Colossians Chapter 1

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

Paul, called to be an apostle, publicly and with supernatural fanfare.  Nobody laid hands on him or specifically ordained him … just God.  According to scripture Paul left and went into Arabia to hear God speak and then returned to Damascus.  Once there he hit the ground running and let nothing turn him from the path God gave him.  Not even the warning given to Ananias that Paul would suffer for Christ dissuaded him from the path God set for him.

Timotheus, a young man of good standing in all the church of God.  Our brother.  Son of a Jewish mother and Greek father.  Stayed with Paul when Mark would not.  Young but mature, a born again Greek who was uncircumcised but who Paul circumcised (Acts 16:3) in order to make his ministry more effective to Jews.  This was one of those above and beyond things that define a great minister of the Gospel.  His mother was a Jew and father was a Greek man who was apparently not circumcised, possibly not even a Jewish believer or he would have had his son circumcised. 

There are times when we might be called upon to do something not required by God’s Word in order to be received by the audience be it circumcision or even women wearing scarves or sitting in a less prestigious chair to prevent the anger of those you are ministering to.  It isn’t fair; this life isn’t about fairness or any other silly concept we might latch onto in a democratic country.  This life is about service to God NO MATTER WHAT it takes or costs us because that service overrules any preferences we might have.  This does not mean we must sin to win souls, merely that we ought to be willing to go the extra mile to win their hearts.  We never sin to win souls.  That would make us a house divided and that house must fall. 

2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

You could begin this verse, “To the holy and faithful loving brethren in Christ which are at Colosse…”  The word translated saints is hagios which means ‘holy.’  I stress this because it doesn’t merely mean without sin, but that in Christ you are a living breathing holy of holies just like the temple and the tabernacle where the Ark of the Covenant was kept.  By virtue of being IN Christ you are sinless and perfect before God.  It is this position of holiness that makes any transgression of God’s word so terrible and distasteful to the world around us.  We so often claim to be holy but live like the devil.  If we try as hard as we can to be holy we still fall short; too many of us hardly try at all.

The verse continues with a salutation:  GRACE (charis), God’s gift of acceptance (without which you cannot see Him in peace,) be unto you; and because of the grace, PEACE (not the shalom of the Hebrew language but it is implied from this Hebrew of the Hebrews Paul).  This peace means quietness and rest.  Not a bad prayer in a turbulent time that will soon see Jerusalem destroyed and all Jews scattered to the four winds. 

We receive these things from God our Father.  So many have questioned whether or not we should make the Bible gender neutral. God chose His own gender.  Had He wanted to be an ‘it’ or a ‘she’ He would have told us.  God is neither male nor female.  His decision to be a father figure, to ‘father’ us, is His alone.  Rabbi Maimonides struggled with this concept.  He didn’t struggle with the idea that God was neither male nor female, but that God would want to assume the attributes of a human father.  For all his intelligence and wisdom he had never met the Father of Jesus and could not comprehend the creator of the universe humbling himself for any reason whatsoever.  God’s thoughts are far outside our own and yet we receive the highest level of parental training from someone who is not a man or a woman.  Unlike the opinion of so many who doubt our faith, it is not a matter of creating God in our image which they believe, but rather God Himself choosing how He expects to be known.

I seem to recall that someone wrote a gender neutral Bible several years ago so women would not feel excluded from the God experience.  I do not for a moment believe that the men who wrote our Bible ignored God’s wishes when they wrote it.  Either you believe that the Bible is God’s perfect word or you do not and your faith is useless and vain.  I have enough experience with the leading of God to know that if I tried to draw close to Him AND write a deliberately slanted word it would be a terrible and uncomfortable experience.  I have written lessons and God has stopped me in the middle and made me delete it because it wasn’t from Him.  When I read it I realized it was just I myself speaking out of anger or frustration.  The Bible is perfect and if it says God desires to be a Father to us or a Husband then that is what HE chose.  It’s not that some choice had to be made, him, her or it, so we choose him; in many cases, especially in the New Testament, Roman’s chapter eight particularly, the concept of fatherhood is hammered into us.  This wasn’t the choice of a patriarchal society but a patriarchal God.

Why?  There are reasons but that is for another lesson.

