COLOSSIANS 1-4 ITS ALL ABOUT JESUS2014 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Colossians 1-4 Its All About Jesus

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2014.

We are here this evening in Colossians. We'll be looking at chapters 1 through 4 as we continue to study the chapters that we read this week going through the Bible in three years. The book of Colossians was written by the Apostle Paul and like the past couple books we've studied, it was written in 62 AD while Paul was in prison. He was in prison in Rome and he wrote this letter to the church in Colossae.

He'd never been there, but some of the guys who were there with him while he was there in prison, they were ministering to him and they were from that area and he had ministered around them, but never had been to that actual city.

And he writes this letter, the primary purpose is to refute false teachers. There was some false doctrine that was going on at the time, similar to what he was dealing with in the book of Galatians. There was a mixture of Judaism that was creeping into the church where they were bringing in like these religions and rituals and rules and regulations and trying to

apply this system to the church there. But then there is also mixes of Gnosticism in there. And that is the idea of like, there's this, like this higher knowledge. There's this spiritual mysteries that you have to learn from, you know, these special teachers. And you have to follow what we say and do what we do. And if you do, then you can become perfect and

through this secret wisdom and knowledge that we have. And so there was this mixture of Judaism and Gnosticism that was going around, and Paul is writing to protect the Colossians from allowing that to take hold in the church and in their hearts.

Again, the timeline of this letter fits in with the rest of the prison epistles. Philemon, which we'll get to in a couple weeks, and then Colossians, Ephesians, and Philippians were all written while Paul was in Rome. And we finish up in Acts chapter 28 with Paul being in prison, and he spends several years there waiting to appear before Caesar, and it's during that time that he writes these letters.

And so what that looks like on the map, here's Paul in prison in Rome. And he writes to this city in Colossae, which was in Asia, the Asia Minor, not the continent Asia. But it was over there a little bit east of Ephesus where Paul spent a lot of time. And so his influence had reached there, but he'd never actually visited the city.

Well, that brings us now to our chapters. Chapter 1 is our first chapter. Verse 18 is the key verse. And it says, And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence.

Paul begins the letter in verses 1 and 2 with the usual introduction, introducing himself and addressing the people that he's writing to, the saints in Colossae.

And then in verses 3 through 12, he declares that he gives thanks and he prays for the Colossians always. And this is a theme that we continue to see repeated as Paul is writing to these different groups of saints, these different believers in all of these different letters. And so as he's addressing them, he wants them to know, hey, I'm always thinking about you. I'm always praying for you and thanking God for you.

And he says, And so Paul didn't go there, but he heard about the work that began. He heard about the work that God was doing. And he said,

And that prompted him, verse 9, he says, for this reason. So since we heard about what God's doing for this reason, since the day that we heard it, we do not cease to pray for you.

Now, what I think is interesting about this, and of course we always take a moment to consider the prayers of the Apostle Paul, and there's great insights there of what he prayed for the Colossians. But it's interesting to me also why he prayed for the Colossians. Because what he's explaining there in verse 4 and the following verses is that he's heard about the good things that are happening. He's heard about what God has been doing.

You might remember as he wrote to the Galatians, he started out right away, I can't believe you're turning away from the gospel. Like you're turning away from the faith already so soon. How is that possible? He was writing to bring correction, to address a situation. But

But as he's praying for and writing to the Colossians, he shares, I'm doing this and I'm praying for you because God's doing a good work. I think it's a good reminder for us. You know, it's normal for us to pray for people when situations are not going well. You know, when things are going rough, when there are bad things happening, when there's illness, when there's difficulty and stress, then

then we make sure that we pray for people. And then when they survive that situation, they kind of fall off our prayer list and, you know, we don't pray for them as much anymore because, you know, they're not in the midst of the crisis any longer. And so we pray for them in the midst of trouble and then it kind of fades out as they go through that. But Paul sets an interesting example here. He says, I've heard about how great God is working in your midst and

And so I've been praying for you. And I think that's a good encouragement for us. We need to be praying for people when we hear about them doing well. Not just when we hear about, you know, the trouble that they're facing. But as we see that God's at work, we want to be part of that work. And so we can join with the Lord by lifting up those people in prayer. And that's a great reminder for us as we pray for the missionaries on Wednesday evenings.

that it's not just, well, you know, are the missionaries in trouble? Is there some kind of financial need? You know, let's pray about that. But hey, is God doing a work? And as we hear about those works, then we use that or allow that to spur us or stir us up to pray for our missionaries.

