Monday, August 23, 2010
Colossians 1:10-12 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
A THANKFUL SONG
Paul had never met the people of Colosse. He wasn't the one who first shared the message of Christ with them. But Paul wrote a letter to them anyway, because he was overjoyed that the Good News had found them.
In the first chapter of his letter, Paul tells the Colossian Christians that he is thankful that the Good News had found another people in which to grow. He tells them that he is thankful that they had been expressing genuine love for their fellow Christians. And Paul tells them that he wants them to be filled with the same kind of thankfulness that he was filled with.
Now here's the thing about thankfulness: you can only be thankful for what you already have. What did they already have? Forgiveness.
Paul opens his letter to the Colossians by calling them "saints" or "holy ones." They were sinless before God through their simple trust in the sinless Son of God. They had been preapproved to inherit heaven (1:12). They had been transferred from the "kingdom of darkness" to the "kingdom of light" (1:13). They had redemption, the forgiveness of sins (1:14).
Forgiveness wasn't something God was holding out in front of them like a carrot, it was something he had placed in their pocket. Something to be happy about, something to give thanks for. Throughout the song of Colossians, Paul returns to that simple, but intensely liberating chord: you have peace with God through Jesus Christ.