The Lord Jesus Christ.  KYRIOS IESOUS CHRISTOS means the Ultimate Authority and Lord, the God of Salvation, Anointed Messiah.  No ruler on Earth is above Him.  Your eternal life comes through Him alone.  All power rests upon Him to save and deliver.  He is God but submitted to the Father figure He has chosen for Himself.  Even as I write this it makes only a small amount of sense to my natural mind.  Nonetheless it is true.  Jesus and the Father are one.  Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one.  We cannot ever fully understand the trinity.  We often say that the mayor of a small town has many hats.  He might be the mayor, town electrician and a member of the fire brigade.  It’s one man with three jobs.  We have one God who has three main attributes we call Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  These are able to operate independently of one another so they can actually have conversations and though they are separate they are inseparable.

If I give you my word that I will do something for you, that word is dependent upon my body to carry it out.  If God gives His Word to do something, that Word has life in itself to carry out the will of the Father.  The Father did not actually do the task but the Father provided the Word and the Word accomplished the task so the Father accomplished the task because Word and Father are one.  I know there is much confusion about this.  Moses asked God, “Who shall I say sent me?”  God said, “Say “I AM” sent thee.  I believe that Jesus is God.  Even Jesus said of Himself, “I am (John 8:58).”  He also said, “I am sent me (John 7:28-8:18).”  Which is it?  Yes.  Got that?  Good.  Moving on.

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

The word for thanks here is eucharisteo from which we get thanksgiving, gratitude, grace at the beginning of a meal.  Paul is reaching out here to the saints in Colosse and is thankful and grateful to God (the deity who created the heavens and the earth), and the Father (who watches over us in love and who gave us His only begotten Son, the Ultimate Authority and Lord, the God of Salvation, Anointed Messiah, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” through whom I am always praying for you…

Phew!  He thanks God who is also the Father, which turns the Father’s heart and ear toward us.  He isn’t an ordinary father but the Eternal one who has created all things.  We can assume Paul has prayed this prayer in faith.  Can you imagine how much love and grace God is bestowing upon this people for Paul’s sake and theirs?  Can you imagine how much you are growing and being blessed when someone you know serves God with their whole heart imparts their blessing over your life? 

I would be grabbing the next person I saw by the lapel and shouting, “The Apostle Paul just blessed me!!!” 

Now…let’s bring it home…what anointing is over your life?  When you bless someone do they feel the same way?  Is there someone in your life whose blessings feel that way to you?  There ought to be.  This is why the anointing is so important because it is the one thing in your life that you may impart with the sure knowledge that it will not return void nor fail in the task for which it was sent.

4 Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,

As soon as Paul and all those like minded people around him received a whisper of this new church and how they had faith in Messiah, the God of Salvation, and the love they had to all the saints; as soon as that he began to pray for them.

5 For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;

When people tell you about Jesus and salvation, what do they say?  Do they tell you that Hell with its fire and brimstone is real and you can miss that?  Do they tell you about the mansions in heaven and floating around with all the angels?  Perhaps they tell you about the glorified bodies we will receive (and considering how much my arms hurt right now after working out two days ago that is a real promise).  Part of the word of the truth of the gospel must be the promises of life in the hereafter.  Part of it must be the promises of God in the here and now. 

He calls this the word of TRUTH of the gospel.  God does not lie.  There is never a reason for us to lie about God’s blessings to get people saved.  The Gospel is the GOOD NEWS of the gift of God in Christ Jesus.  Christ Jesus is not His name alone.  It is His title and His attributes.  It is His job description.  My last name is Staab.  The word in German means shepherd’s staff.  My name means something to me beyond its connection to my family and history.  My dad was someone who always went around helping others and making their lives a little better and he was not a Christian minister. 

Names matter and you will either live up to them or shame them; the choice is yours.  God gives us names as it pleases Him.  In some cases like Abraham, Sarah, Israel and Paul, he changes their names to line up with their new position in His kingdom.  This too is something we ought to explain when people give their lives to Jesus.  God will deconstruct you and reconstruct you into someone you and He can be proud of.  The first part is hard and costly.  The second part is still hard and costly but by then you will have developed the faith to believe in the work God is doing in your life. 

