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Colossians
ОглавлениеAcademically Inclined Christians
The first readers of Colossians grappled with the nature of Christian faith in a setting where knowledge was a premier hallmark of religious life. These were folks who wanted to understand everything from science to philosophy. The letter deals with questions of an intensely personal nature as well as questions of cosmic proportions. The bonus is that both questions tie together in Jesus Christ.
The Colossians lived in a town—no longer extant—in what today is Turkey, and they had experienced the devastation of mass destruction by earthquake in 60–61 CE just prior to the writing and their reading of this letter. They had also experienced cultural and religious changes and the breakdown of old religious certainties. Perhaps in part to address the uncertainties of the times, they were experiencing a rise in the popularity of various religious cults and were even flirting with the possibilities of making up their religion as they went along. They were people trying to be religious and seriously thoughtful, piecing together a personally tailored mosaic of religious faith to address life’s questions. Paul addresses the Colossians as fellow believers with whom he is eager to discuss issues of serious importance. His purpose was to encourage them to see that Jesus Christ could be at the center of their lives, hold things together for them, and make sense out of life.
1 – Warmest Greetings
Colossians 1:1–2 — (1) Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, (2) to the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
This is sacred Scripture. It is also a letter from one of the first Christians to several communities of new Christians. It is a positive letter, encouraging and uplifting, despite the fact that the author (Paul) has never seen these folks and that he is probably in jail for his activities as a missionary. Paul knows about these Colossians through Epaphras (1:7), and what he knows is positive. So the letter is a kind of conversation, picking up on what he knows and expanding on it.
In the years and centuries since this letter was written, sent, read, and then circulated to other nearby congregations, Christian churches have found it to be useful. That is why we begin this series of devotional readings with it. It is a letter that closely relates to the kind of situation you are experiencing in college, some 1,900-plus years later. Hopefully, you will feel welcome to participate in the conversation about the importance of Jesus Christ in the lives of people like you—people interested in learning about the world and in growing in the Christian faith.
Please listen to the description of what was going on in Colossae and to Paul’s comments and suggestions. Listen to see if and how any of that might apply to you in your situation these many years later and many miles removed. Feel free to ask your own questions of the letter’s text.
Remember that the Colossians were living their story, Paul was applying the gospel (the story of Jesus Christ), and that you are writing your own story as a college student and Christian. These written devotional paragraphs are merely “helps” that try to keep “on the same page” and point to relevant challenges in today’s college experience that needs to be considered.
All of those sisters and brothers who have gone before you in the faith welcome you to the conversation.
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for living, dying, and rising to embrace me among the saints. Amen.
2 – Thankful For Hope
Colossians 1:3–8 — (3) In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, (4) for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, (5) because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel (6) that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. (7) This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, (8) and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
Gripe, gripe, gripe; grumble, complain, whine, criticize; carp, nitpick, moan and groan. Complaining is a common way to “communicate” since there is always something we can agree to complain about: the weather, politicians, the referee’s latest decision, the food, the professor, the class schedule, the course requirements. And there is usually a sympathetic listener who will add his own verse to the lament. But isn’t complaining usually an activity of the uninformed person? The complainer views the world from her own point of view and seldom truly understands the whole picture. College might be of some help at this point—offering perspectives from which to realize that life is complicated and that there may be good reasons why things are as they are.
Instead of complaining about whatever might be a problem in Colossae, Paul begins with thanksgiving. He takes his time to write to people he didn’t know, in a place he had never visited, yet he is thankful. Here he is probably in jail, yet he is thankful. Why he is thankful? The Colossians have the three Christian virtues: faith, love and hope. He is especially thankful for their hope. Things might seem bad but there is a hope that is secure; it is a hope that does not depend upon humans; a hope that is established and guaranteed by God; a hope upon which faith is based and from which you can live out your life in love for others. Hope provides the grounding for your faith (ideas) and your love (actions). One author describes hope as “the adequacy of the power of Christ to overcome all other powers.” You have that hope; and it’s a sure thing—“laid up for you in heaven.”
Prayer: Help me to be thankful—perhaps even for some of those things I gripe about. Amen.
3 – Filled with Knowledge
Colossians 1:9–12 — (9) For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, (10) so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. (11) May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully (12) giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.
Today’s colleges grew out of the church’s long and patient efforts to provide education. So here you are, inheriting that gift. Can Paul’s wish that the Colossians “endure everything with patience” be a reality for you as you move through your college career?
And don’t skip that part where Paul tells these folks he hasn’t met that he is praying that they be “filled with the knowledge of God’s will.” That can happen in college as a kind of value-added bonus as you study everything else—because everything you study will, at the same time, be about God’s creation.
The fact that you have been admitted to college shows that the college is confident that you can complete the assignments, acquire the required knowledge, and get your degree. You will be expected to proceed step by step through your program, learning more and more. Then, at commencement, the speaker might even say, “This is only a beginning, a commencement, and you will go on learning the rest of your life.” The real student never knows enough and never quits learning.
It is Paul’s hope (and prayer) that his readers will grow in “knowledge of God’s will.” He prays that this increase in knowledge occurs with spiritual wisdom and understanding—“knowledge” being information; “wisdom,” the practical application of that knowledge in your daily life; “understanding,” a deep and sensitive comprehension that goes beyond mere information. The college setting is a great one for working seriously at the business of growing in “knowledge of God’s will.” The strength for all of this comes to you as God’s gift. There is always a next step—more to know, more to love, more to learn. You won’t need to ask what will be on the test. You will be ready.
Prayer: Thank you for the gifts of knowledge wisdom and understanding. I want more! Amen.
4 – Power of Darkness
Colossians 1:13–14 — (13) He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, (14) in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
What does college have to do with politics? A lot. Will the state legislature allocate enough money to keep your school operating? Will it approve concealed or open carry of guns on campus? Do the local police have jurisdiction to enforce city or state laws on your campus? Paul is still in the thanksgiving mode as he expresses gratitude for God’s liberation from the dominion of darkness to the kingdom of Christ. Is this only a figure of speech or is there some real change to which he refers? What it sounds like is a change of citizenship effected by God’s executive decision to move Christians from living under the rule of one power (a bad one) to a new power (a good one).
Where is this power or kingdom of darkness? It seems to refer to any place in which God through Christ is not in charge. Isn’t the expression “power of darkness” pretty harsh to use in describing a college? College is a power. Being in college is at least somewhat like living in any community. If God is not the top power and authority of the college (or community) what is the alternative? From a Christian perspective would such a community be okay? Sort of okay? Semi-okay? Almost okay? Or can we admit—at least while we read this New Testament letter—that the college would have to fall into the category of “darkness”—at least for the purpose of discussion?
