|
Lesson 4
Reconciled and Liberated
Colossians 1:21-23
In
the cross … the guilty are not called to account
and penalized. They are drawn to love and
liberated.
—Jurgen Moltmann
“Lord,
I’ve made a mess of my life. I want you to take
it.” Those are the words of a young father who
came out of military service with what he
describes as “a drinking problem.” He married a
fine young woman, but his drinking went on. He
lost a good job, but his drinking went on.
Now
Things Are Different
This
man’s marriage was headed for the rocks. In
anguish and anger his wife cried out one day, “I’m
going to divorce you!” But his drinking went on.
Finally the tragic death of a close friend jolted
him into thinking seriously about the directions
of his life. He went home and wrote on a piece of
paper: “I, T. C. Butler, will never take another
drink in my life.”
But it
was not until T. C. Butler with his face in his
hands cried out of the depths, “Lord, I’ve made a
mess of my life. I want you to take it,” that a
miracle of reconciliation and liberation took
place. “All of a sudden,” he relates, “the
heartaches I had seemed to vanish! The burdens
lifted—I felt free.”
This
is but one of fifteen stories of reconciliation,
true stories, that Muriel Larson recounts in
Living Miracles. The variety is wide—a man who had
been an atheist brought to joyous faith, a young
person’s futile search for peace and liberation
through drugs, a college student who went to
Myrtle Beach for a binge but found Christ instead.
Running through these
stories is a similar thread—desperation, a search
for liberation and wholeness, a deliverance found
in God through Christ. That’s the key affirmation
of this portion of Colossians: “God has made you
his friends” (1:22). It happened back there in
Colossae; it still happens today; it can happen to
you if this has not yet been your experience.
Responsibility for Ourselves
A
major trend of recent decades has been a tendency
to locate less and less responsibility for what we
are in ourselves and to project more and more of
that responsibility out onto others or at least
onto conditions and circumstances we feel were
beyond our control. While we might admit that our
lives are a mess, as T. C. Butler, we tend to
locate the blame somewhere other than our
decisions.
Dr.
Karl Menninger, a world—renowned psychiatrist,
raised a major challenge to this trend in a book
titled: Whatever Became of Sin? Now he would be
the last to deny that circumstances of life do
affect us, that some of us had a better chance
than others, that children are sometimes
emotionally damaged by their own parents, and so
on. But apparently he feels we have gone much too
far in this direction. Again and again, no help
comes for a badly snarled life until some sense of
responsibility for the “mess” is deeply and truly
admitted. The typical human reaction when things
go wrong is to look for someone to blame. We look
everywhere except in a mirror.
Menninger affirms that
though “sin” has pretty well dropped out of modern
vocabulary, it has not actually gone away. We are
futilely trying to deny its reality while actual
guilt gnaws its way against our inner peace and
disrupts our lives. At base, sin is willful
defiance of what we inwardly know is right. While
modern society may dodge the word, the reality is
with us. As Dr. Menninger writes so forcefully:
“There is immorality; there is unethical behavior;
there is wrongdoing” (p. 46). There is no hope for
us so long as we refuse to recognize
responsibility for what we are and what we have
done.
Paul
faces this reality frankly and he locates
responsibility for it quite squarely, though
admittedly there is widespread denial of his point
of view in human society today. Paul reminds the
Colossian Christians that once they were “enemies”
of God. He insists they got that way because of
“evil things” that they “did and thought.” How
does that strike you? Does it in any way match
with your personal spiritual history? Has modern
enlightenment outgrown that point of view or is it
in some way still basic to understanding the human
predicament?
The
claim here is that each of us in the human family
needs to be rescued, restored, reconciled to God.
That is a very focal insight in the Christian
faith. We are or have been much less than God
intended for us to be—that’s a key biblical motif.
The
Good News of Reconciliation
A way
has provided for us again to be God’s friends. The
broken relationship can be mended. The breach can
be bridged. The enmity can be healed. That’s the
good news of reconciliation. That is Paul’s claim
and affirmation.
Let us
note here where the initiative in this process is
located. We know from personal experience how hard
it is sometimes to mend even a strained
relationship between husband and wife, or members
of an athletic team, possibly even members of
God’s church. Somebody has to take the initiative.
Somebody has to reach out with a touch of love and
humility.
Paul’s
affirmation here (v. 22) ought to astonish us and
perhaps break our hearts, even if we have already
become Christians. The wonder of it all—God has
reached out to us in our willful rebellion! The
tenderness of it—God has extended the olive branch
and proposed “peace” between us. God is the
aggrieved; we are the aggriever, but in love God
offers forgiveness. We dug the chasm between us;
God has found a way to bridge it.
