New Christians bring in most of the new converts because they are excited and are energized. Even though new Christians may be ignorant on theological and apologetical matters, they are bringing people in versus people who have been Christians for many years, but tend to lose their excitement and, thus, may rarely bring people into the church.
Paul gives blessings on the people who helped him: Tychicus, Onesimus, Aristarchus, Mark, Barnabas, Epaphras, Luke, Demas, Nympha, and Archippus demonstrated what it means to be mobilized to serve and sacrifice.
Not only did they contribute to Paul's ministry, but they are immortalized in our Bible and in Heaven, too. Our service also reflects into eternity, touching others and our Lord, too! Paul's recognition is a testament to the importance of influence, mobilization, faith in action, and being kind and good people who get excited and joyful about their task and call. If someone in leadership has all the gifts and abilities except the ability to get it across to others, he is pretty much ineffective and in the wrong position.
Paul' use of the term Church, is the " members of one body," of Christ. The closer we are to Christ, the closer we are to one another and to what Christ has called us to do and be. Once we make real peace with God, we will be able to make and maintain peace with others.
We believers need to practice unity and peace among one another as a display of how God brings peace to all of us. If we fight and are in disunity, "how can God be of peace" will be the objection from those who do not know Him whom we are called to reach or are new to the faith.
Paul experienced strife and then reconciliation--a model for us all Rom. Exercise your faith and take advantage of your opportunities to grow and promote Christ's Message. Faithfulness and helping one another by service and collective action is what matters to God. The more we put into our faith and come together, the more we are used to get the Gospel out.
This is also about encouragement and service; it is contagious and mutually shows one another our faith while it is also displayed to those who do not know Christ.
Key Takeaway: The principles of the Gospel must impact us so we are influenced and energized by it. If the leader is not excited, the message will drop off and fall flat.
The learner and hearer will not desire something irrelevant and unexciting. If they see no excitement in the leader, why would they want to be a part of it? The nature of the Christian life is the joy and excitement of being in Christ over all else, and this should be the biggest motivation so the excitement the leader receives from his growth becomes contagious to those around him; this is influence.
Being in Christ means living our lives for Him with excitement in all times and all places. This is influence. The Call to the Church? The list of names Paul gives at the end of his letters show us the importance of mentoring and working through one another as ministers or in ministry.
This is about being utilized and taught, willing to grow from our relationships and network so they are utilized and flowing, especially with God. Then we can be used to energize and complement one another.
We can collectively be used with the gifts and abilities to strive to the fullest to the Glory of God and persevere with the Gospel. Krejcir, Ph. Into Thy Word Ministries www. Bible Study Notes. Paul's correspondences to these churches under siege by false teachers, Greek philosophies, traditions, captivating Jewish mysticisms and prideful men seeking sensationalism and fake spirituality rather than Christ as Lord.
Christ's Deity was being challenged and rebuffed for more so called "clever and newer" ideas--just like many today Acts These churches were struggling with heresies, such as that Christians must still practice Jewish ceremonies. They also taught a mixing of popular philosophical trends of the day, further making traditions into formal legalism.
Then, those who also belonged to cults sought special favor and leadership in this church Col. Paul usually closes with greetings and prayer and the challenge for all to continue and complete the ministry. While Paul was in prison, he practiced the custom of dignitaries dictating their letters Rom. Colossians is a masterpiece about the Person, Work, and Godhood of Christ. The doctrine of His cosmic relationship and superiority are similar to John's doctrine of the Logos John Jesus is Supreme and was, before the beginning, the Creator and Controller of the universe.
Christ is therefore willing and able to save us from our sins by His redemptive work. In so doing, He is proven perfect so we can trust in Him and have fullness and newness of life in Him. Colossians teaches us that Christ conquered the darkness and evil powers. He is The Reality of the universe and must be real in us, too. By the cross, He made our salvation possible and all the treasures of the universe are in Him and for Him.
