Colossians Study – Session 2
CrossPointe Community Church – Denton,
TX
January 20, 2013 - Larry Reynolds,
Teacher
2. Prayer
of Thanksgiving (3-8)
Some people just have a knack for saying the wrong
thing...their words deflate people...make people feel badly about
themselves...and their words are constantly a source of irritation and even
pain for other people...on other hand, there are some people who seem to have
an innate ability of using words in just the opposite way...they are by nature
encouragers and their words are positive...they build up people...they speak in
such a way that makes people feel better about themselves...I think the Apostle
Paul was that second kind of person...while he could be strong, forceful, and
very authoritative when necessary, Paul had the unique ability of using words
in a way that made people feel good...an excellent example of that can be seen
in the first chapter of Colossians...after a brief salutation in verses 1 &
2, the main body of Colossians begins in v.3...and in the first part of the
paragraph beginning with Colossians 1:3 Paul makes a very complimentary
statement about the Colossians...a statement which no doubt made them feel good
about themselves...it is actually in the form of a prayer…
(1) Circumstances of the
thanksgiving (3)
a. It’s addressed to “God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…” The term “Lord” is very important and the use
of it in reference to ‘Jesus is the same as equating Him with God. In the Old Testament the name “Yahweh” was generally translated “Lord.”
In the Old Testament it designated God as creator of the world, controller
of the world, master over life, and redeemer from sin. To
designate Jesus as “Lord” meant he was the same as God.
b. “…praying
always for you…” indicates it was a continuous thing. His expression of thanksgiving wasn’t an
occasional thing. Each time he prayed, Paul thanked God for them. This is
remarkable in light of the fact that Paul had never been to Colossae
(2) Three things for which Paul is thankful
(4-8)
a. For their spiritual welfare (4-5a) -
Paul begins this prayer with thanks for their faith, love, and hope. This is a familiar
trilogy of the basic fundamentals of Christianity (cf. I Cor. 13:13; I Thess.
1:3; 5:8). True to the basic gospel they had
experienced faith in Christ, love for each other, and hope
for eternity.
·
“faith in
Christ”
It is important to read the phrase about the faith of
the Colossians in the first part of v.4 in its entirety...Paul did not say that
he thanked God for their “faith”...he said he thanked God for
their faith “faith in Christ Jesus”...and that last phrase
makes all the difference in the world...the Christian life is not merely a life
of faith...Christianity is not a faith cult...we don’t worship faith for
faith’s sake...the Christian life is a life of faith “in Christ Jesus...” Point is, merely having faith is not
enough...it is quite possible to have faith but for the faith to be
misdirected...Christians are people who have placed their faith in Christ
Jesus...now what does that mean?...want to mention quickly a couple of
things...
·
Placing our faith in Christ Jesus means being obedient
to Him... the word translated “faith”
in v.4 is “pistis”...it comes from the root word “peitho” which
means “to obey”...in the NT the concept of obedience is often linked to
the concept of faith or belief...on at least three occasions the NT (Acts 6:7,
Romans 1:5, and Romans 16:26) speaks directly of “the obedience of faith”....
o
And the clear
teaching of the NT is that saving faith involves much more than mere
intellectual assent to a set of theological propositions...and saving faith
involves much more than an emotional attachment to a particular
tradition...saving faith must include radical obedience to Jesus...Jesus said
in John 3:36 - “He who believes (has faith in) the Son has eternal life;
but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abides on him.”...and one day Jesus asked, “And why do you call
Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”...genuine faith/ belief in
Jesus is always accompanied by obedience...
o
Craig Larson
wrote the following statement which was published in Decision Magazine which is
put out by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association...listen to what he wrote:
“Many times we think we believe in Jesus, when
actually we only believe about him. He
requires us to believe in his authority and leadership to be true
followers. If we do, there will be
evidence. We will seek to obey God's Word.