6 Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:

God’s word always performs the work it has been sent out to perform.  Remember, it is alive and has a life of its own which is in line with the Father’s life.  Your eyes ought to be open so you can watch for and see the work of God in those around you and pray for them to continue to grow and accomplish all God has for them.  Sometimes God will plant you in a place temporarily to fix a situation or to be fixed yourself through that situation.  There is always a place for you, but until you succeed in that place which belongs to someone else, you will not be trusted to have that which is your own. 

Wherever you have been planted, do the best you can in Him and trust God to know when it is time for you to stay or move on.  I have worked for more than 30 years in one place and now I am somewhere else wondering what is next.  All I have known and learned for the past three decades has brought me here and while I don’t like certain things the way they are right now I trust God to direct me in His time.  I don’t feel angry or upset that God has moved me because I see Him doing a new thing there where I was and my presence would hinder that wonderful work.  Now my prayers are for God’s will to be done where I am so I might fulfill the purpose of His presence in my life.  The fruit I bear now will be to my account.

7 As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ;

At this time Paul was in Rome and a prisoner.  Timotheus had apparently returned to Rome with a report about this new church in Colosse and Paul was letting them know that Epaphras who remained in Colosse is a dearly beloved colleague and fellow laborer but to them he represents the five-fold ministry in your midst.  The fact that he is considered a faithful minister means that Epaphras kept at it and didn’t tire or give up.  He was known as someone who would go the extra mile to make sure the word got out and the job got done.  That he was a faithful minister of the anointed one means that his faithful ministry built up his anointing.  That very faithfulness allowed him to walk in the power of God.

8 Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.

Being a witness goes both ways.  You can be a witness of the grace of God and not be a people person so it only goes one way.  He was a witness of the grace of God and of the love found in the church of Colosse.  I have often met people who loved the Lord with their whole heart but were disrespectful or halfhearted toward the people of God.  Epaphras wouldn’t send back a praise report of his own worth but told Paul how much love the church had.  He was a true and faithful witness.  You ought to be someone who increases the blessings in someone else’s life rather than your own, which allows God to increase the blessing to you.  This verse also shows that the church in Colosse was filled with the Spirit of God because, “the love of God is shed openly into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).”

9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

Which cause?  Their love in the Spirit.  I often hear about the evil of organized religion.  The reality is that Christianity is a religion of love and mercy.  I won’t say tolerance necessarily because God isn’t tolerant toward sin, however He does not expect us to beat or kill those who do not wish to be blessed.  God reaches out to everyone with mercy and love and they either partake of that gift or do not.  He will not coerce them or insist.  Judgment will come one day and it will be His judgment, not ours.

Because God will be the one to judge frees me, as it freed Paul, to be one who merely loves and cherishes.  That freedom allows us to pray for others to succeed even more than we might.  It allows us to desire they grow more than ourselves and that we might pour all the knowledge we have obtained of God into their lives.  There is always more than enough work to be done and people to be touched.  If I stumble across a miracle sermon that never fails to win souls to the Lord and everyone who uses that sermon wins souls to the Lord, the world will not all be saved.  This is a difficult path and come with many trials and tests.  The way is narrow and if we can help open up the way for a few more to make it then let my knowledge, your knowledge and everyone’s knowledge be used for that purpose.  Let wisdom flourish and love succeed.

10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

This is our mission statement.  Our mission is to help as many as possible walk worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in all things and being fruitful in every good and upright work.  As we help others increase in knowledge and they help us increase in knowledge, let us become strong in our unity with the Lord.

11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

God expects us to be charged up like a generator with His power so we can light up the world.  The Greek says ‘dynamo dunamis,’ Dynamo power!  This dynamo power is powered by his doxa kratos, his glorious power.  In other words, we are charged by His glory to accomplish great deeds through the glory that is His and His alone.  He shares that power with us to accomplish great works through us.  This is the honor of the saints of God.

12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

Whether you have experienced this miracle power or not, does not change its availability for your use.  It IS available to all those who press into the knowledge of the Word of God.  When we saw Jesus transfigured on the mount of Olives it wasn’t just for us to know that He was the Son of God.  It was so we too can understand that He was the firstborn of many brethren and we too shall be transformed into the saints in light.  Hebrews 1:7 says God makes his ministers a flame of fire.  We bring the light of God to a dark and terrified world.