The previous citizenship in which the pre-Christian Colossians had lived was characterized as sinful and wrong thinking—“the power of darkness.” The new citizenship is characterized by forgiveness of sins—which is what redemption means here. We could not get away from the first power on our own. How can we live in the old place even though our commitment is to a new one? That is exactly one of the central questions addressed in this letter. In case you hadn’t already guessed, this is not your old Sunday school religion. This is faith in the midst of the serious rough-and-tumble conflict between powers. There are two places—mutually distant regarding their nature, but paradoxically in the same place regarding geography. Here you are, right in the middle of those two “places”—God’s kingdom and the American college experience. Knowing where you are is the first step in finding your way.
Prayer: God, equip me for my life on the margin between your kingdom and the world. Amen.
5 – First Things First
Colossians 1:15–17 — (15) He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation; (16) for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. (17) He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Occasionally I wore a striped shirt to the university where I worked as an administrator. It reminded me of my role as referee, adjudicating the distribution of limited funds and perks among competing departments and professors. This happened because there was no single, unifying principle, goal, mission, or vision that bound us together. (If there had been, there would have been much less need for anyone to “administer.”)
Today’s passage is a song the early Christian church used—a chorus about Jesus Christ. It is a rave review of many of the great things about him that show him to be the greatest and most powerful thing there ever was (except for God). It is not unlike the praise songs popular today.
Often Christians look forward to a future when Christ will come and bring his kingdom into earthly reality. In fact, that temporal and chronological view is probably the most frequent word picture the New Testament offers. However, here in Colossians we get a spatial orientation. Yesterday you read how God had moved you from one (evil, earthly, fleshly) kingdom into another better one. No waiting; it’s a done deal. The great transformation and liberation has already occurred and you now can explore that new life with a Lord who is cosmic in scope yet makes sense out of everything for each individual person.
This hymn or chorus is full of spatial language. Actually, it’s full of a lot of little words: prepositions. The creation of all things—especially all power—took place “in” Christ. The creation flowed “through” him as agent, so that he put his stamp on all of it. And it is “for” him—directed toward him as goal for use in accord with his purpose. He is “before” all things, in the lead, more important than all, and in the words of the poet T. S. Eliot he is “the still point of the turning world”—at the center. Jesus Christ is the glue that holds everything together.
Prayer: Help me to hold to the center, to Christ, and to know that he is at the heart of all my understanding. Amen.
6 – When Things Fall Apart
Colossians 1:15–17 — (15) He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation; (16) for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. (17) He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Didn’t we read this yesterday? Yes; but in college repetition can really help.
Jonathan Edwards, an early American minister, missionary, and theologian, argued that it was only God’s constant presence that kept the physical universe from collapsing back into the chaotic disorder from which God had ordered it. There is another way to read this idea that “in him all things hold together” that might mean a lot for a college student: that it is in Jesus Christ that things “hold together” in terms of making sense. It is only in Jesus Christ that you can truly and finally understand that things (at least eventually) make sense. Only by locating everything in Jesus Christ can life, death, joy, suffering, past, and future become acceptable.
In his poem “The Second Coming” the Christian poet W. B. Yeats wrote, “Things fall apart/the centre cannot hold.” When there is no center, things do fall apart. In a wry criticism of the American college, Robert Hutchins, the then young and revolutionary president of the University of Chicago, observed that higher education lacked any centering vision or purpose; it went something like this:
Question: What holds the college together?
Answer: The heating system.
In such an environment, is it possible for Christians to know God in a center-less and secular college environment? Paul, writing to Christians who wonder about the relation of Christ to other claimants to your religious faith, quotes an early Christian hymn. The song hails Jesus Christ as primary (“image of the invisible God, first born of all creation”) and as that which integrates everything, holds the entire cosmos together, and gives it all meaning. Everything connects and interrelates in Christ and Christ invites you to participate in that sense-making activity.
The tune of this early hymn may no longer be known, but the central message of a Christ who makes sense of everything is an incredible blessing—especially to anyone in the college experience.
Prayer: It is wonderful to know that Christ puts all the pieces together when things fall apart. Thank you. Amen.
7 – Getting It Together
Colossians 1:18–20 — (18) He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first born from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. (19) For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, (20) and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
The coach, the teacher, the president—these authority figures are important to the running of a college. If any of them leaves, there is a vacuum. And vacuums demand to be filled. Fast. A replacement is necessary for stability, for things to make sense and feel right. Of all the college employees whose leaving creates critical vacuums, athletic coaches are the best (or is it worst?). Particularly urgent to replace are the football and men’s basketball coaches. Alumni want to know what will happen to the team for the next season. Student athletes need to have a new father figure . . . quickly. The press wants news.
Fortunately Christians will not be threatened by a vacancy at the top. Christ’s tenure is secure because of his resurrection, and we are not vulnerable to any leadership change crisis. In this early Christian hymn, the focus has shifted from the cosmic Christ (verse 15) to a more personal level—God’s desire that you and God be reconciled. The facts about Christ and his cosmos are now tied personally to you through a historical event (the cross) and the community of the church (body of Christ).
Opening this letter with such a positive affirmation of his readers and of the positive and absolutely cosmic scope of the work of Jesus Christ (from creation to reconciliation) is such good news. It is like a welcome sign just for you at the gate of your college. Studying this letter should produce a lot of strengthening to your faith and some specific answers to some of the many challenges to a Christian student in college.
Prayer: God, help me get my head around Jesus’ cosmic creativity and his work on the cross. Amen.
8 – Lord, When Was I a Mad Scientist?
Colossians 1:21–23 — (21) And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, (22) he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him—(23) provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.
The mad scientist is (usually, thank goodness!) fictional and is often portrayed in bad movies where his diabolical plot to take over the world issues from a genius-level IQ gone berserk. By contrast, college folks tend to think of the mind as good. The Greek philosopher Plato (427–347 BCE) is an early advocate of the view that the mind is the essentially good core of humans. In college circles it is pretty much assumed that the mind has great potential.
You are the intellectual great-grandchild of the Western philosophical tradition (Plato and company), the grandchild of the Enlightenment (Kant and company) and the child of modernism. Part of the inheritance you share with your predecessors is an enormous confidence in human reason. The founders of those traditions all believed in the positive power of the mind. Well, perhaps not so much confidence in the reasoning of others, but plenty of confidence in their own.
