith. He enables us to believe. He sent someone to tell us the good news; and at the same time he sent his Spirit into us to enable us to believe. And just as he sustains our bodies each day, so he sustains our faith each day. He upholds us physically and he upholds us spiritually as well. He keeps us alive and he keeps us believing. And he renews us in his image so that instead of living selfish lives, he enables us more and more to love the people around us.
Thankfully, we live in a society where — in theory at least, if not always in practice — people are concerned for others and they take care of the poor and the vulnerable; and people are prepared to make sacrifices for the good of others. People who sacrifice themselves for the sake of others are commended, whereas we look down on those who are selfish and self-seeking and mean. If someone gives up their seat on a life-raft, they are praised for their self-sacrifice. If someone pushes other people out of the way when they’re trying to reach the emergency exit, they are condemned for their selflessness. As I say, that’s the theory, if not always the practice. But why is our society like this? How did we learn to value self-sacrifice and concern for others and charity? If you know anything about ancient societies, like Rome, you’ll know those ancient societies weren’t like that. The Romans didn’t care for the poor and the weak. They didn’t look after the poor. So, why are love and sacrifice and charity universally regarded today? How did we learn to value these things? We learned it from Christianity, because Christians are taught not only to believe in Christ, but to love others. We’re to love everyone and not just people who are like us. We’re even taught to love our enemies. Christianity teaches us to do this. And as Christianity spread throughout the world, so it taught people everywhere the importance of loving others.
And Christianity teaches us to do this, because when we love one another, and when we love even our enemies, then we’re following the example of our Saviour, who loved us and who sacrificed his own life on the cross to save us from our sin and misery. He loved us and gave up everything for us. And whenever we believe, God sends his Spirit into our lives to renew us in his image so that we begin to love others just as Christ loved us.
The idea of loving one another and sacrificing self comes from God. The idea comes from him and the ability to do it also comes from him. And therefore, when Paul heard about the love of the believers in Colosse, he knew their love had came from God. And he gave thanks to God for giving it to them.
And Paul adds in verse 5 that love comes from hope. Do you see that? The NIV translation suggests that both faith and love come from hope, but what Paul really wrote is that love comes from hope.
The word ‘hope’ is both a verb and a noun. When it’s used as a verb, it means hoping for something, or looking forward to something: ‘I hope to see you soon.’ When it’s used as a noun, it refers to what we hope for. And that’s how Paul is using the word ‘hope’ here, because he describes our hope as something that is stored up for us in heaven and that they’ve already heard about in the word of truth. So, they’ve heard about this hope; and this hope, this thing they’re hoping for, is stored up for them in heaven. It’s kept there for them. And since it’s in heaven, then it’s safe. Whatever is in heaven is safe. No one can steal it. No one can destroy it. It’s safe and sound in heaven.
So, what is this hope that is kept for them in heaven and which they heard about in the word of truth, which is the gospel? What is it? The Christian hope is the hope of the resurrection and eternal life in the presence of God. That’s the Christian hope. And the message of the gospel is that this hope of the resurrection and eternal life in the presence of God has become ours — it has becomes our hope — because of Christ, who took the blame for all that we have done wrong, when he gave up his life on the cross; and he shares his own perfect goodness with all who believe; and he gives us the free gift of eternal life, so that though we die, yet we shall live with God forever.
And this hope leads to love. Paul doesn’t say how hope leads to love, but the steps we take from hope to love are as follows: Firstly, God graciously and freely gives us the hope of the resurrection and eternal life in his presence, because of what Christ has done for us. He gives it to us as a free gift. And that leads to gratitude: we’re grateful to God for his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. And our gratitude leads to love, because the way we display our gratitude to God for his kindness to us in Christ is by obeying his commands, including his command to love one another.
Verses 6 to 8
And so, Paul gives thank to God for the faith and the love of the believers in Colosse. And the reason he gives thanks to God for these two things is because God is the one who enables us to believe in Christ and he enables us to love one another. If it weren’t for God, we wouldn’t believe. And if it weren’t for God, we wouldn’t be able to love others. And in verses 6 to 8 Paul emphasises in three other ways that this is all God’s work.
