Sermon from 21st May 2006
Believe it and behave it
Our Vicar, Cameron Barker, begins a study of Paul's letter to the people of Colosse.
“There are 2 things to do about the Gospel – believe it & behave it”. Those words were only spoken in the 18th C – by Susanna Wesley, the mother of Charles & John, by the way. But I can’t think of any better headline summary for Paul’s letter to Christians in 1st Century Colosse. In this letter Paul said in effect: this is the gospel you’ve believed – so this is how you’re to behave, or to live, it.
Today we begin our study of this letter that will take us to the summer. We’ve chosen it in particular for any number of reasons. First, it never hurts to be reminded of the basics of the Christian faith, of what we believe. Nor is it a bad idea to think about how we behave, how we live out our faith. But the main reason for studying Colossians is that it picks up many of the mission-shaped values that we studied earlier this year. Today’s short passage is one classic example of how it does so – but it will take a while until we see exactly how it does.
First we need to put this letter into context. That’s always the correct starting point for handling the Bible. For us to understand what any book of the Bible is saying to us today we need to consider what it said to the people who originally heard it. So we must begin our series by asking these questions: who did Paul write this letter to, & why?
Let’s start with the easy ones: who Paul wrote this letter to – & when. There’s little scholarly debate over any of this: as the title suggests, Paul wrote to Christians in the town of Colosse, in the Roman province of Asia Minor. It does not exist any more, but if it did it would be in modern-day Turkey. Even though it was on an important trade route, it wasn’t much of a town and Paul didn’t ever visit it himself.
From 52-55 AD Paul did live in Ephesus, though. That was the major city of the province, about 100 miles to the west of Colosse. While he was in Ephesus, as was his custom, Paul preached the gospel – with the usual outcome. Many people came to faith in Jesus; & they soon shared Paul’s passion to tell others the good news that’d changed their lives. That included a man from Colosse called Epaphras. It wasn’t long before Paul sent him back to preach in his home area. He was obviously successful – as he founded churches in both Colosse and neighbouring Laodecia.
As I say, Paul himself didn’t visit the church in either place – but he still felt responsible for them. He’d sent Epaphras to preach the gospel there; so it was like he’d set up the church himself. So when Epaphras visited Paul in prison, probably in Rome, in about 60 AD, and told him about the church in Colosse, Paul responded in writing. That brings us to why he wrote this letter. That’s a very hard question to answer precisely – because Paul didn’t ever say why!
There are lots that we can work out from what he wrote – but that’s always an inexact science. We must be careful not to be too firm about what the issues and problems in Colosse were that Paul was attempting to address. We might be able to figure them out by working backwards; but we can’t know for sure. What we can be very sure of, though, is that Paul’s primary reason for writing wasn’t because of any problems in Colosse. Overall this is a very warm and positive letter. Paul wrote to a group of people that he was clearly impressed with. He had heard good reports of their faith, & how they lived it. So basically he wanted to encourage them to keep on as they were.
That message shines through from the opening part of the letter that we’ve heard today. The form Paul used was the standard one for letter-writing at the time – but adapted for his own purpose. So first, in vs 1, he identified himself and who he was – Jesus’ apostle, appointed by God. Then, in vs 2, he identified who he was writing to – God’s people in Colosse. Paul also expanded on their identity, as he had on his own. In Christ they were all members of the same family, because they had remained faithful to God. And so Paul summed up all he wanted for them at the end of the verse: that God would give them his grace and peace.
A standard 1st century letter would go on to a section of thanks for the reader, just as Paul’s did in the rest of our reading. But we know from his other letters that Paul was capable of leaving the thanks out when he was going to tell his readers off! That was far from the case here, though! In fact, Paul wrote that he couldn’t stop thanking God for the Colossians when he prayed for them – as he regularly did.
Why was he so full of thanks? Well, he’d heard about the Colossians’ faith in Jesus as God’s Son. More than that, he had heard how their faith was being worked out in their lives. They loved each other – and all God’s people – and they showed it by what they did. And they also knew that the best was yet to come. Their faith was based, as ours must also be, on the sure hope that we have for the future.