Well, Paul's prayer for them, he tells them the things that he prays for them in verses 9 through 12. He says that he prays that they would be filled with the knowledge of God's will. He says, I'm praying that you would know God's will, that you'd be filled with it, that it wouldn't be, you know, here and there, you know where God wants you to be, but that your life would be lived in the center of where God wants you, that you would be in the center of His will.

He also prays for them that they would walk worthy of the Lord, that they would be fully pleasing to Him, that their conduct, that their life would match with their calling or the way that God has worked in their life.

He prayed that they would be fruitful and that they would be growing in the knowledge of God. And then he also prayed that they would be strengthened with all might. And once again, we can look at the prayer of the Apostle Paul and get some insight. And so sometimes we don't know how to pray for our missionaries. And so here's a good pattern for us. And we can pray these things for our missionaries.

Sometimes we don't know how to pray for our neighbors or our co-workers or our fellow church members or our family members. And so Paul gives us some insights here into things that we can pray that we know are according to the will of God. And so we can pray these things with confidence knowing that God hears us as we lift up these things in the lives of those that we love.

Well, then in verses 13 through 18, Paul goes on to say, He has delivered us from darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of His Son. Here, Paul begins to talk about what Christ has done for us. Now, the first two chapters of Colossians deal primarily with what Jesus has done for us or what the Father has done for us through Jesus Christ.

And that's the focus of these first two chapters. And then chapters 3 and 4 give us then the result and what that should do in our lives and how that should impact us so that once we know who we are in Christ and what He's done for us,

how we can then live in the way that he desires for us to live. And so in verse 13, he says, he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love.

in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. And so Paul tells us that God has delivered us. The word deliver, it means to rescue or to pull away with force. It's the idea of, you know, if I was kind of like not paying attention and I was walking down the sidewalk and I began to walk into the street and you saw me,

And there's, you know, imminent danger as the cars are passing by. You wouldn't kind of like just tap me on the shoulder and say, stop looking at your phone, please. And don't walk out into the street. I mean, you would grab my arm, hopefully. Or maybe you would push me. I don't know what you would do. But...

If it was the other way around, I would grab you and I would yank you back. And there's that force, you know, that deliver, that pulling out of the way of danger. And that's the idea here, that God has yanked us out of the midst of danger, out of the power of darkness. This is important for us to consider because sometimes we forget that

Just how much we needed to be delivered. You know, it's not that we were like almost going to be in a pretty tough spot.

And so God delivered us. It's not that, you know, almost, you know, we were going to be in this sinful condition. Like we were almost going to be really exceedingly sinful. And so God delivered us. It's not that we were slightly influenced by darkness. No, what he says is we were delivered from the power of darkness. We were in the clutches of the enemy. We were under the authority of the enemy. We were under his power. We were under the power of darkness.

And we couldn't get out of it ourselves. And so He delivered us. He snatched us out. He yanked us out of the clutches of the enemy. And then He conveyed us into the kingdom of His Son. He brought us into His kingdom. And who is His Son? Who is this one that He has conveyed us into His kingdom? Well, He goes on in the next few verses to say,

Tell us exactly who Jesus is. In verse 15 it says, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Who is Jesus? Well, He is the image of the invisible God. Hebrews chapter 1 puts it a slightly different way. It says that He's the exact representation of

We can't see the Father, but Jesus perfectly represents the Father. Remember when Jesus told his disciples, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He is God who became man that we could see and know who God is and what he's like. He's also the firstborn over all creation.

Now, firstborn does not mean the idea of firstborn like we think of the birth of a child. It's a position, not talking about his origin. It means that he's the heir, he's the owner, he's the rightful heir to all creation. That it all belongs to him. And why does it all belong to him? Well, he tells us in verse 16, it's because he created everything. He created the things in heaven, the things in earth.

The things that are visible, the things that are invisible, he says, whether it's thrones or powers or dominions or principalities, all things were created through him and for him.

And so Paul tells us very clearly here that Jesus is the creator of all things. He is the creator of the heavens and the earth. He is the creator of everything in the spirit realm, the invisible, but also in the physical realm, the visible. And so he is the image of God. He is the creator. It tells us in verse 17 that he's before all things and in him all things consist.

