FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture References: Colossians 1:21-29

From last lesson: When we can affirm, in the midst of our troubles and despair, as long as we have God (and God has us), we have somebody. That changes everything, doesn’t it? When we know we have “someone who never leaves us,” somebody who listens and cares with us for the long haul, our outlook is unavoidably changed.

A right relationship with God becomes a possibility, and if we enter into this relationship, persevering in spite of the tendency to fall back into our old ways and standing “in the faith, grounded and steadfast,” then we are transformed. Instead of being estranged and hostile, our lives are characterized, according to Paul, as “holy, and blameless, and above reproach.” These qualities are goals for faithful and forgiven children of God, and together these terms describe persons who have been reconciled to God as those who are free from reproach in terms of morality and integrity. No longer trapped by or slaves to evil, we are free to receive the love of God and live as whole and God-directed folk. Trying to live in obedience to God, trying to live in ways that bring honor to God, there should be no basis for reproach either from God or from people who know us. The basis for the kind of perseverance which makes such living possible is hope, hope that things really are the way God says they are; we must never let ourselves be “moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven.” Not that everybody literally has heard, but that the message is for all people. In Christ, all people have the right to be hopeful about their lives and about their world. We’re a long way from realizing that, though, aren’t we?

But that’s a good deal of what we’re to be about as God’s people, helping to make this kind of world a reality because God didn’t promise magic in place of hard work. Along with our work to make people’s lives worth living, we spread the good news. We have to find our way to participate in what Paul said was his “divine office.” We must find our way to put people in touch with the hope of Christ:

according to the stewardship from God which was given . . . to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. – Colossians 1:25–28.

The proclamation of such hope must become our passion, and we will say with Paul: “To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.” – Colossians 1:29.

Contemporary with Paul and the early expansion of the Christian church were pagan religious groups known as “mystery religions.” Paul is speaking to them and to the Colossians who were a little too enamored with the practices of the mystery religions. Paul used the word “mystery,” but gave it a new turn. Instead of using the term to mean that which was hidden from all but a few, he employed it to refer to that which God had revealed openly.

However, it remained a mystery in the sense that what God was offering to all people could only be fully understood by those who received it through a born-again relationship with Jesus Christ. As Paul put it: “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” the second of the key phrases in our passage.

As members of Christ’s body we have His life, His Spirit, within us. We therefore have a sure hope that we will share in that fullness of glory yet to be displayed on the day of “the revealing of the children of God.”

Hope in the present for God’s people is undeniably attached to the future hope that all the riches promised for that time and place “out there” have already begun to trickle into our lives right now, even into this defective and painful world where hope for the day is hard to come by.

Don’t move away from the hope that is rightfully yours. Cling to it; keep hold of it with all your might; Christ is in you, and that means nothing in your present or future can separate you from the love and the presence of the living God.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture References: Colossians 1:21-29

The more we can open ourselves to the will of God, the greater chance there will be that the world will begin improving around us. If that could spread and multiply, think about the world impact!

In spite of these principles which we may very well believe in theory, mustering hope in this world and from where many of us sit today is an overpowering challenge. We may feel like the character, David in the movie, Every Time We Say Goodbye. He was a young American soldier serving in the British armed forces in Jerusalem during the early 1940’s, when threats of invasion by Hitler’s troops hung heavy there. Sarah, the young Jewish woman with whom he was falling in love, asked David to tell her more about his father who was a Presbyterian minister in the United States. David began by describing his father as a good man whom he was bound to disappoint; Sarah wonders why.

David explains: “Because my father believes that God is just and merciful and that the world can be remade in His image.”

Sarah asked, “And you don’t?”

After a pause, David confesses, “I think God has a lot to answer for. And I don’t think He can change the world—not much anyway.”

David may have been onto something. There are always new stories which seem to contradict hope for a better world. Still, as hard as hope may be for us, hope in the Christian heart is treated in much of the New Testament as a foregone conclusion. That is true of our New Testament lesson today.

There are two related and important phrases in what Paul wrote to the Colossian Christians: “. . . if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard” (Colossians 1:23), and “. . . Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). These are not synonymous by any means, but they do support one another.

The first phrase is directly related to reconciliation in relationship to God which the Colossians had experienced, what we all experience when we come into a right relationship with God. Paul reminds them of the “before” and “after.” He called to their attention that there was a time before their reconciliation with God when they were busily involved in doing evil deeds; it was a time when they were “alienated and enemies in [their] mind” (Colossians 1:21). They were estranged from God and many of the people around them. They undoubtedly felt isolated, alone, and as if they didn’t belong.

We all know these kinds of feelings, and we know them too well; the isolation, loneliness, and no sense of belonging. Even on “this side” of reconciliation with God, these feelings still creep into our lives from time to time, but before meaningful relationship with God, they were surely heightened, leaving us with an overpowering sense of hopelessness about life and the world. Of course, living at odds with God, the center and the foundation of our being, creates a sense of alienation rather that belonging; we feel rejected rather than loved. This surely has something to do with being “enemies” to which Paul also refers. Because of our separation from God, perhaps we see God as the enemy; thus there is a “deep distrust of others, and a desire to hurt or destroy them.”

Paul asks the Colossians, and he asks us to remember what that was like, especially in contrast with the recollection of what having been reconciled with God has meant. Now Jesus Christ “in the body of His flesh through death, present[s] you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight” (Colossians 1:22). Paul challenges the feeling of being unloved. Jesus Christ has brought about the opportunity of being made right with God, by His living out in the flesh the love of God though it meant His own suffering and death on our behalf. When we are confronted with these realities, it’s much more difficult for us to pout and nurse our anger, off by ourselves in some lonely corner of life. That’s the basis of being made right with God because it begins at once to dissolve both our sense of hopelessness and the emptiness of alienation that drives us and keeps us in the foreign land of hatred. When we can affirm, in the midst of our troubles and despair, that as long as we have God (and God has us), we have Somebody. That changes everything, doesn’t it? When we know we have “Someone who never leaves us,” Somebody who listens and cares with us for the long haul, our outlook is unavoidably changed.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.