Colossians Discussion

Household codes

2009-03-07T12:20:00.000-08:00

Reading commentaries on this passage can prove interesting. Almost all commentaries, including evangelical ones, work off the assumption that this passage as we have it from Paul seems to present a picture of role relationships that is not acceptable to our society. Commentaries seem to all move with one assumption : this passage presents a bad picture if not read with the right understanding. The commentary will then go on to explain why what Paul wrote is not as bad as it sounds to us. Or they try to explain why Paul did not write something we all know he should have wrote.

What do you think?
Does the role relationship Paul presents here strike you as bad? Do you wish he wrote something else? It looks like he is affirming at least some of the existing patterns in Greek/Roman households – is this a compromise on Paul's part? Is it possible that Paul still had some blind spots that in time the fullness of his message and the gospel have helped us better see? If you would like him to reword something or clarify something, what would it be? If you think these codes somewhat culturally conditioned, based on the gospel, how would you write these family codes for our own culture if you think they should change?
Why do we as a culture have trouble with Paul's words? Is it possible that instead of us thinking Paul has not fully understood equality, that we in our culture have misunderstood? Would perhaps Paul equally challenge our alternate views of family?

Lecture

2009-03-02T19:25:00.000-08:00

Here is a good lecture I came across last week. NT Wright can give some thoughts that are a little hard to grasp if you are not used to this way of thinking, but I found wonderful thoughts in here about glory.

Here is the link. http://www.intervarsity.org/audio/
There are actually 3 sermons by NT Wright on Colossians here. But if you choose one try N.T. Wright’s second talk on Glory.

The Word and Singing - More Questions

2009-02-24T18:19:00.000-08:00

These Colossians were probably mostly illiterate. And even if they could read there was no New Testament yet or even letters from apostle (excluding the one they just got). Yet Paul expected they could do small group. He expected they could come together to encourage one another, to have things to share with one another. Where would this come from? What would this look like? Each was to teach and admonish the others.

Interesting – the word and song. Sounds a lot like what we emphasize in our church! What is this “word of Christ?” Were they singing the Jewish psalms (and did they edit them for the good parts like we do)? Did they write their own songs? What do you suppose this looked like?

Follow the below link to read a letter from a Roman official to the emperor about Christians. Written about 111BC. Though the whole letter is very interesting – notice what he says about Christians meetings.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/pliny.html

A few more questions

2009-02-21T08:29:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more questions to help in you thinking about chapter 3?

How does believing in and thinking about the resurrection of Jesus help you combat sexual immorality?

Often scholars will sum up how Paul admonishes Christians to grow is, “Be who you are!” What does Paul mean by that? Practically what does this look like? Is this something which you think of much?

What would it mean to see the church in all its current brokenness as full of God and his glory? What would it mean to see a fellow believer as he is in his fullness in Christ? What would it mean to see yourself with the eyes of faith as you truly are in Christ? How would these perspectives change the way you think about yourself, others and the church?

Luther on Works and Righteousness

2009-02-20T14:10:00.000-08:00

If you have not yet had the opportunity to read Martin Luther's, Treatise on Christian Liberty, (also known as the Freedom of a Christian), I would highly recommend it. It addresses the works/righteousness issue that we have been discussing in our study of Colossians. I offer the following quote that Luther states on page 295:

"Nevertheless the works themselves do not justify him before God, but he does the works out of spontaneous love in obedience to God and considers nothing except the approval of God, whom he would most scrupulously obey in all things."

Chapter 2 versus Chapter 3

2009-02-15T16:24:00.000-08:00

Comparing the “opponents” way in chapter 2 versus “Paul's” way in chapter 3...
What are the difference in the types of “rules”?
What is the difference in the way “spirituality” is defined?
What are the paths to holiness, right living? How are the starting points very different?
What sets us apart as God's people in each case?

Right Living is Important

2009-02-13T20:20:00.000-08:00

Paul emphasized in chapter 1 that holiness, bearing fruit, and walking worthy are important. Christ called us for the aim of, and Paul is working for the aim of, presenting us before God holy and blameless and beyond reproach. Holiness and right living mean a lot to Paul. I have mentioned a couple of times that I feel we have wrongly said that Paul's letters are about faith versus works. I would say, “It is because Paul cares so deeply about genuine works that he emphasizes faith versus works of the Law.” Following the rules and traditions of a religion, even if they are from God, are powerless to achieve real godliness. As Paul said in chapter 2, they are works of the flesh that will be useless in battling against the flesh. He also emphasizes that those types of works tend towards pride, disunity, and dividing up humanity into cultural and religious systems. All this is NOT to say then that good works and right living are unimportant. Paul will heartily say with James that faith without works is useless. It is because he cares about right living that he emphasizes the cross and resurrection. Something happened there which will give us power to do works that no law or religious system could. How do you see Paul applying this in chapter 3?