This
basic concept is like a golden thread running
through the whole Bible. It is illustrated by the
rescue of the Children of Israel out of bondage in
the land in Egypt. God made gracious covenant with
the Israelites and even when they rebelled,
sinned, and broke the covenant, God still pursued
them with offers of reconciliation and
restoration.
Reconciliation has been
defined as “the activity whereby the disorders of
existence are healed, its imbalances redressed,
its alienations bridged over.” The New Testament
portrays the climax of that reconciling activity
on the part of God. In another letter Paul wrote:
“But when the right time finally came, God sent
his own Son” (Galatians 4:4). Through Christ the
door to reconciliation was flung wide. But
reconciliation can occur only when we receive it.
God can extend the offer, but we must accept.
Continue Faithful
Have
you known someone who at one time was a fervent
and faithful Christian but later on seemed to lose
out and drift away from former commitments? Most
of us have known such a person. Maybe it has even
happened to you at some point in your spiritual
pilgrimage.
Paul
cautions against this danger (v. 23). Ongoing
Christian devotion is not automatic. We need
nurture. A daily life of surrender and commitment
will keep our Christian walk alive, vital, and
authentic.
Notes
on the Biblical Text
1:21.
At one time. The TEV loses some of the impact of
the original here. Literally, the verse starts
out, “And you … .” The Living Bible has it, “This
includes you … .” Note that Ephesians 2:1 begins
the same way. The message is personal. Far away
from God. Here we have the theme of alienation
from God. Note 1 Timothy 1:13–16. Paul never
ceased to marvel at the miracle of merciful grace.
“Far away” tempts us to think of gross forms of
sinning, but the essence of alienation is
opposition to God’s will for us, the self
asserting itself against its Maker. You … were his
enemies. Note the focus of responsibility here. It
is we who go away from God and create enmity. Evil
things you did and thought. Attitudes as well as
deeds cause estrangement. See Romans 8:7.
1:22.
But now. The contrast here is more than just a
time difference. The state of affairs between them
and God has changed dramatically. See a similar
contrast in Romans 3:21. By means of the physical
death. Reconciliation with God has been made
possible only through a real incarnation and a
real death. (Paul strikes another blow against
Gnosticism.) God has made you his friends. “Christ
has brought you into the very presence of God”
(Living Bible). Holy, pure, and faultless. A real
transformation is described here: deliverance from
the guilt and the power of sin.
1:23.
You must … continue faithful. “A needful addition
which saves Christian salvation from slipping into
an experience inalienably guaranteed and certified
to anyone who once professes the faith and
imagines that thereafter he can live as he
pleases” (Martin).
Some
Study Approaches
Note
T. C. Butler’s testimony of how his life changed
when he “hit bottom” as an alcoholic and sought
help from God. In a group situation others might
have similar remembrances or even personal
experiences of reconciliation between person and
person or an individual with God.
Explore the idea of
responsibility for what we are and what we do.
True, even law recognizes that some acts were
irresponsibly committed and thus a person is
judged “not guilty because of …” Is this approach
being pressed too far in your judgment or should
it be expanded to cover many other areas of human
failure? For what are we humanly responsible?
In
what way do you understand Christ’s death to be
related to the possibility of our restoration to
personal fellowship with God? In addition to
Colossians 1:20–23, note such passages as Romans
5:10–11; 2 Corinthians 5:18–20; Ephesians 2:12–16.
What
specific dangers do you feel we must guard against
lest we lose our close relationship to God?
There
is a doctrine known as
“once-in-grace-always-in-grace.” If this is a
familiar concept to you, think about it in
relationship to Colossians 1:23.
Lesson 5
The
Secret---Christ in You
Colossians 1:24-29
Leonard Griffith, in What Is
a Christian?, explains how he came upon that
title. One day a friend, in all seriousness, asked
him that simple question, “What is a Christian?”
How would you answer? (You may find it a bit more
complicated than you thought!)
A
Relationship to a Person
Griffith indicates a number
of ways that we might begin to try to answer that
question. For example, someone might suggest that
if a person is not a Muslim or a Buddhist or Jew,
then he or she might be a Christian. How does that
approach strike you? A majority of the American
population could claim being “Christian” by that
route, but is it really so? This term gets used
very loosely when we speak of the United States as
a “Christian nation,” does it not?
