Colossians 4 v 7 - 18 - Wrestle Mania

Anyway, last bit of Colossians today, sad times. But moving onto something else soon, hope you've enjoyed colossians. thinking i'll do an OT book, but not too sure. if you have any suggestions, shout :D


(this'll be a shortie, although it's lots of verses, it's Paul's final greeting)


v7-8
Tychicus is a brother of Paul, they work similarly like completely for God. Paul is sending him to them as he's in jail. 


v9
Onesimus, i think i came across in Philemon? I think? Great story behind that, he was a run away slave, came to know Christ, woop woop 


v10-11
Aristarchus, whose a priseron and Mark say hey to the Colossians. Paul says the Colossians know what to do when Mark visits, to welcome him. Now, i don't think this was in the book of Colossians so there must have been other letters, but aren't in da bible? Okay, so background, the same Mark who wrote (guess what. . ) Mark abandoned Paul on a preaching journey and Paul refused to take Mark with him, but he's forgiven him. Big lesson, learning to forgive. it's hard, but if we don't we're opposing God. Jesus who iss called Justus says hi too. We have no idea who he is, but it's nice he's saying hi. 


v12 - 13
epaphras a servant of JC, also says hi. he ALWAYS prays for them to grow spiritually mature and have everything that God wants for them. He's worked hard for people in Colosse and also in Laodicea and Hierapolis. So he;s the founder of the church apparently! I think it's significant the fact he's always praying, like obv, it's not all the time, but constant prayer for them. I forget to pray in general, let alone over a specific topic and specific people. Dudes take not, need to be like Epaphras. 


v14
Demas and Luke also say hi.  Luke is the Luke Luke we know. Demas decides to desert Paul because he loves the world too much.  sad times.


v15
Greet the people in Laodicea, and in Nympha and the church. 


v16
He asks them to send the letter to Laodicea as well as the people in Laodicea giving their letter to the Colossians. And this letter has been lost apparently


v17
Tell Archippus that he should finisht  the work given to him. 


v18
Paul had a scribe, but he writes the last bit himself so the peope realize it's him doing it. He signs off, asking them to remember him in prisno. 




that was a lot of hellos! :P

Colossians 4 v 2 - 6 - Talking to and about God

v2

Keep praying

Keep Alert

keep praying, keeping alert and thanking god.
Okay so first part, prayer. We should be praying a lot, so we're in daily conversations with God. i struggle with this a lot, so i've tried setting specific prayers times, in the morning and evening, and then whenever i find something to pray for, i do it straight away. that's another thing, promising you'll pray for something and forgetting. if you promise to pray, do it straight away. by praying, you'll feel stronger and closer to God, through good times, and through bad times, whatever the occasion.

keeping alert, this could be for a number of things. keeping alert for the needs of others, when you know someone just needs a hug, or a helping hand, whether a Christian or non Christian. keeping alert for JC opportunities, when you get the chance to tell people about JC and how amazing he is, and how much you love him. my commentary says keep watching of satan, but you can't really. you'll never know when the devil will attack. but keeping alert for bad habits we do, and how to stop them. 

finally, thanking God. Paul mentions this a lot, so i really think it's a very important thing to do. SOOO often, I forget. like my clarinet exam, it was all going horribly wrong, but the exam was okay and I passed it but i completely forgot about thanking God. I mean, how bad is that?! The israelites did, loads people have done it in the bible, and in modern times now. that's why it needs to be highlighted. thank God for anything and everything :)

Keep thanking God

v3
Paul asked the people of Colosse to pray for them that God will give opportunities to talk about JC and they would pray about the secret of God, made known about Christ. We need to do that today, in our world. Pray that there will be an opportunity to talk about Jesus, but for the will and the courage in order to do so. Sometimes there is the chance, but we wimp out. Don't do that, pray for courage and strength, and just go for it. 