So, take a look at verse 6 where he says that all over the world the gospel is bearing fruit and growing. The phrase ‘bearing fruit and growing’ recalls what God said after creating Adam and Eve in the beginning. He said to them: ‘Be fruitful and multiple’. That is, be fruitful and increase; or be fruitful and grow. God wanted Adam and Eve to fill the earth with men and women made in the image of God who honour God. But Adam and Eve failed to do what God commanded them to do, because instead of filling the earth with men and women in the image of God who know and love and obey God, they filled the earth with sinners who dishonour God.
After God destroyed the world with a flood, and started over again with Noah, he commanded Noah to do the same: be fruitful and increase. But Noah also failed to do what God commanded him to do, because instead of filling the earth with men and women in the image of God who honour God, they filled the earth with sinners.
But what we failed to do, God is now doing himself, because he has commanded the gospel of Jesus Christ to be preached all over the world. And wherever the gospel is preached, it bears fruit and it increases. It bears fruit and increases, because the gospel produces men and women and boys and girls who are being renewed in God’s image and who honour him. That’s what happened in Colosse, because God caused the gospel message to bear fruit and to increase among them and it produced people who were filled with faith and love and who therefore honour God. And so, thanks be to God for their faith and love, which are the result of the gospel, which is able to bear fruit and to increase all over the world and produce people who honour God.
And so, Paul makes clear that faith and love come from God when he refers to the gospel bearing fruit and increasing. Secondly, Paul makes clear that faith and love come from God when he refers to Epaphras in verse 7. Paul describes Epaphras as ‘our dear fellow-servant’ and a ‘faithful minister of Christ’. He’s a dear fellow-servant and faithful minister, because God gave him a servant-heart and God called him to become a minister of the gospel. God gives his people a servant-heart so that we’re able, with God’s help, to follow the example of the Lord Jesus, who did not come into the world to be served, but to serve us by giving up his life to pay for our sins. And when God comes into our lives, he enables us more and more to become like Christ, so that we’re willing to serve others. And then, it was also God who called and equipped Epaphras to become a minister of the gospel. And God then sent Epaphras to Colosse to tell them the gospel message by which they were saved.
So, because God wanted them to believe in Christ and to love one another, he sent them Epaphras to tell them the gospel message. If it were not for God, calling and sending Epaphras, then they would never have heard the gospel or believed it. And so, thanks be to God for their faith and love, which are the result of God sending Epaphras into their lives.
And so, Paul makes clear that faith and love come from God when he refers to the gospel bearing fruit and increasing; and Paul makes clear that faith and love come from God when he refers to Epaphras whom he sent to tell them the good news. And then Paul makes clear that love comes from God when he describes their love in verse 8 as ‘your love in the Spirit’. When he refers to their love in the Spirit, he means that their love is inspired by the Spirit, or their love is by means of the Spirit. It’s the Spirit of God who enabled them to love one another, because love is one of the fruits that the Spirit produces in our lives as he renews us more and more in the image of God and as he enables us to become more like Christ, who loved us and gave up his life for us. And so, thanks be to God for their love, which is the result of God sending his Spirit into their lives.
Conclusion
Paul gives thanks to God for their faith and love, because faith and love come from God. God is the one who used the gospel to produce men and women and boys and girls who believed in Christ and who loved one another. God is one who sent Epaphras to tell them the good news. And God is the one who sent his Spirit into their lives to enable them to love one another.
And God is still at work today, because the gospel is still bearing fruit and increasing all over the world and God is using the gospel of Jesus Christ to fill the world with men and women and boys and girls who believe in Christ and who love one another and who therefore honour God.
And God is still at work today, because he continues to call and to send ministers and others to proclaim the good news so that those who hear and believe will be saved.
And God is still at work today, because he still sends his Spirit into the hearts of his people to enable them to love others.
And so, we too should be thankful like Paul. We should give thanks to God for giving us faith and love and we should give thanks to him for the great hope he has given us of the resurrection and eternal life in his presence, a hope which is stored up for us in heaven. We should give thanks to him; and we should pray that he will continue to use the gospel message to produce men and women and children who believe and who love. We should pray that he will continue to call and send preachers to go into all the world to proclaim the good news. And we should pray that he will continue to send his Spirit into the lives of men and women and children to enable them to love others as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.
Sermons and Stuff 