A Fruitful Understanding

The College Ministry is getting ready to launch a study of Colossians next Sunday. Here are a few thoughts on verses 1:3-8.

Colossians 1:3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,

I love these verses. Here we have Paul thanking God for the Colossians because they have great faith in Christ and love for all the saints. If I got the impression that those little kids in Sunday School or unbelieving family and friends and peers had developed "great faith in Christ" and "love for all the saints", I can only imagine how my heart would brim with gratitude. I've tasted a little of this. Because I've tasted it, I understand how Paul feels, but because I've only tasted a little I'm jealous.

Colossians 1:5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,

Oh baby. Here we have the foundation. The fruit is the great faith and love for one another, but if we look down underneath the ground we see the root that's feeding the whole thing: hope laid up in heaven. Our hope is in heaven. Many things about my life have improved here on earth since I became a Christian, but it's only because of a supernatural hope. Minimize the otherworldliness our religion at your own peril. Living for a Pie in the Sky is dumb only if there's no pie and there's no sky. "If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied" (2 Cor 15:9).

Colossians 1:6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

This is not unique to Colossae, but indeed bears fruit everywhere. I see no reason why this process would work in 1st century Colossae but wouldn't work in 21st century northern Illinois. We may have all of the bells and whistles of modern life, but has human nature really changed since then? Has the gospel?
Also, if "hope laid up in heaven" is the foundation for the the great faith and love, then hearing and understanding the grace of God in truth must be the earth upon which the foundation lies. It's the "deeper magic" of Colossians 1. How can we have our hope in heaven if we don't know or understand the grace of God in truth?
And this is what a "faithful minister" does. He serves the church by laboring to proclaim the grace of God in Truth in the hope that it will be heard and understood leading to hope laid up in heaven leading to great faith in Christ and love for all the saints.

Learning->Understanding->Hope->Faith and Love.