Another possibility Griffith
suggests is measurement by the Golden Rule. Could
we define all those who keep the Golden Rule as
Christians? Someone may know a very morally
upright and respectable agnostic, but is that
person a Christian?
On and
on this could go. Does being a member of a church
make a person a Christian? If an individual obeys
the Ten Commandments, does that qualify him or her
for the Christian label? Suppose someone was
baptized as a baby; does that establish that
person as a Christian?
From
the passage in Colossians for this session
(1:24–29), one would get the idea that a Christian
is one who has heard the call of Christ and
answered that call so that now Christ lives in
that person. How does that strike you? (Note here
the comment by Thomas under 1:27 in the Notes on
the Biblical Text. Christianity is relationship to
a living Person.)
A Word
of Testimony
In the
passages from Colossians that we have been looking
at in the previous two sessions, Paul has
presented crucial aspects of the gospel. He has
made some tremendous affirmations about the person
and work of Jesus Christ. Christ is “the visible
likeness of the invisible God” (1:15), the “head
of his body, the church” (1:18). He “rescued us”
(1:13) and by him it is now possible for us to be
“friends” with God (1:22).
Now
Paul turns to himself and his ministry. In part,
he seeks to explain his reasons for writing to
this church he had not founded and to these
Christians whom he had never met. He wants them to
feel the weight of his commitment to Christ and to
their welfare as well. There are valid reasons why
they should give both himself and his message a
fair hearing.
Joy in
Suffering
Paul
claims to be “happy” about his sufferings on
behalf of Christ and the Colossian Christians
(1:24). At one time he was a persecutor of and a
terror to the followers of Christ (Acts 9:1), but
now the roles have been reversed and he is in
prison as a Christian. In a sense he has “earned”
the right to call on others to suffer for their
faith if need be.
One
commentator paraphrases this verse as follows:
“The service of the Gospel, which I entered years
ago, is now impeded by a prisoner’s chain; yet the
imprisonment has its compensations, and at this
moment I am finding a new joy in the midst of my
sufferings, as I reflect on their significance”
(Lewis B. Radford in the Westminster commentary).
Paul
is not rejoicing in his sufferings as such. He is
not setting up the idea that there is merit to
suffering for suffering’s sake. Rather, he
recognizes that being a Christian does at times
require that measure of devotion that can accept
suffering on behalf of others and for the welfare
of the Church.
This
idea of joy in suffering is a rather familiar one
in Paul’s writings. Note Philippians 1:29: “For
you have been given the privilege of serving
Christ, not only by believing in him, but also by
suffering for him.” But this theme occurs
elsewhere in the New Testament also. For example,
note 1 Peter 2:21 and 3:14–18.
True
love is costly. It means involvement and
involvement can be painful. How deeply are we
Christian if we are not in any way “suffering” on
behalf of our faith?
A Call
and a Mission
Paul
has a call and a mission from God (1:25). He sees
himself as a “servant” of God, the Church, of
humanity in Christ’s name. He is not pursuing a
self-chosen career, but a God-assigned one. He is
steward of a message, and only as he proclaims it
fully can he fulfill his stewardship to both God
and the human family
In
recent years we have become more aware that all
Christians are called and commissioned to be
“servants” of Christ and in a very real sense,
ministers. The mission of the Church, therefore,
is the responsibility of the whole church, not
just pastors or evangelists or the ordained
clergy. In part, this understanding has been back
of the awakening with regard to personal and
witness evangelism as well as many forms of
service outreach beyond the congregation and its
own members. How do you feel that this insight has
affected the life and work of the congregation in
which you worship? or your own life as an
individual Christian?
The
Secret
And
now Paul talks about the “secret” (1:26–27). In
doing so he makes use of a widely known word which
more literally and traditionally translated comes
out “mystery.” “A mystery is a truth which man
cannot know by his natural powers, so that if it
is known it must be revealed” (Expositor’s Greek
New Testament).
Two
things might be noted about this secret or
mystery. In one sense the secret is that now not
just the Jews but the Gentiles, the whole world of
humanity, have been included in God’s redemptive
plans. Salvation is available to all who will
receive it. The other stress is on the indwelling
of Christ in the believer. Paul saw this mystery
to be far superior to any of the so-called
mysteries of Greek religions in his time. God was
in Christ and Christ is in the Christian believer.
This was Paul’s good news, the secret now
revealed, life-changing truth.
Toil
and Struggle
To see
each Christian convert grow and mature in Christ
was Paul’s passion (v. 28). To accomplish this he
was ready to “toil and struggle” with the same
kind of agony and exertion put forth by an athlete
in an athletic contest. More than that, he
testifies to divine help in the achieving of his
goals, a resource available to all who so commit
themselves.