We have new life in Him. We must hold fast to Christ as Supreme in our hearts and in our church, for He is to be worshiped and glorified. This is what builds us up in faith and practice and also builds healthy relationships and churches. How we lead comes from how we follow Him; we do this best when we know Him more to grow in Him more!
Paul encourages people to pursue spiritual maturity in faith, love, and obedience. If people want real Truth and wisdom, they must learn and grow in Christ. Believing that matter is evil and only spirit is good, the Gnostics held that the physical world was not created by a supreme being because a perfect deity would not have direct contact with an evil world.
The world came into existence through the action of a series of intermediary beings whose worship was a necessary means toward human salvation. Paul writes that in Jesus there dwells all the fullness of the Godhead; there is no need for the worship of these intermediary powers.
Furthermore, he rejects the asceticism and the sensual indulgence associated with the Gnostic conceptions of salvation. The letters that Paul wrote while a prisoner either in Ephesus or in Rome are the latest writings of his that are preserved in the New Testament.
They represent his most mature thought concerning the meaning of Christianity and are of special value for that reason. Although he has some things to say with reference to particular problems in local churches, he mainly discusses the significance of Jesus' life in relation to both the salvation of human beings and its place in the scheme of the universe as a whole.
The letters are also of interest because they reveal the changes that took place in Paul's own thinking during the years following his conversion to Christianity. Perhaps the most significant change that can be noted in these later writings lies in the fact that Paul no longer talks about the end of the age in terms of Jewish apocalypticism. His teaching emphasizes the quality of living that is made possible when a person's life is transformed by the indwelling presence of the Spirit of Christ.
Some critics maintain that in Paul's later years, he speaks less about the historic Jesus and more about the cosmic Christ. This criticism can be misleading if it suggests that, for Paul, the earthly life of Jesus was unimportant or did not provide the foundation on which Christianity is built.
On the other hand, in Paul's judgment, the power of the one and only God of the universe, working in Jesus, makes Jesus' life significant and thus brings to all humanity an opportunity to see how the redemption of humanity can be achieved.
Previous Romans. Next The Synoptic Gospels and Acts. Removing book from your Reading List will also remove any bookmarked pages associated with this title. Are you sure you want to remove bookConfirmation and any corresponding bookmarks? Paul described the words of the false teachers as "deceptive. In fact, according to Galatians , Paul had spent three years in the desert of Arabia and in Damascus receiving revelations from God. The false teachers, however, relied on traditions that had been passed down through human hands.
This made Paul's revelations far superior to those of the false teachers. Now, it was very significant that Paul's revelations came from God, that they were not mere human inventions like the teachings of the heretics in Colosse. But even more importantly, the content of Paul's revelations was superior to the false teachings in Colosse. In his letter to the Colossian church, Paul described his revelations as a "mystery" that God had revealed to him, and as "treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
They were the truths of reconciliation to God and participation in his kingdom, on the basis of Christ's sacrifice, received by means of faith. This proclamation was better than anything the false teachers offered. Fifth, Paul wrote of the superior empowerment of Christ's ministers, speaking of the fact that God gave power to his ministers. Paul did not labor in his own strength.
Rather, God empowered and motivated Paul to work and to suffer as his apostle. The Holy Spirit gifted Paul with astounding gifts, providing him with words to speak and opportunities to speak them, and miracles to confirm his witness, in order that Paul would advance the kingdom of God on earth. As Paul wrote in Colossians Paul's authority, words and power came from God himself. And the false teachers in Colosse could not compare.
Their ministry and their message were devoid of power and worthless in meaning. In summary, then, we see that Paul emphasized the superiority of Christ's ministers by writing about: the reconciliation accomplished through the Christian gospel, their altruism, their divine commission, the revelation they had received, and their empowerment by the Holy Spirit.