You know that each of us has an individual bias, point of view, or perspective. But to what extent do you take seriously the possibility that one of the factors that may negatively affect your thinking is sin? It is hard to acknowledge that sin has what one writer calls the “epistemic impact of sin” or the impact of sin on your thinking. But if you take sin seriously—woe to us if we don’t!—you can understand your self-centeredness and your estrangement from Christ. To the extent that Christ has not reconciled one’s mind to God, there is a little of the mad scientist in everyone.
The good news is that Christ has put you in a new place. Once you are reconciled to God in Christ, there is no need to go about—as the Colossians apparently did—still looking for some additional truth to perfect Christ and fulfill the gospel. Now all there is left is for you to live out the faith you have been given.
Prayer: God, thank you that your reconciling love is more powerful than my hostile ideas. Amen.
9 – Vocation with a Vision
Colossians 1:24–26 — (24) I am now rejoicing in my suffering for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. (25) I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, (26) the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints.
You plan for a career. That is part of what you will do in college. It could be a job, like it was for the father of a student of mine who had decided on his major by looking at a list of the best-paying jobs; he chose the top-income career . . . and hated it. Paul seems pretty happy about his “job” (“I am now rejoicing”—while suffering, and in jail!), which had to do with spreading God’s word about Jesus Christ.
Do you know the story of the two workers who were asked what they were doing? The first, a bricklayer, said he was laying bricks. The second, also a bricklayer, responded that he was building a cathedral. They had the same skills, but radically contrasting frames of reference. They employed the same techniques, but saw themselves functioning in radically differing vocations. The one was locked in the tedium of doing the same task repeatedly; the second saw the worth of that mundane labor as part of a grander panorama.
Jobs can have their tedium and their pains. Jobs can be a drag or they can grab you as a vocation. They can give you identity and purpose, or they can be hated and feared. College is overwhelmingly about selecting and preparing for the working part of your life.
Have you decided what your career path is? How does that fit in “the big picture” as you view it? What kind of a person will that career make of you? Do you know the requirements and do you have a plan, the resources, and the will to carve it out for yourself?
Some people are claimed by a career. They have a vocation, a calling. They are part of something greater, called by something outside of themselves to build something grand. Paul tells the Colossians about his vocation. How are you coming along in choosing and preparing for yours?
Prayer: Thank you for those I name and those I cannot name who have prepared the way for me. Amen.
10 – Good Advice: If You Can Get It, Take It
Colossians 1:27–29 — (27) To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (28) It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. (29) For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me.
One of my pet peeves is that conversation you often overhear at church before morning worship—the conversation that focuses on the weather or the latest football game. The atmosphere is more “good ’ole boy” than an encounter of members of the body of Christ who are concerned to “present everyone mature in Christ.”
In college, the role of your adviser can range from . . . well, one extreme to the other. Some faculty bridle at the role of en loco parentis—being in the position of parent—and avoid involvement in the nonacademic side of their advisees’ lives. They see their role with their students as confined to the matter of academic requirements and signing forms.
Other faculty feel comfortable playing a more involved role in the lives of students. Theirs can even be an “in your face” approach to their students, confronting them with big issues and major decisions, tracking them down when they miss class, conversing with them about any and all issues in their advisees’ lives.
If Paul had been an academic adviser, his commitment to “warning everyone” and “teaching everyone” clearly would place him at the intrusive end of the spectrum. You may be fortunate and get a good advisor and mentor. Accept it and listen. You may even get good advice and some tender loving care.
Paul’s mission is not only to touch every one with the gospel but to equip and strengthen the Colossians in their Christian maturation. This letter was preserved in Scripture because it continued to be useful in doing the same thing for later generations of believers. As a young, and perhaps not as wise or as mature a Christian as you hope to be, you can be open simply to receive (at least some of) the advice that comes to you.
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for those who work to get us matured—in school and in Christ. Amen.
11 – Mysteries—Academic and Spiritual
Colossians 2:1–3 — (1) For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face. (2) I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself, (3) in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Mysterious, impenetrable. It could be a poem, how a muscle functions; there are many things that are hard to understand. Some of these “mysteries” can be resolved by more work, a remark by a professor, or a serendipitous inspiration; others may never be answered. But when the mystery is penetrated, you have new information. The real student is always seeking and finding more illumination.
You can have those deep and moving mysteries of faith as did John Wesley in his conversion experience. As the preacher described “the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ,” Wesley reported that, “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ.” In this case, faith was a warm heart. Being forgiven, reconciled, accepted by Christ is a marvelous feeling.
But it is also describable. The instructor was asking the student about her faith. She was not shy; it was clear to the class that she was serious about and unashamed of her faith. But she was struggling to find the words with which to articulate her belief. The instructor, sensing a “teaching moment,” pressed for her definition of faith. Her frustration mounted. Finally after the next push by the teacher, she tearfully blurted out, “I know what I believe; I just can’t say it!” Yes, there is the indescribable and impenetrable, but the mystery of Christ does submit to language, to thought, to analysis, if only little by little.
Paul speaks of a mystery revealed; truth, not deception. Getting “assured understanding” and “the knowledge of God’s mystery” is there, in “Christ himself.” But it is a mystery that need not remain permanently and entirely impenetrable. It is an accessible mystery. It enables you to understand the will of God little by little. Faith is not private knowledge or opinion; it works out through the uniting in love of God’s creatures. You can contribute. Your faithful response to the gospel is certainly your own and personal, but it is neither private nor inaccessible to others.
Prayer: Lord, help my faith to be passionate yet well thought through, comfortingly warm yet substantial. Amen.
12 – The Plausibility Argument
Colossians 2:4 — (4) I am saying this so that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments.
How embarrassing it is to be fooled. It is also humiliating and maddening! I can still feel the anger over having my wallet stolen while I was driving an apparently nice young hitchhiker through his home town; and that was over thirty years ago. Or how I was fooled by the other Boy Scouts in Troop 881 about snipe hunting. There are many other arenas in which we can be fooled—with bad information, subtle omissions, faulty opinions, ill-based expectations, and outright lies. So one of the things they (your well-meaning professors) may tell you at your college is that they will prepare you to assess and evaluate information that you acquire so that your conclusions are solid and likely to be valid. Even so, you will be the recipient of dozens of “plausible arguments” during the course of your college career. In some classes you will be presented with a really powerful argument from a significant thinker only to see that argument rejected in the next class session by another even more plausible argument presented by another famous thinker. It can be really difficult to make decisions because plausible arguments are, well, really plausible.
