How would you fill in this blank? “Love me, love my _______________.”
When my husband and I began dating, there were certain things we had to know and appreciate about each other for our relationship to continue to grow. For my husband, it was “love me, love my computer.” For me, it was “love me, love my cat.” Both took some life adjustments on our part (I knew nothing about computers and had little interest beyond word processing, and my yet-to-be-husband was allergic to cats.) However, our love for each other was deepened as we shared in each other’s interests. I still don’t know much about computers, but as I have watched and learned some things from my husband over the years, I have come to appreciate more about how God has made him and how his mind works.
This is a shallow example of a more profound analogy regarding Christ. Last week we studied the magnificence of Jesus’ supremacy and caught a sense of Paul’s adoration for Jesus as Lord of all. As we grow in love for Him and submit to His authority over our lives, we begin to love what Jesus loves. And what Jesus loves, the very reason He came, was to glorify God by paying the price for His church. If we love Jesus, we will love His church. From Paul’s example in Col. 1:24-2:5, we learn that those who love Christ will endeavor to see His church built.
I want to talk in Col. 1:24-27 about the mystery of the church (to love Christ is to love His church), and talk about Paul’s desire to present everyone mature (to love His church is to desire maturity in its members).
In Col 1:27, Paul proclaims the mystery of Christ. What is the mystery Paul is proclaiming? What indeed! Every commentary I looked at came at it from a different angle. There are a couple of ways to think about that. I could say, “well, I have to find out who is right!” Or, perhaps, this mystery is something so immense, so beyond something you could define in just a few words, that it can’t be summed up in one definition. I think that is more the sense I get here. This mystery is more like a diamond that can be viewed in its many facets. Since verse 27 states the mystery is “Christ in you”, let’s begin there and see what we can learn. I’m going to highlight each of these words and see what light they can shed on this mystery.
First, the mystery is Christ Himself. That is essentially what Paul was saying in 2:2 as well “the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ.” Though the OT foretold the coming of a Messiah, much about God’s plan was shrouded in mystery. Perhaps the hardest to understand and the most mysterious part of Messiah was that He had to suffer. Even the disciples who followed Jesus and proclaimed Him as Messiah during His earthly ministry seemed rather clueless about His suffering. Jesus warned the disciples several times that He would suffer many things, be rejected by the leaders, be killed, and three days later rise again. Mark 8:32 even says he explained these things plainly. Yet Peter rebuked Jesus for saying these very words. The disciples were completely unprepared for His betrayal, and did not even begin to comprehend a Messiah who must suffer, be killed, and rise again to pay for the sins of mankind. Twice at the end of Luke it says that as Jesus talked with His disciples about these things, He had to open their minds to understand everything written in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms as fulfilled in Him.
Second, the mystery is Christ in you. In the Old Testament, God came to dwell with the nation of Israel. Yet His dwelling place was quite separated from man by many barriers and His holy presence could only be entered once a year by the Most High Priest by the blood of a sacrifice, ceremonial washings, and God-given rituals that dealt with sin. It was quite clear to any knowledgeable Jew: man’s sin separated him from God. Yet Jesus came and lived a perfect life, and provided a blood sacrifice that satisfied the wrath of God for sin. Now, the man who trusted in the righteous sacrifice of Jesus became a temple in which God Himself was pleased to dwell. That Christ could dwell in His people and that He chooses to do so is a wonderful, amazing mystery! With that gift we have been given His righteousness, access to the God of Heaven, and all His storehouse of wisdom and knowledge in Christ.
