Today's passage: Colossians 4:7-18

Helpful thoughts:

• The Body of Christ is full of relationships!  People were coming and going back and forth to the churches and with the Apostle Paul.  Some of them were headed toward restoration (Onesimus and Mark – Philemon 1:10-16, Acts 15:39).  Others would later prove unfaithful (Demas – 2 Timothy 4:10).
• All of these people mattered and all of them had a role to play in the churches (Verse 17).
• Paul took up the writing utensil to sign this letter at the end, showing he was genuinely the author.

Questions to consider:

1. In what way did Epaphras struggle on behalf of the Colossian church (Verse 12)?  Why is prayer such an important part of our “struggling” as a church?
2. What can this list of people remind us of concerning the church?  What is church really all about?  Who is the church?  What is the purpose of the property, the building, the programs?  What are they here to do and be used for?
3. Who could you encourage today with a “greeting”?  How could you “fulfill the ministry you have received” from God's Word as an active member of the Body of Christ?

Today's passage: Colossians 4:2-6

Helpful thoughts:

• Paul calls on Christians to continually, steadfastly pray:
  • With thanksgiving.
  • Toward the clear presentation of the gospel to the lost.
• Clarity in communicating the gospel is not an impossible task, it is what “ought” to be done.
  • Difficulty in clarity is not found in the content of the gospel, but in the spiritual battle to overcome our own fears to share it.
• “Outsiders” are those who do not believe, those outside the church.  Before unbelievers, we are to walk and talk in wisdom, with gracious and seasoned speech.  They are the mission field.

Questions to consider:

1. What thoughts and beliefs result in a life of steadfast and continual prayer?  What does a lack of prayer reveal about a person's thinking?
2. What is the gospel?  For whom can you pray as they share it with others?  With whom could you be praying and preparing to share it?
3. When we are harsh or mocking toward unbelievers who act in unbelieving ways, what are we forgetting (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)?  How does remembering where we've come from why we are saved and growing help us to stay humble and more likely to share our faith with others?

Today's passage: Colossians 3:18-4:1

Helpful thoughts:

• The list of characteristics Christians “put on” as we grow in Christ continues in today's passage.
• The typical practice of the Roman culture was for men to be domineering over their wives and for the wives to simply obey.  The Bible teaches submission, but not under a domineering hateful husband.  Wives are not slaves.  We are all made in the image of God.  Husbands, love your wives.
• The Apostle Paul did not commend slavery, but he did give instruction to Christians in how to conduct themselves within that present social system.  When Christians operated with dignity and respect within the system, it would have served to upend the system.
  • Because this is true, what we read in this passage can be just as applicable to modern day employer-employee relationships.

Questions to consider:

1. When we think of relationships and authority, what is it about those things that causes us to grieve, fear, recoil, etc.?  What do we know will eventually happen with (or be done by) the people who are in charge?  Why do we know that all in authority will eventually do something wrong?  What is their nature?
2. Why doesn't this knowledge of the failure of those in authority completely eliminate the need, or the command, or the rightful place of authority and structure in the world?  Why do you think God still instructs us to lead and be led in different relationships?
3. When we lead or when we are being led, who are we serving?  How does thinking about leading and being led through the grid of love and through the grid of service to the Lord change our thinking and tendency to protect self?

Today's passage: Colossians 3:12-17

Helpful thoughts:

• In the previous verses, Paul exhorted the reader to “put off the old man.”  Now we read about what comes next, putting on the new.
  • The list of characteristics given give a well-rounded picture of the growing Christian life.
• We forgive because the Lord has forgiven us.  When we think of our offense as created beings before our holy Creator, it gives a proper perspective to the sins of one person against another.
• When the Word of Christ dwells in us richly, it comes out of us in various ways.
  • When we sing songs together in our services, we are giving worship to God and ministering to one another!  Sing your heart out!  Your brothers and sisters in Christ need to hear you sing the Words of Christ.

Questions to consider:

1. How does becoming a follower of Christ change our identity and our goals?  How should we look at our identity in light of being united together with the body (Verse 15)?
2. Which characteristics stuck out the most to you and why?  How have you seen yourself and/or others growing in these areas?  How would you like to grow?  For what can you thank the Lord?
3. In what way does verse 17 wrap up anything else the passage may have “missed?”  What area of our lives is out of the realm of God's sovereignty?  How can you do everything/anything you do to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31)?

Today's passage: Colossians 3:5-11

Helpful thoughts:

• Because of who we are in Christ, and because of the glory we are guaranteed in eternity, it is only right that we change and grow to become more like him.  This is progressive sanctification.  We put off the “old self” and put on the “new self.”
• The process of putting on the new self begins with “being renewed in knowledge.”
  • We do what we do because we want what we want.
  • We want what we want because we think what we think.
    • Right knowledge comes through hearing and seeing truth (The Word of God).
• No matter what is true of us in this world, for all those who put their faith in Christ, your primary identity is that you are in Christ.

Questions to consider:

1. How does remembering we have an “old self” to put off keep us humble when we look at others in the world?  Are we better than anyone else?  What do the lost need?  What can we tell them?
2. Of all the people in the world, who are your brothers and sisters?  Who is closest to you, regardless of the color of their skin, their background, their economic status, their address, etc.?
3. What does it mean to “put to death what is earthly in you”?  Did anything in the list of earthly, sinful actions stick out?  How can you make progress in putting it to death and putting on the “new self”?

