Christ First: Paul's Colossian Letter

Distraction rules the day.  People can hardly drive in a straight line or complete a simple conversation without being interrupted by distractions.  This lack of focus ultimately comes from a divided and confused soul fueled by minds obsessed with desire.  Such minds are easily filled with "hollow and deceptive" ideas, just like those which endagered the Colossian believers in the first century.  In his letter to that group of believers, Paul gives the best and only remedy: Christ first.

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Paul grounds the Colossians in hope.  Faith "springs up" (1:5) from this hope almost automatically.  This faith takes the disciple to love.  The hope of the follower of Jesus is that "in everything he might have supremacy."  (1:18)  Christ first in everything, not just "in my heart," but in everything that has been made and is being remade.  (1:15-20)  This is the heart of the gospel which brings about faith.  (1:3-6)  Such faith brings about a "life worthy of the Lord" (1:10) which ends in "the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light", that is, "love in the Spirit."  (1:12,7)  Any hope or faith not ending in this love is not full and true.

The Colossians have not always known the truth that Christ is first in all things.  They were told through Paul's associates.  They were enemies alienated from God, but brought around to trust Him by the message of Christ's sacrificial work for them (1:21-22)  Now they are among those who know God's mystery: "Christ in you, the hope of glory."  (1:27)  Above all else, Paul says, "We proclaim him," so that the Colossians would come to know God, who they did not know at all, and "be encouraged in heart and united in love" with all believers.  (2:2)

Even as they are escaping an unrighteous ignorance of God shown by their "evil behavior," now the Colossians face a new challenge.  Self-righteousness based on "human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ" has found its way among them.  (2:8)  These teachings have "the appearance of wisdom, . . .  but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence."  (2:23)  Paul gives them a better way.

The instruction in the way of Christ begins with the heart and mind being set on "things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God."  (3:1)  With Christ first in the heart, a new life grows and old ways are put aside.  This is evidenced in their gatherings "as God's chosen people," as well as in their homes as wives, husbands, children, servants, and masters relate to each other.  Such  gatherings and homes are characterized by prayer and in careful conversations "full of grace" (4:5) with those outside the gatherings of Christ.  What begins in the heart ends with "whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus."  (3:17)

Such instruction is not abstract, but plays out in the details and drama of each person's life.  For Paul, his fellow workers and those who minister to these churches were his life.  He names them and expresses deep love for them as "dear brothers" and a "comfort to him."  (4:7,11)  "Christ in you" is not intangible, but plays out in each life in relationships and situations lived with love or without it.  This makes the gospel into a history rather than a mere myth.

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Christ is still our foremost hope, our certain faith, and our deepest love.  This gospel shown through Christ's sacrifice for us has brought us to trust Jesus.  Self-righteousness remains a constant distraction from him into making it on our own.  As Christ becomes first in our mind and hearts, we find our way to a life full of words and deeds like our Master.  This new life is lived in our day-to-day situations with the people we know and meet and nowhere else.  And so, just as Paul signs this letter at the end "in his own hand," each of us will sign our lives with or without Christ first "in our own hands."