June 21 - Colossians 3:17

June 21 - Colossians 3:17

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

I just love Paul’s abounding faith in us.  When he writes these letters, he knows that there is no way we can live up to the life he describes, but that doesn’t stop him from encouraging us to be everything that we can be in Christ Jesus.  He continually sends us on to perfection, knowing that we are going to not only stumble, but fall right off that path on a regular basis.

The thing that Paul knows more than any of us, though, is that doesn’t matter.  Failure is a part of winning the final race.  Every time we step off the path and then find our way back again, we learn more about the grace and mercy of God, we learn more about what things are detrimental to us and we learn more about who God wants us to be as we grow.

How many of us can honestly say that we walk through our day and do every single thing and live every single moment in the name of Jesus?  But, Paul continues to show us that is the expectation.

We all seem to react differently to the phrase “separation of church and state,” some of us not fully understanding why that is so important in our constitution, others of us only seeing the restrictions placed on Christians, but Paul would probably tell us, using words much like this, to set that aside.

Whatever we do, do it in the name of Jesus.  As soon as I wrote those words, I thought about how this verse has been taken out of context throughout the centuries.  The Crusades were done in the name of Jesus, executions were performed in the name of Jesus. His name has been used by humanity through history to do terrible things to each other.

But, placing it back in context with the previous verses, as we fill our lives with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and forgiveness; as we cover those with love and allow peace to rule us and the word of Christ to dwell within us, when we then do everything – whether it is secular or sacred - in the name of Jesus, we show the world who He truly is and offer hope.