You are on your own now. Your parents are probably worried about what you will think. But they are still confident—or at least pretending to be confident—that all is okay. If your college is typical, there will be little interest in religious faith and the truly deep questions in most of your classes. But there likely will be individuals and groups that will be urging one or another approach to really important issues. Some will argue (plausibly, of course) against any religious faith; others will urge an explicit kind of commitment or involvement. How do you decide?
What has Paul said so that no one will deceive you? He just reminded his readers that “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” are found in Christ. That is your resource. Keep Christ at the center at all times. Then you will have assured understanding because it is based on the most plausible argument ever—Jesus Christ.
Prayer: O Lord, do protect me from the deceit of dangerous arguments. Amen.
13 – To Be “In,” or Not To Be
Colossians 2:5–7 — (5) For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ. (6) As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, (7) rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
My wife spent four wonderful years at a college that sadly closed its doors some years ago. She is a graduate of a school that no longer exists. She continues to attend the occasional alumni reunions—each time with fewer participants. Like alumni of other, still-existing schools, she and her fellow grads are bound together in spirit, but the numbers dwindle. There is no longer a place to be “in,” where “roots” are put down and you are “built up” and “established.” Rather than “abounding,” diminishing seems the more operative term. (Note that in occurs eight times in this passage—especially “in spirit . . . in Christ . . . in him . . . in the faith . . . in thanksgiving.”) How important it is that there be something to be “in.” Without something to be “in,” it is hard to be.)
In contrast, beginning in the 1980s, Duke University enjoyed the prestige that an outstanding basketball program brought—winning national and conference titles. In this day of freedom and of student suspicion of discipline, members of the Duke team had to be “rooted” in the coach’s discipline and vision. He “built up” his team and “established” it as a great team by ensuring that each player did it his way. The result? The team “abounded” in success.
One group shrinks toward inevitable death; the other increases in morale and strength. In many ways, those are the options. Moments of rest, when nothing happens, are rare. You are always diminishing or growing.
The biblical passage for today represents one of those rare moments of pause. Paul applauds the Colossians for coming so far in Christ. Good work, he tells them. Relax for a moment. Remember that you have sent down roots into the Christ who has nourished you. You learned well. Relax. Enjoy.
But note the subtle warning: “Continue to live your lives in him.” This “time out” is only the briefest rest. There is serious work ahead. The cosmic Christ is being challenged on all sides. You have done well so far; it’s soon time to push ahead.
Prayer: Thank you for the promise and the equipment for growing strong and rich in the faith. Amen.
14 – Warning: Intellectual Hijackers
Colossians 2:8–10 — (8) See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. (9) For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, (10) and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.
Once I saw a large banner suspended from windows above a pedestrian walkway on the campus of a major university. It read: “Jesus Christ, Lord of the Universe.” I wondered if those who had hung the banner could make the less audacious claim: “Jesus Christ, Lord of the university”? Has it occurred to you that he is the Lord of the university? Have you questioned how he might be Lord of the university? Or even if he might be Lord over a department, or even over some individual teacher or just even a student . . . like you?
Or is the university so powerful that Jesus Christ cannot be its Lord? If that is the case, it sounds like the university may be one of those “powers” that Scripture mentions. God has ordained the “powers” for our benefit. For instance, government is an institution that provides services, protection, assistance. But we know that government occasionally gets off track and fails to provide for the people. It can lose its vocation and do really bad things—the execution of Jesus, the Holocaust, apartheid.
The problem with philosophy is that it is limited by the ability and perspective of the people who do it. That is the problem with human tradition—it is, well, human.
There is no doubt that philosophy is a powerful tool, useful in thinking about deep matters. Justin Martyr, a second-century Christian, argued that Christianity was in fact the best philosophy. St. Thomas Aquinas in the 1300s used the philosophical system of Aristotle to organize and express what Christians believed they knew about God. For such serious and thoughtful Christians philosophy was an excellent tool. For Justin it was of great help in defending the faith in the face of hostile and powerful foes. For Aquinas it was of help in organizing the faith, always provided that the center and the supreme authority was God. So, philosophy? Just be sure that Christ is at the center of what you do with it.
Prayer: Free me from loving my own thoughts and let me love you so passionately that I can think clearly. Amen.
15 – When in Trouble, Check the Cross
Colossians 2:11–14 — (11) In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; (12) when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. (13) And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, (14) erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.
Have you ever been in trouble? Really BIG trouble? Do you remember how it feels to be “on the carpet” in front of your parents for a really big boo-boo? Or in front of the school principal? Or when you got a traffic ticket? Take all those scared, guilty, embarrassed feelings, multiply by a gazillion, and imagine yourself really guilty of every bad thing you ever did and imagine having done them to God who has called you into court on the charges.
Paul uses a legal metaphor to describe your pre-faith and post-belief situations. Then you were doomed—in huge trouble with little hope of escape. Now, after the baptism of faith in Christ, you are alive. The charges—whatever they were—are taken care of in Jesus’ death on the cross.
Another way to describe the same transformation of your life is to use another package of terminology and narrative. Before you were a member of the kingdom of darkness. Then you were cut off from the dominion of darkness, from untruth. This is in the Jewish language of “circumcision,” using the term metaphorically, with reference to the cutting off of Jesus’ life in his death on the cross. Your “baptism” follows the model of death and burial in Christ. The result of either way of describing things (circumcision or baptism) was that you had been in one condition (sin, or “estranged and hostile in mind”) and are now forgiven and no longer considered guilty of sin. All of that happened because of the critical event of Jesus’ crucifixion.
Prayer: Give me the gift of understanding Christian language and of speaking clearly about your grace. Amen.
16 – And the Winner Is . . .
Colossians 2:15 — (15) He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it [the cross].
The message of the cross is not simply that Jesus is alive; he is also not guilty as charged by the government and by the religious authorities. Oh yes, and he is the supreme ruler of every power anywhere in this or any other galaxy. And the cross has become a symbol of all that—even if it is often debauched as jewelry. (One writer sarcastically refers to this casual attitude as “Jesus on a bracelet.”) Minimally, what was dismantled by the resurrection was the power of Rome (which finally fell in 410 CE) and the reliability of the popular religious prejudices that supported the politicians’ actions against Jesus.