Today's passage: Colossians 3:1-4

Helpful thoughts:

• The focus of the false teachers was on the self and in the physical and temporary.  Christians keep our eyes up on Christ and eternity!
• Christ is presently at the right hand of God the Father.  This is a position of authority and where Christ makes intercession for us (Romans 8:34).  No other teacher or leader in the church could ever come close to the authority and access of Jesus.  Look to Jesus.
• When Paul writes, “your life is hidden,” he refers to the safety and security we have in Christ.  Jesus is our shelter, our protection, our sin is covered by his blood.
  • He is our authority, our access to God, and our safety.

Questions to consider:

1. Why is it best for us as a church to never tire of making much of Jesus?  Why is he the greatest thing we could think about, talk about, preach about, sing about, etc.?
2. How does focusing on Jesus and his gospel rightly shape who we are what we are to do as Christians and as the church?
3. What is the promise given to us in verse 4?  What will be true of us forevermore when Christ returns?

Today's passage: Colossians 2:20-23

Helpful thoughts:

• The “elemental spirits of the world” simply refers to the basic principles of life or the worldviews held by the cultures of the world.
• If a person abstains from things or participates in them, for the purpose of self-achieved righteousness and salvation, both are indulgences to the flesh.
  • A person who abstains from all things for the purpose of feeling super religious, they get their reward…which is nothing more than to feel super religious.  But they have not saved their soul.
• Those who have “died with Christ” (Who are truly saved) understand our righteousness is found in Christ alone.  We are saved by grace, through faith, in Christ alone.

Questions to consider:

1. When we add other rules or forbid certain actions to ensure our salvation, who will our confidence eventually be placed in for our security?   When those rules and actions are not found in the Bible (Which they aren't) to whom do we go to learn them?  How careful must we be to base our faith on Scripture alone?
2. In what way can withholding or abstaining from certain things become just as much of an indulgence of the flesh as participating or consuming them?  Why/How are both contrary to the gospel?
3. Why then do we refrain from certain actions or activities?  Why do we seek to do what is right and refrain from doing what is wrong?  What is our right motivation to pursue righteousness?

Today's passage: Colossians 2:16-19

Helpful thoughts:

• The list of things people might try to pass judgments over were things false teachers were trying to add to what Jesus already fully accomplished for us at the cross.
  • Jesus + anything is not the gospel!
    • This would be the true definition of legalism.  Adding laws as extra burdens on people to make them “earn” their salvation.
• Asceticism is severe self-discipline.  This would have referred to forms of extreme fasting for spiritual “illumination” and “vision.”
• In Christ, in the gospel, in the Word of God, we (the church) have everything we need to be healthy and growing!  Don't settle for less!

Questions to consider:

1. What kinds of various things were people trying to add to the gospel which Paul listed in this passage?  Which ones sound similar to what people might do in our culture today?  Which ones sound very different (Strange even)?  Why?
2. What is the root motive and desire behind all of these additions to the gospel and Christ (see the end of verse 18)?  Who is man trying to promote and appease when we altar the faith or create different forms of religion?  Why is that so sinful and destructive?
3. What would be some traditions and practices our church has that are not directly biblical (Not that they're bad, just not biblically mandated), that if we were to make it more important to our existence and life than it is, they would become legalistic and detrimental to our growth and health?

Today's passage: Colossians 2:9-15

Helpful thoughts:

• Jesus is fully God and fully man.
  • He is not 50% God and 50% man.
  • He is not 200% of a being. (100% God + 100% man)
  • He is fully God and fully man.
• Because Christ is in us and we are in Him (“you have been filled in him.”) there is nothing else we could possibly need!  If you have Jesus, you have everything.
• There are two illustrations in this passage:
  • Circumcision – OT Circumcision was a cutting off of the flesh which pictured whose the people were.  This illustration of circumcision points to the cutting off of “the flesh” (Meaning, the “old self,” or our sinful past, being slaves to sin).
  • Baptism – When the person is immersed, there is a picture of our “old self” dying and then being raised to new life (Romans 6:4).

Questions to consider:

1. In what ways is Jesus better than anything else we could want in this life?
2. What is the main point of the illustrations of circumcision and baptism in this passage?  What was the single point Paul was making with both illustrations?
3. How was our sin debt canceled?  Why have we been forgiven?  What did Christ do for us?

Today's passage: Colossians 2:6-8

Helpful thoughts:

• We received Jesus by grace through faith.  We walk in Him by grace through faith.
  • Knowing this and seeing the results of God's continued kindness to us results in thanksgiving!  He gets the glory and praise.
• To understand what it means to be taken “captive,” imagine a pirate ship catching up to you and boarding your boat, then stealing all of your possessions.  They took control of your ship, stopped your progress and took all that you had accumulated.
• The word translated as “spirits” can also be translated as “principles.”  Paul is warning the church to not adhere to the world's view of life, to maintain a distinctively biblical worldview.

Questions to consider:

1. Who is Jesus to you?  What word did Paul emphasize in verse 6?  Why is it important we acknowledge Jesus in this way?
2. In what ways do the “pirates” take us captive?  What are the means Paul mentions in verse 8 of being taken?
3. How do the common worldviews of today contrast and disagree with what the Bible teaches?  How does salvation by grace through faith, sanctification by grace through faith, and Jesus as Lord compare to a culture of self-help, self-esteem and self-empowerment?  Why is the biblical worldview so freeing?