Third, after emphasizing the supremacy of Christ and his ministers, Paul insisted on the supremacy of salvation in Christ in Paul's discussion of the supremacy of salvation in Christ divided into two main sections: his praise for life in union with Christ in Colossians , and his condemnation of life lived under subjection to the elements in Colossians In the first section, Paul described several benefits of salvation in union with Christ, beginning with the benevolent and invigorating aspects of the Lordship of Christ in Colossians In these verses, Paul indicated that because Christ is our Lord, we are rooted, built up and strengthened in him, and we feel great thankfulness toward him as a result.
Those who followed the false teachers were captives to the petty spiritual powers they worshiped, but those under Christ's Lordship were given authority to rule with him. Christ has divine authority over every other power. And because believers are united to Christ, they share in that divine authority.
Second, Paul also mentioned the spiritual vitality that believers have because we are in union with Christ. Paul explained this blessing in Colossians For example, in Colossians he wrote:. Because we are united to Christ, believers participate not only in Christ's death, resulting in our forgiveness, but also in Christ's resurrection and life, resulting in the rebirth of our spirits. Third, because believers are united to Christ, we obtain forgiveness from sin, and we are freed from having to merit salvation through works of the law.
Paul expressed these ideas in Colossians God's law condemns fallen mankind to death. But because we are united to Christ in his death, we have already died the death that the law requires. We have served our sentence, so that we are now free from all condemnation. Against the backdrop of these blessings in Christ, Paul condemned the message of the false teachers in Colosse. Life in union with Christ is characterized by the blessings of Christ's lordship.
But life under subjection to the elements places one under the tyrannical lordship of man. As Paul wrote in Colossians , this results not only in man's judgment, but also in the loss of the blessings Christ offers. Further, whereas union with Christ produces spiritual vitality, subjection to the elements results in separation from Christ. As Paul indicated in Colossians 2 verse19, this results in spiritual weakness rather than strength, and stifles spiritual growth.
Finally, while union with Christ grants forgiveness and frees one from the Law's condemnation, subjection under the elements led only to asceticism. Paul commented on the worthlessness of such asceticism in Colossians , writing:. Subjection to the false gods of the heretical teachers in Colosse resulted in harsh living that was of no use against sin.
Although such harsh living was supposed to lead to blessings, the demons had no power to bless anyone. By contrast, union with Christ provided freedom rather than subjection, and truly destroyed the power of sin over the believer. Through these contrasting aspects of life in union with Christ and life lived under subjection to the elements, Paul demonstrated that the salvation offered in the true Christian gospel was far better than the so-called blessings purported by the false teachers in Colosse.
Finally, after addressing the supremacy of Christ and his ministers, and of the salvation offered in Christ's gospel, Paul turned to the supremacy of Christian living in Colossians — In this section, Paul demonstrated that the Christian lifestyle is far more ethical than the lifestyle advocated by the false teachers. The false teachers in Colosse seem to have been very concerned with ethical living.
After all, the goal of their harsh living was to avoid fleshly indulgence. And in some respects, it may have been that their ethical standards or goals agreed with those of the Christian church regarding these kinds of sins.
But there was a problem with their approach. Simply put, asceticism doesn't work. The fact of the matter is that fallen human beings lack the will power to resist sin. So, no matter how hard we fight to avoid sin, we always lose. This means that in order to live ethically, in order to obey the ethical standards that God has set for us, we have to rely on something bigger and more powerful than ourselves. In some ways, Paul's teachings on Christian living resembled the teaching of the false teachers.
In fact, Paul even went so far as to say that it was right to focus on the heavenly and spiritual and not on the earthly.
According to Paul, we are to value the spiritual and heavenly things more highly than the earthly things. This perspective was also shared by the ascetic teachers, at least superficially. Also, like the ascetic teachers, Paul taught strongly against fleshly indulgence. For instance, in Colossians he wrote:. Paul agreed with the false teachers that fleshly indulgence is evil. But he disagreed on how to avoid such sin. Paul and the false teachers also differed in many other ways. For example, although the false teachers ostensibly believed that they should focus on heavenly things, their teachings that Paul criticized were all rather earthly.