Chapter 3 - rules for Christian living?

2009-02-10T18:16:00.001-08:00

We laughed in an earlier small group when one Bible titled a section in chapter 2 something like “Christianity is not about rules” while another titled Chapter 3 as “Rules for Christian living.” So is Paul just substituting another set of rules? Is he setting up another religion and just naming in Christianity? Is Christianity just another of the elementary principles of the world? What is different about these “rules” in chapter 3? What is different about the way Paul argues? Why are WORKS so important for Paul?

Colossians 2:16-23 Questions

2009-02-05T17:59:00.000-08:00

It seems there are some who are urging these Colossians that they need to take on certain practices. These practices involve fleshly rituals of Jewish Torah keeping – Sabbath, festivals, new moons, diet ... And they seem to involve visions. They seem to be promising “supernatural” worship experiences. There is plenty of evidence of Jews being involved in such things. Paul himself was converted by a sort of vision and he seemed to have more of them even after coming to faith. But of course he will not boast of these (except sarcastically in Corinthians) or hardly even speak of them.

What does he say about these opponents in our passage?
They are claiming to have super-spiritual experiences .... what does Paul say about them?
They are claiming their “acts of humility” lead them closer to God ... what does Paul say about that?
They are claiming these acts of the flesh will help them “put off the flesh” ... what does Paul say their acts actually accomplish?
They are claiming others are disqualified from life with God because of not practicing such things ... what does Paul say about those wanting to disqualify others?

Paul is using lots of irony in this passage ... do not miss it.

What does Paul insist on instead?
What should mark out the Colossian church?

What are teachings/practices that are sometimes urged by some in the church which can lead the same directions as these opponents? What teachings have you seen that do not ultimately lead the church as a whole closer to one another and to God and to holiness, but rather to disorder, disunity, and to pride?

Christ Cross and Circumcision

2009-01-30T20:34:00.000-08:00

Here is another passage that might be a little confusing.

Circumcision. If there were, as I think, Jews at Colosse who were exhorting these Gentiles who had become Christians to get circumcised, it would explain why Paul is interested in telling the Colossians they have already been circumcised in a far more important way than a fleshly circumcision which was designed to mark out the Jews as the people of God in the flesh in the OT.

So we have verse 2:11.
Col 2:11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; (NASB)

I have always read this as the ISV translates it: In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision performed without human hands by stripping off the corrupt nature in the circumcision performed by Christ. (ISV)

When Christ died on the cross, he enabled it so that we who unite with him will have our hearts circumcised. We will in a sense die to our old corrupt nature. Paul is talking about a spiritual circumcision of the heart which happens in believers when we come to put our faith in Jesus. That is certainly a Biblical idea and it is a possible interpretation of these verses.

But most commentators pointed me in a different direction. Here is the more literal translation of what Paul said.

and in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands,
by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of the Messiah. (HCSB)

In other words, commentators point out that Paul is saying that Christ experienced a sort of circumcision on the cross when he stripped off the body of flesh. We then who are baptized into Christ, are also circumcised by being united to him. Wow, this is a new thought to me that Christ experienced a sort of circumcision on the cross. What do you suppose that could mean? Why would Paul be encouraging the Colossians with such a thought? What would it mean for us today?

What is important, I think, is how we are marked out as the people of God. How was this in the OT? How in the new?

One of the hard things in the next passage

2009-01-28T17:57:00.000-08:00

I mentioned that there were a lot of hard things to understand in the next section. This post will be about one of them. It is a really long post. I am by no means an expert on all of this. But it will perhaps get you thinking about one of the confusing issues involved in this text. I should say it is confusing to us who do not have the advantage of knowing all that Paul's opponents were arguing. It was probably pretty clear and simple for the Colossians.

Verse 2:8 says. “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”

One of the questions that comes up is, “What does Paul mean by elementary principles of the world?” There are many theories on this. Many commentaries quote obscure pagan sources to try to prove various things. But the easiest help we can find with the statement is that Paul also uses this phrase in Galatians. There Paul is clearly trying to argue against Jews who believe Gentile Christians must still get circumcised to be a part of the people of God. I believe that is part of the issue in Colossians.

