Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ (Colossians 2: 4 -5)
The new Christians in Colosse were doing well but were also having serious problems. And their main problem was people who wanted to talk them off the faith in Christ. These people were the Jews who followed Judaism, and they come with persuasive words, arguments and speech that sound reasonable and plausible but were not based on truth and the whole counsel of the scriptures. Thus they misled people and turned them away from the faith in Christ.
And Paul, after receiving the news from Missioner Epaphras, wanted to prevent that. So he reminded these new Christians of what they should watch out for.
The gospel they have received has produced in them, which should also produce in us, and in anyone who is receiving the true gospel teachings:
- a good order - in other words, a good orderly life. The Weymouth translation puts it this way: a good discipline life. These Gentiles and Jewish converts began to have a life that was orderly, discipline and godly, uncommon in their time, and all as a result of the fruit produced from good teachings of the gospel of Christ.
- steadfastness of faith - in other words, the solid faith, or firmness of faith in Christ, which was rooted in the finished works of Christ on the cross.
And Paul said, he rejoiced to see or witness that among these new Christians.
I am wondering what would the Lord Jesus rejoice to see and witness in your life as a Christian (I didn't even know for how long you have been a Christian or have been going to church. That should be telling and revealing to you). Will He find an orderly, discipline and godly life produced by the grace of God and the truth of the gospel? Will the Lord find a firm, solid faith in Him? Or just a label of your church denomination, or the armband and the sticker of your church?
Don't be deceived and be misled. If Apostle Paul looked for these fruits in the early Christians as he went about preaching the gospel and planting churches, including those he did not plant himself, then the Lord Jesus also looks for the same in your life and my life, because He is the One who commissioned Paul for that work.
Let the gospel of Christ work in your life from today, as it worked in the Colossian Christians.
May you from today begin to examine your life and faith in Christ and may the Lord help you come out of deception of our time. And may He cause you to receive true teachings which will produce true gospel fruits in your life for God to rejoice over you in Jesus name. Amen
Shalom, life and grace to you
Moving people unto God's purposes
