Christ in you (Col. 1:24-2:7)

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Colossians 1:24-2:7


"...Christ in you, the hope of glory..."
(Colossians 1:27)


Paul says he suffers and he struggles (1:24,29; 2:1) as a minister and a steward of the good news, the mystery and wisdom of God now revealed in and through Jesus.

Amazingly, the mystery and wisdom of God, is summed up in this: the Messiah is in you, he is among you, and this is a sure hope of glory. So love one another, be knit together in his love so that this mystery which is in you might be manifest among you.

At the outset of this letter Paul prays that they might be "filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding..." (1:9). All spiritual wisdom he says now is revealed in Christ, who has reconciled us through his blood (1:20) and who even now holds all things together (1:17). His prayer for them to know God's will included that they would "walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work..." (1:10).

And so again here in 2:6-7, after declaring the reality of Christ in you, the hope of glory, and the revelation of the mystery and wisdom of God, he says

"therefore, as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught..."

Live it out, walk it out - Christ in you, the hope of glory, is not some pie in the sky, navel gazing, feel good emotional experience just for me and Jesus. Being rooted in him evokes all this imagery - dirt, dust, humus - humility, dependence, root and trunk and branch and fruit, firm and secure. It's very daily, very pedestrian, very here and now on the path I'm walking. Christ in us ought to be manifest in a life worthy of the Lord, in good works. Knowing and experiencing the wisdom of God in Christ is not some esoteric thing, or just for me to contemplate in my easy chair in my library, it's supposed to include my feet getting dirty as I walk it out.

Rootedness and bearing fruit... the goal is indeed maturity and all that maturity brings.

"Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ, for this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me." (2:28-29)