So he existed before creation, which makes sense because he's the creator. But then also in him all things consist. And so it's not just that he started creation and then let it go, but he continues to maintain it. He continues to hold it all together. In him all things consist. And then in verse 18 he says, "...and he is the head of the body, the church."

who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have preeminence. So he's the creator of all things. He is the image of the invisible God. And he is the head of the church. He's in charge of the church.

Paul's pointing out here and making sure that we understand the church doesn't belong to a pastor. The church belongs to Jesus. Jesus is the head. He is the one in charge. He is the ultimate authority.

And Paul concludes there in verse 18 saying that in all things he may have preeminence. That is that Jesus belongs in the first position, in the first priority in every arena. He is the creator. He is the highest authority in the world, in the political scene, in the church. He's first. He's foremost in every arena. Amen.

He is to have preeminence. That's his rightful place. It's impossible to overemphasize the importance, the place, and the value of Jesus. And Paul starts out here in chapter 1 to make sure that the Colossians and you and I understand how important Jesus is.

And that's really important to what he's going to be building on and to say next. But first we got to start, we got to make sure we understand this is who Jesus is. He is God. The perfect and exact representation of the Father because he's God who became man. He's the creator. He's the one who holds all things together. He's the one in charge of the church and

And then in verses 19 through 23, Paul tells us that the Father reconciles all things to himself by him, that is by Jesus.

And so he is gathering, the idea of reconciliation is restoring relationships. And by Jesus, relationship with the Father is restored. That you and I, by faith in Jesus Christ, can have right relationship with God, with the Father. That we have access to his presence. We have access to his grace, to his mercy, to his forgiveness, and to his life.

Because we're reconciled to the Father by Jesus. And so Paul goes on in verses 24 through 29 to say, we preach Christ Jesus. Because of who Jesus is and his place and what he's done, our message is Jesus. Our message isn't some philosophy or some rituals or some things that we've come up with. Our message is

Is Christ Jesus. We preach Jesus. That's who we're proclaiming. Because of who he is. Because of his rightful place. Because he has the preeminence. In all things. He says in verse 28. Him we preach. Warning every man. And teaching every man. In all wisdom. That we may present every man perfect. In Christ Jesus. Here's our goal Paul says. We're preaching Jesus. So that we can present them. To Jesus. Right?

That we can present them perfect in Christ Jesus. Because as we preach Jesus and they receive Jesus, they stand perfect before the Father. They stand perfect. We can present them perfect. Not because suddenly, as Christians, we never sin anymore. But because of the work of Christ, we're clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And so the Father relates to us as if we were perfect.

And so Paul says, it's all about Jesus. Creation is all about Jesus. The church is all about Jesus. Our message is all about Jesus so that we can present people perfect in Jesus because it's all about Him. He's the one who's done the work. He's the one who's glorious and gracious.

Well, going on now into chapter 2, verse 23 is the key verse. It says,

One of the reasons why Paul is stressing the importance and value of Jesus there in chapter 1 is because of the doctrine that was coming in. And there was people that were telling the church at Colossae, you need something more. It's good that you believe in Jesus, but you need something more. And so follow our secret system.

Follow these rules and regulations. Follow these things. Learn from us. And that way you can have real success spiritually. That way you can have real insight spiritually. And Paul is refuting that in this letter, saying it's all about Jesus.

And so there's not another secret, you know, system that you need to learn. It's not that you need some other secret information that only certain people can tell you. It's all about Jesus. And you have everything you need in Jesus. Well, Paul in verses 1 through 5 says, I have great conflict for those who have not seen my face. I can imagine it was pretty frustrating for the Apostle Paul to be imprisoned for so long.

He was in prison there in Caesarea in Israel for a couple years. And then they transferred him finally to Rome where he waited for a couple years to appear before Caesar. It must have been frustrating for him to not be able to be going and dealing with these issues that he's hearing about and refuting these false teachings. And so he has great conflict

He says, for you and for those at Laodicea, for as many who have not seen my face in the flesh. And he explains in verse 2, I want your hearts to be encouraged. And I want you to be knit together in love and attaining the riches of the full assurance of understanding the knowledge of the mystery of God. I have conflict for you. I really want to see you grow. He desired for them love.

To be established and not sidetracked by these false teachers. In verse 5 he says, For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As he has great conflict for those who have not seen him face to face. He hasn't had a chance to minister there. At the same time he tells the Colossians, I also rejoice for you though.