13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Darkness.  Lies, deception, sin, anger, depravity, lust, rage, drunkenness, addiction, horror, pain, sorrow, these are all gifts and offerings from the evil one.  Have you ever known someone whose life was out of control and they just could not see it?  Unless they have hit a bottom that even they can recognize they feel they’re fine.  Perhaps you have been there yourself.  Darkness has a tremendous power and unless a greater power comes to your assistance you are like someone circling a black hole just waiting for gravity to suck you in and destroy you. 

It is into this state of hopelessness and helplessness that God comes in and snatches us out of that hole and whispers words of love to you.  God chooses a time where you finally understand your helplessness and you understand that there is no hope and … He … just … gives … it … to … you. 

Psalm 2 says, “Why did the heathens rage and the people imagine vanities.  Satan screams that you belong to him and with no effort at all God says, “Silence.”  The voices cease and the accusations stumble and fall.  Every word against you is squelched.  You are passed from death into light and lovingly ushered into the kingdom of His Dear Son.  The words in your life that once said DEATH now say LIFE and PEACE.  The future is secured and neither death nor life nor principalities, nor powers nor things present nor things to come can separate what God has just done in your life.

This act, so simple in plan, so miraculous in execution has brought you from death to life.  What act?  This free gift of God through the cleansing power found in the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  God said that life is in the blood.  Life begets life and death begets death.  Christ brought life to everyone through His death and resurrection.  You had to die for your sins and so you did through Jesus.  You had to be born sinless to stand before God and so you did through His resurrection. 

15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

Jesus is the visible and obtainable image of an invisible God.  We are not God but we obtain a portion of His image through Jesus.  He was first and we follow.  When I say obtainable, I am speaking of our ability to touch and be touched by the humanity and sinlessness of Jesus.  His act empowers us to do other acts of miracle and wonder.

16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

Jesus is GOD.  He is the ALPHA and the OMEGA the FIRST and the LAST.  He is Yahweh and Jehovah.  He is not an angel.  He is not a prophet.  He is not an under-shepherd.  He is not like or similar to God or a god, He is GOD.  He is all and in all and through all and in us all and whatever is was created by Him.  The difference between Father and Son is both beyond our understanding and yet of utmost importance to us.  To quote John, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” 

Our physicists have discovered that unlike most of our universe’s building blocks, light is unique.  Light is both a wave like sound and a particle like matter.  Light is energy and energy can be changed from energy to matter (what makes up our universe and by extension us).  When this portion of John’s gospel says that in Him was life and that life was the light of men it could also say that in Him was light and that light was the reality and substance of man.  We were created by His light.  He is so far beyond us that we must die and be reborn as something totally apart from matter to even communicate with Him.  This is not a metaphysical or existential discussion.  This is a statement of fact based in the reality of quantum physics.

We live, we die, we change to a state in communion and communication with God or we change to a state in opposition to God and by His own word, a state of great torment.  He, Christ, has offered us this choice out of love.  When we are born again we are born of the Spirit and once born of the Spirit we are spirit.  We will one day see Him face to face when we no longer look through these physical eyes and we will be like Him.  This free gift have all those who come to Him.  Many great Bible scholars believe that Adam and Eve were created in total, that is spiritual and physical, communion with God.  When they sinned their spirit man died and their body followed later. 

Whether this is true or not mankind once was in fellowship to God and then lost it through sin.  Now we are offered that fellowship again through Christ.

17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

If Jesus were not GOD, Jehovah, YAHWEH, YHWH, the Eternal one, this verse would not make any sense.  He is before ALL things.  That includes angels and other spiritual beings as well as our physical universe.  He created the world we live in and the universe it circles through.  Without Jesus there would be nothing because He was before EVERYTHING.  Why?  Personally I think He was lonely.  I wanted to say something else but can’t.  Okay, God wants praise and worship.  Why?  None of my business.  He wants it and who am I to judge His intentions.  He is certainly worthy of it.  God loves us and wants to show us His love.  Why?  I don’t know but it is to my benefit to give it.  I am literally a portion of the light of God turned into matter and given a mind to think independently. 