But there are still powers that oppose God. While God can take care of herself, those powers are sometimes effective in trapping you in seductive webs. It has been said that the task of the church is to be able to identify the principalities and powers that attempt to govern humans. In college there is a glut of claimants to the thrones of power. Some of these claimants—science, career, technology, history—derive much of their power from the fact that they are well presented, well argued, dressed in the finery of cultural or academic or financial acceptability. Then there are also those extracurricular claimants—sports, sex, alcohol, gambling . . . and the list goes on.
But above every principle, tradition, argument, system, ideology, religion, government, principality, and power is Christ who had been attacked by a coalition of the principalities of his day only to have his “sentence” reversed by God in the resurrection. You have been truly favored by a God who not only provides you with a forgiver and redeemer but also with the final and superior power over all other claimants. In a world of many competing powers it is comforting to know that there is one truly good power and that he is the most powerful one and he invites you to find your safety in him.
Prayer: Help me to recognize the principalities and powers and not be seduced by them. Amen.
17 – Don’t Be Ashamed!
Colossians 2:16–19 — (16) Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. (17) These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. (18) Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, (19) and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.
There is nothing as entertaining as the sight of politicians caught out in some embarrassment and scrambling for cover—or at least for a cover story. For example Watergate, Monica Lewinski, vicuna coats, Iran Contra, Teapot Dome—you never know what the source of shame and embarrassment will be, even for a United States president. Victims try to minimize the shame, opponents gleefully attempt to maximize it. In America today, however, where virtually anything goes, shame is almost never fatal to a career.
In the time of Jesus, shame was much more powerful in its effects than it is in our day. A prime example of shame was a sentence to death on a cross. Persons whom the powers that be wanted to publicly humiliate in the most horrible public exposure of physical nakedness and lack of control of bodily functions, were sentenced to crucifixion. This was a means of execution applied to a broad spectrum of people the government wanted to punish and hold up as warning examples. Jesus—as a public threat to Rome and a religious annoyance to the Jews who wanted to keep on good terms with Rome—was only one of the cross’s innumerable victims.
Among the powers of the world are religious observances that have become absolutized in our lives. If we don’t do them, shame! Shame! Paul points out that religious practices are only shadow—not the real thing. They are not what God has given you for nourishment and growth: Jesus Christ is. So don’t get hung up on stuff like what to eat or pay undue attention to; what to avoid or with whom not to associate. Those are not deal-breakers. Only what has Jesus at the core is for real. His is the creation and he has sanctified it so that you can live fully in it.
Prayer: Help me to see in the light of Christ—what is substance and what is only shadow. Amen.
18 – Dogma-Tied by the World
Colossians 2:20–23 — (20) If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, (21) “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”? (22) All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings. (23) These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence.
What are the basic constituents of the universe? People have been asking that question for centuries, first with religious answers and then “scientifically” by observation beginning with the Greek philosopher Thales (640–546 BCE) who proposed water (!) as the basic building block of matter. As advances in instrumentation enabled closer looks at the material world, scientists developed better theories, and the answer to the “basic elements” question has changed and we now know that it is . . . well, at this writing, the scientific answer is still a work in progress.
But there is also a less scientific version of the question. It’s more like: “What is the basic driving force of human affairs?” For the answer, it seems that all you need to do is look at the misguided and selfishly used power under which Jesus was “legally” executed. How can Christians, reborn and reformed in our baptism into Christ, still think and act under the control of the basic operating principles of the “world” that killed him? Especially after Jesus’ “conviction” had been so dramatically reversed by God’s raising him from an unjust death?
Or what about this personally directed-at-you version of the question: “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe” (or university?), how come you “submit to” (in the Greek, dogmatizesthe, or “let yourself be dictated to by the dogmas) “regulations” of the world?
Among the fundamental values or “dogmas” of the university are self-improvement, freedom, toleration, competition, concern for job preparation. Paul might dismiss them as “simply human commands and teachings” that only have the “appearance of wisdom.” You and Christ “died to the elemental spirits of the universe” and you both are free to replace them with other loftier, more important things like love, compassion, hospitality, and service of others.
Prayer: Lord give me the insight to what those elemental principals are so I can live according to your will. Amen.
19 – Witness Protection Program
Colossians 3:1–4 — (1) So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. (2) Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, (3) for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (4) When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
Remember on the TV program Sesame Street when they were teaching the concepts of “near” and “far”? Now you know that near and far, up and down, are not all that clear. You could theoretically move toward the “edge” of the universe, but since we now know that space curves, you would ultimately find yourself back more or less where you started. Reading the up/down language of Colossians as metaphorical is better than reading it literally. Our hope is in heaven (1:5a) means, importantly, that it is not here in the world of human beings and faulty human institutions.
God has delivered you from the “dominion of darkness” to the “kingdom of his beloved son” (1:13). In today’s reading, that change is described in terms of your move from “down” on earth, among earthly things, to “up” in heaven and the things of Christ. The importance here is the change in who you are. You are changed; your behavior is changed.
Now, in college, you are studying to change into a lawyer, accountant, teacher. When you become one of them you must behave like one of them. In joining the group (becoming a lawyer, etc.) you “die” to your previous life, and assume a role of privilege and responsibility dictated and expected of you in your new life.
In Christ, you have experienced a radical change of identity. You have been liberated to become what God intended you to be when he created you. It is like being in a government witness protection program and being given a new identity; you don’t want to let on to anybody what you were before you got into the program.
Prayer: Help me to think and act like I am really in a new place and that I am really a new person. Amen.
20 – Dump the Garbage
Colossians 3:5–8 — (5) Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). (6) On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. (7) These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. (8) But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth.
Success in college means adapting to college demands: less TV, less sleep, a willingness to reserve judgment on complex questions, polishing those reading and writing skills. Yes, there does come a time when the fateful words must be spoken: Don’t do this; don’t do that. A lot of folks think that the Christian faith is basically a series of variations on the “Don’t” theme. Today’s reading is the kind of passage that the biblically illiterate are sure dominates Scripture and the whole of the Christian faith: Don’ts. Read it carefully because—surprise!—it is almost the only “don’t” in the whole letter. So little is spent on commands in this letter because the new nature of anyone in Christ spells out a picture that you will pick up on it in a flash.
Being in college as a Christian puts you on the margin where earthly habits battle heavenly ones. If you keep on living with the habits of the world, it is a denial of what you have learned in Christ and a rejection of the transformation going on in your life. It leads you in the direction of becoming what could be called a “Frankenstein’s monster”—a little of this and a little of that. You definitely do not want a diabolically split personality.
