Tag Archives: Colossians 1-4

Daily Bible Study

December 10, 2023 Bible Study — Whatever You Do, in Word and in Deed, Do to Bring Honor to Christ’s Name

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

Paul warns the people of the Church in Colossae against allowing anyone to convince them into following hollow and deceptive philosophy.  So, what does Paul mean by “hollow and deceptive”?  Paul gives us some answers to that a little further on, but we can learn a little just from the words he chooses here.  Hollow suggests that the practices being taught are all for show and not really about what you do when no one is looking.  Deceptive tells us that the teachings really on misdirection and dishonesty.  An example of this would be: some religions teach that you must never lie, unless by doing so to outsiders you can advance the religion (it then goes on to define “outsiders” as those who do not follow the religion in the manner in which your group interprets it).  As I said, a little further on while expounding on this same teaching, Paul writes that we should let no one judge us by what we eat or drink, or by the religious rituals we follow, or don’t follow.  He exposes all such practices as having a surface appearance of wisdom and righteousness, but they lack any call to actually restrain our indulgence in sensual sin.

Paul teaches that, through our faith in Christ, we should have put to death our earthly nature.  Which he describes as sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed. As a side note I want to point out that on several occasions Paul tells us that greed is a form of idolatry, the worship of material possessions.  He goes on to tell us that we must put aside anger, malice, slander, and filthy language.  Instead we must not lie to one another as we are all being renewed and transformed into the image our Creator.  This means that in Christ we are all God’s people, not Gentiles and Jews, not slave and free, not black and white and Asian.   We are all together parts of the Body of Christ.  Paul calls on us to deal with each other in love.  Let us seek, with all of our hearts, to act with compassion, kindness, humility, and patience.  Let us bear with those who irritate us, and forgive those against whom we have a grievance.  If we do these things, truly do them, not just pay them lip service, God will transform us and we will experience joy.  I write this more out of having seen how it works in people whose faith I admire than out of personal experience.

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

Daily Bible Study

December 10, 2022 Bible Study — Do Not Treat Others As Objects, Or Objects As More Important Than Others

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

I have always struggled to explain Paul’s advice to not to be bound by rules with his condemnation of sexual immorality and greed.  I understood his point but found it hard to explain the difference between the rules we should not let bind us and the “rules” which should bind us.  I realized today that the rules Paul tells us to ignore are about items, what we eat or drink, following specific rituals, taking certain actions on specific days.  While the “rules” he tells us to follow are about how we treat, or think about, other people.  Sexual immorality involves treating other people as no more than objects to satisfy our desires.  Greed involves treating objects as having more importance than others.  Anger, malice, slander, and lies involve believing that others are less important than ourselves and our desires.  Foul language makes us feel that our anger and rage are justified.  Instead of those we should act with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  All of these can be summed up, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, as love.  As I noted yesterday, if we make the effort to be thankful for the good we have received we will find it ever easier to do as Paul writes.  That is, the more we remember to be thankful for the undeserved grace which we have received from God the easier it will be to patiently, humbly, treat others with compassion and kindness.

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

Daily Bible Study

December 10, 2021 Bible Study — Clothe Ourselves With Positive Virtues

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.

Daily Bible Study

December 10, 2020 Bible Study Pray To God For His Wisdom and Understanding

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

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

Once again I am challenged by Paul’s reference to prayer.  I know that I do not pray nearly as much as I should.  Paul writing about how he prayed continuously for the Colossian Believers reminds me that I do not pray enough.  However, what he prayed for is just as important as the fact that he prayed.  He prayed that God would give them complete knowledge of His will along with spiritual wisdom and understanding.  We should seek these things ourselves, as well as praying that other Believers receive them. Then towards the end of his letter, Paul tells them, and us, to devote themselves(and ourselves) to prayer.  So, let us devote ourselves to prayer so that we may live wisely among those who are not believers.

Daily Bible Study

December 10, 2019 Bible Study — A New Life In Christ Rather Than a List of “Do nots”

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

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

Depending on how we read Paul’s letter to the Colossians it can either be very confusing, or it can clarify his teachings regarding rules and freedom in Christ.  First, Paul tells them, and us, not to get caught up in certain rules about what to eat and what to do on certain days, nor to feel that we need to perform particular ceremonies.  He sums up the rules he tells us not to get caught up with as ones which tell us, “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”  He tells us that we should not allow ourselves to be bound by restrictive rules.  There is no set of rules that you can follow which will make you right with God.

Then Paul writes that we should set our sights on heavenly things and put to death the sinful, earthly desires which we have.  He just told us that we are free in Christ.  Yet now he writes that we should avoid sexual immorality and evil desires.  I think we get an insight into Paul’s thinking by what he says about greed.  Greed is idolatry, the worship of material possessions and thus contrary to the Spirit of God.  So, if greed is worshiping material possessions, then the other sins Paul tells us to stay away from amount to worshiping ourselves.  Sexual immorality and other evil desires result from treating others as things to please ourselves.  There is a reason we refer to those we lust after as the “object of our desire”.   

Daily Bible Study

December 10, 2018 Bible Study — No rules, just be kind, compassionate, humble patient, and above all loving

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

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

The Gospel message changes lives.  It does not result in us following a set of rules to which we can find loopholes.   We see the way rules fail to save, or change, people in our society today.  Our society rejected Paul’s teaching on sexual morality, but discovered that without it they needed rules to protect the vulnerable.  Now society is discovering that it needs to ever extend those rules because sinful people find loopholes through which they can exploit the vulnerable.  