God made it possible for me to know Him and by His plan of salvation I am in a minority.  Many judge Him to be unworthy of our love and respect because He allows so much violence to continue in the world.  I have heard a few good reasons over the years why this might be but none of them come to mind right now.  It takes a certain amount of humility to serve God and not everyone has it.  It also takes faith and not everyone will receive it.  He made us independent; perhaps too independent, but again, I am not in a place to judge.  I know He is real and He has proved Himself real in my life.  I was a skeptic.  Now I just wish there was less of my screaming flesh and more of my wise spirit to serve Him. 

18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

We’re still talking about Jesus GOD here.  He was born into a squalling, diaper needing baby and raised into manhood by human beings.  He was what we all have the potential to become if we acknowledge God and His Spirit enough.  He is the head of what we are becoming which is the body.  In Bible Study this week I was reminded that we have not become the body, we are becoming the body.  It may be complete by faith but surely not in deed.  If the Body of Christ is complete it is the most schizophrenic and maladjusted body in the world.  Once freed of our natural bodies we will be perfectly adapted to our Savior’s use.  Right now, not so much but we’re working on it. 

He started this adventure and even now (and still in human form) sits at the right hand of God the Father.  He was the firstborn and first to be raised from the dead.  He is the firstborn Son and will always be preeminent. 

19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell;

When we are judged in the Bema seat of Christ and God looks upon us and says, “Well done thou good and faithful servant,” it means that God is pleased with us and what we have done for and in Him.  Twice in Matthew, once in Mark, once in Luke and once in 2^nd Peter God the Father said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”  God transfigured Him to show His disciples who He is.  Jesus never failed or fell short of God’s plan.  He has all the fullness of the Godhead dwelling within Him bodily. 

20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

He paid THE price; your price, my price, everyone’s price, for sin.  He paid your debt, however, whether you partake of that payment is up to you.  If you are not in Christ then the payment is waiting in the warden’s office awaiting your request.  If you never make the request of forgiveness through Christ’s blood then your payment for sin will remain unused forever.  Anyone drawn by the Holy Spirit to request this forgiveness will receive it and stand in it.  You are now reconciled and at peace with God, separated from your sins.

21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Unless you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior at a very young age, there was a time when you were alienated to God.  He could not allow you to be in His immediate presence.  Your mind was not renewed by His Word and every evil thought you had was sin.  Having your mind renewed (Romans 12:2) is a process with gradually higher levels to be attained.  1 Corinthians 13:11-12 tells us we are all half blind in our understanding of God but we are improving day by day as we press toward the mark of our calling.  Only after we leave this body and are wholly spirit and glorified body will we know God perfectly.

Christians have no reason to be arrogant about their salvation.  We aren’t perfect or without sin in our own abilities.  We are reconciled to God.  That means that God looked at the two columns.  On our column He saw we were one sinless life short of making it into Heaven.  On His column was the sacrifice of the perfect Jesus which came with unlimited uses but those uses could only be purchased by faith.  We didn’t have faith so God in His mercy imparted it to us so we could exercise it and move the sacrifice of Jesus over to our column. 

Once we accepted this sacrifice and God looked at our zero balance He could at least accept us as His own.  As the song we often sing says, “We owed a debt we could not pay, He paid a debt He did not owe.”  God’s question to you is will you arrive in Heaven with a zero balance?  He’s given you talents, gifts and abilities.  As Paul said in Philippians 4:17, “I desire fruit to abound in your account.”  In Matthew 19:21 we are told to give what we have to the poor so treasure may abound in our account.  There are many ways to build up treasure in our spiritual account.  Why do we need a spiritual account?  I don’t know, but it appears we do.  Accepting for the moment that we do need a spiritual account, doesn’t it make sense that we should build it up before we die or are raptured? 

One reason is that according to the parable of the talents we will one day be rulers over cities.  If you haven’t even used your talents at all, scripture says you will be cast into outer darkness and your talents given to the one who has the most talents (and who will use it the most.)  I’m not sure what this means to you who believe in once saved always saved whether you do God’s work or not but there it is. 

Understand this beloved, God cleared your negative balance and gave you the gifts to build your credit.  You can’t take silver and gold into Heaven but you CAN sent wealth across.  There seems to be some positive reason for doing so.  It doesn’t make spiritually fiscal sense to be a Christian couch potato and live on Welfare in Heaven.  You can make it in with the smell of smoke still on your clothes but I’d like to be able to say I gave God all I have and all I am and by His miracle grace He made something special out of me.  That takes an effort on my part, your part, our part.

