Summary of Colossians 1:3-8

In case you missed last week, here is a rough summary outline of Colossians 1:3-8:

1-2 “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother; To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.”

Paul likely hasn’t met the Colossians (2:1), so he begins by establising his credentials. Paul is a “sent one”, not by his own intitiative, but God’s will.

3 “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you”

Verses 3 through 8 are one long sentence in the Greek. The main idea of the passage is in verse 3, “We thank God when we pray for you.”

Four observations from verse 3:

1) The thanksgiving is corporate (“we thank God”)
2) The prayer is corporate (”when we pray for you”). Corporate prayer fosters corporate thanksgiving.
3) Paul’s thanksgiving is to God. For Paul, thanskgiving is nearly always vertical (to God) rather than horizontal (to people). This is not typical of our thanksgiving.
4) Paul’s thanksgiving is specifically to God, “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. This phrasing is unusual. Paul’s purpose in this phrasing is to highlight that it is the Son who reveals the Father. (1:15)

4 “since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints”

Paul gives two reasons why he is thankful to God for the church in Colossae.

#1) For their faith in Christ Jesus. Notice that their faith is public (Paul heard of their faith). All true faith is public.

In the Greek, the preposition used for “in” (“in Christ Jesus”) is interesting. Sometimes the Greek word “epi” (transliterated) is used as in Acts 16:31 (“believe in the Lord Jesus”). The idea is to rest of a foundation. Sometimes the Greek word “eis” is used s in Acts 20:21. The idea is to go into, or find dwelling within. In verse 4 the Greek preposition is “en” with the idea of coming to a place of security, or being anchored to Christ. This must have been tremendously comforting to Paul and reassuring to the Colossians as they faced a heresy threatening to delude the church (2:4).

#2) For their love for all the saints. Notice that, once again, their love is a public love. It is also a big love; they love all the saints.

5 “because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.”

The reason for their love for the saints is because of the hope they had in heaven. The hope referred to here is not like the hope we usually talk about in every day language. Unlike “common hope”, this hope is a confident assurance about good things to happen. Whatever else this hope includes, it is centered on Jesus (1:27).

Hope motivates their love. Illustrations on how this works practically are in Hebrews 11 and 13, Luke 14:12-14, and Hebrews 12:1-2. Their hope was filled with heavenly-mindedness. We considered strategies for living by hope and bending it out horizontally through public loving acts.

5-6 “Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth”

This hope originated in the word of truth, the gospel. Therefore, faith comes from hearing from the word of truth (Romans 10:17) and so too, hope comes from hearing the word of truth. The connection between faith and hope is that where faith focuses to the future, it is called hope. Faith is the larger term encompassing hope. Where there is biblical hope, there is biblical faith, and vice versa. Therefore, it would be accurate to say that we are saved by grace through faith and saved by grace through hope. (John Piper’s sermons helped us sort through this issue).

7-8 “just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.”

Epaphras lived out the truth that biblical hope relied upon produces loving acts.