Because what I've heard about you is your steadfastness in the faith. Again, contrasting this with the book of Galatians. The Galatians had a similar false teaching in their midst. And they fell for it. They were believing the false teaching. They were beginning to obey it. They were beginning to teach it. And Paul wrote the letter of Galatians to call them to repentance. And say, I can't believe you're turning away from the gospel.

But here to the Colossians, Paul says, I rejoice about the steadfastness of your faith. You're not falling for it. They're trying to bring in this doctrine. You're not falling for it. And so I'm rejoicing in that. But he's writing this to kind of fortify their position that they would hold fast, that they would continue on and be steadfast in their understanding of who Jesus is and in their belief in Jesus.

And so he goes on in verses 6 through 10. He says, As you received Jesus, so walk in Him. Since it's all about Jesus, and you've been steadfast up to this point, so keep walking in Jesus in the same way that you received Him. How did you receive Jesus? It was by faith. He says, As you've received Jesus...

Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, in verse 6. Verse 7, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. So press on in the same way as you began. That is, press on holding fast to Jesus. Calling out to Jesus. Looking to Jesus to satisfy you, to...

work in your life, to set you free, to redeem you. It's all about Jesus. I like the way the New Living Version puts verse 6 and 7. It says, And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to Him.

Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him. So you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all he has done. Salvation is all about Jesus. And Paul says, and let your walk, let your life continue to be all about Jesus. Let your roots grow down. Dig in Jesus.

to Jesus. Dig in into your relationship with Jesus. And he says, draw up nourishment. Let him minister to you and satisfy you so that you grow in the faith, that you'll be strong, that you'll have strength, but it comes from the Lord. And so continue in that. That's how you began and continue to walk in that way, he says. And then he warns them in verse 8. He says, beware of

So watch out for those who would cheat you with anything that's not according to Christ. And people will come with different philosophies. People will come with different, you know, spiritual sounding ideas. But he says it's philosophy and it's empty deceit.

It's things that men have thought up. It's things that men have, well, been deceived themselves and then they try to deceive others. It's according to the principles of this world. It's not according to Jesus. And so watch out for that.

Watch out for anything that takes your attention off of Jesus. Watch out for anything that directs you to try to be satisfied or to try to be completed or matured or to have growth or to have, you know, some type of objective in something that's apart from Jesus. Watch out. Whoever tries to do that is trying to cheat you, Paul says.

And then notice verse 9. He says, Paul says, There's nothing else that you need. You have Jesus.

You're complete. You have everything you need to be brought to completion in Jesus. And so there's not some extra spiritual things that you have to do. Okay, so now you've believed in Jesus. That's good. That's a good starting point. This is what the false teachers would say. And that's great. But here's what you need to do now to grow. You got to fast on these days.

And you got to make sure that you don't partake of these foods. And you got to make sure that you do these other things that we've decided you should do. Believing in Jesus is a good starting point. And Paul's saying, no, you're complete in him. You don't need some other system. You have everything you need in Jesus. And so stay focused on Jesus. Be steadfast to walk with Jesus. In verses 11 through 15, Paul reminds them of the work

That was done in them through Jesus. He says he made you alive and forgave you. He talks about circumcision. He talks about them being buried with Christ. He talks about them being raised with Christ. These are all spiritual. He's using circumcision but he's not talking about the physical thing. He's saying there's a spiritual work of separating you from your sinfulness. That Christ has done spiritually for.

It's a circumcision that's not done with hands. It's a circumcision from the sins of the flesh. You've been buried. That is, the old life has been put away and you've been resurrected. That is, you have a new life in Christ Jesus. And so remember what He has done. He's made you alive. He's forgiven you. He's redeemed you.

I like verse 15. He says, Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. As he was nailed to the cross, he accomplished great victory and made a public spectacle of the enemy and all of his forces. Well then in verses 16 through 23, Paul says, Self-imposed religion has no value against the indulgence of the flesh. So this passage,

false teaching that is coming into the church at Colossae. It's this religion, and Paul refers to it as self-imposed religion. So it's the idea of taking, you know, the gospel and then adding on all these other things that God hasn't required.

Now, as you look at the scriptures, you can look at the gospels and what Jesus taught. You can look at the letters, you know, of the New Testament and you can see there are some things that God declares. There are some things that God expects. There are some things that God demands. There are things that we need to fulfill in walking with Jesus according to the scriptures.