What we see and experience now is only a foretaste of the fullness which awaits us in heaven. That’s our inheritance as Christians – life as it was originally meant to be. That’s what we’re to be living for and towards now, this hope that is guaranteed by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Those three words – faith, hope and love – should sound familiar. They were a theme that Paul regularly explored in his writings because they are the basics of the Christian faith. Christians are people who have faith in Jesus as the one who has dealt with our past; that faith then gives a sure hope for the future; & so in the present we love one another. We’re to love with God’s kind of forgiving, accepting love – regardless of whether we like each other or get along! So is that true of us? Has our past, present & future been transformed by God? And can others tell that it has been?
That’s what Paul’d heard was happening in the church in Colosse; & so he thanked God for it. What’s so interesting is just how Paul thanked God. He thanked God who is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he thanked God for the amazing things that he’d done in Colosse by his Holy Spirit. Those three elements should also sound familiar to those who come here regularly. We began our series on the mission-shaped values with how we are to know and love God as Trinity, as Father, Son & Spirit. Well, here we see the Trinity at work! The Colossians believed in Jesus as God’s Son; through Jesus they came to know God as their Father; and his Holy Spirit helped them live their faith.
Again the obvious question to ask ourselves is if the same is true of us. If Paul - or anyone else - wrote to this church, are those the things he would thank God for? Would he thank God for our faith in Jesus as God’s Son? Would he thank God for how we’ve come to know God as Father? Would he thank God too for how the Holy Spirit is helping us to live out our faith, particularly by loving each other? That is, is it obvious that knowing & loving God as Father, Son & Holy Spirit is our chief inspiration and primary purpose?
There’s one other particular feature of Paul’s thanksgiving for the Colossians that we must note. It’s his observation in verse 6, where Paul links what’s happening in Colosse with the rest of the world. The GNB fails to do what the NIV does which is to describe the spread of the gospel as it ‘bearing fruit’. That’s exactly the phrase Jesus used for what his disciples must do! We looked at that just last week – Jesus calling us to bear fruit by bringing others to faith in him. That’s the focus of our year of growing out, of course. So do note that it is a sign of God being at work. Where people do know and love God as Father, Son and Spirit, others come to faith – as they did in 1st C Colosse.
So at the start of his letter Paul also thanked God for how people were coming to faith, in Colosse, and around the world. He’d already thanked God for the Colossians’ faith, for the way they were living it out, & for the hope they held onto. Then he also reminded them of how they’d first heard the truth about Jesus from Epaphras, who was effectively Paul’s representative. And it is possible to read into those words that there were issues in Colosse that Paul was going to have to deal with in his letter.
There are parts of this letter where Paul encouraged the Colossians to stand firm in the teaching they’d heard from Epaphras. It appears there were other teachers around who were saying that people needed something extra to be real Christians. We’ll see what those extras were when we get to them. All we need to note for now is that Paul was reminding the Colossians that they had already heard everything they needed to. They’d heard it from Paul, via Epaphras; they had believed it; and they were living it out. and so Paul thanked God for all that as he began his letter.
In his commentary Tom Wright describes Colossians as being like a flower rather than a ruler. It’s not a document that moves in a straight line, from point to point. Instead it is always growing, from a small bud to a bigger one. Paul gradually opens up his theological thinking to reveal layer upon layer of once-hidden petal that look & smell wonder-ful. Today we’ve begun with this smallest of buds – Paul’s great thanksgiving for the Colossians’ living, active faith in Jesus. And we’ve already seen some of the beauty that lies beneath his thanks – how the Colossians’ faith worked itself out in love and hope.
We’re in for much more of the same between now and the summer. In this letter Paul goes on to open out the details of the Colossians’ faith, love & hope. He explains more of the work of God as Father, Son & Spirit. And then he sets out how the Colossians must live as God’s people in the light of the particular issues and problems that they faced.
There’s so much this letter can teach us today. We can learn more about how to believe the gospel. We can learn how to behave it in the light of the issues & problems that we face. And of course we can learn how the gospel can and must bear the fruit of bringing others to faith in Jesus. So may God give us his grace & peace as we watch this wonderful flower unfold through this series. And may God use it to strengthen our faith, hope and love. May they be based on knowing him as Father, Son and Spirit who is at work in us, as he was in the Colossian church. Let’s pray……..
