Email

Bookmark

Print

Colossians Study Part 1

Introduction
Our culture talks about the “Golden Years” when retirement finally arrives; however, as we stand on the threshold and look into that space, it may be not quite what we expected.

A door has closed on a chapter of our lives where the marketplace has been our world as we earned a living to support the needs of a family.

That phase is behind us.

Now what?

Our culture and the marketplace has played a significant role in our identity and, whether we realized it or not, many of us found an identity in our job. What is the impact on us as these associations and related identities suddenly end? A chapter closes and new one opens. Who am I, and where do I go from here?

With retirement we stand on the threshold of a whole new set of opportunities. From the advertisements we are bombarded with our culture would have us believe that it is “our time” now to grab the “brass ring” and “enjoy.” We “owe it to ourselves.” (sail, cruise, vacation, travel, golf - all “me” pursuits.) The question is: do all these pursuits bring the lasting contentment that we all seek, even if we have the money to do them?

• Can I really come to grips with who I am and enjoy a lasting peace and contentment?
  
  
• After all these years in the “rat race” can the cultural imprints be sloughed off.
  
  
• Where do I go from here in this new chapter and how do I get there?

Our New Chapter in Life
Let’s think back and take a spiritual inventory. At some point in your journey did you realize the need for a change in direction and ask Christ to come into you life as Lord and Saviour? If you did, the Bible tells us clearly that a new chapter opened in our lives at that very moment:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

However, with all of life’s “busyness” and the hectic pace, demands of raising a family and surviving in the marketplace, it was difficult to live and grow in our commitment. No doubt there were many “cold times” filled steps forward and steps back.

Maturing in Our Faith
It is only as we take time to mature in our faith that we begin to grasp the significance of God’s grace - Jesus sacrifice for us - and the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. As we begin to make a checklist in our spiritual inventory relative to some of things that Jesus had to say, we realize that our identity created in the workplace and by the world we live in is much different than God has planned for us.

“In Him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4).

“….yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:40).

“….I have come that they may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

So it is readily apparent that God’s intention for us is to have life and have it to the full. Christ gives us the pattern and the power to grow spiritually and we need to nurture our vital connection to Him. This connection generates a power for living and a true identity which is in stark contrast to the emptiness offered by the world’s teaching or the material things and stuff that our culture bombards us with.

“The Glory of God is man fully alive.” - Saint Irenaeus

Colossians Background
Paul’s letter to the church at Colosse is significant in our search for identity and direction because the diety and person of Jesus Christ as Lord is brought into sharp focus as the One who is completely adequate in all of life’s situations.

He wrote this letter to the Colossians about 60 AD, likely while imprisoned in Rome. The city of Colosse was located about 100 miles east of Ephesus and it was a trading center and a crossroads of ideas and religions as trading caravans travelled from east to west. Archaeology indicates that the city was destroyed by an earthquake about 61-62 AD and not rebuilt. Trade routes were diverted through nearby cities.

There was a large Jewish population in Colosse that settled in the area as a result of persecution about 200 years before Christ. The church had been infiltrated by false teaching that attempted to combine pagan and secular philosophies with Christian doctrine. In his letter Paul confronts this teaching and affirms the sufficiency of Christ.

Pause for a moment and think about the impact that similar philosophies and religious teachings are having on our Christian communities today. This same battle has gone on through the ages and it is all the more reason that we must stay rooted in our faith and focused on the person of Christ.

The key verses in Paul’s letter are found in Colossians 2:9-10:

“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.”

There can be no question as to our identity.

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - Thanksgiving and prayer
Part 3 - Things above

Have a question? Ask us