And that's not religion in a negative sense that, hey, I need to be obedient to flee from sin and to pursue righteousness. But what's happening here at the church in Colossae is that on top of what God has said, there's this other things that then you must do. And so there's this idea, there's this expectation that you have to do more than what God expects of you.

And so Paul says in verse 16, so let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, he says, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

So here there was this pull back to Judaism where they had the Sabbaths that they had to follow. There was the feasts and the new moons and these special celebrations that they would have and special particular ways that they would celebrate these things and it had to be in this formula and everything had to be exactly in order. And Paul says, don't let anybody judge you in regard to those things. Those things are not required. He says, those were the shadow things

Of the things that were to come. But Christ is the fulfillment of those things. And so you already have all those things in Jesus. You don't have to physically outwardly partake of those things. Or practice those things. In order to have some higher level of spiritualness or holiness. You don't have to do that in order to try to be more pleasing to God. He's already pleased with you because you believe in Jesus.

In verse 18, he talks about watching out for false humility and the worship of angels. So also part of this teaching that was coming into the church was, well, it involved this false humility. Now, humility, I think, is accurately described as an accurate view of yourself. That is, you recognize who you are, who God says you are. You don't

you know, puff yourself up and you don't put yourself down. You put yourself, you think of yourself according to what God has declared. But there's a false humility that Paul warns against. They were teaching that, hey, you know, you're pretty sinful. You're too sinful, in fact, to be able to worship God directly. And so what God's done is he's created angels that you can worship and

And then they'll worship God on your behalf. And so you worship these angels and then they'll worship God because you're too sinful to worship God yourself. Paul says that's false humility. It sounds humble. You're like, yeah, I'm really sinful. And so I can't approach God. I can't worship God. I'm so low. I'm so vile. I can't come to God myself. I need an angel to go to God for me. I need a saint to go to God for me.

You know, I'm such a sinner. But Mary is there with Jesus. And, you know, she's there and she's holy. And so I pray to her. I worship her. I talk to her. And then she talks to Jesus for me. She talks to God for me. Her prayers are much more effective. Paul says that's false humility. It's false humility. It's not accurate with what God has declared. It's false humility because they're vainly puffed up, Paul says, in their mind. Right?

that they've decided they know better than God. And so they disregard what God says about our access to Him and about our approach to Him by faith in Jesus Christ. True humility is receiving and obeying God's Word. God invites us into His presence by faith in Jesus. Read Hebrews chapter 10. He invites us in because of what Jesus has done.

There is no other mediator. We don't need someone else to go between us and God. There's one mediator, Jesus Christ. One mediator, that's it. No others. And by faith in Jesus Christ, we have full access to the Father and to everything that He has for us. There's no blessing from God that you can receive apart from faith in Jesus Christ. It's all by faith in Him. It's all according to what Christ has done for us.

Now Paul says in verse 23, these things have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility and neglect of the body. But notice he says, but they're of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. Paul says they seem like they're really good. They sound good, but they have no value against the lust of the flesh. You know, a lot of times when people get caught up into legalism,

When they get caught up into these things that Paul's been dealing with, they don't necessarily do it with bad motivation, but many times it starts out as an attempt to deal with real struggles in the flesh. Like, I have these struggles with sin. What do I need to do? How do I get rid of this sin? How do I deal with this issue? I mean, I have this anger.

I have these issues in my imagination. I have these struggles with my kids. How do I deal with this? I don't want to live this way anymore. And there's this battle with sin that we face. And many times it starts out with, well, okay, so here's what you need to do. You want to deal with that sin? Well, start practicing these things. Start worshipping in this way. Start keeping these rules and regulations.

Start praying to this saint or this angel. Or maybe what you need to do is fast four times a week. And so for me, that's why I fast 50 hours a week. Did you know that? I fast 50, that's how spiritual your pastor is. Between the hours of midnight and 7 a.m. every day, I fast. Amen.

But we add on these rituals, right? We add on these things and here's what you need to do. And we're motivated by wanting to deal with sin, wanting to deal with these problems that we have. And Paul says, don't look for the source or the solution to those things apart from Jesus. Look to Jesus to deal with that sin.

Look to Jesus to address that situation. Look to Him to give you the strength that you need. Look to Him to provide for you. Look to Jesus. It's all about Jesus. You can do all kinds of things that are religious and based in false humility, and you could feel real spiritual, but you'll find that they have no value in the indulgence of the flesh. You can apply this elaborate system of rules, and maybe it'll go well for a couple of days.