DON'T use Christianese

v4
Paul asks them to pray in a way that's clear as he should. So I guess maybe this is about, say you were talking to kids about Jesus, using words like redemption, kids won't understand. and to non christians, don't speak in christianese, they just won't understand. don't dumb down christianity, but find better and more appropriate words to say


v5
I LOVE THIS VERSE. should have found it earlier. Act in an appropriate way with non believers, making the most of opportunities. Okay, so firstly, actingn in an appropriate way with non believers. So, being a good Christian witness. Acting appropriately, isn't getting drunk. People look to you to see Christianity, not Jesus. Yes it's pressure, yes it's hard but we're chosen. This also means that maybe if you're having a problem with alcohol or something, go to your Christian friends for help, non Christians may not understand it as much. Use opportunities again, just like we've said.  


v6

Do it!

when you talk, you should be kind and pleasant, so you can answer everyone in the way you should. So, there's different ways to witness to different people who are in different circumstances and are at different places in their faith journey. so speak in the right way to the people. don't speak harshly either, people won't want to talk to you about Jesus!






So. that's my challenge for today, talk about Jesus and talk to Jesus with every moment you can :)

Colossians 3 v 22 - 4 v 1 - Working Classes

v22 - 24

Obey your masters in everything, not just when they are watching to look good, but serve honestly because you respect the Lord. Work to the best you can, work as if you are working for the Lord, not for people. You're serving Christ, and you will receive your reward from God. 

Okay so God has given us people who have authority over us, parents, teachers, the police etc. 

hehe, this amused me greatly!

work as if you are serving Christ is a hard one, but it focuses your attention on how we should be treating jobs, work, things we have to do, and how we should respect and treat our authorities. If a teacher told us we have to do 5 pages of maths for tommorow, you'd grumble about it. However, if Christ did it, we'd probably do 10 pages, just to try and please him. We need to have a similar attitude as we were serving Christ. 

Slaves in bible time, didn't get inheritance, but the bible here, promises they'll get their reward when they are in heaven. Similar to us, we'll get ETERNAL LIFE, so if you're ever a bit miffed over a reward, remember, if you're serving Christ, there's like the most amazing reward waiting for you in heaven. 

But as a side note, doing revision is working towards God, so there's no excuse not to do, unfortunately. .  :P

v25

whoever does wrong, will be punished, and God treats everyone the same. Okay so when God judges us, he judges us equally, God doesn't have favorites, we'll be judged on the right and wrong we do. God also, just slight side note, the wrong will be punished by God. so there is absolutely no excuse for "revenge", if someone wrongs you, and treats you badly, don't retaliate. 

4v1

Talked about slaves, now masters. Paul says that they should be good and fair to their slaves, as they have a master in heaven. so Paul hated slavery, he wanted to get rid of it, and he wanted to change hearts and then society would change. if masters loved their slaves, and slaves loved their masters then slavery would eventually come to an end. Mini history lesson, anyone whose seen the best film ever called amazing grace will know slavery never officially ended til 1833. that's over 1000 years when Paul was trying to abolish slavery. wow. mind boggling! 

Colossians 3 v 18 - 21 - Family Fortunes

v18 
ahhhhhh, my favourite topic. okay so it says for wives to submit to their husbands because it's the right thing to do. so, he's not the more important one, he's not better than his wife, he just needs to have dominance, for the benefit of the whole family. See ephesians 5:22-24 for more of this


v19
husbands loves your wives and be gentle with them. love them like christ loves the church who he gave himself up for. See ephesians 5:25,28!


v20
children obey your parents. .  they do know better. .  (ephesians 6:1)


v21 
Fathers, don't nag your kids, or they won't bother trying anymore. need to discipline with love. (ephesians 6:4)

Colossians 3 v 15 -17 - Body Language

v15
let the peace that Christ gives control us, we are the spiritual body of Christ. so towards other believers and other people, we need to act with peace. steve did a bit of this in his QT, on james 3:18-19. go check it out! always be thankful. like, we have so much to be thankful, it seems insane we need to be told to be thankful. but our tiny brains think about day-to-day stuff, and possibly big events, but we never think, hey God, thanks for the birds outside. or hey God, thanks for the rain, we really needed it. God's grace, love, forgiveness, salvation alone is soooo much to thank God for, let alone the people and the earth he created for us too. 


v16
let the teachings of christ live in you. (all about applying stuff to our lives! head AND heart knowledge) use wisdom to each and instruct each other. wisdom from where? the bible ofc! someone once told me to base all arguments from scripture, and you won't ever go wrong. 
in most versions, it says admonish, which i think means like encourage. so it's not jumping down someone's throat when they sin, but it's encouraging people to do the right thing, being accountable, trying to heart other people. And we should sing songs with thankful hearts, not just because they are words on a screen, because it's a social norm to sing in church, or because we love the sound of our own voice. Do it because you WANT to worship and thank God. 


v17
Everything we do or say should be to obey Jesus. Kinda sums out how we should live right? In all you do, thank Jesus! again, being told to be thankful, because so often we're not. 

