Note: the following is the manuscript for the message and will not match exactly the recorded message above.
There are two main sections in this passage. The first is a succinct call to put faith into action. Devote yourself to prayer, proclaim the Gospel, persevere until Christ returns.
The second section is a smattering of greetings. 11 names are listed, plus the mention of a couple different locations. It’s notable because of how interconnected and interdependent the early church became.
We will look at that a bit more later. I want to start by looking at the three points of action in the first few verses.
Faith in Action
There is both a communal and an individual call in this section of the letter. Whatever we do as followers of Jesus, we will do it better in community.
We have individual responsibility, but we depend on one another because we will all face times when prayer, proclamation and perseverance seems impossible.
So, as I talk about these three activities of the faith, be thinking about how your life is shaped by them and how you can depend on one another as you put this into practice.
The call here is not just to spend a moment in prayer for Paul and his companions as they seek to bring the Gospel to the world.
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. This is a call to approach all of life with a prayerful posture, seeing all things as connected to our faith in Christ.
This is not the sort of prayer that only includes presenting your personal wishes to God. It is a way of participating in what God is doing in our homes, workplaces, community, and around the world.
Recall the beginning of this letter, where Paul writes his initial greetings. He said that he and Timothy pray continuously for the Colossian church.
I expect not many of you will remember this sermon from October 22, which was from Colossians 1:9-12. I wrote a paraphrase of this section of the letter, which I want to read to you again, as it is directly connected to Paul’s call to action at the end of the letter.
We know that your church has received and understood the gospel message which brings eternal hope. Because you have responded to that hope by trusting in God through faith, and are loving each other well, we are praying for you as a church family constantly.
We are asking God to fill you individually and collectively as a church with knowledge of his will for your life together as followers of Jesus. We are praying that God will provide your church with wisdom and understanding of the spiritual forces at work among you so that you will be able to discern what is true and untrue.
We pray that your life together, how you love and care for one another, will demonstrate the character of God, showing that everything you do depends on his power and wisdom.
As you depend on God together, your church will be able to joyfully endure the challenges of trying to be a family made up of all sorts of different people who would not normally find themselves in each other’s company.
We pray that you will support one another through all of life’s ups and downs, knowing that in doing so you will be an example of how God empowers his people to remain faithful.
We pray that, as you remind each other of all the blessings of God available to you as his adopted children, that your gratitude will overflow and be contagious, causing your light to shine brightly in your community.
Note the similarities to 4:2-6. As Paul prayed for the church, he is also calling them to prayer, with hearts of gratitude and lives that proclaim Christ.
The Christian faith is not a one-time agreement to believe in Jesus. It is not just salvation from hell. Faith in Jesus is a life-transforming devotion to him. There is not one area of your life that is untouched.
If you have attempted to live in this way, to devote your entire life to the way of Jesus, you will know it is not easy. Perseverance is defined this way: persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.
If it is easy and instant, it does not require perseverance. The very meaning of perseverance includes difficulty and delay.
In your journey of following Jesus, you will face times when it seems hopeless. Lean into those times in prayer. Allow the proclamation of God’s truth to sink into your dry bones and give them life.
There will also be times when you are closer to God than you’ve ever been and you wonder why others aren’t there with you. Share your experience of God’s goodness with grace and wisdom.
Faith in action does not mean you will be perfect. We pray, proclaim, and persevere through the struggle. Not only individually, but together.
This brings us to a bit of an interesting transition to this next section of the letter. It doesn’t seem all that preachable. But I’m going to try.
Individually Together
It is a unique characteristic of the Bible compared to other ancient literature, to have so many individuals named. This is a constant feature throughout all of Scripture.
In this letter, we see 11 names listed. These 11 people are an unlikely bunch, gathered together in a united effort to support Paul.
Tychicus is the one who carried this letter, and the letter we call Philemon, to the Colossian church. He will also provide an update on how Paul is doing in prison. In Acts 20:4 we read about a man named Tychicus who accompanied Paul on a missionary journey to what is now northern Greece. He is believed to possibly be a convert of Paul’s from Ephesus and a trusted coworker in the Paul’s efforts to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles.
Onesimus is a runaway slave who is being sent back to his master by Paul with hopes of forgiveness, reconciliation, and a welcome into the Colossian church family. We will get to know him better in the next two weeks as we look at the letter to Philemon.
Artistarchus, Mark (probably John Mark who is the author of the Gospel of Mark), Epaphras (who was mentioned at the beginning of the letter), Luke (the author of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts), and Demas are all mentioned also in Philemon and are Paul’s coworkers. This is a mix of Jews and non-Jews who converted to Christianity. We see some of their names in other parts of the New Testament.
There is a man named Jesus, which is a common Jewish name, so they also refer to him as Justus, which is a common Roman name. We know nothing more about him.
Seeing this list of name together, along with Paul’s comment in verse 11 “these are the only Jews among my co-workers” should tell us that Jesus is inviting all people to work together regardless of their cultural or religious background.