Notes
on the Biblical Text
1:24.
And now. This marks a shift in emphasis from the
preceding affirmations concerning the gospel to
more personal emphases concerning Paul’s ministry.
Happy about my sufferings. Remember, this letter
comes from prison. Also note 2 Corinthians 7:5. I
am helping to complete. Emphasis here is on
suffering borne in ministry, not in any “atoning”
sense. On behalf of his body. In Paul’s view, the
Christians can bear burdens and suffering for the
sake of their fellow believers.
1:25.
A servant of the church. “Paul’s summons to be a
minister is in keeping with God’s plan for the
world and he is bidden to execute that plan by the
grace which has been conferred upon him” (Martin).
Fully proclaiming his message. Several meanings
are possible here—to proclaim the whole gospel, to
proclaim it everywhere, to proclaim it to all
peoples.
1:26.
The secret he hid. The “mystery,” a word
frequently used by Paul. It speaks of something
once concealed but now revealed. Note 1
Corinthians 2:6–10 and Romans 16:25–27.
1:27.
God’s plan. God wills that this message be shared.
To make known his secret. The gospel is for
everyone, not just one nation, or one people.
Christ is in you. “The theme of Christianity is
not a theory, not an institution, not a book, not
a set of rules, not simply a code of morals or a
system of philosophy … . Christianity is a living
person” (Thomas).
1:28.
To bring each one into God’s presence. The summons
is for all persons, not for a select few.
1:29.
I toil and struggle. Paul’s intense concern for
the Church and all persons comes through here.
Some
Study Approaches
Pick
up the basic question, What Is a Christian? (see A
Relationship to a Person), and work on possible
descriptions or definitions. Test each proposal
carefully to see if it will really hold up for all
instances. The quotation from Thomas under 1:27 in
Notes on the Biblical Text can be helpful here,
but it would be best to struggle with a definition
apart from it, at least to begin with. The key
idea here is to recognize how easily we can go
astray in defining or characterizing Christianity
and the Christian. Relationship to God through
Christ is the heart of the matter with Paul.
For
this session it may be best to follow through the
key emphases of Paul’s witness concerning his own
servant-style ministry, in each case relating the
concepts to the Church and Christian life-style
today. Some key questions are already suggested in
the text, but here are others:
What
contribution does a strong sense of personal
mission make in the Christian’s service to Christ,
the Church, and fellow human beings?
In
what sense is it possible for a Christian to make
a contribution to the Church through some form of
voluntary suffering for the cause?
If we
are not experiencing any suffering on account of
witness to and devotion to Christ, what might this
say about our lives for Christ? What kinds of
suffering are available to us today?
Lesson 6
Concern
for the Church
Colossians 2:1-7
In
the latter years of the 1960s something remarkable
happened in the United States: for the first time
in the nation’s history most of the major church
groups stopped growing.
-Dean M. Kelley
The
Apostle Paul, writing from prison, voices his
concern for the future of the churches in the
Lycus Valley in Asia Minor. There are evidently
three of these congregations, clustered not far
from one another—Laodicea, Colossae, and
Hierapolis (note Colossians 2:1 and 4:13). That
this concern was well founded might easily be
inferred from a later description of the condition
of the Laodicean church in Revelation 3:14–22.
A
Voice of Concern
Messages of warning rarely
are well received. Often they are spurned or
ignored. Read through Colossians 2:1–7, noting how
urgently and yet how tenderly Paul approaches this
church. He actually is “suffering” for them, his
concern is so intense. He wants these Christians
to know that he is not just an “outsider” meddling
in the affairs of their congregation but that he
carries a great burden of concern for their
spiritual welfare and their continued devotion to
the true gospel. Earlier in this letter he has
hinted at possible dangers but now for the first
time he becomes quite direct in his warning: “Do
not let anyone deceive you” (v. 4)
What
Paul is trying to do here is to set the true
gospel over against a teaching that, if allowed to
develop, would subvert and eventually destroy this
and other nearby churches.
A
three-fold concern can be found in verses 1–3 of
this chapter. It is foundational to the more
pointed exhortation found in verse 4. Note what
Paul hopes and prays for among these Christians.
1.
Hearts full of courage (because they are facing
dangerous and wily foes). See verse 2.
2. A
knitting together in love (because unity provides
great strength against outside pressures). How do
you believe that this “knitting” together can be
fostered in the life of a congregation? How does
it happen?