Our Vicar, Cameron Barker, begins a study of Paul's letter to the people of Colosse.
“There are 2 things to do about the Gospel – believe it & behave it”. Those words were only spoken in the 18th C – by Susanna Wesley, the mother of Charles & John, by the way. But I can’t think of any better headline summary for Paul’s letter to Christians in 1st Century Colosse. In this letter Paul said in effect: this is the gospel you’ve believed – so this is how you’re to behave, or to live, it.
Today we begin our study of this letter that will take us to the summer. We’ve chosen it in particular for any number of reasons. First, it never hurts to be reminded of the basics of the Christian faith, of what we believe. Nor is it a bad idea to think about how we behave, how we live out our faith. But the main reason for studying Colossians is that it picks up many of the mission-shaped values that we studied earlier this year. Today’s short passage is one classic example of how it does so – but it will take a while until we see exactly how it does.
First we need to put this letter into context. That’s always the correct starting point for handling the Bible. For us to understand what any book of the Bible is saying to us today we need to consider what it said to the people who originally heard it. So we must begin our series by asking these questions: who did Paul write this letter to, & why?
Let’s start with the easy ones: who Paul wrote this letter to – & when. There’s little scholarly debate over any of this: as the title suggests, Paul wrote to Christians in the town of Colosse, in the Roman province of Asia Minor. It does not exist any more, but if it did it would be in modern-day Turkey. Even though it was on an important trade route, it wasn’t much of a town and Paul didn’t ever visit it himself.
From 52-55 AD Paul did live in Ephesus, though. That was the major city of the province, about 100 miles to the west of Colosse. While he was in Ephesus, as was his custom, Paul preached the gospel – with the usual outcome. Many people came to faith in Jesus; & they soon shared Paul’s passion to tell others the good news that’d changed their lives. That included a man from Colosse called Epaphras. It wasn’t long before Paul sent him back to preach in his home area. He was obviously successful – as he founded churches in both Colosse and neighbouring Laodecia.
As I say, Paul himself didn’t visit the church in either place – but he still felt responsible for them. He’d sent Epaphras to preach the gospel there; so it was like he’d set up the church himself. So when Epaphras visited Paul in prison, probably in Rome, in about 60 AD, and told him about the church in Colosse, Paul responded in writing. That brings us to why he wrote this letter. That’s a very hard question to answer precisely – because Paul didn’t ever say why!
There are lots that we can work out from what he wrote – but that’s always an inexact science. We must be careful not to be too firm about what the issues and problems in Colosse were that Paul was attempting to address. We might be able to figure them out by working backwards; but we can’t know for sure. What we can be very sure of, though, is that Paul’s primary reason for writing wasn’t because of any problems in Colosse. Overall this is a very warm and positive letter. Paul wrote to a group of people that he was clearly impressed with. He had heard good reports of their faith, & how they lived it. So basically he wanted to encourage them to keep on as they were.
That message shines through from the opening part of the letter that we’ve heard today. The form Paul used was the standard one for letter-writing at the time – but adapted for his own purpose. So first, in vs 1, he identified himself and who he was – Jesus’ apostle, appointed by God. Then, in vs 2, he identified who he was writing to – God’s people in Colosse. Paul also expanded on their identity, as he had on his own. In Christ they were all members of the same family, because they had remained faithful to God. And so Paul summed up all he wanted for them at the end of the verse: that God would give them his grace and peace.
A standard 1st century letter would go on to a section of thanks for the reader, just as Paul’s did in the rest of our reading. But we know from his other letters that Paul was capable of leaving the thanks out when he was going to tell his readers off! That was far from the case here, though! In fact, Paul wrote that he couldn’t stop thanking God for the Colossians when he prayed for them – as he regularly did.
Why was he so full of thanks? Well, he’d heard about the Colossians’ faith in Jesus as God’s Son. More than that, he had heard how their faith was being worked out in their lives. They loved each other – and all God’s people – and they showed it by what they did. And they also knew that the best was yet to come. Their faith was based, as ours must also be, on the sure hope that we have for the future.
