Sometimes people just jump right in without knowing what they’re doing, and bad things happen. This is kind of about that.
Luke 10:38-42; Colossians 1:15-28; Psalm 15; Genesis 18:1-10a
In case you haven’t figured it out already, Paul really knows what he’s doing. It seems every time I read one of his letters, I find something new that impresses me. Take this week’s reading from Colossians, for example. In a lot of ways, Colossians is a “nicer” rebuke along the same lines as the letter to the Galatians, and we know how I feel about Paul’s letter to the Galatians.
Just like in Galatians, Colossians deals with a church that is struggling with how to live out their new-found freedom in Christ. They struggle with legalism – making people follow the Jewish law code – and seem to have a good deal of internal conflict among their members, just like the Galatians. The main difference between the letters is in tone: in Galatians Paul is quite a bit feistier than in Colossians. Colossians almost seems like it’s written to try and stave off the issues the Galatian church experienced, and of course Paul is also anywhere between 5 and 10 years older and calmer, which probably had an effect as well.
In some ways, this section of Colossians is “buttering up” the readers for what Paul will starting in chapter 2. Chapter 1 focuses mostly on God, and what God has done, whereas chapters 2-4 are more about correcting issues within the church and providing advice on how to live a Christian life. Paul is reminding the people of who they are in Christ, and what they’ve experienced through the Holy Spirit, before jumping in. The transition happens in 2:6-7, where Paul says, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
So let’s look at this first chapter of Colossians. I’m going to look at what we read last week, as well as this week, so we’re going to back up a touch. Paul starts with a general declaration about the work the gospel is doing around the world, then focuses specifically on Colossae. He says that he prays for them, that they might “live a life worthy of the Lord” (1:10), before starting on one of the wonderful Pauline tangents where he gets super excited about Jesus.
This is something that actually happens to Paul quite a bit; he doesn’t seem able to help himself. It’s like he’ll say something really cool about Jesus, or God, or even the Spirit (though not very often) and get so distracted by God’s amazingness that he just keeps going. It’s actually kind of neat and, while Paul’s letters would be quite a bit shorter without them, really shows just how passionate Paul is about God. This is a very good thing, of course.
So Paul, beginning by talking about God rescuing us from darkness and bringing us into his kingdom through Jesus, “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (2:13-14), now gets really distracted by Jesus, and says all kinds of incredible things. He names Jesus the visible of an invisible God, firstborn above creation, creator of all things (heavenly, earthly, visible, invisible, and everything else), the holder-togetherer of all things, the head of the church, the firstborn of the dead, supreme over everything, completely God, and reconciler of everything.
That gets to be quite a mouthful, and we could spend hours just looking at all of that (we won’t) but then he shifts the focus from a general discussion of who Jesus is to a more specific discussion of what Jesus has done. Through Christ, Paul writes, we are reconciled to him, made holy and pure, through faith, so that God can be revealed to all people through his servants in the church.
In the beginning of this letter, Paul sets up the foundation for its second half, namely where he answer the question, “What’s next?” Without that foundation, there really isn’t any reason for anything to be “next”, a problem that we still run into today. Instead of building on a foundation, we rush off into doing things, and end up in trouble.
Look at the gospel for today; Jesus tells the very same thing to Martha. Service in God’s kingdom is well and good, but we need to take time at Jesus’ feet – through reading the Bible, praying, fellowship with other believers (possibly through Bible Studies or small groups). We need that foundation in the gospel before we go out and do the work of the kingdom. Last week, I talked about how we’re to love God with all we are, and love our neighbor as ourselves. There’s a reason loving God is first in that list; it is the foundation on which everything else is based. Like Jesus told Martha, and Paul told the Colossians, we need to start with God; from him, everything else will fall into place.