Colossians 3 v 12 - 14 - Holy Wardrobe

Okay so maybe we don't need to look like Ned Flanders, or wear socks with sandals to look like a Christian. But Paul does have something to say on what we should wear. 


v12
We are the elect, God has chosen us, and he loves us. So we should be clothed with mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Some of these are from the fruits of the spirit back in Galatians, so Paul is rally reiterating here what we should be like. So, obv it's not saying to not wear clothes or anything, but it's more important that your inner qualities are ones that reflect God, not your inside qualities. 


v13
Forgive others, as God has forgiven others! (yeah yeah . .we're not God . . .but we have God to help . . .). We're not all good perfect people, we all faults people have to put up with, and ones that we have to put up with. I guess though, if it's something that someone is doing wrong spiritually, you have the right to try and intervene and encourage them. But if it's a fault of theirs, we need to forgive. From the heart, so we have completely forgiven them. By not forgiving people, there's a lot of anger and bitterness involved, and that's just not good. And tbh, we do soooooo much against God and he still forgives us, so we should be able to reciprocate that.


v14
Most importantly, clothe yourself with Love! it's the most important for unity and stuff :) love yourself, love others, love God! 

Colossians 3 v 5 - 11 - Get it sorted!

v5
Put these evil things out of life such as sexual sinning, evil thoughts, wanting evil things, greed as this is serving a false God. Sin begins with our hearts, God can tell our attitude towards stuff by looking at our hearts, which is very very tricky. On the outside we may be okay, but our thoughts may be corrupt. But again, on the outside we all sin too. 


Galatians 5:24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their own sinful selves. They have given up their old selfish feelings and the evil things they wanted to do.


We are constantly surrounded by sin in our world, sometimes we fall into sin and temptation. But as Christians, we should resist, and submitting to God. 


But it's not as easy as saying "right, i'll never look at porn again" or "i'll never argue again". You have to have an action plan and actually put it into action. You may have the desire to stop sinning, but your not doing anything to stop. This was me. Figure out with friends, with God to come up with a plan to stop you sinning, become accountable and pray to God. he knows your heart, he knows you want to stop, but you need to execute the stopping of sins! I asked all my friends to list the sins I had, and I then wrote down what I knew I was struggling with. It was immensely hard to deal with, it's humbling in some ways, just to see how bad we are as Christians. But in the long run, it was better. I came up with a plan, and slowly half my list is already disappeared. Don't think you are perfect, don't get complacent. 


v6
All of this makes God angry. It's kind of scary in a way, although a lot of the time we think of God as loving and caring, he gets angry too. righteously angry. the God who created the world, will one day destroy it. It's really just a warning towards us to be honest.


v7
In the past, we did evil stuff too. We did stuff in the past, we do stuff in the present, and we'll do stuff in the future. but DO NOT LOSE HOPE!! 


v8-9
Don't have a temper, unrighteous anger, doing / saying to hurt others, using evil words when you talk, do not lie. You have left behind the evil stuff you've done.


v10
I LOVE THIS VERSE.


You have begun to live the new life, in which you are being made new and are becoming like the One who made you. This new life brings you the true knowledge of God.


It's just amazing, huh? We have a new life, in Christ becoming more like him. If you're not moving forward in your relationship with Jesus, you are backsliding. More and more, you are becoming like Christ, it's just amazing. You are discovering Christ, what faith and Jesus really means. We will be different to the world around us, we will be more like Christ.


v11
We are all believers in Christ, there is no difference between us! It doesn't matter about race or class, or dividing things in this world, as Christians we are all one. Wer all have different gifts, and different ways to serve God though. When we are all truly one, we will be in heaven, but we need to adopt that attitude towards the Christians we know, and within our churches.