In Galatians Paul pictures the Law (Torah) as one of these elemental things of the world. The idea seems to be that it is a system of laws and regulations which are there to keep people/children in order. Indeed Paul says keep in bondage. It is not that Torah is a bad thing, it is just part of a system (a basic elementary system) which is now no longer needed since Christ has come. Indeed, Paul seems to think that all the laws/religions of the nations are like these elemental things. Paul seems to say that for a pagan Gentile who becomes a Christian, but then goes on to take on the law, that such a one has gone full circle. He was under bondage by pagan, elemental religion and laws and idolatry that are of no value. He became a Christian and found freedom and maturity. But to take on Torah is to go back to bondage and essentially paganism. Torah, it seems for Paul, after Christ, is little better than pagan idolatry. It is all part of elementary systems (not necessarily bad) which were meant to keep immature people in line until they grew up.

We will notice in Colossians that Paul refers to circumcision, Sabbath, food laws, festivals, full moons, traditions and decrees. These are probably all associated with the Jewish Torah and Jews wanting these Christians to adopt Torah to find acceptance by God and become true heirs. Torah, they would have argued is true wisdom. Paul speaks generally enough however that one could say that adopting any such “religious system”, whether Torah or pagan mystery religion, is like going back to bondage after finding your true freedom in Christ.

Let me make this even more complex. Paul seems to associate these elements and religious systems with supernatural beings. Though I find it hard to sort it all out just what he believed and if perhaps he is just arguing this way because his opponents did. Let me try to summarize some of the ideas current in Jewish philosophy in Paul's time.

Some Jewish writing emphasizes that God put ruling angels over the nations. This comes from Deuteronomy 32:8-9 where it says God “apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the gods [sometimes translated angels]; the Lord's own portion was his people, Jacob his alloted share.” The idea it seems is that at Babel, God actually assigned gods/angels to nations to regulate them. God himself took Israel. The speculation would then go on that these angels were behind the laws and systems of each of these cultures. But the Jews got their Law directly from God. There is not necessarily anything evil about the angels/gods of the other nations in this view. Perhaps this is why in Galatians Paul emphasizes that even Torah came through angels. Yes it was from God but it too was mediated like all other systems.

But other Jewish writings (for example the apocryphal book Sirach) go on to speculate that God put these angels in charge of nations specifically to deceive them and lead them astray. A pretty surprising thing to say about God. That is why the nations are so wayward, it is because God wanted them to go that way. Sirach then again emphasizes that Jews are God's people, no angel rules them. What is most interesting is all this speculation is in an argument designed to prove why circumcision was absolutely necessary and not an option. So it seems Jews emphasized this whole angel and nation thing when talking about the importance of circumcision. Sirach strangely even uses the argument that angels are circumcised so we should be to. Go figure...

As you can guess, it is not too far from the speculations of Sirach to start to say that the angels of the nations are no angels at all but demons or perhaps angels who at some point fell and are no longer doing God's will. They are indeed to be associated with the idols and false gods of the nations. They keep the nations in bondage. We see evidence of these ideas in the gospel except with the surprising twist that even Israel itself is in bondage. Having Torah did not help them but was indeed part of what brought them under the same bondage as the nations. It will take Jesus binding the strong man to release the bondage Satan and these authorities have on the nations so that the nations will be free to join the people of God. Of course we see that Jews are just as much in need of release from these powers. They are not different from the nations. It is not too hard to see why Paul now will equate Torah (after Christ) with all other religious systems. He does emphasize that it had its important place before Christ to set apart Israel as the culture people of God. But that is the point, it was setting them apart culturally and fleshly for a time until the Messiah would come and deal with all these elemental forces (that is the rest of Colossians 2).

I know all this is very confusing. And I am not sure how important it is to grasp all this angel/nation stuff. I wonder if Paul would tell us not to worry about it. We have Christ, do not get sidetracked in all this. Indeed, one might ask how much and what Paul believed of all these speculations and how much he just argued based on what they were saying. He could indeed be using a bit of sarcasm when he says they want you to worship angles because they talk about them so much. I do not have answers and am still thinking through all this.

What is clear is that Paul wants the Colossians to know that they should not go back to the bondage of these laws and religious systems. Christ has set them free. In verse 20 he emphasizes that we have died to these elementary principles – so stop living under them like they rule us!