Although they may have had the goal of spirituality, they tried to reach that goal through a constant focus on earthly matters. In Colossians , Paul summarized their teachings as being:. Although the ascetics claimed to point to the spiritual realm, their teachings focused on mundane, earthly matters. The ascetics seem to have been so preoccupied with their ascetic practices that they did not bother to emphasize ideals that were truly heavenly and spiritual. Although their goal may have been spiritual, all their efforts were spent on earthly things.
Paul, on the other hand, taught specific ways that believers could focus on and strive for things that were spiritually oriented. He insisted that they cease their earthly sins, but he also knew that this was impossible from a fallen, human perspective. Paul explained that the key to ethical living is this: Believers are united to Christ — Christ is in all.
And because of this union with Christ, we have "new selves" or "new natures. This union and renewal enable us to live ethically. The false teachers were not true believers. They did not believe the gospel, and therefore they were not united to Christ. They did not have new natures, and they were not being renewed by God.
As a result, all their attempts to avoid sin were doomed to failure. Believers, however, are united to Christ, and therefore we are empowered to obey God's ethical standards. But Paul did not stop with this idea. Rather, he pushed on to offer some practical ways that believers can rely on God's power to overcome sin rather than on their own will power. Listen to his instructions in Colossians Paul suggested that believers can succeed in ethical living by emphasizing heavenly, spiritual virtues like compassion and kindness rather than by focusing on the sins we are trying to avoid.
And we can be motivated to live ethically by focusing on God's love for us and choice of us rather than by concentrating our efforts on placating the whims of false gods. Paul's strategy for ethical living was superior to that of the false teachers in two very important ways. First, it was effective because it relied on God's power rather than on man's.
Second, it was effective because it focused attention away from sin and earthly matters, and onto positive virtues and spiritual values. And the bottom line was that Paul's strategy worked.
Unlike ascetic practices which are of no value against sin, Paul's method actually made ethical living possible. Paul's letter to the Colossians was designed to address the idolatrous heresies introduced by the false teachers.
The false teachers advocated pagan ways of relating to the spiritual powers, and ineffective ways of pursuing righteousness. In response to these problems, Paul preached Christ. He preached the supremacy of Christ as lord and king, and the superiority of Christ's ministers. He preached the incomparable value of salvation in Christ, and victory over sin through Christian living. At each and every point, he made it clear that what the false teachers promised, only Christ could deliver.
Now that we have explored the background to Paul's letter to the Colossians, and its structure and content, we should turn our attention to our third subject: the modern application of Paul's letter to the Colossians.
How can we, as modern Christians, apply these ancient teachings to our lives? Although there are many ways we might rightly apply Paul's teaching to our modern lives, we will focus on the two types of application that most concerned Paul and his original audience: the necessity of remaining loyal to Christ alone; and the value of focusing on spiritual matters on a daily basis.
Let's begin by looking at the necessity of remaining loyal to Christ alone. In the Colossian church, the believers were being encouraged to mix their worship of Christ with the worship of other spiritual powers. Although these other spiritual powers were not presented as demons, we have seen that any power they actually had, and any benefits that actually came to their worshipers, were demonic.
But whether these powers were demons or elements or angels, the Colossians should not have worshiped them. Sadly, the social climate of the first century made it hard for the Colossians to see the truth of this matter. During the first century, the dominant religious ideas in the Roman Empire were polytheistic. That is, most people believed that there were multiple gods and spiritual powers.
And most societies within the Empire not only acknowledged the existence of many gods, but also worshiped many gods. For most people with the Roman Empire at this time, it was normal to worship the dominant gods of the civic cult, such as Zeus, as well as local gods and even household gods.
So, although Christ demanded that believers worship him exclusively, there was great social pressure encouraging the early Christians to worship other gods as well. In fact, when the Roman Empire began to persecute Christians during the first century, it was largely because the Christians refused to acknowledge and to worship the gods of the civic cult.
