Prayer is a dialogue NOT a monolgue. God commands and encourages us to come and converse with Him without ceasing and that is the force behind Paul’s last words to the believers in Colossea.
Paul had just told them to allow Christ to dwell with understanding in their hearts and live out what they know of Him in their homes and at work. But ALL of this was impossible to accomplish in a way which is pleasing to God, if it is done FOR God rather than with and by Him.
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To the Colossian believers Paul describes what it looks like when a person has truly died with Christ.
After this, he goes on to describe the same regarding those who have truly risen with Him!
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The recurring theme of Paul’s letter to the Colossian believers was to stay centered on Jesus.
Our lives are hidden with Christ in the Father. This implies a need to seek Him, discover Him in growing and intimate ways.
The overall picture is very much like a young boy who imitates his father who he looks up to. He admires him and wants nothing more than to be just like him. He pays attention to what he does, where he goes, what he likes, what he wears and becomes SO influenced by him, that he begins to acclimate to his ways. This is not just by means of forced imitation, but through loving admiration – his find himself influenced by his father to the point that he is becoming like him without any real effort at all.
THAT is the gospel!
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Paul stresses the need for ongoing Faith to the Colossian believers, as well as the need to stay established in the truth.
Both Jews and Essense were influencing this church to consider the aesetic practices of neglect of the body and observance of the externals of the ceremonial Law of the Old Testament for righteousness.
Paul explains that such things have been removed out the way and nailed to the cross with Jesus our Messiah.
In this message we also address the misunderstanding of Paul’s words regarding obeserving sabbath days. This he clearly meant in relation to the other laws he listed which were all celemonial and exterior in nature. ALL Feast days had associated sabbath rests which were in no way related to the Sabbath day declared Holy by God on the 7th day of Creation and the 4th commandment of the Law.
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In the letter of Paul to the Colossian believers, he stresses the importance of being found well pleasing to God.
That pleasure is directly connected to the mystery God has kept hidden in Christ from before time began. It is the mystery of Christ in us!
As Michael Card so clearly stated in his song, Live this Mystery “The Mystery of life in Christ, is that Christ can live in you!”
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