May 29 - Colossians 1:21-23
“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.”
The Colossians, like so many of us, stood apart from God because of what was happening in their minds and their emotions. The Greek word used here for the mind is one that encompasses more than just our intelligence. This is our entire spiritual being … our emotions, our acts of will, our thinking, everything.
Now, the word for enemy does mean open antagonism, outright dislike for God. I suspect that for the most part, we would never recognize our lives before knowing Jesus as being antagonistic towards God, but the Colossians must have been just that way. Their feelings toward God showed up in their behavior … Paul calls it evil.
All of that is set aside though because of what Jesus did to reconcile us to God. Please take a moment to notice that the people of Colosse did nothing to make things right with God. A behavior change wouldn’t make it right, lifestyle changes would fix it … the only thing that could possibly reconcile them to God was the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross. We can never do enough to make ourselves clean, to make ourselves holy in God’s sight, to remove the blemishes of sin, to free us from the accusation of evil. We can’t do it. Only Jesus Christ can redeem us, can reconcile us to God.
Our response is to have faith and to trust in the hope (not in ourselves) that Jesus offers us. That is what we can do. We can trust in Him to be our redeemer, our reconciler, our Savior.
Before Paul closes the thought, he wants to ensure that they are confident in the fact that they have heard the truth from him and they aren’t alone in the hearing of this Gospel. Paul says that the Gospel has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven … notice he doesn’t say that every creature has heard and understood it. He is a servant to the Gospel, ensuring that everyone he comes in contact with fully understands the gift that God has given to the world. That will be our job as well.
“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.”
The Colossians, like so many of us, stood apart from God because of what was happening in their minds and their emotions. The Greek word used here for the mind is one that encompasses more than just our intelligence. This is our entire spiritual being … our emotions, our acts of will, our thinking, everything.
Now, the word for enemy does mean open antagonism, outright dislike for God. I suspect that for the most part, we would never recognize our lives before knowing Jesus as being antagonistic towards God, but the Colossians must have been just that way. Their feelings toward God showed up in their behavior … Paul calls it evil.
All of that is set aside though because of what Jesus did to reconcile us to God. Please take a moment to notice that the people of Colosse did nothing to make things right with God. A behavior change wouldn’t make it right, lifestyle changes would fix it … the only thing that could possibly reconcile them to God was the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross. We can never do enough to make ourselves clean, to make ourselves holy in God’s sight, to remove the blemishes of sin, to free us from the accusation of evil. We can’t do it. Only Jesus Christ can redeem us, can reconcile us to God.
Our response is to have faith and to trust in the hope (not in ourselves) that Jesus offers us. That is what we can do. We can trust in Him to be our redeemer, our reconciler, our Savior.
Before Paul closes the thought, he wants to ensure that they are confident in the fact that they have heard the truth from him and they aren’t alone in the hearing of this Gospel. Paul says that the Gospel has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven … notice he doesn’t say that every creature has heard and understood it. He is a servant to the Gospel, ensuring that everyone he comes in contact with fully understands the gift that God has given to the world. That will be our job as well.
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