We will welcome his authority in all areas of our lives. We will follow Jesus through daily prayer and
Bible study, church attendance, thanksgiving and praise.” ["Believing
in Jesus: what does that mean?" by Craig Brian Larson. Decision, May
1988. Pages 10‑11] Another writer
put it this way: “When a [person] obeys God he gives the only possible
evidence that in his heart he believes God.” [W.E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of the NT, p.124]
·
Placing our faith in Christ Jesus means trusting our
lives to Him...there is some
debate among Bible scholars about whether the phrase “faith in Christ
Jesus” in v.4 means that Jesus is the source of faith (“faith which
comes from Jesus”) or whether it means Jesus is the object of our faith (“faith
which is directed toward Jesus”)...I think the weight of evidence leans to
the idea that Jesus is the object of our faith...we’re to place our confidence,
our trust in Him...And the truth is, we’re not very good at doing that...while
we give lip service to the idea of placing our lives in Jesus’ hands and
trusting Him completely, it is ever our way to hold something back...Paul
complimented the Colossians for depositing their full confidence, their full
trust in Christ...the implication is that they held nothing back...
·
“love…for all
the saints…”
There are always two sides to
the Christian life—-loyalty to Christ and love for others. The result of genuine faith is love for
others. There is much we can learn about Christian love from the phrase “…the
love which you have for all the saints…” in verse 4.
·
That phrase tells us something about the nature of
Christian love (Genuine Christian
love is not so much something we feel as it is something we do) It is interesting how Paul phrases this. Not “…the
love that you feel…” but “…the
love which you have…”
o
The English
language is rather imprecise in how it expresses the various aspects of love. We can say “I love Mexican food …football…my wife…” and mean totally different
things by the word. Greek is much more
precise in expressing the very facets of love...in the Greek vocabulary there
are several words that we translate with the single English word “love”…I’m sure you’ve heard this
before, but want refresh your memory
about those words...
§ EROS ‑
Carries the idea of loving that which is desirable or attractive...focuses on
worth of object being loved...if she's pretty or he's handsome or rich, I'll
love...loving for what can get in return...our word “erotic” comes from this
word...it is not used on time in NT...
§ PIHILIA ‑
Means warm affection for others...it’s that sentimental feeling we often
identify with love...used about 50 times in NT...
§ AGAPE ‑
Focuses not on worth of object being loved but upon subject doing loving...never says, "I
love you if...or even I love you because..."... simply says, "I
have chosen to love you..."...it's self‑giving love that seeks nothing
in return...this word is used more than 250 times in NT...
And so when Paul spoke of the love of the Colossians
in v.4 he had several words from which to choose...and it is significant that
the word he chose was agape, the self-giving, self-sacrificing kind of
love...as matter of fact, on five (5) different occasions in Colossians Paul
mentions the concept of love, and each time he uses a form of agape...
o
And what I want
you to see in that is genuine Christian love is expressed not so much by what
we feel as what we do...the kind of love for which Paul praises the Colossians
was not a cheap, emotional sentimentality...it was a deep, abiding concern for
the welfare of others...a concern which expressed itself in sacrificial
action...
·
Tells us
something about the scope of Christian love (Genuine Christian love is not exclusive)
o
Notice what Paul
says about the love of the Colossians...it was “for all the saints”...we
saw last week that “saints” is just another way of referring to
Christians...it doesn’t mean just a select few...means every person in the
fellowship of the church...
o
And point is that
Christians are to love each other...while our love should not be limited just
to Christians (remember the words of Jesus when He said, “You have heard
that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray
for those who persecute you ... for if you love those who love you, what reward
have you.”) ...our love should certainly extend to “all the
saints” or to everyone in the fellowship...
o
That doesn’t mean
that we will have the same emotional attachment to every person...while we
cannot always control how we feel toward a person, we can always control how we
act toward that person...in the classic book Mere Christianity, C.S.
Lewis wrote, "Do not waste your time bothering whether you 'love'
your neighbor act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the
great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will
presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find
yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself
disliking him less."
o
But it does mean
that we will go out of our way to treat every believer in the same way...we
don’t have the luxury of being selective in expressing Christian love...we
cannot choose to—
§ be kind to one person and unkind to another...
§ be gentle toward one and harsh toward another...
§
accept one and
reject another...
§
forgive one
person and hold a grudge against another...