If you think sex organs are the only organs that put you in danger you may not have been listening to your tongue lately. Words can be the most powerful tool in your toolbox, for good or for hurt. As a Christian you have a Christian language so that you can speak truths that go unnoticed or denied by society in general. Not only do you have the “use of Christian language,” but you also need to develop the “Christian use of language.” As you become disciplined to a helpful, precise, truthful use of language, you necessarily eliminate “anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive language.” As a person undergoing God’s makeover, dumping the trash is part of the process. How can you tell what is garbage? For starters, anything that hurts others must go.
Prayer: Let me not resist the transformation going on in the new person Christ is making of me. Amen.
21 – Ultimate Makeover
Colossians 3:9–10 — (9) Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices (10) and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.
A better movie (more draw at the box office) than the “sex and say whatever you want to say” kind of movie might be one we could call College Lies. It might feature a university president who sexually harassed women; a researcher who not only invented her data but also the very subjects from whom she got the data; a coach who falsified his resume and played players who weren’t exactly students; a student who didn’t tell his parents that he had flunked his first two years because he had been playing cards. Unfortunately, these “characters” are all real.
The point is that people connected with American colleges and universities are not necessarily any more honest than the rest of the world. The things suggested for inclusion in our imaginary movie are things that the perpetrators hide behind lies. Christians would call lying a sin because in various ways it is hurtful to others. Does higher education need a makeover?
The makeover. A recent fad on reality TV. First was the makeover of the backyard, then the house, then the body. Would the made-over-one be pleased? We all have been the targets of makeovers since arriving on this earth—from what God intended to what American culture demanded.
While we await further developments in the TV world of makeovers, back to Paul. In this passage he continues to develop the gospel’s unfolding promise: the gift of a new life to the Colossians (and all believers) and the new and better behaviors that show it off. He points out that Christians ought not to lie. (Why bother lying since you already have the truth in Christ?) Your new nature in Christ has a particularly important aspect to it—you are being renewed in knowledge after the “image of [your] creator.” No lie!
Prayer: Help me be so renewed that I know the truth and tell the truth. Amen.
22 – And the Walls Came Tumbling Down
Colossians 3:11 — (11) In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!
When I started college, among the strongest walls that separated students from each other were these three:
The wall that separated collegiate “Greeks” (fraternity/sorority students) from “non-Greeks.”
The wall between the preppies and the public school graduates. When I entered college, my school had had a tradition of accepting primarily the wealthy and socially gifted applicants. My class was the first class in which the number of us public school grads equaled the number of “preppies.”
The gender wall: boys vs. girls. Some years after I graduated, my all-male alma mater accepted women! The gender wall fell and everyone was welcome to attend. (Well, maybe not welcomed by all. For some, that wall was only violated, not eliminated.)
But you are being “renewed in knowledge” (3:10). You are getting new information—a new understanding that calls for the use of new wisdom. One piece of new(ly received) knowledge is truly big: there are no cultural distinctions (Greek/Jew, Mexican, Iraqi), no physical ones (circumcised/uncircumcised, black/white), no ethnic ones (Irish/Jewish), no political/social/economic ones (slave/free, PhD/GED) that Christians ought to take seriously (cf. Gal 3:28). You may learn classifications in class, but you will also learn ways in which everyone is the same—in their chemistry, their social needs, their political aspirations. Christ loves everyone despite the “human” classifications that might be used to classify, separate, or denigrate anyone. He has eliminated the walls of division. There is no way to put barriers between you and others now that your mind has been renewed. This is not just about being tolerant of others. This is a reconstruction of your mind, a re-creation produced by God. This is a recognition that sinful humans have arbitrarily made up the idea that particular characteristics could legitimately be used to separate you from others. It was like a bad April Fool’s joke—just made up.
Who are the “they” to your “we”? From now on it has to be “we.” (It’s easier than trying to remember who exactly is a “them” and monitoring all the “us’s” to make sure they’re just like you.)
Prayer: Help me act re-created so that I will no longer notice any differences between me and others. Amen.
23 – Here Is Your New Wardrobe
Colossians 3:12–15 — (12) As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. (13) Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. (14) Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (15) And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.
Wearing brand name sneakers, school colors, the number of a star athlete, or T-shirts with aggressive, in-your-face statements is common. Why do people do that? Maybe to give a hint to the world about who the wearer would like to be.
Paul has the same idea: wear the stuff that will show the world that you are a Christian: for pants, how about “compassion, kindness, humility”? For shirts, “meekness . . . patience,” forgiveness, “love . . . peace” (one for every day of the week)? Shoes: thankfulness?
These sound like they could be “values.” Colleges are keen on values. Values are the warm, fuzzy stuff about which people can feel good. One thing about values is that that few people take the time to define them, and even fewer want to check to see if their values are really lived out in concrete action. But we really haven’t much of a clue about what values are actually being embodied and passed on by the great and not-so-great colleges and universities. So if you start with some values that sound good and about which you needn’t be specific, and which no one is going to measure, you have an unbeatable combination—at least for public consumption. Like a brand name outfit.
But if you check the list in the passage for today’s meditation, you will note that each item describes the quality of relationships between persons: “compassion, kindness, humility, meekness . . . patience,” forbearance, forgiveness, “love,” and thankfulness. The good news is that you need not select and commit to any set of values. You have been embraced by a concrete person—Jesus Christ—who will be your guide as you go.
Prayer: Let me wear my finest “clothes” every day and let them shine so they are visible. Amen.
24 – Gimme That Full-Time Religion
Colossians 3:16–17 — (16) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. (17) And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
You are in a hurry, in every way: to get to class, to get a date, to finish college, to own a boat! So is everyone else. In a hurry. Your professors, classmates, everybody driving on Main St. There is so much to do. And you would like some time off, just to relax, just for yourself. The nostalgic view of a typical college prof’s office is one in which the shelves are filled with books, the desk piled high with papers cascading off onto comfy chairs occupying what little floor space is not littered with more books. It suggests that learning is a leisurely enterprise. A more recent, up-tempo view might show a full-time student, hurrying to her full-time job with a quick stop to attend to her full-time family. The old-fashioned, Hollywood vision of college may be losing ground to a newer picture of learning as a hi-tech process in which a rich array of electronic devices operate under fingertip control by the instructor who arrives hurriedly just in time to throw the master switch from a sterile office cubicle shared with some graduate students.