  Paul writes that we should forgive those who offend us and live our lives with compassion, kindness, gentleness, humility and patience.   Letting all of these express the love which Christ will cause to live in us.  No rule set can ever cover all of the things which flow out of such characteristics.  No matter how you write the rule set, those who do not possess those characteristics will find ways to abuse others.  On the other hand, those who possess all of those characteristics will never abuse others, even if there are no rules at all.   The point which Paul makes again and again is that sexual immorality, evil desires, and greed are all contrary to the above characteristics.

Paul tells us to bear with the faults of others, although elsewhere he also tells us to confront sinners about their sin.  However, this does not present the conundrum that many people think it does.  Paul tells us not to confront sinners to show them how much better than twe are.  Nor are we to confront sinners as a way to pay them back for what harm they have done to us or others.  No, we should confront sinners because we love them and want them to stop harming themselves with their sins. 

Daily Bible Study

December 10, 2017 Bible Study — Die With Christ So That We May Be Raised To New Life With Him

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

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

    Paul greets the believers in Colosse by speaking of how he prays for them constantly. Considering that Paul speaks of praying for various believers constantly in his letters we must conclude that Paul spent a lot of time in prayer. We should do the same. I know that I do not spend as much time in prayer as I should. I recently read a study which stated that a couple of hours a day spent in silent time is good for our brains. This leads me to think that I should spend much more time in silent prayer. Paul follows his greeting with what appears to be a creed of the early Church(similar to the Apostles’ Creed, or the Nicene Creed, but not as formally adopted). The creed declares that Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. In many ways I believe the rest of this letter is an exposition on what that means. Christ is the visible image of the invisible God and we are to be the image of Christ.

    In the meat of the letter Paul advises the believers not to be captured by empty philosophies or high-sounding nonsense (I would like to phrase that differently, but it is such a perfect description of so many false teachings that I had to go with it). Paul goes on to explain what he means by that. He refers to those who claim that believers need to be circumcised, follow special diets, or observe certain holy days and rituals. Paul further explains that we should not follow rules which tell us “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch.” He specifically tells us not to follow rules which call for severe bodily discipline. However, no sooner does Paul finish writing that than he writes that we should put to death the sinful, earthly desires within us.

    Paul gives a list of thoughts and behaviors we are to avoid. Actually he goes further than that and tells us to put those behaviors, and thoughts, to death. He then follows that list up with another list of thoughts and behaviors with which we are to replace those. Neither list a short list, but the things in each list are related, despite the attempts of many to divide the first list into unrelated items so as to justify the ones they wish to hang on to.
Thoughts and behaviors to get rid of:

  • Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, abd evil desires
  • greed
  • anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and lies.

I typed the list this way because there are people who believe that they can indulge in one of these three groups and as long as they avoid the other two, they are good people. Not only is that not true, but it rarely happens. One of the great things about the Gospel is that the more we focus on allowing the Holy Spirit to fill us with the second list (I will get to the list in a minute), the less there is room in our lives for the first list.
Here is that list of thoughts and behaviors to embrace:

  • tender-hearted mercy, humility, gentleness, and patience
  • make allowance for the faults of others, and forgive anyone who offends you
  • live with each other with love, harmony, and peace
  • sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs

I don’t really think there is much value in separating this second list into categories, but it looked nicer compared to the first list that way. This second list can be summed up by saying that everything we do or say should be done as a representative of Jesus. Look back over your last day, do all of your actions reflect well on Jesus? Even those which no one else witnessed? I am ashamed to say that my answer is,”No”. Even worse, I am convinced that if I repeat this exercise tomorrow at this time, the answer will still be “No”. However, I am going to strive to change that.

Daily Bible Study

December 10, 2016 Bible Study

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

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

    Paul starts off by declaring that the Good News changes lives. Each and every one of should think about and remember the ways in which our faith in Jesus has changed our lives from what they were. Once more I am challenged by Paul’s writing about how he has not stopped praying for the believers to whom he is writing. I do not pray as much as I should, nor about the things which I should. In addition to giving us an outline of the things we should pray for our fellow believers, Paul’s outline here provides us with a guide for our lives. Let us choose our actions so that they always honor and please God and bear fruit in all sorts of good works.

    Sometimes it can be difficult to reconcile Paul’s writings about not following human rules and rituals and his writings about the behaviors we should avoid. The hard part is in understanding how we distinguish between human rules and rituals and commands from God. However, if you read the beginning of chapter 3 and then come back to read the end of chapter 2 there is an insight to be found (or at least I found one). In the beginning of chapter 3 Paul tells us to put to death our sinful nature. He then gives us three categories of sin to get out of our lives. The first is sexual immorality and related sins. The second is greed. It is worth noting that almost every time (if not every time) Paul mentions sexual immorality he mentions greed. The final category consists of sins of attitude (anger, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language).
    When I then go back and read the end of chapter 2, I realize that the rules and rituals Paul is referring to are the ones that people use to excuse the sins he told us to avoid in chapter 3. “Oh, it’s OK that I defraud people as part of my week day business because I take Communion every Sunday.” Umm, no. “It’s OK that I use foul language because I go to Church every Sunday.” Umm, still no. We have been given a new nature, a new life. We are called to live differently. Whatever we do or say should be done as a representative of Jesus Christ. The question is not, “What would Jesus do?” although that is not a bad question to ask.