But the apostle took every pains to, show how great was the love of Epaphras for them; for his faithful spirit knew some little of that which the apostle knew well, that the more abundantly he loved, the less he was loved. The Christian will see things, not as they appear to men, but as they appear to God." How is it to be done? In the next place, we have the apostle's prayer: "For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and growing by the knowledge of God." And here we come back to where this passage started--that is precisely why the Christian sets his mind and heart on the things which are above and not on the things of this world. The Colossians, like others, would have liked this well enough; it is just what they were about, and the very thing that the apostle is here correcting. A man alive in the world is under these ordinances, and owns them. He it is who works in the various gifts of Christ, welding them together, so that it may be truly Christ through His body. And that is not enough. Since men have a certain knowledge of Christ's death, they are striving to die. Accordingly the path of Christian duty is grounded on these wondrous truths. There must be in his life a radical transformation of the will and a radical shift of the centre. Now, if that is so, the Christian must rise from baptism a different man. If we live a life of Christian purity and devotion now, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we shall also appear with him in glory,Colossians 3:4; Colossians 3:4. Does it not prove both by being jealous of the glory of Christ? It is in baptism rather than in Him. Do not lie to one another. I love it. The first two chapters present Christ's person and work and the last two His peace and presence. In fact, Thayer gives their definitions as the same, "to direct ones mind to a thing, to seek, or strive for" (658). Since we are raised from the death of sin, and resurrected to a new life, our contemplation should be on the heavenly world. "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things' sake, the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: in the which ye also walked sometime. Hence, though the Holy Ghost is really on earth, dwelling in the saint and in the church, yet under such circumstances, to occupy the mind even with the blessed Spirit, would clearly have interfered with His own great aim in glorifying Jesus. One cannot therefore be quickened together with Christ without having one's trespasses, yea, all (for if not all, none) forgiven. The apostle exhorts us to set our hearts upon heaven and take them off from this world (v. 1-4). But she says, "It would be simple if he really loved me, liked Jesus loved the church." but, "What do I owe to others?". The life of the Christian is hid with Christ in God. They might come for what they could get; but at length they would not have Him or anything He had to give on any terms. But assuming that the parents love the Lord and you have a Christian home, children, obey your parents in all things; this is well pleasing unto the Lord. (iii) Christian speech must be true. He has annulled the power of him that had the power of death that word so terrible for the heart of man, and most surely foreign to the mind and heart of our God and Father, but a stern necessity that came in through rebellion. (Colossians 1:13-14) In the ancient world sexual relationships before marriage and outside marriage were the normal and accepted practice. His grave is man's grave. But the cleansing as well as expiation is by the death of Christ out of whose side flowed both. One of the best tests of any action is: "Can we do it, calling upon the name of Jesus? Observe, To seek heavenly things is to set our affections upon them, to love them and let our desires be towards them. Don't provoke your children. "The truth isn't in him" ( John 2:4 ). The word we have translated foul talk is aischrologia ( G148) ; it could well mean obscene language. (5-7) Put to death the things that are against God and part of this world. He it is who has now revealed the mystery that was kept hid through ages and generations. Bear with one another, and, if anyone has a ground of complaint against someone else, forgive each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive each other. He is answerable to God, just as his workmen are answerable to him. Or to come at it another way, the man whose life is dominated by the desire to get things has set up things in the place of God--and that precisely is idolatry. Never will it be received, either by the world's religion, or by its philosophy. Thus in every way the ritualistic system is false, and a traitor to Him who died on the cross. His heavy boots dragged in the sand, but I could see that he was fighting hard to conceal his distress. No matter how clever and religious those laws may appear, they will not succeed in controlling the desires of the body (20-23).Because they have died to sin, Christians are not in bondage to things of the world as the Gnostics are. "And not holding the head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.". not on things on the earth; not mind earth and earthly things, temporal enjoyments, riches, and honours; and though food and raiment, and the necessaries of life, are to be sought after, and cared and provided for, yet not with anxiety and perplexity of mind, in an over thoughtful and distressing manner; nor should the heart be set on those outward things, or happiness placed in the possession of them. Keep your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. Man, what can I do for her today; she's such a doll. Christ is at present a hidden Christ, or one whom we have not seen; but this is our comfort, that our life is hid with him, and laid up safely with him. On no such ground, nor on all together, was He the firstborn. They do it heartily; they do it with joyfulness. But there is far more than growth in knowledge, or even by the knowledge of God. If the peace of Jesus Christ is the umpire in any man's heart, then, when feelings clash and we are pulled in two directions at the same time, the decision of Christ will keep us in the way of love and the Church will remain the one body it is meant to be. When we not only believe with the heart, but are ready, when called, to make confession with the mouth. Now you make your living over here. James notoriously presents what many think hard in my judgment quite reconcilable, equally inspired of God, and most important for man, but not the same thing, nor for the same end. Here the apostle speaks of another system altogether: Christ come, but the glory not yet apparent, but only coming. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Thus the most perfect harmony reigns between all the apostles; but Paul was emphatically minister of the gospel, and minister of the church. God is the Creator, man the creature, and in the presence of the Creator the creature cannot feel anything else but humility. Christ was now in these Gentiles who believed the hope of a heavenly glory in prospect for them. Thus it is from the first the expression of a most needed truth, which remains the comfort of grace throughout the whole Christian career, and is therefore never repeated. So again by Him alone do all, Jews and Gentiles, draw near to the Father. The Christian is one with Him. Let us take the cases one by one and look at them in the light of this new principle. The cross of Christ is the death-knell of the world in all its pretensions before God. What a spring of power is the love of Christ Truly charity is "the bond of perfectness." We may be content to be hidden while He is hidden; but He is not always to be out of sight. Yes, but Christ is "all" as truly as He is "in all." And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans." In classical Greek there is no word for humility which has, not some tinge of servility; but Christian humility is not a cringing thing. At any rate this was his mission. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all ( Colossians 3:11 ). Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. Note, The prosperity of the soul is the best prosperity, and what we should be most solicitous about for ourselves and others. Colossians 3:1-4 1 Peter 2:4-9; Colossians 3:1-4 You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house. (iii) Paul then turns to the greatest problem of all--the relationship between slave and master. Yet He has absolute peace, never broken or ruffled for an instant. Hence we find the glorious future display referred to here: "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear;" for we have both "ye are dead," and "your life is hid with Christ in God." As to the Jewish rites and feasts that some were endeavouring to re-impose, take for an instance the Sabbath, which is the stronger, because it was from the beginning of the first man, yet unfallen, and of course long before the Jewish people. And they keep teasing the child, pulling it away until the child just looses control and screams, and then, isn't that funny and then hands them the candy. Human patience is a reflection of the divine patience which bears with all our sinning and never casts us off. To the Colossians the Holy Ghost has to speak about their state, and along with this to present the truth of Christ as a remedy for it; not so much as the centre of blessedness and joy in the communion of the saints, but as supplying the true and only divine corrective to the efforts of Satan, who would drag them down into tradition on the one hand, and into philosophy on the other, the too common snares of human nature, and the latter more particularly for cultivated and reasoning minds. Besides, when men, thus slur over its true force, and would extract consolation where God intends warning, it is a proof not of firm but of weak faith. Their desire, we may be sure, was as well meant as any mistake can be. She trusts my judgment; she trusts my wisdom. God aside. Let man be unmendable, let his enmity be beyond all thought, God, in the calmness of His own wisdom, and in the strength of His unwearied grace, accomplishes His purpose of redeeming love at the very moment when man consummates his wickedness. So you feel like you've got to challenge everything. He it is who strengthens the inner man to enjoy through Christ all the fulness of God. It is all-pervading evil. Not that others did not supplement this or that. Nor is it denied that some souls enjoyed a remarkable maturity of intelligence, so that from the beginning they saw, believed, and preached Jesus in a deeper glory than His Lordship. It was they that yielded to these feelings of hostility. As such not born merely, but risen again from the dead He is the beginning. But the actual result demonstrated beyond doubt that never before Was witnessed such hearty, universal, and causeless hatred as against Jesus the Son of God. "Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." In this we have what the Spirit occupies Himself with as sent down from heaven. They are not indeed to reign with Him: this was by no man and at no time promised to them. How then could He that came and was seen in the midst of men four thousand years after Adam was made, how could He be in any sense first-born of all creation? Men's Ministry Home Women's Ministry Home Children's Ministry Home Pastor's Ministry Home. (i) The wife is to be submissive to her husband; but the husband is to love his wife and to treat her with all kindness. As the withering evils of Satan came in, the value of that which their hearts clung to formed an increasing part of their testimony, until at last the full, undiminished, and even brightening truth of His divine glory was brought out in all its fulness. Hence the spending of heart and thought that "every man" might be thus built up in the truth, and especially the heavenly truth of Christ, which was entrusted to his stewardship and ministry, "warning, every man and teaching every man, that we may present every man full grown in Christ." "Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you. Moreover, worldly lusts, the members which are on the earth, earthly pleasures that are sinful, may be here meant. The stronger our faith, and the warmer our love, the more will our comfort be. We must not dote upon them, nor expect too much from them, that we may set our affections on heaven; for heaven and earth are contrary one to the other, and a supreme regard to both is inconsistent; and the prevalence of our affection to one will proportionably weaken and abate our affection to the other. The Greek looked down on the barbarian; and to the Greek any man who did not speak Greek was a barbarian, which literally means a man who says "bar-bar." In contrast to the Gnostics, they do not try to climb a ladder of countless intermediate spirit beings. To make laws to live by is the way of the worldly person, not the way of the Christian. (iv) It destroyed the barrier between class and class. His labours were not merely indefatigable, but accompanied by the sorest trial and anguish of spirit, as well as continual detraction with public hatred and persecution. He insists that the slave must be a conscientious workman. You seem to have such a good attitude. A blaze of light springs up among the hills; the storm ceases; the gloom is . There is scarce anything more offensive than a child who looks, talks, and acts the old man. The rule for the wife: submit yourself unto your own husband. He is also the power of all their growth in understanding the things of God. 3:14-17 On top of all these things, clothe yourselves with love which is the perfect bond; and let the peace of God be the decider of all things within your hearts, for it is to that peace you were called, so that you might be united in one body. She had no legal rights whatever. The master must remember that he too has a Master--Christ in heaven. On the other hand, the epistle to the Ephesians abounds with such allusions. Such a desire, says Paul, is idolatry. They needed to know, I will not say, that Christ suffices only; but that there is such fulness of blessing and glory in Christ as utterly to eclipse and condemn all that flesh would glory in. Then he brings in, accordingly, his first solemn caution. 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