Tag: faith

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Colossians 4:13 – Faith in Action

Picture: Yellow "MEN AT WORK" sign with men kneeling in prayer.

I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis. 

Summary: This passage invites us to indulge in the heart of meditation: Imagining what is possible. 

This passage is a bit of a puzzle. 

Paul is vouching for Epaphras’s work. Unfortunately, all we know for certain is that he is “working hard” and that the work is “for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis.” 

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Colossians 4:12 – Epaphras’s Prayer

Picture of the jailer in Acts 16 who is asking Paul, "What must I do to be saved?"

Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. 

Summary: Epaphras’s prayer is a wonderful model of what to pray for ourselves and each other. 

In this passage, we learn a bit more about Epaphras.* Paul says he is “one of you” which I take to mean he is originally from Colossae. Somewhere along the line, Epaphras must have met up with Paul because Paul explains that Epaphras brought the Gospel to Colossae “on our behalf.” 

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Colossians 3:8a – Deeds and Weeds

Person hoeing weeds in a garden

 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: …

Summary: Do we really have to “rid” ourselves of the things on Paul’s list of bad habits? The answer to that question leads us to a deeper understanding of God’s will for us. In the end, we discover that spiritual growth involves work, but this work is a response to God’s grace, not a means of earning salvation. 

Our last meditation discovered an interesting link between our Lord’s parable about the kingdom of heaven and how we are to live our lives as believers. In our passage for this meditation, Paul doubles down on that discovery. 

What was that discovery, you ask? 

Simply this: God expects us to work for his kingdom while we are here. 

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Colossians 2:16a – Only Jesus

Therefore do not let anyone judge you …

Summary: Paul continues to explain what it means to be a believer in Jesus. Human rules count for nothing. All that matters is faith in our Savior.

As I sat down to write this meditation, I was debating with myself about whether or not I should tackle the whole verse. The more I stared at it, the more the first seven words cried out for special attention. So … before you judge me, know that I at least thought about including the whole verses before I chopped it up.

When Paul says, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you …” I tend to think to myself, “Yeah, right.” How does Paul expect us to stop people from judging us? On top of this is a larger question: How is the church supposed to function if people are not to judge?

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Colossians 2:12b – The Workings of God

… in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Summary: Understanding Paul’s language requires understanding the reality of the spiritual realm. 

If being “buried with him in baptism” is a metaphor for spiritual things, how much more is the rest of Paul’s sentence?

Actually, Paul’s sentence is more of a “mixed metaphor.”

The last part, where he writes “the working of God, who raised him [Jesus] from the dead,” is literal and true. God did raise Jesus from the dead. This same Jesus whom God raised to life two thousand years ago is alive today.

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