Monday, February 24, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Colossians 1-2
Key Verse
Colossians 1:27 — “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:”
Devotional Thought
Paul writes to the church at Colosse from a Roman prison, yet the word “prison” never appears in these two chapters. Instead, we find thanksgiving, intercession, and soaring doxology. The letter opens with Paul and Timothy greeting “the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse,” a congregation the apostle had never visited. The church had been planted by Epaphras, described tenderly as “our dear fellowservant” and “a faithful minister of Christ,” who carried back to Paul the report of their faith in Jesus and their love toward all the saints. What news to receive in chains — that the gospel was bearing fruit in a city Paul had never seen.
Paul’s response is not to rest but to pray, and his prayer is worth lingering over. He asks that they “might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,” that they might “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,” and that they might be “strengthened with all might” unto patience and longsuffering “with joyfulness.” This is no vague well-wishing. It is a pastor asking God to make ordinary believers fruitful, steady, and thankful, even as they live among neighbors who do not know Christ.
Then the letter lifts its eyes. In one of the great Christ-hymns of Scripture, Paul declares that the Son is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature,” that by Him all things were created and in Him all things consist, and that He is “the head of the body, the church.” The One who made thrones and dominions is the same One who reconciled us “in the body of his flesh through death,” presenting us “holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.” The mystery once hidden is now made manifest: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
And so Paul warns. In Colossians 2 he turns to the danger pressing on this young church — “philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men.” There were voices insisting on special knowledge, angel worship, dietary rules, and holy days, all with “a shew of wisdom.” Paul’s answer is not a list of counter-rules but a Person: “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him.” The handwriting of ordinances against us has been blotted out, nailed to the cross, and the principalities and powers spoiled openly. Why, then, submit again to “Touch not; taste not; handle not”?
It is late February, the season of Lent approaching, when many of us take up disciplines and abstentions. Paul does not despise self-control, but he refuses to let any practice — however devout — become the ground of our standing. We are rooted and built up in Christ, not in our calendars or our carefulness. The believer who knows this walks through the gray end of winter with thanksgiving, because the fullness is already ours.
Reflection
- Paul prays specifically for the Colossians to be “filled with the knowledge of his will” and to “walk worthy of the Lord.” If someone prayed that prayer over your week, what would need to change in how you spend your days?
- Paul warns against teachings that have “a shew of wisdom” but do not hold fast to the Head. What rules or traditions — even good ones — are you tempted to trust more than Christ Himself?
Prayer
Father, we thank You for delivering us from the power of darkness and translating us into the kingdom of Your dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Fill us with the knowledge of Your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that we might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work. Keep us rooted and built up in Christ Jesus, stablished in the faith as we have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Let no philosophy or tradition of men beguile us, for we are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power. Amen.