What we see and experience now is only a foretaste of the fullness which awaits us in heaven. That’s our inheritance as Christians – life as it was originally meant to be. That’s what we’re to be living for and towards now, this hope that is guaranteed by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Those three words – faith, hope and love – should sound familiar. They were a theme that Paul regularly explored in his writings because they are the basics of the Christian faith. Christians are people who have faith in Jesus as the one who has dealt with our past; that faith then gives a sure hope for the future; & so in the present we love one another. We’re to love with God’s kind of forgiving, accepting love – regardless of whether we like each other or get along! So is that true of us? Has our past, present & future been transformed by God? And can others tell that it has been?
That’s what Paul’d heard was happening in the church in Colosse; & so he thanked God for it. What’s so interesting is just how Paul thanked God. He thanked God who is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he thanked God for the amazing things that he’d done in Colosse by his Holy Spirit. Those three elements should also sound familiar to those who come here regularly. We began our series on the mission-shaped values with how we are to know and love God as Trinity, as Father, Son & Spirit. Well, here we see the Trinity at work! The Colossians believed in Jesus as God’s Son; through Jesus they came to know God as their Father; and his Holy Spirit helped them live their faith.
Again the obvious question to ask ourselves is if the same is true of us. If Paul - or anyone else - wrote to this church, are those the things he would thank God for? Would he thank God for our faith in Jesus as God’s Son? Would he thank God for how we’ve come to know God as Father? Would he thank God too for how the Holy Spirit is helping us to live out our faith, particularly by loving each other? That is, is it obvious that knowing & loving God as Father, Son & Holy Spirit is our chief inspiration and primary purpose?
There’s one other particular feature of Paul’s thanksgiving for the Colossians that we must note. It’s his observation in verse 6, where Paul links what’s happening in Colosse with the rest of the world. The GNB fails to do what the NIV does which is to describe the spread of the gospel as it ‘bearing fruit’. That’s exactly the phrase Jesus used for what his disciples must do! We looked at that just last week – Jesus calling us to bear fruit by bringing others to faith in him. That’s the focus of our year of growing out, of course. So do note that it is a sign of God being at work. Where people do know and love God as Father, Son and Spirit, others come to faith – as they did in 1st C Colosse.
So at the start of his letter Paul also thanked God for how people were coming to faith, in Colosse, and around the world. He’d already thanked God for the Colossians’ faith, for the way they were living it out, & for the hope they held onto. Then he also reminded them of how they’d first heard the truth about Jesus from Epaphras, who was effectively Paul’s representative. And it is possible to read into those words that there were issues in Colosse that Paul was going to have to deal with in his letter.
There are parts of this letter where Paul encouraged the Colossians to stand firm in the teaching they’d heard from Epaphras. It appears there were other teachers around who were saying that people needed something extra to be real Christians. We’ll see what those extras were when we get to them. All we need to note for now is that Paul was reminding the Colossians that they had already heard everything they needed to. They’d heard it from Paul, via Epaphras; they had believed it; and they were living it out. and so Paul thanked God for all that as he began his letter.
In his commentary Tom Wright describes Colossians as being like a flower rather than a ruler. It’s not a document that moves in a straight line, from point to point. Instead it is always growing, from a small bud to a bigger one. Paul gradually opens up his theological thinking to reveal layer upon layer of once-hidden petal that look & smell wonder-ful. Today we’ve begun with this smallest of buds – Paul’s great thanksgiving for the Colossians’ living, active faith in Jesus. And we’ve already seen some of the beauty that lies beneath his thanks – how the Colossians’ faith worked itself out in love and hope.
We’re in for much more of the same between now and the summer. In this letter Paul goes on to open out the details of the Colossians’ faith, love & hope. He explains more of the work of God as Father, Son & Spirit. And then he sets out how the Colossians must live as God’s people in the light of the particular issues and problems that they faced.
There’s so much this letter can teach us today. We can learn more about how to believe the gospel. We can learn how to behave it in the light of the issues & problems that we face. And of course we can learn how the gospel can and must bear the fruit of bringing others to faith in Jesus. So may God give us his grace & peace as we watch this wonderful flower unfold through this series. And may God use it to strengthen our faith, hope and love. May they be based on knowing him as Father, Son and Spirit who is at work in us, as he was in the Colossian church. Let’s pray……..
posted by Parish Administrator at 12:13 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home