3.
Wisdom and understanding grounded in Christ
(because any emphasis that pushes Christ to the
sidelines should be suspect). See verse 3. Do you
feel that Paul is being over-dramatic and
over-suspicious at this point? What are some of
the positive values of keeping Christ-centered in
doctrine and life?
Don’t
Be Deceived
Now
comes the first and most direct warning of this
letter concerning false teachers: “Do not let
anyone deceived you with false arguments, no
matter how good they seem to be” (v. 4). The exact
danger here is hard to pin down precisely. Words
difficult to translate are involved. Note how
translators have struggled with this: “plausible
arguments” (Moffatt); “smooth talk” (Living
Bible); “beguiling speech” (RSV).
It
would seem quite possible that Paul has a specific
individual in mind with this warning. But as
things usually work out in such instances, this
person would have by now gathered at least a small
group of “followers,” ready to support
strange-sounding and seemingly profound views.
There are religious teachers who expect and get
from their followers almost a blind
shut-your-mind-to-anything-but-what-I-tell-you
adoration. But note that Paul does not mount a
direct attack on this person or persons but rather
on the weakness of the teaching.
Cults
of all kinds abound today, many with bizarre,
far-out, mysterious, and even ridiculous
teachings. But each gets a following and each
succeeds, at least for a time, in gaining
adherents fanatically devoted to their particular
teacher or guru. What do you think contributes to
these trends? How can they best be guarded against
by believers who wish to center their beliefs,
loyalties, and practices in Christ?
The
Marks of the Faithful Church
At
this point it might be well to go back and note
some of the positive emphases of these seven
verses. Commentator William Barclay has discussed
them under the heading of “marks” of the faithful
church (see pages 129–132 in his Daily Bible Study
series). The seven he notes (though not
necessarily in his specific wording) are the
following:
1. A
church marked by courageous hearts.
2. A
church whose members are knit together in love.
3. A
church equipped with wisdom and understanding.
4. A
church with power to resist false teachings.
5. A
church with discipline not unlike that of
soldiers.
6. A
church whose life is centered “in Christ.”
7. A
church that guards well the faith it has received.
Trace
out the basis of each of these in the text of
2:17.
Notes
on the Biblical Text
2:1
How hard I have worked for you. Possibly Paul
feared that the Christians in the Colossian church
might resent the fact that he had not personally
visited them. The TEV is too mild here. See other
translations. In Laodicea. Another church nearby
in the Lycus valley. All others who do not know me
personally. Paul has been struggling mightily in
prayer for all these Christians in the Lycus
valley.
2:2
That they may be filled with courage. Paul seeks
to encourage as well as to warn. Drawn together in
love. This reflects concern for the unity of this
church. “God’s revelation in Christ cannot be
properly understood in isolation from the
fellowship of other Christians” (Vaughn). God’s
secret, which is Christ himself. The pinnacle of
knowledge is to know Christ.
2:3.
He is the key. Nothing else can substitute for
Christ as Savior, received by faith. Paul is
zeroing in on the heresy being taught by these
leaders—that Jesus is not unique but is one of
many saviors. Wisdom and knowledge. All comes by
way of Christ and relationship with him.
2:4.
Do not let anyone deceive you. “Sometimes a charm
of manner and an eloquent utterance will hide the
falsity of a speaker’s reasoning” (Thomas). Paul
may have even had a specific person in mind, whom
the congregation would know. His warning is
urgent.
2:5. I
am with you in spirit. Though not physically
present, he is with them in an even deeper sense
than physical presence. Resolute firmness. “The
terms he uses are of military origin, and convey
the idea of a well-ordered line of battle with a
solid depth behind it” (Scott).
2:6.
Live in union with him. Acceptance of Christ is a
beginning; walking with him day by day must
follow.
Some
Study Approaches
Note
Revelation 3:14–22 as an example, directly
applicable, of a process of decay that had brought
a once-vigorous church to a period of weakness and
apathy. Explore the following questions: What can
reverse such trends? How can vigorous life and
warm devotion be restored or recaptured? How can
such decline be prevented in the first place?
(Since
more attention will be given to the nature of the
false teachings at Colossae and modern
cult-parallels in later sessions, it may be best
at this point not to dwell overly long on this
particular theme.)
Barclay’s seven-point Marks
of the Faithful Church can provide a positive
concluding stress for this session. Perhaps class
members can suggest additional marks. How does a
church become this kind of fellowship? Discuss how
focusing on Christ as the key can enable us to
resist false teaching.
| 