But then you'll find that it just doesn't work. It's not effective. You still struggle. You still have those issues. And if you don't turn to Christ, you're going to turn deeper into the legalism. You're going to, okay, well, maybe I need to be more strict. Maybe I need to do even more. Maybe I need to go even farther. And Paul says, you got to look to Jesus. He's the one who can deal with those things. You cannot control your sinful desires with external rules.

We don't need more rules and regulations. We need a closer relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We need more of Him in us. More time with Him. We need to spend time with Him. We need to rely upon Him more. We need to trust Him more. It's all about Jesus. Well, now going into chapter 3, we begin to see...

the application of these things. So here's who Jesus is, his rightful place, and how that is different than what these other guys are offering. And now in chapters 3 and 4, we see how that impacts our life. Chapter 3 verse 17 is the key verse. He says, and whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Paul says in verse 1, If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. In verses 1 through 4, Paul says, Set your mind on things above. Since you were raised with Christ, since this is who you are in Jesus now, set your mind there and seek after the things which are above.

He says, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ appears, you're going to appear with Him in glory. He says, set your focus, set your eyes on eternity and be concerned about eternity. Don't be so concerned about this life, but be more concerned, be more focused on the things that are to come, the things that are above. Be focused on the things of God.

In verses 5 through 11, he says, put off the old man and put on the new man. And really the rest of this chapter, he's going to be dealing with this idea of putting off the things that are not of the Lord and putting on the things that are of the Lord. In verse 5, he says, therefore put to death your members which are on earth and

And he gives some examples. Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

In verse 8 he says, but now you yourselves are to put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. He says, look, these are the things of your flesh, of your sinful nature, of your old life, and you're to put those off. And the idea, the wording that Paul is using is, it gives us a picture of like removing clothing. So take off that jacket and set it aside. In the same way, take off those things that are of your flesh and set them aside.

But it's not just stopping there, it's just taking off and stopping the practice of those things. But then he says, put on, in verse 10, the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him.

And so put on this new character that you have in Christ. This new person that you are in Christ. And so there's decisions that we have to make. There's habits that need to be replaced. Sometimes we continue in sin because it's our habit.

And Paul says, replace those habits. Stop doing that and start doing this. And so as we continue to grow, we're going to be putting off things that God shows us are not of Him. And then putting on things that are of Him that we will become more and more like Him. Well, then in verses 12 through 17, he says, put on tender mercies and love.

He also lists a bunch of other things in there. It's interesting to me as you look at verses 13 through 16, you can see that God is concerned about how we treat one another. All of these things that he wants us to put on, it deals with our relationships with each other. He says, put on tender mercies. That is the idea of having compassion, like feeling for the other person and understanding what they're going through.

Put on kindness, that deals with our relationships for one another. It's the idea of gentleness as well. Put on humility, put on meekness, put on long-suffering, put on bearing with one another, put on forgiveness towards one another. And he says, finally, put on love. It's like the outer garment, which is just like holds it all together together.

This is who you are in Christ, Paul says. Put these things on. Start practicing these things. And you can do it because you are God's elect. He chose you. You are holy. You are beloved. And so you can put on these characteristics. It's a choice. It's a decision. It's a walk that you need to go forward in. But it's something that you can do because of His work in you.

He says in verse 17, And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Do everything in the name of Jesus. The idea of being in the name of Jesus is not that, you know, you just say the name of Jesus in everything you do. You know, in the name of Jesus, I go to Taco Bell. You know, that's not what he's talking about. In the name is the idea of you're His representative. Right?

So go to Taco Bell as a representative of Jesus. That's the idea. Or, you know, do what you do. Go to work. Lead your family. You know, be in your community. Whatever you do, do it as a representative of Jesus. That's what he's calling us to do. Represent Jesus and give thanks to God the Father through him in all that you do.

Verses 18 through 25, similar line of thought. He says, whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord. Again, God is very concerned about our relationships and how our new life in Christ should impact our life and our relationships with one another. And so here Paul talks about the different relationships that we have in our lives. And so he deals with marriages, he deals with the workplace, he deals with parents and children.

And these are things similar to what we discussed as well in the book of Ephesians. In verse 18, he says, Wives, submit to your own husbands as is fitting in the Lord. And so wives, if you want to be in the center of God's will, if you want to experience the wonderful fullness of all that God has for you, then submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. In verse 19, he says, Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter towards them.