Indeed, he emphasizes, Christ is over all these authorities and rulers. They have been now brought under his rule and authority at the cross (in chapter 1 Paul assured us they were always under his authority). All things now center on Christ. All things, including these forces and authorities are being reconciled to him. It gets a little confusing to know if Paul is saying these are personal evil forces which have been defeated by Christ on the cross, or whether they are systems and principles which are now being reconciled to Christ. Or both?

Small Group Questions and Vision

2009-01-08T19:57:00.000-08:00

Rich opened the table tonight for the group to share their hopes and desires for the small group. I am creating this post as a continuation of that question, so that those who were not at group, or those who have had time now to think, can contribute.

What is it that you are looking for out of a small group?

How can we minister to one another, to the church, and to the world?

What giftings do you bring to this group, and how can we allow those gifts to bless one another?

What is so AMAZING about incarnation?

2008-12-22T17:12:00.000-08:00

What is so amazing about incarnation? In studying Colossians, I was again reminded of this question. In Colossians 1 Paul speaks of Jesus as God’s son in whom, through whom and for whom was all creation. He goes on to say that if we or anything in the present has been newly recreated and reconciled to God, that also has happened only in the Son, through him and to him. God is arranging things so that all creation and all new creation centers around Jesus.

Paul also says Jesus is the image of God. In Christ is the fullness of deity in bodily form come to dwell among us. The Son came among us so that we and all creation might be reconciled and redeemed.

These passages once again caused me to wonder at the incarnation. How amazing it is! How surprising! But this reminded me of a study I did years ago where I discovered what was most amazing about the incarnation. I was studying Philippians 2 where Paul in essence says that the Son, precisely because he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be used for his own benefit or power, but rather he emptied himself and took on flesh and dwelt among us, suffered and died. Jesus did all this so we might be reconciled to the Father. When we put Paul’s thoughts in Philippians and Colossians together we get the ironical truth that the fullness of deity dwelt among us (Colossians) precisely by emptying himself (Philippians).

In thinking about that, it struck me that for God the incarnation is not amazing but natural. Paul said that it was because the son was in the form of God he did all this. In other words, Jesus did this because it was the very type of thing God would do. Humility, emptying, serving are essential to God’s nature. The incarnation is not surprising to God. Why is the incarnation so amazing to me? It must be because these attributes are not so natural to me. There is a bent in me which assumes that one with power and position will protect it and use it for their own advantage. Yes, they might express humility and service at times, but a complete emptying of oneself of powers which are yours by right to serve a people so undeserving… that is not natural for me and therefore it is hard for me to conceive that an almighty God would ever do such a thing.

Jesus, however, reveals that my thinking about incarnation is wrong. Incarnation should not be an amazing idea! It is to me only because I need to be redeemed. I need to be recreated to begin to think like God - and act like God. Perhaps it is this implication that we must act differently that makes the world find the incarnation not just unbelievable but distasteful. To believe in it would challenge our way of living. It would lead us down the path of choosing to empty ourselves for the sake of others.

I praise God for the incarnation and cross for without them I too would still regard the thought of God becoming man as “too amazing” to be possible. I would be “free” to pursue my own pleasure and live for myself. But the fact that I am not just believing in the incarnation, but even beginning to seek out this way of life for myself is evidence of its reality. It must be that the fullness of deity in the Son really did come take on flesh and die so that I might be recreated and reconciled. It must be Christ in me transforming me to reflect God's image that is causing this type of humility and service to become more natural and less amazing. This is all to the praise of the Son. My reconciliation is in him, through him and to him.

So what is so amazing about the incarnation? I now answer, “That it is amazing.” It should not be.

But that answer, of course, only makes it all the more amazing.

filling up that which is lacking in Christ's afflictions

2008-12-15T17:18:00.000-08:00

I looked around for a sermon which would try to summarize what Paul means when he says that he completes what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. I found this one by John Piper

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1992/806_Called_to_Suffer_and_Rejoice_To_Finish_the_Aim_of_Christs_Afflictions/

I think John Piper does a great job here at catching the heart and meaning of Paul. I hope this helps.

I think he is right on by saying that Paul believes he is not just coming to people with a word about Christ's sufferings. He himself takes those suffering on himself as part of his following Jesus. In this way people not merely hear the gospel in Paul, they see it.

