Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse: Grace and peace to you from God our Father. 3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit. (Colossians 1:1-8 NIV)
What you believe matters. What you believe determines how you behave. Just look at the current events now transpiring in our nation and around the world. We continue to be horrified at what happened on September 11, 2001. Why did those radical Islamic terrorists fly those planes into those buildings? No one in his right mind gets up in the morning thinking, "I think today that I will hijack an airplane and kill thousands of people by flying it into a highly populated building where innocent men, women and children are working and visiting." Why did they do it? They did it because of what they believed. An ideology drove them. What they believed caused them to behave in the way they did. What you believe matters.
It is vital to have your theology straight. And we all have a theology. Don’t let the word theology throw you off. Theology simply means your understanding of God. And your understanding of God determines how you relate to God and to others and how you live your life.
For instance, in basic theology we learn about the attributes of God. By these attributes we attempt to describe God. For instance, we say that God is eternal–– he had no beginning and has no end. God is omnipotent or all-powerful. God is holy. And the list goes on and on. How important is it to know the true attributes of God? Does it make a difference to believe that God is loving instead of cruel? Does it make a difference to believe that God is merciful instead of being judgmental or harsh? Absolutely! If you believe that God is cruel and judgmental, just waiting for you to do something wrong so he can swat you like a fly, you will not desire to come to God in prayer to confess your sins. As a matter of fact, you may not want to have anything to do with a God like that. What you believe about God makes a big difference. And that is why it is so important to study the Bible.
The message of the book of Colossians centers on having a right view of Christ and on how to live the Christian life. As Paul was writing this book, he knew that there were problems facing the church there. The truth about the Christian life was being distorted and the truth about Christ himself was being distorted.
The church there was facing a combination of Greek philosophy and Jewish legalism. The elements of Greek philosophy had to do with who Christ was, and whether he was indeed creator of this world. This Greek philosophy would later, in the second century, turn into a system of thought known as Gnosticism. On the other hand, the Jewish legalism that was being spread among them taught that it was important for Christians to live under the ceremonial laws of the Jewish religion in order to be good Christians. These views were a threat to the proper view of Christ as not only supreme but also sufficient. They were also a threat to a true Christian life lived by the power of the Spirit apart from the bondage of legalism.
The message of Colossians is that Christ is both supreme and sufficient for our every need. To know Christ is to experience the powerful and radical life changing grace of Almighty God. And it all centers in Christ.
As Christians, our challenge is to know Christ more. We can never know enough about Christ. We need to focus on him. We need to study about him. We need to grow in our knowledge of him and in our experience of him. Christianity is about life transformation. In other words, Christ’s truth changes me. It changes us. It transforms us more into his image the more we seek him and allow him to control our lives.
The focus of our text today is the power of the truth of Christ to change us. Verse 6 speaks of the transformational power of the gospel in our lives as we come to understand God’s grace in all its truth. The word gospel means "good news" and it is the good news of God’s grace. The word grace means "unmerited favor." It is what God has done, is doing, and will do through Christ and his sacrifice on the Cross. The good news is that Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for our sin and we can be set free through him. We can be changed forever. Let’s focus on how we are changed by the truth of the gospel.
Have you experienced significant change? Would you like to be changed? In what ways have you been changed by the truth of the gospel? When the world looks at you, what difference do they see in your life?
Paul opens this letter in his usual way, with a greeting. He identifies himself as an apostle of Christ Jesus. Timothy is with him, and they are sending this letter to those faithful saints in Colosse. He wishes them grace (the Greek word for God’s blessing) and peace (the Hebrew equivalent for this is the word the Jews used for a greeting—shalom).
After this greeting, he turns his attention to how the gospel had changed them. And the first area of change is in the inward transformation that has occurred. This inward transformation has changed the way they see things. It has changed the way they see God and it has changed the way they see life.
The truth of the gospel transforms your attitudes. And the first attitudinal change that Paul sees is the emergence of faith. When you receive the truth of the gospel you now can stand by faith. Look at our text:
3
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus…
Faith had come to birth in the lives of these Christians. This is what happens when we come to Christ. We receive faith. We are saved by faith and we live by faith. But just what is faith? We see a definition of faith in the book of Hebrews.
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1 NIV)
Simply put, faith is being persuaded that something is true and then trusting in it. Faith is not simply a blind leap into the dark. True Christian faith is based on evidence. It can be strengthened or shaken, based on our own personal experience.
We all exercise faith each day. When you drive across a bridge, you may not realize it, but you are exercising faith that the bridge will not collapse. When you eat at a restaurant, you are exercising faith that the food served to you will not kill you. When you sit in a chair, you’re exercising faith that the chair will hold your weight. These are simple matters of faith based in our experience.
Faith in Christ is much like this. It requires that we believe and then act on that belief. We must both trust and obey. Repentance and faith go together. Obedience and faith go together. We must not only believe that Jesus died on the Cross for our sins, we must also commit our lives to live for him in light of what he did for us.
