Colossians Part 1

Colossians Part One

Today I want to begin looking at Paul’s letter to the Colossian believers. Paul was converted on the road to Damascus around 40AD. Colossians was written while Paul was in prison in Rome in 60AD, about seven years before he was martyred. This was only about 27 years after the resurrection of Jesus. (Or possibly 30 years—there is discussion about the date of the crucifixion.)

We’ll begin with the first fourteen verses. I’ll read them all and then we can begin to unpack some of the Good News they contain.

Colossians 1:1-14 (NASB)

1  Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2  To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

3  We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

4  since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints;

5  because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel

6  which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth;

7  just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf,

8  and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.

9  For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

10  so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11  strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously

12  giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

13  For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,

14  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

1  Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Acts and First Corinthians tell us how Paul was made an apostle:

Acts 9:3-6 (NASB)

3  As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him;

4  and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"

5  And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" And He said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,

6  but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do."

This is an account of Paul’s conversion from Jewish Pharisee to belief in Jesus as Messiah.

First Corinthians recounts the direct revelation Paul was given.

1 Corinthians 15:3-10 (NASB)

3  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

4  and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

5  and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

6  After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;

7  then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;

8  and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.

9  For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

10  But by the grace of God I am what I am…

2 Corinthians 12:7 (NASB)

7  Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!

I’m pointing this out because I want everyone to be clear what makes a person an apostle. The word apostle simply means one who is sent, but all the apostles in Scripture knew Jesus first-hand.

So don’t be impressed if you hear of someone claiming to be an apostle. Paul had a term for such people. He called them pseudo-apostles, or false apostles.

Now to verse two of our passage.

2  To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

Whenever Paul writes to the churches, he calls the people saints. The word here is hagios, which means holy ones.

Let me ask you a question. What if you could not be any more holy than you already are? How would that effect your view of God? How would that effect your view of yourself? How would that change your life?

Let’s look at how things become holy.

Exodus 40:9-15 (NASB)

9  "Then you shall take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it, and shall consecrate (qadash—set apart, make holy) it and all its furnishings; and it shall be holy.

10  "You shall anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and consecrate the altar, and the altar shall be most holy.

11  "You shall anoint the laver and its stand, and consecrate it.

12  "Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the doorway of the tent of meeting and wash them with water.

13  "You shall put the holy garments on Aaron and anoint him and consecrate him, that he may minister as a priest to Me.

14  "You shall bring his sons and put tunics on them;

15  and you shall anoint them even as you have anointed their father, that they may minister as priests to Me; and their anointing will qualify them for a perpetual priesthood throughout their generations."

This is a shadow, or model, of what God had in mind for us.

Anointed, consecrated, clean things are holy. This sounds like our lovely Lord Jesus. In fact, the very word Christ, or Messiah, means Anointed One. But wait; there’s more!

Exodus 30:29 (NASB)

29  "You shall also consecrate them, that they may be most holy; whatever touches them shall be holy.

Apparently holiness is contagious!

Romans 11:16 (NASB)

16  If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too.

He is the root, He is the vine, we are the branches. He is in us, and we are in Him. I guess we’re touching, so I guess we’ve caught His holiness.

Ephesians 1:3-4 (NASB)

3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

4  just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.

God chose us to be holy. We may think that this is only true “when we all get to heaven.” Scripture makes it clear however, that it is not the case. What we just read says that He has blessed us—past tense. But let’s look at Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2:14-15 (NASB)

14  Do all things without grumbling or disputing;

15  so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,

It’s for now. We are blameless, innocent, above reproach—now. What does it say? We prove who we really are by obeying God from the heart; not from compulsion. But to whom do we prove it? To a crooked and perverse generation—the world; unbelievers. And where are these people? Here; right now. We appear as lights to them.

Just as God required the Hebrews to consecrate the temple, so He has consecrated us.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (NASB)

16  Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

17  If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.

Just as God required the priests to wash and to be clean, anointed, and consecrated, so He cleans and sets apart the church—that’s us.

Ephesians 5:25-27 (NASB)

25  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,

26  so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

27  that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.

Since we are clean, holy, consecrated, blameless, we need have no reservations or fear about approaching the throne of grace.

Hebrews 10:19-22 (NASB)

19  Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,

20  by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,

21  and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

22  let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

In everything we’ve read, there is no indication that anything we do makes us holy. It’s not what we do, it’s what He did. He set us apart as holy before the foundation of the world. He washed and cleaned us, set us apart, and made us the righteousness of God Himself.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB)

21  He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

OK, let’s get back to our text. Picking up Colossians chapter one at verse three.

3  We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

4  since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints;

5  because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel

The gospel is the good news, the glad tidings of great joy for all people, peace to those who are far off and peace to those who are near. It is Christ crucified, dead, and buried; Christ raised again. The gospel is the word of truth.

John 1:14 (NASB)

14  And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:17 (NKJV)

17  For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the gospel embodied. He is God’s grace. He is the Word of Truth. Notice that the law was given, but grace and truth came.” The law was written on stone, but grace and truth came in the flesh. God promised to remove our hard hearts of stone and replace them with soft hearts of flesh. When Jesus exchanged our lives for His, that’s what happened to us.

The gospel tells us about the hope laid up for us in heaven.

Ephesians 1:3 (NASB)

3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

2 Peter 1: 3 (NASB)

3  seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

1 John 3:1-3 (NKJV)

1  Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

2  Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

3  And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

These three passages tell us of some of the hope that we have been given in the gospel.

Before we move on, I want to comment on First John 3:3. The text says, “everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” I used to read this and think that it was my job to purify myself. I read it as if it were a litmus test of the sincerity of my faith. A proof of my salvation. Earlier we saw that holiness, which requires purity, isn’t based on anything we do.

The text doesn’t say that I must purify myself. It isn’t a commandment; it’s a statement of fact.

What does the text say? Everyone who has this hope purifies himself. The text is stating a fact; telling us the natural result of the hope given by the gospel. This purification is the fruit of the hope that is within us. It is produced by the Spirit of God who lives in us. We simply bear that fruit.

Paul links the hope of the gospel with the fruit of the Spirit. He says, in verses four and five, that the hope laid up for us in heaven results in love for others—“we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” This truth is expressed in First John 4 as well.

1 John 4:16 (NASB)

16  We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.

1 John 4:19 (NASB)

19  We love, because He first loved us.

Returning now to our text in Colossians and picking up with verse six.

6  which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth;

7  just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf,

8  and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.

Verse six is very interesting. The gospel has come to the Colossians just as it has to all the world, and it is bearing fruit and increasing—in all the world. What I find most interesting here however, is that the gospel has been bearing fruit and increasing in the Colossians “since they heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth.” (in truth, truly, as the case is, according to fact—Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament.)

This is important because when we get a hold on the truth about the grace of God it completely changes our life. The more we understand the fullness of what God has done for us, the more we find ourselves saying, “wow” and “thank you.” When we begin to more fully realize the truth that the change He has made in us is actually real, we more profoundly experience the freedom Jesus bought for us.

Paul is very interested in the Colossians (and us) continuing to expand our knowledge of God and His grace because he knows the incredible result.

This is where we’ll pick up next time.