Today, I am reading and commenting on  Colossians 1-4.

Paul warns against allowing ourselves to be taken in by deceptive philosophies.  In particular he warns against philosophies which sum everything up with rules about what we should not do.  Instead Paul writes that we should clothe ourselves with positive virtues.  His metaphor of clothing ourselves requires a little thought.  He calls on us to present ourselves so that others see us as compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, and patient.   Paul tells us that we should strive to appear to people as being those things by being those things.    In order to truly be those things we must love others.  If we love others we will rid ourselves of anger, malice, slander, and filthy language.   I love the way Paul ties this all together by reminding us to devote ourselves to prayer and keep our conversation graceful, but seasoned.  If we pray and live our lives with love, we will know how to answer everyone in order to make the most of every opportunity.  Even that requires some thought, of what opportunities should we be making the most?  Those opportunities which allow us to show others how they can be reconciled with God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.