Nympha is a woman who owns a house in which a church gathers. Now I want to pause here and acknowledge that if you are reading this in the King James or New King James Version, you will see this individual identified not as a woman but a man. It says, “Nymphas and the church that is in his house.”
The reason for the difference is because there are multiple manuscripts of the New Testament used for translation, some are newer and regarded as less reliable, and some are older and probably closer to the original texts.
In some of the newer manuscripts, the Greek form of the name Nympha has a masculine pronoun. Earlier manuscripts, which are used by most modern translations, use a feminine pronoun.
The gender of Nympha is relatively inconsequential, but some have used it to defend female church leadership. While I am in favour of females in positions of church leadership, this passage does not make a good case for the argument because of the lack of clarity about who or what role she played beyond owning the house.
Archippus also appears in Philemon, identified as a recipient of that letter along with Philemon and a woman named Apphia. Paul instructs Archippus, “See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord.” So, he is likely a leader in the church that meets in Philemon’s home in Colosse.
Okay, I hope you enjoyed the bit of background. The point is not for you to know every detail of these people, but to know that the details of these people were important enough to be recorded in Scripture.
God cares about the individual. This has always been evident, most notably in the laws that he provided the nation of Israel.
The laws were not only about how to worship and sacrifice. They were about how to properly treat one another. We get a sense from God’s laws that every person is valuable, regardless of their social status.
Deut 14:28-29 – At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
15:7-8 – If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need.
22:15-16 – If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand them over to their master. Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress them.
It is this feature of Judaism and Christianity to care for individuals that has impacted the world in immeasurable ways.
The idea of human rights, care for the poor, social support systems, and many other great developments in society have come from Jewish and Christian principles.
It is based on the inherent dignity of each person made in the image of God.
Individuality is a biblical idea. But, like many good ideas, it has been distorted. Individuality has become individualism. Our culture has made a god out of individuality. Personal expression is elevated above love and respect for others.
But, as is the case with so many distortions of good things, we must not dismiss individuality. The alternative to individualism is not to eliminate the dignity of the individual or minimize the value and communal benefit of our differences.
Christianity is not a homogenous religion. Our church is not made up of people who are all the same. We are a church made up of individuals, created uniquely by God to show one another something about himself.
Just as individualism is a distortion of individuality, so is the tendency to compare and measure ourselves up to others. As we celebrate our individual uniquenesses, what each person brings to the group, we can slip into envy or pride.
It is strange, isn’t it? We struggle with the tension of both idolizing and embracing individuality. It is a temptation to make a god out of personal expression, yet it is also a temptation to make a god out of wanting to be the same as other people.
How can we live with this tension? I suggest that we view our individuality as enhanced within community. Paul and his coworkers were all very different types of people.
Some were born and raised as Jews. Some grew up as Romans. Some were lower class in society, some were higher. They all benefitted the collective work of the church in spreading the Gospel.
There is something tremendously beautiful about a solo performance. Piano, violin, saxophone, guitar, or vocal performances. Talented musicians can captivate an audience with little more than what they were born with because they have practiced and perfected their craft.
But, when these instruments of music-making are brought together, it can be done poorly even though each individual performer has the capacity to produce beautiful music on their own.
If the performers are unwilling to work together or play their best when it comes time to join others in a performance, the collective result will be worse than the solo efforts.
The same is true with the church. If we do not bring our best, the collective effort will be unhelpful and unattractive. It will not represent what God intended for the church.
Each one of you has a unique offering. You may not think you do, but that’s probably because you’re looking over at someone else wishing you could do what they do.
Instead, celebrate the benefit that others bring to us as a family and ask how your unique offering can benefit us as well.
As Paul wrote at the beginning of Colossians, when we work together, bringing the best of what God has given us, we live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way and we will bear fruit in every good work.
I want to close by reading a passage from a book titled Word in the Wilderness by Malcom Guite. We started in Colossians identifying that there were imposters in the church, trying to disrupt, distract, and deter Christians from what is true about Jesus.
This passage from Word in the Wilderness addresses the same issue with a different metaphor.
The devil is no substantial being. A shadow himself, all he can do is cast shadows of God’s substantial good. All good things come from God, and those things that the devil pretends to offer, but in the wrong way or for the wrong reasons, are cheap imitations of the very gifts that God does indeed offer and that Jesus himself receives, enjoys and, crucially, shares. He refuses to turn stones into bread for himself at the devil’s behest, but later, in that same wilderness, he takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it, and feeds 5,000 with all they want, and 12 full baskets are left over! This was the substantial good from God, in light of which, and to gain which, it was necessary to refuse the shadowy substitute. C. S. Lewis evokes this truth very well in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Everything that the White Witch pretends she can give the children is a stolen and corrupted version of something that Aslan fully intends them to have in its true substance. She pretends that she will share the throne of Narnia with Edmund and then leave it to him, yet the whole story is about how Aslan will truly and substantially crown all four children kings and queens of Narnia. And this holds true in the smaller things too, even down to the matter of personal appetite. If Edmund had turned down the Witch’s Turkish delight, he would have come sooner to Aslan’s feast!