Just if it weren’t getting too crazy, here comes Paul exhorting (suggesting? commanding?) Christians to “teach and admonish one another.” You’ve got to be kidding! Isn’t there already too much work—getting ready for class especially—to have to think about helping other Christians improve their “wisdom”? (You may not have thought college would be a vacation, but nobody seriously promised you that added responsibility.) For Christians, college is a gift intended to keep on giving—and demanding even more! This is a call to a rigorous and mutually up-building free-for-all in the context of the Christian’s life with no holds barred. There is no limit on the toughness of the intellectual wrestling. The program Paul proposes to the intellectually curious in Colossae is one that is tough in terms of intellectual discipline. Criticism within the context of friendship depends on active participation of all members of the community in mutual correction of one another—in love, of course. Are you up for it?
Prayer: Let me instruct others gently and let me receive admonishing thankfully. Amen.
25 – What about Those Family Values?
Colossians 3:18–21 — (18) Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. (19) Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly. (20) Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord. (21) Fathers, do not provoke your children, or they may lose heart.
You have a “job description” to follow. It is in your course syllabi and school catalogue. These “position descriptions” govern your place and are used to evaluate you and are always derived from secular (worldly) sources.
Paul’s inclusion of what biblical scholars call “household orders” is instructive since it acknowledges that Christians have the same mutual relationships and obligations everyone else has. Christian freedom doesn’t cancel worldly relationships and obligations. On the contrary, it gives you opportunity to let God transform your secular job description into one serviceable for a servant of Christ, applicable at work, study, and play.
The relationships given the most attention in Paul’s list are the up-to-down ones—husband, father, master. These are the ones that require the most caution because they are the most powerful and therefore most likely to abuse. The lists of household arrangements incorporated into the New Testament (also found in 1 Peter and Ephesians) are taken from pagan and Jewish sources and are given a Christian “spin”; for example, Jesus Christ is to be present in every relationship. Even though Christians now see themselves in new, fictive families, the social and biological family is still a reality for them. Paul wanted you to know that despite the revolutionary character of the new faith, Christians were not primarily here to tear things down.
The practice of Christians loving one another while they find themselves on the bottom end of an unequal relationship is the issue here. Is it possible to live according to Christ at the down end of an up-down relationship as well as at the up end? Paul pushed the envelope in mentioning women first. And even children! They were almost never mentioned in the pagan lists. Paul, however, addresses children as moral agents in their own right. Each person in any relationship deserves an appropriate response from the other; each stands in need of God in Christ.
Prayer: Help me to see Jesus in every relationship and to do each task in Christ. Amen.
26 – Living on the Margin
Colossians 3:22—4:1 — (22) Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only while being watched and in order to please them, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. (23) Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters, (24) since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ. (25) For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong has been done, and there is no partiality. (4:1) Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, for you know that you also have a Master in Heaven.
It is easy to get annoyed at Christianity in general and the Bible in particular for not having more of a social conscience and a clearer program of social reform. That annoyance is particularly present when you read this passage about slaves. But the goal of Christians in the New Testament was forgiveness and love, not social change. Paul recognized that regardless of one’s legal status as slave or free, everyone answered to someone in more authority. We are all “slaves,” serving and answering to one or more masters.
The question this passage raises for you is: how do you live in a setting defined by hierarchies and up/down responsibilities. You live “in” but not “by” or “of” the world. Your relationship to Jesus and your existence in a new kingdom may trump but does not eliminate your life in this world.
As a college student you are definitely in the “down” end of most of your defining relationships: subject to college rules and regulations and responsible to your professors to do your school work.
But the body of Christ (the church) is truly a new kind of community. While members may still live in their biological/legal families, your Christian commitment, your transfer to the fictive family of Christians (a newly invented and established family in Christ), and your “re-citizenization” into the kingdom of light combine to provide a powerful framework in which you will be able to meet the challenges of both those relationships in which you have responsibilities of obedience (the “slave” ones) and those in which you are in charge (the “master” ones).
Prayer: May I serve you in all things whether I’m the boss or the grunt worker. Amen.
27 – Alert!
Colossians 4:2 — (2) Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.
When boarding an airplane do you ever glance into the cockpit and hope that the captain knows about each dial and lever and will be alert to each during the flight? Even those of us who live in less technically demanding environments need to be alert: Are there batteries in the smoke detector? Money in the checking account? What chapters were assigned for the test? Why is there need to be alert as a Christian? Shouldn’t you be able to relax in the knowledge that Christ has redeemed you and is taking care of everything?
There are a number of similarities between the Christians in Colossae in 65 CE and Christians today that makes “keeping alert” important. First, the Colossian Christians were expecting the impending return of Christ and the final moment of existence on earth. I remember Claudio, a dear teacher who took his faith very seriously. He expected Christ to return “on the clouds” (1 Thess 4:17). On clear days, he would move freely around the classroom, but on cloudy ones he hung out near the window, frequently glancing out, just in case Christ should come in on one of those clouds. Today, many Christians expect the imminent return of Christ; others, processing that expectation differently, see the existential arrival of Christ in one’s life to be right now, this very moment. “Now” is always the moment to be alert (and prayerfully thankful). Second, now as then you need to be alert to false teaching. After all, that is what this letter is about (and you are in college where you are constantly exposed to teaching—some of which could be false). Third, now as then, you need to be ready for the opportunity to grow in the faith and to be kind to others. Fourth, you need to be alert to the kinds of danger that put Paul in jail. Granted, in Colossians there does not seem to be the critical peril for Christians spoken of in 1 Peter or the book of Revelation, but Paul wasn’t in jail for failing to pay a parking ticket. There was much in the Christian message that was considered unpatriotic, antisocial, and irreligious. (Do you ever wonder whether Christianity shouldn’t still be illegal?) Fifth, you need to be alert in walking the difficult line between life in Christ and life in the world. There’s a lot going on. No wonder you need to be alert. Prayer can help you calm down and focus.
Prayer: I feel surrounded by threats and opportunities; keep me alert to which is which. Amen.
28 – When Opportunity Knocks
Colossians 4:3–4 — (3) At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison, (4) so that I may reveal it clearly, as I should.
Opportunity knocks? What an interesting image. It pictures you behind a closed door, waiting. Like sitting in jail with an indeterminate sentence. There is no suggestion that you can do anything to bring about the arrival of the one who will knock. The implication is that you have the choice to be prepared to respond or not. If you are prepared, are you on the same page as Paul—prepared for some specific opportunity, some already-chosen commitment to which you have given yourself wholeheartedly? And are you really ready when that “knock” comes? Are your college studies focused on being ready?