It was argued that the Christians had angered the gods by refusing to worship them, and that the gods would punish the whole of Roman society if the Christians were not called to account. The Romans did not demand that Christians stop worshiping Christ, but only that they also worship the Roman gods. From the first-century Roman perspective, one could worship many gods and without any sense of conflicting allegiance.
But Christ demands exclusive worship. If we worship Christ, we cannot worship anything else. This is why Paul insisted that the Colossians remain steadfast in their faith. If we do not remain faithful to Christ, then we prove that we have not been truly reconciled to God. And if we are not reconciled to God, then we do not share in the hope held out in the gospel. Simply put, if we do not remain faithful to Christ, we are not saved.
Loyalty to Christ is of utmost importance. Sadly, our modern world frequently challenges our loyalty to Christ by presenting many different gods for us to worship.
Polytheism can be found in eastern religions such as: Taoism, one of the three classical religions of China; Hinduism, the dominant religion of India; and Shinto, the traditional religion of Japan.
And in the western world, the New Age movement has adopted many aspects of these eastern religions. Beyond this, Mormonism teaches that Mormons are gods in the making. Then, too, there are many smaller polytheistic religions, from tribal and folk religions in Africa and Asia to Scientology in Hollywood, California. The list could go on and on.
But modern Christians also face additional problems. For instance, some modern governments and societies persecute Christians if they remain loyal to Christ alone. This is why many of the churches in the People's Republic of China remain underground. And in Islamic nations, persecution against Christians often results in slavery and even death.
But as horrifying as these persecutions may be, and as much as they may press us to reject our Lord, we must remain loyal to our Christ — even unto martyrdom — if we are to be reconciled to God. In other modern societies, Christians are constantly pressured by atheism, so that they are encouraged to abandon all belief in God and Christ. Christianity is often ridiculed as a primitive and barbaric set of beliefs that cannot stand the scrutiny of science.
Many believers who have not studied theology and science sufficiently are unable to provide answers to these challenges, and their faith is shaken. In other cases, the philosophical relativism of modern society leads to a strong insistence on religious tolerance. As a result, all exclusive claims to truth and salvation are condemned. Paul taught that loyalty to Christ is the only way to salvation. But when modern Christians echo this idea, we are often accused of arrogance and intolerance.
And we feel pressured by society to acknowledge other ways of finding eternal blessings. But not all pressures come from outside the church. For instance, in some liberal Protestant churches, praise is now offered to Wisdom or Sophia, who is personified as a female deity. Other liberal Protestant churches endorse the philosophical relativism of their societies, teaching that many or even all religions are valid paths to salvation — even if they deny Christ.
The truth is that no matter where we live, it is likely that we feel pressures to be disloyal to Christ. These may be pressures to accept the validity of other religions and gods, or pressures to deny the God of the Bible.
They may come from the government, from our schools, from our neighbors and friends, from our families, or even from our church leaders. But if we are to remain true to Paul's teachings, we must reject these false notions and embrace Christ alone.
Only Christ is worthy of worship, and only he offers true salvation and spiritual blessings. Just like Paul, modern Christians must condemn the worship of spiritual beings other than the God of the Bible, and we must insist that Christ is the only one who can reconcile us to God. Even when false teachings come from people we love and respect — even if those people are leaders within our churches — we must remain steadfast in our loyalty to Christ alone.
Now that we have looked at the importance of remaining loyal to Christ alone, we should turn to our second type of modern application: the value of focusing on spiritual matters every day of our life.
Although attention to earthly matters is of some value, we benefit most greatly when we approach life from a spiritual perspective.
When we come to faith in Christ, a miraculous thing happens: our spirits are renewed within us. Before we come to faith, we are dead on the inside, unable to respond positively to God.
We are God's enemies not only because we have sinned against him and deserve his judgment, but also because we hate him and will not submit to him. But God loves us so much that he refuses to allow us to remain his enemies.
So, he sends the Holy Spirit to renew our spirits, so that we are inwardly restored, and so that we eagerly repent of our sin and submit to our Lord. At the same time, the Spirit of God indwells us, uniting us to Christ, and guaranteeing our future blessings in him.
