It is so good to be with you today. We are honored to be with you and learn from God’s Word together. Today is the first lesson from the book of Colossians. As you probably know, Paul wrote Colossians, and this book loosely follows a pattern we see in his other books.
Paul typically starts with foundational teaching. He addresses the doctrinal teaching first, laying a foundation for why we believe what we believe. After laying the foundation, he discusses the practical ways our Christian beliefs are lived out.
Remember this as we read Colossians: Doctrinal matters come first, and practical teaching comes later. All of it is centered on Christ—He is supreme! We exalt Him! Because of who He is, we surrender to Him, which gives us a new life. We put off the old man and his desires for a new and better way of living.
Let’s follow J Mark to chapter 1 and begin our study of Colossians, which is titled “The Truth of the Gospel.”
I once heard a story about two men in a boat on a river. They were caught in severe rapids and heading toward a waterfall. There was no way they’d survive if they went over the falls. The men realized their plight and began to struggle for their lives.
As they were swiftly carried downstream toward the falls, some men on the shore threw a rope to them. By this time, the boat had capsized, and the men struggled in the raging current.
One man caught the rope and was pulled to shore. In a moment of panic, the other man made a fatal mistake; he grabbed hold of a log floating by.
The lives of those men from that moment were defined by their choices. Both men grabbed hold of something. One man’s choice led to life; the other man’s choice led to death.
Many people today are like those men. They’re adrift on the raging river of life; their boat is out of control. The Gospel of Jesus Christ offers them a lifeline. Some will seize it, while others will grab one of the “floating logs” the world offers and ultimately perish.
Today, we begin a study in the New Testament book of Colossians. In the opening of this letter, we’ll learn how a group of people in Colossae responded to the choice offered to them and how it impacted their lives.
But before we do that, I must introduce the book. In Paul’s day, Colossae was in an area called Phrygia in Asia Minor, in modern southwestern Turkey. It was about 15 kilometers south of Laodicea, home of one of the seven churches from the Book of Revelation.
Colossae had varied religious influences: Jewish, Gnostic, and pagan. These influences help us better understand Paul’s concerns in this letter. Gnosticism elevated personal spiritual knowledge over biblical orthodoxy and church authority.
Because Gnostics believed that physical matter is evil, they tended toward two extremes. One group was sensual, and its motto was, “If it feels good, do it.” The other group was ascetic, and it used only the necessities of survival.
Add to this mix the Jewish believers who were trying to incorporate things from the Mosaic law as necessary for salvation. Behind all this is a first-generation church of people primarily from pagan backgrounds, with their experiences and inclinations.
This letter was likely written around AD 60 during Paul’s first imprisonment. Timothy is included as a writer. Perhaps he did the actual writing as Paul dictated.
The letter’s content refutes legalistic tendencies, such as feast days, circumcision, food regulations, etc. However, we’ll notice that Paul doesn’t argue against each of these individually. Instead, he shows how all of these laws have been fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ!
The central theme of this letter is Christ’s preeminence or superiority and the practical outworking of that belief. I trust you will find this teaching practical and transformative.
Our text is Colossians 1:1 to 8. Then, we will discuss these verses under the title “The Truth of the Gospel.”
1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother,
2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints;
5 because of the hope, which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,
6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;
7 as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf,
8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
In this text, the apostle Paul lays out three foundational CONCEPTS that define “The Truth of the Gospel.”
The First CONCEPT (that defines the truth of the Gospel) is,
Faith in Christ
Paul opens his letter “to the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ who are at Colossae.” He can address his readers this way because of what he states in verse four. He is deeply grateful to the Lord for their faith in Christ Jesus, and he intends to encourage and bless them through this letter, even when he has hard things to say. The fact that they are one in Christ brings the apostle great joy, and he assures them of his continuing prayers.
The words, “we heard of your faith,” seem to imply that Paul had never visited Colossae. Later, in his letter to Philemon, he states his desire to visit Epaphras, the church’s founder.