And so husbands, if you want to be in the center of God's will and experience the wonderful fullness of all that he has for you, then love your wife as Christ loved the church. In verse 20, he says, children, obey your parents in all things for this is well pleasing to the Lord. And so children, if you want to experience the fullness of what God has for you, be obedient to your parents. Who is a child? I think you could say the general definition is you're a child if you depend on your parents to live.

If you're in their house, under their roof, then you're a child and you need to be fully obedient to them. There comes a time where now as an adult, you're on your own and you need to stand before God and hear from God and He's your primary focus and you're to be obedient to Him. But until you provide for yourself and buy your own food and pay your own rent and provide your own transportation, until that time, what your parents say is God's commands to you. And so obey them in all things because it's pleasing to the Lord.

And parents say, yeah, that's awesome. Well then verse 22, bond servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in sincerity of heart fearing God. The bond servant or the servant and master, the slave and master relationship that existed during this time would be equivalent to or similar to our employer-employee relationships today.

And so parents might celebrate, children have to obey, but it's the same word, it's the same concept. As employees, we are to obey our employers. And in the same way, as if it's the Lord Jesus speaking to us. And so when your boss speaks, Jesus speaks.

And what your boss tells you to do is what Jesus tells you to do. Now, obviously, you know, you keep this within the parameters of what God has declared. And so, if your boss says, you know, deny Jesus, well, that's not Jesus speaking to you. But within, you know, reason, within the workplace, if it's not contradictory to what God has declared, when your boss speaks, Jesus speaks. And so, obey in all things. Paul says, even when nobody's looking.

Don't just obey whenever they're watching you so that, you know, you're putting on a good show. But no, even when they're not watching you, he says, because ultimately you're serving the Lord. So do it with all your heart because you're serving Jesus. You don't have to quit your job and be at church all day to be in full-time ministry. You're already in full-time ministry. You serve Jesus. And so do it with all your heart.

He says, look, if you do wrong, it's the Lord who's going to repay you. So it's both sides. God's watching you. And if you're not being a good employee, if you're not doing what you're supposed to do, God's going to deal with that. There's no partiality. You're not going to get away with that. If you're cheating or stealing or being lazy or disrespecting, God's going to deal with you in that as well. And so he says, whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men. Sometimes...

The people that are in authority over us are not our favorite people in the world. And we wonder, how can we, you know, respect this person? Or how can we deal with this? And Paul says, well, do it as to the Lord and not as to men. Well, finally now, Colossians chapter 4, verse 7 is the key verse. He says, Tychicus, a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me.

In verses 1 through 6, he encourages the Colossians to continue earnestly in prayer. Continue in prayer. Be steadfast in it. Be earnest in it. Be vigilant. That is to keep yourself awake in prayer with thanksgiving. And then I like verse 3. He says,

I like this verse because it reminds me, you know, even people like the Apostle Paul. I mean, would you have thought that Paul needed prayer for boldness? I read through his letters. It doesn't sound like he needed prayer. I read through the book of Acts. It doesn't sound like he needed prayer for boldness. But he tells the Colossians, hey, be faithful in prayer. Continue earnestly in prayer. And please pray for me too.

That I would make sure I reveal and I proclaim the word of God as I ought to speak. Listen, if Paul needed prayer for boldness, so do our missionaries. So do our pastors. So do evangelists like Greg Laurie and Billy Graham. They need prayer. And so it's an encouragement for us to pray for other believers, to pray for our missionaries.

To pray for the open door, but then also the boldness to share when that door is open. But then as Paul is praying for boldness to share, he prayed for me, he says, but he also then reminds us, don't forget, it's not just my calling, it's your calling too. Look at verse 5. He says, walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Walk in wisdom towards those who are outside of the faith, he's saying. It's not just my job to

to declare the gospel and bring people to salvation, hey, you need to redeem the time and take advantage of opportunities you have. And so walk in wisdom towards those who are around you. He says in verse 6, let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how to answer each one. So in order to be wise, you know, with the people that are around you, he says, watch your mouth. Let your speech be with grace. What's grace?