·
“…because of the
hope laid up for you in heaven…”
“…because of…” - The Greek text v.5 begins with a preposition...the
single Greek word is translated “because of” in the NASB...this
preposition links v.5 with v.4...the effect is that what is said in v.4 is the
result of what is said in v.5...v.4 speaks of the faith and the love of the
Colossians...and the grammar indicates that their faith and love is a result of
their hope... as one writer put it, “...hope produces faith, and faith in
turn grows into love. Hope is the root,
faith is the plant, and love is the fruit.” [Ray Stedman sermon “Where
Hope Begins”]…in other words, it is hope with makes it possible for us to live
a full, complete life in this world...remembering that we have an eternal hope,
that this world is not all there is, does not diminish the value of our current
life...as matter of fact, it makes life today more fruitful and more
productive...
“…the hope…” (elpis) - In our language
the word “hope” carries the idea of wishing for something...if I say, “I
hope it doesn’t rain today” I am expressing a desire/wish that it won’t
rain. However, Christian hope is based
on a much more substantial foundation that wishful thinking. It is based on the gospel, the good news of
the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
The last part of v.5 you will see that Paul says the
Colossians were first exposed to the kind of hope being described in this verse
through the gospel...that is, it was the gospel - the good news about Jesus -
which brought hope to their lives. What I
want you to see in that is Christian hope is not wishful thinking. That’s why the historical events of the gospel
are so important and why they are emphasized time and time again in the
Scripture. The facts of the gospel are that
Jesus—
--was born of a virgin in Bethlehem
--lived and ministered in Galilee ...
--died on the cross outside the gates of Jerusalem
--was raised from the dead by the power of God...
--ascended to heaven...
--will return in glory to earth one day...
are the foundation of our hope...our confidence for
the future is rooted in what God has done through Jesus in the past...the hymn
writer said it so well when he wrote:
My hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness...On Christ the solid
rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand...
“…laid up for
you in heaven…” - The word
translated “laid up” means “deposited” or “stored.” It
was the word used to describe the storing away of a treasure. The point is our hope is deposited/placed in
a secure place. It is in “heaven”
or more accurately “the heavenlies” which is the abode of
God. Our hope is deposited in heaven. That’s just another way of saying our hope is
in God. Christians don’t hope for
something or in something. Christians
hope in Someone. The Psalmist said it so
well in Psalm 71:5 when he wrote, “For thou, O Lord, are my hope...” And because our hope is in God and
because of our confidence that God is completely trustworthy and faithful, then
no matter what the difficulty or sadness or heartache we may face in our
journey through life, we never lose hope.
b. For the progress of the gospel (5b-6) -
The basis for their faith, love, and hope is the gospel. The word "gospel"
appears about 90 times in the NT...in Greek it is is euangelion... the first part of eunagelion comes
from a Greek word meaning "well or good"...the second part
comes from a word meaning "report, announcement, message, or news"...thus
the word literally means "good news"…in the secular culture of the first century the word was used
to describe any kind of good report, but in the NT eunagelion has a
specific, technical meaning...it is not just any good news...it is the good
news, the gospel of Jesus Christ...the gospel is the good news that Jesus
Christ died to provide forgiveness of sins and rose again that those who
believe might live forever...Paul describes the gospel as:
·
“the word of
truth” (v.5b) – Essentially, that means it came from God and can be trusted ...to
say the gospel is "truth" is a much stronger statement
than merely saying the gospel is "true"...in his commentary on
Colossians Warren Weirsbe points out that many messages and ideas can be called
"true", but only the gospel can be called "the word of
truth"...remember Jesus described Himself as "The way and
the truth and the life..." and only through Him, through His
gospel, do we have access to God...most people in our culture reject the
idea of absolute truth...many do not accept the proposition that there are
fixed, unshakeable, unchanging moral, spiritual, and theological truths which
are the foundation of our universe...even many Christians have rejected such an
idea...Dr. David Garland, one of my seminary professors, wrote this provocative
statement:
"Christians used to
believe that truth did not shift like a kaleidoscope, but pragmatic relativism
increasingly rules in our culture today and has even infected many believers
perception of things. This relativism
assumes an idea cannot be inherently true, but it is good if it works for
now. Fewer Christians today take for
granted that Christianity provides the standard of truth and morality by which
all life and all other religions can be assessed. Many assume that we all worship the same God
and that whatever a person chooses to believe about that God is valid or just
as good as another's belief. To question
one's belief system is to be unpardonably judgmental and intolerant." [The NIV Application Commentary, pp.53-54]…Is there an objective body of
truth upon which we can rely, depend, stake everything, even our lives? I submit to you there is. And that truth is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
·
“bearing
fruit and increasing” (v.6)
- That is, the gospel is productive. If you’ll look carefully at this verse, you
will see that it tells us two ways that the gospel produces fruit. In first part of v.6 Paul points out that the
gospel as come “to” the Colossians. In last part of v.6 Paul says the gospel has
done something “in” the Colossians. Those two little phrases, “to you”
in first part of the verse and “in you” in last part of the
verse, tell us two ways the gospel is “bearing fruit and increasing.”
