Word of Encouragement (6/4/2021)

Today, let’s reflect on Paul’s prayer in Col. 1:3-5a: “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven....”

This is a prayer of thanksgiving. In it, Paul gives thanks to God for the Colossians’ faith in Jesus Christ and love for all the saints. What is unique about this prayer is Paul’s relationship with them. Paul did not plant the church at Colossae. So, he says, “we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus....” He had never seen them or interacted with them in person; he only heard about them. Yet, we are impressed by his love and affection for them.

We are told that Paul prayed for them. He planted many churches. He could not stay at one church for long because he was commissioned as a missionary by the Lord and the church at Antioch (Acts 13:1ff). His three-year stay at the church in Ephesus might have been the longest. But while he could not physically be with the dear believers, who came to know Jesus Christ through his ministry, his heart was with them. We see the evidence of this in his letters to various churches: Paul tells them how he remembered them in his prayers.

But we learn in today’s passage that Paul did not do this just for the churches he planted himself. Obviously, he had a special affection for them because they came to know Christ through his ministry. So, they were like his sons and daughters to him, spiritually speaking. But he was not interested in creating his own empire within Christendom with “his” people. In fact, he rebuked the Corinthians for that kind of schismatic, partisan spirit: “...each one of you says, ‘I follow Paul,’ or ‘I follow Apollos,’ or ‘I follow Cephas,’ or ‘I follow Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul” (1 Cor. 1:12-13)? He cared about all Christians because they were all loved and cherished by Christ.

Paul gave thanks to God for the Colossians’ faith in Jesus Christ. He thanked God for their faith because it is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8). And he thanked God for their faith. You see, the Colossian church was made up mainly of Gentile Christians. Paul never ceased to marvel at the grace God had begun to show to the Gentiles in the flesh under the new covenant in Jesus Christ.

Paul gave thanks to God also for their love for all the saints. We can see an important connection between our faith in Jesus Christ and our love for all the saints. The Colossians’ faith was expressed in their love for all the saints as Paul had love not only for the churches that he planted but also for the churches others had planted.

We are also told that their love for all the saints was grounded in their hope of heaven. If their love was grounded in earthly-mindedness, it was bound to be twisted by jealousy and rivalry and degenerate into favoritism and tribalism. But not so if it is grounded in heaven, where God’s people from every tribe and language and people and nation are joined together as one people, redeemed of the Lord.

Here, we see a beautiful harmony between faith, love, and hope. Let us pray for one another that we, too, may be characterized by faith in Jesus Christ, love for all the saints, and hope of heaven!

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