Third, the mystery is Christ in you. The “you” refers to church members in Colossae. This church was made up of believing Jews as well as Gentiles. The message that Christ had come for the Gentiles was not only foreign to the Jews, it infuriated them. When Paul was arrested in Jerusalem on false charges, the Jews listened patiently to Paul’s testimony and defense until he used the word Gentile (Acts 22:21). In Acts 22:22 it says “Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth!” They began to shout death threats, threw off their cloaks, and threw dust in the air, dragging Paul away. From this time forth Paul became a Roman prisoner, and it was during this imprisonment most scholars believe he wrote the letter of Colossians. It may be easy to dismiss ourselves from this Jew/Gentile conflict since this has ceased to be a daily issue for our time and culture. Yet think of this: as far as I know, every person in this room is a Gentile. Do we realize now, two thousand years later, how much we owe to Paul for his willingness to suffer to fully proclaim the mystery of Christ to Gentiles? Have you marveled over the privilege God has given us Gentiles in His offer of salvation?
Put these three words together, and we have “Christ in you.” One facet of the mystery of Christ is the church. What a love Paul had for the church, because he loved Christ, and knew He had given Himself as a sacrifice for her sake! As your love for Christ grows, have you noticed a growing love for His church, of which you were made a part? How will you demonstrate your love for Christ’s church?
II. How did Paul demonstrate his love for the church? That is what we will look at next. Let’s move from mystery to maturity. In verse 28 we see that Paul’s love for the church fueled in him a desire to present everyone mature in Christ. And for each believer, maturity of believers is our goal. Whether you are engaged in an area of ministry, building a strong family, raising godly children, or encouraging a fellow believer, you are a part of this process of maturity. We get a glimpse of what maturity looks like from 2:2-4: encouraged hearts, love, enriched understanding and knowledge of Christ, and protection from the deception of false teaching. (We’ll talk more about marks of maturity in Ch. 3-4)
Maturity does not come easily. When a new baby is born, we rejoice over the gift of a new life. How absurd (and potentially life-threatening) would it be to neglect that new life, thinking the child will somehow reach maturity of its own accord? No, as any parent knows, the road to maturity is costly, demanding, and full of challenges as well as joys. As I considered how easy it is to get sidetracked, whether in parenting a child to maturity or helping myself or another member of the church to grow in Christ, I saw some weaknesses. I tend to get caught up in temporal problems, I get self-focused, and can be terribly task-oriented. I noticed Paul was quite different! So how did Paul purpose to move God’s people to maturity, and how can we do the same?
First, Paul had an eternal perspective. His willingness to minister on behalf of Christ’s church cost him his comfort, his freedom, and eventually even his life. Yet he was able to rejoice in his sufferings because he saw the bigger picture. He saw “the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” When he saw the church, he saw what God intended for their future, a blessed future in Christ.
Next, Paul was Christ-focused. In verse 28 it reads, “Him we proclaim.” Paul didn’t promote a program, a method, spiritual attainments, or lofty ideas (as the Gnostic teachers did.) He simply proclaimed a person: Christ. How many times in the passage, even in this letter, do you see the word Christ? Paul also does not attempt to carry this task out alone, but in the midst of his struggle and toil he is “struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works in me.”
Finally, Paul was people-oriented. He loved the church, but he was concerned for every individual. This becomes quite clear in verse 28 with the repetition of the word “everyone.” Paul was “warning everyone, teaching everyone, so we may present everyone mature in Christ.” The body is strengthened one soul at a time. That is why every one of us can play a part, whether in pursuing maturity in our own walk with Christ or in leading others.
Here’s something I am going to do this next week, and I’ll challenge you to do the same. Each morning, pray for at least one person you would like to see grow in Christ. Perhaps it is a friend, a child, a Sunday school class, or maybe you need to strive for maturity in your own life! As you pray, ask God the following questions:
1. Would you help me to see your eternal purpose for this person/situation?
2. How would you have me bring Christ into my conversation/interactions/thoughts regarding this person? Will you empower me as I interact with them to move them toward maturity?
3. How do I need to warn or teach this person?
It is in union with Christ, loving and building His church, where we will really begin to know Him. While suffering for the church Paul wrote in Phi. 3:10 “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings.” When it comes to Christ and the church, you cannot really separate the two. Love Christ, love His church. Let’s leave this section of Colossians ready to build His church, person by person, soul by soul!
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