o
In saying the
gospel has come “to” the Colossians, Paul is reminding them of
the amazing advancement of the gospel across the first century world. Colossae was
small, rather insignificant town tucked away in the Roman province of Asia,
hundreds of miles from Jerusalem Colossae Colossae church of Jesus Christ
o
Paul points out
that not only had the gospel come “to” the Colossians, but the
gospel also was doing something “in” the Colossians...they were
being transformed, changed, made into new people from the inside out...many of
the Christians in Colossae had come from pagan backgrounds...before their
conversion they lead extremely immoral lives...Paul says of them in Colossians
1:21 that there was a time in their lives when they were “engaged in evil
deeds”...But when the gospel penetrated their lives all that began to
change...as the Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, when a person is in
Christ that person begins to change...the old things--priorities, desires,
habits--fade away and new things--priorities, desires, habits--begin to take
their place...the gospel produces in us internal growth...
·
“the grace of
God in truth” - The gospel is not
the message of what God demands but what He offers. It does not tell of God’s
demands on man, but of God’s gifts to men. (Romans 6:23)
c. For the work of Epaphras (7) - This was the man who shared the gospel with the
Colossians. We talked about him last week.
Four things are said about
Ephaphras:
·
“beloved” - His name is very close to “Aphrodite” which means “lovely.” And he was a very lovely person. He was much loved by Paul and by the
Colossians.
·
“fellow
bond-servant” - The word “bond-servant”
translates the Greek word “doulos”...that was the word used to described
the lowest of slaves in the social order of the first century world...this was
the person who did all the dirty work...whatever no-one else wanted to do, that
task fell to the “doulos”...that’s the role unselfish Epaphras, as well
as Paul, gladly assumed...instead of demanding a position of honor or
authority, instead of seeking praise and recognition, Epaphras was the kind of
person who willingly put himself in the background and put others first...
·
“faithful
servant of Christ” - It has often
been said that faithfulness is the primary thing the Lord requires of us...I
Corinthians 4:2 that “...it is required of stewards [or servants] that
they be found faithful...”... Epaphras was certainly faithful toward
Christ...Epaphras was also faithful toward Paul...in Philemon 23 describes
Epaphras as “my fellow prisoner”...some Bible scholars take that
to mean that Epaphras voluntarily gave up his freedom to be with Paul and keep
Paul company in prison...he didn’t abandon his friend in a difficult time...he
remained loyal and true, even though it cost him his freedom to do so...
· “informed us of your love” - Epaphras was the person who kept Paul apprized of
the status of the church in Colossae...it was not a church without problems...
the church in Colossae had been infiltrated by false teachers... some of the
new believers there were being led astray by these teachers of heresy...some of
these new believers were beginning to question the grace of God as revealed in
Christ and were turning to such things as eating or abstaining from certain
foods and drinks, observing certain rituals and holidays, and radical
self-discipline as means of gaining God’s favor...they were abandoning grace in
favor of works...as a result, there were many negative things Epaphras could
have reported to Paul about the Colossian church...and while he no doubt sought
Paul’s advice on how to deal with some problems in the church, his main word to
Paul about the Colossians was a positive word...Colossians 1:8 says Epaphras
informed Paul of the love of the
Colossians...
What does
Paul’s prayer of thanksgiving at the beginning of Colossians, written from
prison, say to you about how to deal with the difficult times in your life?