What this means, I think, is that God intends for the afflictions of Christ to be presented to the world through the afflictions of his people. God really means for the body of Christ, the church, to experience some of the suffering he experienced so that when we offer the Christ of the cross to people, they see the Christ of the cross in us. We are to make the afflictions of Christ real for people by the afflictions we experience in offering him to them, and living the life of love he lived. (Piper)

Is this exciting to you or terrifying? How do you experience such things as a servant of Jesus?

Rich

Small Group This Week

2008-12-08T20:03:00.000-08:00

It sounds like last week you talked a lot about the cross. Thanks Andy for leading.
This week we will look at the same passage (1:21-23) as well as go into the rest of the chapter.

Here are some things to meditate on before you come.

I am not sure how much you talked about verse 23 with its IF statement. Why would Paul say "if" here? A previous pastor of mine gave the below illustration in a sermon. To be honest I have no recollection of what he was preaching on when he used the illustration or what point he was making with it. But I do remember the illustration and it seemed to me relevant to this verse. Perhaps this will be a bad analogy because of the Titanic, but I hope you will get the idea. Read it to see if it helps …

You are in the middle of the ocean on an ocean liner when a storm comes up. Your hope of reaching the shore, however, is sure and solid if you stay on the ship. The ship has been designed for this and can easily withstand it. But if you stop trusting in the ocean liner and in fear climb into a life boat and set out alone thinking you can now save yourself … well, now you are in in real danger of never making to the shore. Indeed you will have not chance.

How does Paul see his ministry? How is it an extension of Jesus' sufferings? What is his goal? Why does he work so hard if it is God's work?

When I did college ministry, I used to say that part of our job as Christians is “to keep one another Christian.” What do you think? What is right about that? What troubles you about that statement?

Andy, in his last email ended by encouraging us to continue in steadfast faith, unwilling to swerve or give up the great hope that we have in the reality and beauty of the Gospel of our Lord. This week set your mind once again on Jesus and all he means so that you are not tempted to settle for lesser paths to fullness.

Post small group thoughts

2008-12-04T19:25:00.000-08:00

Good evening once again. Let me begin by saying that doing this study tonight was difficult. I mentioned at the end of the group the difficulty that I have been having with the knowledge/relationship balance required when a person studies in seminary. Having knowledge about God is not enough, and it is not what God desires from his beloved creation. The small group context forces a person to take that talk "about" God, and apply it to the lives of the community; this is what I often struggle with. So I thank you for bearing with me as we fuddled through the material (Rich, you might want to redo it vs. 21-23) .

But I want to reemphasize a few things, just in case we do not come back to these verses. The first is that there is an obvious and actual shift that happens (happened) because of the reconciliation through the death of Jesus Christ in the flesh. It was a determinant actual event where the Kingdom of God was actually brought into effect. And Paul uses the phrase "But now" to announce that it is not a future relationship or change that would come, but one that was available in the present; but with a serious clause.

In order to be presented as holy and blameless and irreproachable, these people would have to continue with a steadfast faith secured in the hope that is promised through this gospel - the gospel (good news) that we read about in verses 15-20. And this good news is proclaimed to all creation, every creature under heaven.

The second thing to highlight is the transition that takes place in relationship. Where these people were once alienated from/estranged/enemies of God, they ARE NOW no longer. Verse 13 says that "He has rescued us from the power of darkness AND TRANSFERRED us into the kingdom of his beloved Son." We continue to circle back to the Walk Across the Room series in understanding our story. What we once were, we are no longer. Creation itself takes part in this transition. We are no longer aliens or enemies, but are called child, friend, beloved.

Sin is important, and our repentance and turning away from it matters and is essential. But we are transferred into this relationship not through works or by pulling up our own boot straps, but because God Almighty, out of his love for all creation, gave his son Jesus Christ to do what we cannot: to right that which was turned into wrong. May we continue to hear the clause presented in vs. 23 - that we are to continue in steadfast faith, unwilling to swerve or give up the great hope that we have in the reality and beauty of the Gospel of our Lord.

Colossians 1:21-23

2008-12-03T15:53:00.000-08:00

Good evening everyone. I am just sitting down to really look over the material for tomorrow nights small group, so I apologize for not providing the challenging questions that Rich usually does. We are leaving the great Christological hymn of verses 15-20, and focusing this week on verses 21-23. We have seen that, in regards to creation, Christ has done many things: He created all things (1:16), He sustains all things (1:17), and he will reconcile all things (1:20). Christ also plays a specific role in the church (1:18-19).

We now arrive at the text for this evening, where we find Paul applying the Christological/Supremacy hymn of Christ to those people in Colossae.

