COLOSSIANS 1

Heart Issues

WOW!!! There is so much in this chapter. It has challenged me in multiple ways. It has put me on the right course of how to do ministry. I want to have the same heart of Paul to pray, proclaim, and please the Lord. Nice alliteration huh?! J It is so encouraging and faith-building to read again about how amazing Jesus is. He holds all things together and created every detail of all that we see. He holds all supremacy and has placed Himself within all believers. WOW!! That is amazing. He reconciled us and rescued us and this is a great truth for me to continue to hear and believe. This helps me continue to push further away from works righteousness as I understand all that He has done for me. I know that I cannot attain to any of this. I want to continue to labor that all may know Jesus as He has made Himself known to me. I love Paul’s final verse and I have quoted it many times in regard to the ridiculous amount of energy that God places within me. God does energize us and give us all that we need to continue for Him. I can be spiritually worn out and meet with Him for a moment and all is renewed. Praise be to God for His indescribable energy and help to accomplish all that He has called me to do.

Notes

-Paul Starts with calling out the truth about the Christians in Colosse, that they were holy and faithful. God had set them apart and changed them with a new identity.

-Paul is so thankful to God for what He is doing in people’s lives. Paul doesn’t take the credit and he doesn’t credit others for God’s work. He is always focused on God receiving the glory not man. This view encourages his prayer life and keeps him asking God for things and not just trying to learn how to teach them better.

-The gospel will bear fruit on its own, it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. This takes some pressure off and lets us know that all we need to be faithful to do is to share the gospel.

-The triad of faith, hope, and love are consistent cornerstones of the Christian faith. They work together so well and are the main three attributes that should be true of a Christian.

-God’s will is that we may live a life worthy of Him and please Him in every good work. We do this through His strength, not our own, and throughout it we give Him thanks and not ourselves. For (I love conjunctions) He has rescued us. It is awesome to see His power and might being the sole reason for our faith, the sustenance for our faith, and the energy to live out our faith to please Him.

-Jesus is amazing. I love this section about who He is. The image for us to see of the invisible God; the first parent over all creation is a better translation, especially in context of the next few verses; all things were created by Him and in Him all things hold together, he sustains all creation; He is the head of the body and the first to beat death; all of the power, presence, rule, etc. of God dwelled within a man (amazing) and through Jesus He reconciled all things to Himself; this was not done easily, peace had to be made for the wrath of God was ready to make war against mankind, but Jesus brought peace

-21-23 let us know of our identity in Christ. It lets us know the bad news first and the past situation to allow us to appreciate the position in which we stand now. God has reconciled us through Christ and we now stand holy in His sight. The scripture goes on to drive this home by letting us know that we are without blemish and free from accusation.

-Paul’s continued ministry will mean that he will be persecuted and will be afflicted for the sake of the Church. This does not mean that it is needed that Christians may suffer or that Christ did not suffer enough for He fully appeased the wrath of God. In sharing the gospel we will most likely run into persecution and affliction but Paul determined to live his life for the body and not for himself. Paul continues to teach the word of God in all its fullness and in all its truth.

-Paul views his role as proclaiming Christ. In this he wants to admonish and teach everyone with all wisdom in order that they may be not perfect in thought or deed, but perfect in the grace, holiness, and righteousness of Christ. The perfection that we desire in this life is the perfect understanding of our positional truths.

-The main concept that Paul pulls out here is that Christ is in you. This is the hope of glory - the treasure, the main thing, the awe inspiring truth of our faith, the evidence of the eternal, the first fruits of heaven. How amazing is it that God would have His presence dwell among us, we are far too wretched for that, but thanks be to God that Jesus Christ has reconciled and rescued us from ourselves and brought us into relationship with the Father and placed His spirit within our very body-temples.