You not only now stand by faith, you also now walk in love. We not only receive God’s faith, but we also receive God’s love. Look at Colossians 1:4.
…we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints…
And we are to live a life characterized by love. Love is vital for every true believer. Listen to what Jesus said:
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34-35 NIV)
Loving one another is evidence of a right relationship with God. Jesus told us that people would know that we are his disciples by how we love one another. Let’s look at a few other passages on love, also written by the apostle John.
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him. (1John 2:9-11 NIV)
This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10 NIV)
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. (1 John 3:14-15 NIV)
If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20 NIV)
Wow!! Do you suppose that love is important? You certainly can’t read these passages of Scripture and come to any other conclusion. Following God and walking in love are synonymous. You can’t have one without the other. So, let me ask you a question. How’s your love life? Are you walking in love?
It’s easy to love the lovable. But it takes God’s power to love the unlovable. And the good news is that we have God’s power. God has given us the power to love, even those who are difficult to love. Your love life ought to be great, because it’s powered by God.
Additionally, you can now rest in hope. We stand in faith, walk in love, and rest in hope. Look at Colossians 1:5.
…the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven…
We have a hope. It is the hope of Heaven. We know that this life is not all there is–– that one day we will experience eternal life in all its fullness. We read in 1 Peter 1:4 of an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you. This is the hope of every Christian.
The philosophy of our world is instant gratification. Buy now, pay later. We are not conditioned to hope for anything. And we certainly don’t want to wait for anything. But our hope of Heaven enables us to endure anything because we know that nothing will be able to keep us from our inheritance. The apostle Paul says in Romans 8:18–– I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Hope makes us willing to endure, even sacrifice for future glory. Hope allows us to rest in God’s promises. We don’t focus enough on hope. We don’t focus enough on heaven. We should. It will give us the perspective to live in the here and now. It will enable us to recognize what is really important and eternal and what is temporary and fleeting.
The truth of the gospel of Christ transforms our attitudes and it also transforms our actions. Changed attitudes result in changed actions. What begins to work on the inside of us also begins to show on the outside.
You will grow in Christ. Jesus compared the gospel to a mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-32), which starts small and grows large. Look at Colossians 1:6.
All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it…
When the gospel comes to us, we begin a process called salvation. Salvation is not a past event that happens and is over. It is an ongoing process of growth. Salvation begins in regeneration, as we are born again into the family of God. It continues in sanctification, as we are changed daily into the image of Christ. It culminates in glorification, where we are transformed into completely spiritual beings as we receive our spiritual body and enter into the very presence of Christ.
Right now we are in this process of sanctification. In other words, we are to be growing in our faith. We are called disciples, which is another word for learner. We must focus on Christ, study him, learn more about him, and experience more of him. We must follow him in practical ways in our daily lives.
You will become more like Christ. The goal of this growth is to make us more like Jesus. That is the goal for every Christian. Your ministry may be different than my ministry. How God uses you may be different from how God uses me. But we have the same goal as Christians–– to become like Christ. This is what Paul told us in Romans 8:29.
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.
Your growth in grace is to make you more like Jesus. We are to pattern our life after his. We must live like he lived, in total surrender to God, so that we can do what he did, respond in every situation in the power of God.
Are you more like Christ today? Are you more like Christ today than when you first placed your faith in him? That might have been five years ago, or ten, or twenty. You certainly should be farther along in your walk with Christ now. But let me ask you a more pointed question. Are you more like Christ today than you were last month at this time? Your goal should be to become more like Christ each and every day.
You will reach out for Christ. This is a natural consequence of our knowing Christ. There was a time when these Christians at Colosse had never heard of Christ. They learned of the gospel from Epaphras. He is called a faithful minister of Christ (v.7). Now other people were hearing reports of their faith. They had now become living testimonies of the grace of God. And so will you be if you follow Jesus. You will reach out for Christ. You’ll become a faithful minister of Christ. Jesus told us so.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8 NIV)
Christ changes us so that we can become world changers ourselves. We become living representations of the power of God to transform a human life. Like the Christians at Colosse, people will report on our faith in Christ, our love for one another, and our hope in God’s eternal life.
Christ’s truth changes me. It changes you. It changes everyone who receives it. We cannot not be changed, if we encounter Christ. Stand in faith. Walk in love. Rest in hope. Grow in your faith. Become more like Christ. Reach out and share his love. Not only will your life be transformed, but you will see the lives of others transformed as well.
Copyright © 2002 J. David Hoke. This data file is the sole property of the copyright holder and may be copied only in its entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data file must contain the above copyright notice.
Except for the use mentioned above, this data file may not be copied (except for small quotations used with citation of source), edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances, displays or other products offered for sale, or made available on the Internet without the written permission of the copyright holder. Requests for permission should be made in writing and e-mailed to J. David Hoke, at David@JDavidHoke.com.