Aleethia!

In today’s passage, Paul moves toward the conclusion of his letter to the church at Colossae and begins his conclusion with an encouragement to continue praying.

What is steadfast prayer?

First, let’s define prayer. John Piper tells this story about the definition of prayer.

There is a story about D. L. Moody making a visit to Scotland in the 1800’s and opening one of his talks at a local grade school with the rhetorical question, What is prayer? To his amazement, hundreds of children’s hands went up. So he decided to call on a lad near the front, who promptly stood up and said, “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, in the name of Christ, by the help of his Spirit, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.” This is the answer to question #78 in the Westminster Catechism. To this Moody responded by saying, “Be thankful, son, that you were born in Scotland.”

…the essence of prayer is the expression of our dependence on God through requests.¹

Now, Paul says to continue in prayer. In other letters he tells believers to pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17), pray at all times (Eph 6:18), pray about everything (Phil 4:6), etc. What he means is that our lifestyle should be typified by prayer. Prayer is the most important conversation that can come out of our mouths as believers. This is part of the “new man” we are supposed to put on, an attitude of prayer.

We are to have this attitude of prayer, steadfastly. That means we must be resolved in our spirits to do so. Our prayer life must be unwavering. This means praying even when you don’t feel like it, praying even when you’re running out of time. It means to make it a regular part of who you are. It means to persevere. Even when it seems there is no hope, continue in prayer. › Continue reading

This post is part of a teaching series on the book of Colossians. All of the lessons in this series can be found here. In the first lesson we outlined the book. In each subsequent lesson we look at one small section of the outline and seek to answer five questions concerning the text.

In the last lesson we say Paul dealing with the underlying philosophy of gnosticism that was held by the false teachers at Colossae. Now Paul begins to deal with specific teachings and practices that had grown out of that philosophy. In these two verses, the issue is legalism.

What is legalism? The word literally means “excessive adherence to law or formula.”

I see two courses of action that I would define as legalism for Christians.

Regarding salvation - thinking that our adherence to, or keeping of, the Law is what merits our salvation. This is self-righteousness, self-earned righteousness. This is what the Pharisees did that Jesus called them out for. They made sure to keep strict outward laws, but their hearts were wicked and unregenerate. They thought they were better than others because of their works. John Piper says that legalism occurs when people turn the commandments into a job description whose payment (wages) is salvation. ¹

Adding man-made laws to God’s Law and insisting on the keeping of them, for either salvation or church membership. This would include churches that will only allow you to be a member if you promise not to drink, or dance, or play cards, or that (if you are a girl) you will not wear pants (at least not to church). Or even if these things are not formally part of the church membership, they look down on, condemn, or withdraw fellowship, from those who do these things.

Aside from man-made regulations, we know that our salvation is not dependent on our keeping the law, it is dependent on Jesus having kept the law for us. Once we are saved, by grace not works, what is our relationship with God’s Law supposed to look like? › Continue reading

This post is part of a teaching series on the book of Colossians. All of the lessons in this series can be found here. In the first lesson we outlined the book. In each subsequent lesson we look at one small section of the outline and seek to answer five questions concerning the text.

In this passage we come to the last section of our outline under the heading of Paul’s Ministry. So far we’ve seen his work in suffering (1:24), preaching (1:25-29), and intercessory prayer (2:1-5). Now we are to see his ministry of encouragement.

This section is difficult to separate from the previous paragraph as the transition between the two is so smooth.

In verse 5, which we looked at last week, Paul’s words were the explanation of his labors in prayer, but were in nature, encouraging.

Verse 6 begins with the word “Therefore”, which points back to something previous. The reason I take this as a separate section is that it seems to refer to the previous discussion in its entirety. Everything that has gone before, including chapter one, could be seen as cause for the following statements.

What does Paul mean by “received Christ”? In Christian circles today, we say someone received Christ when they are saved. I think that is an over simplification of what Paul means here.

When looking at other passages (Gal 1:9, 12 and 1 Cor 15:1-3) where Paul used similar language, we can see that he is referring to a correct understanding of the Gospel. Jesus is the Gospel. In context, our passage is in the midst of Paul encouraging the Colossians to hold fast to the truth about Jesus, and not accept false teaching.

Spurgeon extended the definition of “received” even further.

…receiving means also … getting a grip of it, grasping it. The thing which I receive becomes my own. I may believe it to be real, but that is not receiving it. I may believe, also, that if I ever do get it, it must be given to me, and that I cannot earn it for myself, but still that is not receiving it. Receiving is the bona fide taking into my hand and appropriating to myself as my own property that which is given to me. ¹

What he’s saying is that Christ becomes very real and very personal to you. He is not some abstract idea that you “believe” in, but doesn’t change your life. If you “receive” Christ, your life is changed. › Continue reading

This post is part of a teaching series on the book of Colossians. All of the lessons in this series can be found here. In the first lesson we outlined the book. In each subsequent lesson we look at one small section of the outline and seek to answer five questions concerning the text.

Last week we took a look at this same passage, focusing specifically on how Paul prayed in verse one. This week we’re looking at the rest of the passage to learn what he prays and why.

2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ,

Paul is praying for their “hearts” to be encouraged. What does he mean by hearts?

As this term is used in Scripture, it refers to both the rational and emotional elements of our inner person. The mind and emotions. All of who we are at our core.

Paul’s prayer is that their hearts would be encouraged, comforted, uplifted. He says this will happen when they are

knit together in love

What does he mean by “knit together”? Is Paul getting out a knitting needle? This Greek word literally means “compacted, or held together.” I would prefer an english rendering that said “welded together.” › Continue reading