23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

Have you ever seen a plane land and bounce and bounce again even higher and every time it bounces it is slowing down so every time it hits it hits harder until something might even break.  That is our walk with God when we fail to press and be disciplined.  We do good for a while and we’re flying along but then we lose steam and begin to lose altitude.  At first we’re stable, just getting lower but after a while the power that keeps us stable and upright peters out and we begin to bounce along in the dirt.

Saints should be grounded in faith but not grounded on the sand.  Our foundation isn’t one of financial stability and educational knowledge.  Our foundation is in Christ and that foundation can only be obtained by faith.  You can’t walk down to the Jesus store and buy a quart.  His power and anointing comes through a relationship.  You can’t have a relationship without communication; you can’t have a marriage without communication, so how do you expect to have a walk with Almighty God without that same communication.  If you’ve read this then I know you have heard God’s Word.  Like Paul, I have been made a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I try to speak only the truth of God as I have learned it through godly teachers and directly from God’s Word. 

24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:

I have suffered many times for the sake of the Gospel.  Occasionally it was my fault and at times due to lies and attacks by others.  Usually it was God’s way of killing off my flesh and strengthening my spirit.  If you have ever been blessed by something I have said or done or written about my Lord then you have every right to rejoice in my sufferings.  There is still some selfishness left in me and much of what I have endured is so I might grow but there is also much desire in my heart to see you grow and be blessed through what I have learned.

Christ’s work was absolutely complete and Paul was not trying to say that His sacrifice was incomplete.  The truth is that though Jesus has done a complete work, it is only through our demonstration of that work in our own lives that many will ever see and acknowledge what He has done.   We provide living examples of the work of Christ as His body and we are the visible manifestation of that great spiritual work.  He was afflicted and there are a myriad of scriptures that expect the same for us.  We provide a visible example of a completed invisible work so you too may be encouraged to merge with us into this glorious body.

25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; 26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:

Each of us is made a minister.  Each minister is given a dispensation, an empowerment and portion of His grace to complete a specific work on His behalf.  The Word of God will be fulfilled on the earth.  Even Judas fulfilled his portion no matter how ignoble it might have been.  I am persuaded that you will fulfill a much more noble purpose.  It is quite possible that this season we live in is the most exciting and amazing season ever.  There is so much of God’s plan and purpose that has been hidden until now that I am filled with wonder at being allowed to take part in it.  We know things about our Lord that even His disciples couldn’t see because they just weren’t possible back then.

It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the keys to the kingdom.  Can you remember the first time mom or dad gave you the keys to the car and said, “I trust you?”  God is giving you the keys to the future of mankind and saying, “Use them well.  I will never leave you nor forsake you.  Go in peace my beloved.”

27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Look at Paul.  Until now half of the Jewish priests wouldn’t tell a gentile what time it was and now one of their rising stars had been tasked to bring the truth to the lost millions of unchurched pagans.  We too have this honor to lead people into the truth of, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  This takes courage.  It’s not Allah or Mohammad, Buddha or any other man or spirit.  It is only in Christ that we have a hope of glory.  Whether in fear or faith, Christ will be preached and out of those who hear a few will bow to the moment and say, “Yes.”

28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

If anyone tells you it is easy or simple or ‘free’ to serve Jesus they lied.  I’m sorry but they flat did not tell you the truth.  We preach the Word with lofty phrases and platitudes while groaning in the spirit over all the injustices that daily assault us in the world.  Our hearts are focused and full of love for God and prayers for the lost but it is a daunting work we do.  Satan hates us and he has been making our life difficult for eons.  He has more ‘family’ than we do even though ours are actually more powerful.  People will hate you while you by commandment must love them.  This is but a taste of what it takes to be perfect in Christ Jesus.

29 Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

Paul worked with every fiber of his being to use every gift and talent and skill and promise he was given by God to good effect.  He was faithful when nobody supported him.  He was faithful when he spent the day making tents and every night making converts.  Paul was successful because he never lost sight of the prize and the purpose.