[If] … you continue in your faith …
Summary: How should we describe faith? In these days of computers following a map is much different than it used to be. Yet the principles are the same. “Do we trust the map?,” or “Do we trust the computer?,” are both basically the same question.
Paul begins verse twenty-three with “if,” and then adds three conditions:
• If you … continue in your faith.
• If you are … established and firm.
• If you … do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. The context of this verse is rather stark. Paul begins by reminding us that we were God’s enemies. Then he shares the essence of the Gospel message: We have been reconciled with God through Jesus’ death on the cross.
Finally, he says we are presented holy in God’s sight … if … we continue in our faith.
On the face of it, Paul’s statement makes sense.
Suppose we were lost in the woods. After hiking for days, we come across a cabin where we can ask for directions. The person in the cabin gives us a map. If we follow the map, it will lead us through the forest back to civilization.
The wilderness we are in is a big one. If we don’t get to civilization, we will very likely die. Getting home is very important.
Halfway through the forest, we come to an Obstacle not shown on the map. The path is clearly marked on the map, but we have to go to the other side of the Obstacle if we are to follow the map. Going the other direction is a path through the woods. It looks like an easy trail to follow, but it doesn’t follow the map.
What do we do?
Should we take the easy trail or try and find a way about the Obstacle?
(Spoiler alert! The easy trail leads to death, but we don’t know that at the time. Getting around the Obstacle will be hard, but we have to do it to follow the map.)
Faith is like following the map. If we want to get home, we have to follow the path laid out for us. We have to continue in our faith.
Paul has given us a map to following Jesus. Our faith walk is different than following the laws of the Old Covenant. Instead of “do’s and do not’s,” we have Jesus, our living Shepherd.
Application: Follow Jesus!
Food for Thought: What is it like to follow Jesus each day?
Please click ‘’Continue Reading” for comments.
Continue reading “Colossians 1:23b – The Map”