²¹Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. ²²But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— ²³if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

The Holy Bible : New International Version, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984), Col 1:21-23.

Questions for thought:

1.) What does it mean to be alienated from (or an enemy of) God?

2.) Paul uses a phrase here that is familiar in his other works: "But now." (Rms. 3:21, 6:22, 7:6, 11:30, Gal. 3:25, Gal. 4:9, Eph. 2:13, Eph. 5:8, etc.) What did this mean to the hearers at the time, and what does it mean to us now?

3.) There is an emphasis in verse 22 on Christ's physical body. Why is this?

4.) There is a conditional clause in this section, "If..." Are the conditions that verify and bring about the promises in verse 22 what you thought they would be?

Well, those are some thought starters, and we will address some of these questions tomorrow night. This blog is really just getting started (I finally put Rich on it), and hopefully it can develop into a great resource of challenge and encouragement. Rich has posted a great blog in regards to a question that Brian had posed. Let me encourage you to continue checking this website often and, if willing and able, participate. You simply click on the comment button below the post. Hope you all have a blessed evening! --Andy

hope stored up in heaven

2008-11-21T16:32:00.000-08:00

Brian asked a question in an email to me about the phrase “hope stored up for you in heaven.” We actually did not talk about it in small group. There is always many things we could talk about but do not have time. Here are some of my thoughts. I thought I would give some comments on it here in the blog so people could add their own thoughts.

“because of the hope laid up [stored up] for you in heaven”

I agree that it is a rather strange phrase.

Paul makes clear in the passage as a whole that God has through the Son done something to rescue us from the dominion of darkness. Humanity was created in the image of God to have dominion/rule over creation under the Lordship of the Son (in whom, through whom and for whom is all creation). Things went wrong however and a new dominion ruled the world (darkness and sin). God however has done something on the cross to bring rescue to us. This new act of God (sometimes called new creation) is like the first creation in that it was accomplished in Christ through Christ and to Christ. What is happening now is that things are being reconciled to him. Again made right. But the final hope is still before us when we see that becoming true in all things. All creation will be set right. We will then again rule the world correctly. This is a hope still set before us. It is a reality however which is coming true now in the way we live it out.

Paul however often seems to say that this total reconciliation of all things is already a reality now in heaven. What is becoming true here on earth is already sure in heaven. (We will see this same idea later about a different concept when he talks about our character and position in Christ before God.)

You might say that what is true now in heaven is becoming true on earth. But the final hope is secure and sure. To me the phrase seems to be getting at the security and sureness of the hope. I admit a strange way to say it. What I do not think it is saying is that earth is bad and what we long for is to go to heaven some day. That would go against the whole point of what Paul is saying about God through Christ reconciling the world to himself. NT Wright in commenting about this passage said that “heaven is the place where God’s purposes for the future are stored up. It isn’t where they are meant to stay so that one would need to go to heaven to enjoy them; it is where they are kept safe against the day when they will become a reality on earth. If I say to a friend, “I’ve kept [stored] some beer in the fridge for you,” that doesn’t mean that he has to climb into the fridge in order to drink the beer.”

I also notice that in this passage Paul says hope is motivator. It is hope which produces faith and love. Thinking about the “end” of the story will enable us to life faithfully in the story today. We can walk in acts of faith and love today because we are assured they will be part of what God is doing through Christ to restore all things to himself. If we were just laying odds that Christ would eventually triumph over all, then are faith and acts of love would be in proportion to what we thought the odds were. Paul is saying the odds are 100% that all creation will be restored. It would be good to focus on the hope set before us. Perhaps we could have a small group some time thinking about that.

Feel free to give comments.

Rich

Introduction

2008-11-06T19:54:00.001-08:00

We have created this blog with the hopes of deeper discussion that can take place throughout the week. I will post the questions that Rich sends to us as a blog entry, and then you can response to those questions by clicking the "comment" link. These things only work if people are intentional about writing and dialoguing with one another through the blog format. Have fun!

Colossians 1:13-20

2008-11-06T19:51:00.000-08:00

What is this dominion of darkness? How does it effect creation? How does it effect us? What is God doing about it? How?

I said this passage is packed with theology (the study of God) yet this mostly about the Son. What does it mean that the Son is the image of the invisible God? What does this tell us about what God is doing in the world?

I have used indentation above to start to show some of the structure of the passage. Study the structure. Notice as well common words and themes. How is Paul organizing things? How does this structure bring to light what he is saying about the Son?

Where are you in this picture?