undeserved favor and kindness. So always let your speech be with undeserved favor and kindness. Sometimes we let our speech match what people deserve. Paul says don't do that. Yeah, they deserve to have that tone spoken to them. They deserve to have that volume spoken to them. They deserve to have those words spoken to them. But don't speak to them

the way that they deserve. Speak to them in a way that's much better than they deserve. Use a pleasant tone that they don't deserve. Speak nice and wonderful things even when people don't deserve it. Now Paul says the reason for this is so that you may know how to answer each one. Think about it this way. You're sitting down at the restaurant. You're having a conversation and talking about how you

horrible your boss is and your co-workers are and you're going on and on and on and then how are you able to minister to the waiter who's been hearing this conversation as he comes and brings you the things that you need as you are speaking not with grace about those who are in your workplace but you're speaking about them in a way that they maybe they deserve but

How can you then minister to those who are at the table behind you who've been overhearing the conversation this whole time? Paul says, you need to always let your speech be with grace so that you might be able to answer each one. If we're grumbling and complaining, if we're speaking in a way that, well, misrepresents or isn't consistent with Jesus, well, then how can we share with the person next to us?

You know, the question should not be, hey, I thought you were a Christian, right? Why are you talking that way? I thought you were a Christian. Or, oh, you're a Christian? I wouldn't have known by the conversation. No, the question should be, how do you have so much love? How do you have so much hope? How are you able to handle such difficult people? How is it that your speech is always with grace? He also says to be seasoned with salt.

Salt has some interesting characteristics. It can be used to heal. It can be used to preserve. And it can be used to bring flavor out. And I think those are some good pictures for us. This is how our speech should be. It should be healing. It should be restoring. Not hurtful.

It should be preserving, not destroying, not tearing down, but building up and protecting. And our speech should bring out flavor. Not making things bitter, not making things worse, but bringing flavor. Let your speech be with grace, seasoned with salt. Well, then in verses 7 through 9, he says, I'm sending Tychicus and Onesimus to you. And so he's sending these guys. He has these faithful men that he's sending with this letter.

He says he'll tell you the news about me and comfort you regarding me. And then in verses 10 through 15, he says, Greetings from Aristarchus, Mark, Justice, Epaphras, Luke,

and Demas. And so Paul again has these guys with him. And you can see the importance of these relationships. And there's some interesting ideas that you can consider in this. You know, Tychicus and Onesimus were solid believers. Paul said, you know, they're going to encourage you. They're going to refresh you. And we need those kinds of people in the body. And then you have Mark who, remember at one time, Paul and Barnabas split because Barnabas wanted Mark with them.

And Paul said, no way, he abandoned us. And so, you know, I'm not going on a mission trip with him again. But here's Mark with Paul. And we can see the importance of second chances within the body of Christ and those restored relationships. Epaphras, he talks about in his prayer life. And man, the importance of those who are prayer warriors within the fellowship and those who invest such great time in prayer are so essential for us as believers today.

And then you have Archippus. He says there in verse 17, take heed to the ministry which you've received in the Lord that you may fulfill it. And so we can see those who are ministers and the great importance and value of them and also the need for them to fulfill it. Do what you're called to do within the body of Christ. And then finally you have Demas. And here we see the importance of faithfulness. Because a little bit later in 2 Timothy chapter 4,

Paul will say, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. And so here's a guy who's with Paul, greeting the church of Colossae, but later on says, you know what? I'm going to go pursue the world. And so the importance of faithfulness for us as believers, pressing on and continuing to grow and making sure that our love and our passion is not this world.

That our love and our passion is Jesus Christ. We have everything we need in Him. He's all that we need. We don't need some other new system. We don't need some other secret. We don't need some special information that only certain people can deliver to us. We don't need to follow some new things.

No, we need to be focused on walking in relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ. That's what we need. That is what will bring us to completion. That is what will solve the problems that we face. That's how God's going to work in us. That's how God's going to heal us. That's how God's going to change us and work through us and transform us. Everything that we have, everything that God has in store for us, it's found by faith in Jesus Christ. That's what we need. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your goodness towards us. Lord, we thank you that you made it so simple for us that we don't have a checklist of 4,000 things that we have to do. We don't have hoops that we have to jump through, but we have one thing to do, and that's to come to you by faith in Jesus. And all we need to do is to receive you and to walk with you.

to know you, to hear from you, receive from you, and to follow your instructions as you speak to our hearts. And so, Lord, I pray that you would help us to make our life all about you. Lord, that you have the preeminence in creation, in the church. But, Lord, I pray that you would help us to also give you that place of being first and foremost in our lives as well.

Lord, that we would honor you first, that we would obey you first, that we would listen to you first. Lord, that it would be about you. Help us, Lord, to put you first. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.