Paul was in jail, probably because of his activities as a Christian travelling around the Mediterranean world tending to the new Christian groups that he had founded. What exactly does Paul want to knock on that door? Is it release from prison? You would think so, but he doesn’t say that. Rather, his concern is to get that opportunity—that break—that will allow him to keep on doing what got him in jail in the first place! He wants to tell people—and tell them as clearly as possible—about the total sufficiency of Christ in providing all that they need.
The mystery of Christ is an amazing gift that you can take into your college experience. One way to look at it is in terms of the powerful promise that Christ can finally explain all the mysteries that there are. Another way to look at it is to experience Christ’s immense reconciling power personally in your own life and relationships. Remember, the “mystery” here is the total sufficiency of Christ alone.
In the face of what you learn in college you can wind up feeling rather insignificant; yet in Christ you are given significance, importance and uniqueness. Perhaps you are not the audacious bring-everyone-to-perfection go-getter that Paul was. But you have many wonderful opportunities to explore how “the mystery of Christ” meets you in your studies and experiences in college.
Prayer: Let me hear the prayers of others if they are prayers that I can answer. Amen.
29 – Carpe Diem
Colossians 4:5–6 — (5) Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. (6) Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.
We desire efficiency. Efficiency is the maximizing of some input while other inputs are allowed to (relatively speaking) diminish. And here you are, a student, involved in one of the most inefficient enterprises one could imagine: education. Your course of study and your individual classes involve you in a lot of effort that seems unnecessary. Art survey courses are taught to future accountants, algebra to future nutritionists, physics to future English teachers. Students often wonder why they need a literature class when they are destined for a business career or a first aid class when their interests are in computer science. It all seems so inefficient. We waste the sophisticated knowledge of the art historian trying to get an accountant to grasp the difference between Manet and Monet; the art specialist spends forty-five hours a semester with those who are not artists. The student and teacher are “outsiders” to one another. You are called to efficiency—that is, to “making the most of the time.” Okay, you say, you’re all for efficiency.
Then Paul unpacks it for you. You are to be helpful to . . . “outsiders,” those beyond your comfort zone. And you are to “conduct yourself wisely toward” them and “let your speech always be gracious.” That is beginning to sound not only inefficient and time-consuming, but downright demanding with all of those qualifications. But after all, isn’t one purpose of college to bring a whole lot of “outsiders” together, and communicating, and learning from each other? And in the end, isn’t the family of Christians a bit like that also?
A really good college experience will cause interruption after interruption in your otherwise-settled life. Jesus was constantly interrupted by “outsiders.” Indeed, his “thing” was precisely to be available to “outsiders.” To the extent that you live as a Christian, you live for others. Working and studying at the boundaries where Christians live, you have great opportunities to interact with “outsiders” and to use your time well. Time is God’s gift. What are you hoarding it for? Remember—sometimes you feel like an “outsider.” Jesus was definitely an “outsider.” He came to embrace the “outsiders.” Is there an “outsider” you need to embrace today?
Prayer: Please let me use the time well and say and do the right thing, remembering I was once an outsider. Amen.
30 – With a Little Help from My Friends
Colossians 4:7–15 — (7) Tychicus will tell you all the news about me; he is a beloved brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant in the Lord. (8) I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts; (9) he is coming with Onesimus, the faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you about everything here. (10) Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, as does Mark the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions—if he comes to you, welcome him. (11) And Jesus who is called Justus greets you. These are the only ones of the circumcision among my co-workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. (12) Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you. He is always wrestling in his prayers on your behalf, so that you may stand mature and fully assured in everything that God wills. (13) For I testify for him that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. (14) Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you. (15) Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters in Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.
One of the great things about the college experience is meeting new people. Some can be extraordinarily weird—subjects of stories you will tell in years to come. Some can challenge with their ideas and lifestyles. Others become dear and lifelong friends.
Paul mentioned ten persons by name and each was recognized for their special gifts or character. The persons mentioned were a motley group, representing the full gamut of social, religious, ethnic, and gender possibilities: Jews and gentiles; free and prisoners; locals and foreigners; male and female; and (probably) educated and uneducated. The mention of all these persons shows the variety found in the early church. Paul expected them all to know the will of God, come to an orderly and firm faith (2:5), understand the grace of God (1:6), be filled with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding (1:9), embrace Christ as the epistemological center of the cosmos (1:17), set their minds on things above (3:2), put on a new nature (3:10) and in all things love and be thankful.
The community, the body of Christ, within which you live and love is characterized by a rich variety of individuals, connected in Christ. That’s how it started and that’s how it is now.
Prayer: Thanks to God for giving us the solid connections to others in Christ. Amen.
31 – . . . Ends with a Bang, Not a Whimper
Colossians 4:16–18 — (16) And when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you read also the letter from Laodicea. (17) And say to Archippus, “See that you complete the task that you have received in the Lord.” (18) I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.
Putting your education into practice; that is “where the rubber meets the road.” In olden times, education or training for a vocation was often conducted in an apprenticeship. Then schooling went indoors, into the classroom and library. In the last few decades it has come out again and moved, in part, from College Hill to Main Street in the form of work-study, practica, and field experiences.
Paul ends this letter with a bang! Instead of winding down the letter with a “sincerely yours,” he speak harshly to someone named Archippus: “Do your assigned job!” Normally that might not be problematic, especially if “the task that you have received in the Lord” was either an easy one (visit the sick, raise a collection) or one known only to Paul and Archippus. However, it is possible that this task was both difficult and controversial.
In trying to answer the question, “What task?,” one scholar offers an intriguing possibility. It rests on the probability that there is a close connection between this letter and the briefest of all Paul’s letters, Philemon. [Take a minute to read it. The gist of it is that Paul wants Philemon, another of Paul’s good friends, who lived in Colossae and owned a slave named Onesimus, to free this slave so that the freed slave could help Paul in his missionary work.]
The suggestion is that Archippus’s task was the freeing of Onesimus and that Paul did not spell it out in Colossians because Archippus knew well enough what it was already from reading the letter to Philemon (Phlm 1–2). Explicit mention of such an assignment in a letter to be read publicly would be unnecessary. Archippus knew the assignment. It was crunch time for him.
More to the point, what is “the task that you have received in the Lord”? Whatever it might be, you may be confident knowing that Christ is all in all and that you live in the hope that is solidly laid up as your inheritance with God.
Prayer: Lord, grant me wisdom and strength to know and to do the tasks you have assigned to me. Amen.