Faith in Christ is the foremost foundational concept that defines the truth of the Gospel. The Gospel is Good News, and Jesus is the Good News personified! In his first letter to the Church in Corinth, Paul wrote, “We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
Believing in Christ and His finished work of redemption is faith. The one who exercises sincere, obedient faith becomes a child of God! This was the position of the people to whom Paul was writing.
These Colossian believers’ exercise of faith in Christ leads us to the second foundational concept that defines the truth of the Gospel.
The Second CONCEPT is,
Hope in Heaven
The object of our faith is Jesus Christ. Similarly, the object of our hope is Heaven—being in the presence of Jesus! The teaching that life here is temporary and Heaven is the Believer’s ultimate goal is central to the New Testament, beginning with Jesus’s teachings in the Gospels and continuing to the end of Revelation.
This hope the Colossian believers had, and which you and I share, is rooted in the truth of the Gospel, verse 5. It is NOT a probability of doubtful quality. It is a sure hope. Paul states in Romans 5:5 that the hope we have “does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
In I Peter 1:3 to 5, we read about this hope. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Your hope and inheritance are reserved and guarded, and your Heavenly Father watches over it. What can be more secure than that? The Believers in Colossae had embraced this hope as being “stored away” for them in the future. And Paul commended them for embracing the hope contained in the Gospel.
This leads us to the final foundational concept that defines the truth of the Gospel.
The Final CONCEPT is,
Love for the Saints
This foundational concept defines the reality of the truth of the Gospel. We can make whatever claims of faith and hope we want, but those claims are meaningless if we don’t love our brothers and sisters!
In verse four, Paul told the Colossian believers that he had heard of “their love for all the saints…” This love for their brothers and sisters validated the authenticity of their faith. It came about as a result of their faith and hope. Throughout the Scriptures and the New Testament especially, the authenticity of our faith is directly connected to our treatment of others, particularly our treatment of our brothers and sisters.
The apostle John speaks in a language that’s clear and unambiguous; “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” If you embrace God’s word as inspired and authoritative, you can’t spin that; you can’t say it’s unclear.
So, the Gospel came to Colossae through preaching Epaphras, and when it was embraced, it brought forth fruit. When the Colossians experienced the grace of God, verse six, the fruit was the inevitable result. That was true then and is still true today. That fruit was love. Paul tells us in Galatians 5:22 that the primary fruit of the Spirit is – love.
If we have difficulty loving our brother or sister, perhaps we should examine the reality of our faith and our hope.
If Christ is truly the object of our faith, we owe everything we are and have to Him. He is the founder and the perfector of our faith. He is the initiator of the New Covenant through His blood, and He is the One who makes it possible for us to win the ultimate prize! Remember, “… we are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
If the object of our hope is truly Heaven, that too impacts our love for the brotherhood. If my focus is earthly, I become selfish and covetous; if my focus is on my eternal hope through Jesus, that allows me to be generous, open-handed, and eager to share.
Epaphras is commended for being a faithful minister who truly embodied these foundational concepts that define the truth of the Gospel. Although you may not be a pastor or teacher like he was, you can be a faithful servant whose life brings glory to God.
My prayer for you is that your faith and hope will bear fruit in love and give convincing evidence to those around you of the truth of the Gospel.
Thanks, J Mark, for sharing this with us. Did you catch the three concepts? Faith, hope, and love are incredible. How often are these three connected in the Bible—faith, looking back, and trusting in Christ’s work for us? I hope, look to the future, and trust Him for what will happen. Love is experienced in the present; he loves us, we love Him, and we love other people. I like how this summary covers the past, present, and future. This may be why faith, hope, and love are often mentioned together.
If you want to hear this teaching again or if you want to contact us for any reason, here are a few ways you can reach us. Our email is hope@heraldsofhope.org. You can also message us online; our website is heraldsofhope.org. Thanks so much for joining us for today’s teaching. Please keep Heralds of Hope in your prayers. By God’s grace, accompanied by your fervent prayers, we will work together to win the world for Jesus.
*This episode is an exposition by J. Otis Yoder, re-recorded by J. Mark Horst, with an opening and closing by Arlin Horst.