Our salvation does not depend upon our earthly pursuits, but upon the spiritual realities of our restored spirits and our union with Christ. And it is for this reason that Paul encouraged the Colossians to focus less on earthly matters and more on spiritual ones.
Theologians often describe those who have not come to faith as unregenerate. By contrast, the term regenerate is applied to those who have faith. These terms identify the state of the spirit or soul of each person. To be unregenerate is to be spiritually dead, and to be regenerate is to be spiritually alive.
Those who are unregenerate are under God's judgment because of sin. Also, they have no moral ability, that is, they cannot do things that God counts as morally pure. Moreover, they have no moral desire, that is, they do not want to do things that God counts as morally pure.
In short, the unregenerate are not saved, cannot save themselves, and do not want to be saved by God. On the other hand, those who are regenerate are forgiven because they are united to Christ, who died for their sin according to the requirements of God's law.
Further, their renewed spirits possess moral ability, so that they are able to obey God, as well as moral desire, so that they also want to obey God. It is hard to overestimate the value of the spiritual change that takes place within us when we come to faith. Regeneration makes us new people. We are not just forgiven; we are also spiritually changed.
Regeneration is the spiritual change that Paul described in Colossians , where he wrote:. We were once dead in our sins, meaning that we were under God's judgment. But then God made us alive and forgave our sins. We were also dead in our sinful nature, meaning that we had evil natures, with no moral ability or desire. But again, God made us alive. As a result, we now have the ability to desire good and to do good. Our old, unregenerate spirits had no moral ability or desire.
But our renewed spirits have both moral ability and desire. When we were spiritually dead, before we were regenerated and united to Christ the king, it would have been useless for us to focus on spiritual things, or "things above," even if we had wanted to.
But now that we are regenerate, the most reasonable thing for us to do is to focus our new lives in a new direction. Our spirits have been made new; now we are spiritual people. And the most logical thing — and the most natural thing — and the most beneficial thing for us to do as spiritual people — is to focus on our spiritual lives.
And so Paul continued in Colossians by writing this exhortation:. Because we are seated above with Christ, we should focus our minds on things that pertain to heaven. We are now aware of the true authority structure of the universe; we know how the world works, and what things bring true blessings. And this knowledge should change the way we live our lives. Now, at some points in history, Christians have mistakenly thought that when Paul said to focus on heavenly things and not on earthly things, he meant that we should withdraw from the normal human life in order to pursue heaven without distraction.
The medieval ascetic monks are a good example of this type of thinking. Some lived as hermits, sequestered from the rest of society. Some sat in caves or on top of poles for huge periods of time. Others caused themselves physical harm. They earnestly believed that the best way to grow spiritually is to escape the influence of the normal, unspiritual world.
But they were wrong. In fact, in some respects, they made the same mistakes that the false teachers in Colosse had made. The famous educator Booker T. Washington, founder of the school that is now called Tuskegee University, is credited as the author of this American proverb:. In many ways, Washington applied to human relations what Paul taught about the inner lives of Christians. That is to say, if we focus all our energies on suppressing our sinful desires, we are still focusing on sinful desires.
Yes, suppressing sin is a good thing, even a good work. And Paul encouraged believers to put their fleshly sins to death.
But Paul's point was not simply that we must adopt a new approach to earthly matters; it was also that we should refocus our attention away from earthly matters and onto spiritual matters. But the "spiritual" or "heavenly" matters Paul had in mind require our participation in the world.
In essence, Paul said that the "heavenly" or "spiritual" things in life are those that reflect the state of God's kingdom as it is manifested in heaven. Or to put it another way, to be heavenly minded is to focus on the one who has ascended to heaven, namely Christ, in order that we might be more like him while we are here on earth. And notice the kinds of matters that Paul called "heavenly" or "spiritual. These virtues cannot be exercised apart from active life in the present world.
And in fact, in Colossians —, Paul explained many different ways that believers can apply these virtues within the context of their many earthly relationships.
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