Sunday Worship – Page 2 – Mt Freedom Baptist Church

In the last part of Colossians 3, Paul gives instructions regarding our relationships with others – particularly our family members, our employees, and our employers. Over the years there has been a great deal of misunderstanding about this passage – so much so that preachers often simply skip over it to avoid controversy. However, it is really quite simple to understand these instructions. They reflect God’s sovereign design for human society. Jesus is head of all. If men, women, and children simply submit ourselves under His authority and let all our words and actions reflect His lordship over them, the divinely ordained order for our human relationships falls right into line.

Paul continues in Colossians 3 encouraging us to put to death all of the old sinful remnants of our former lives, and in their place to “put on” as one would a garment all of the Christ-like characteristics with which our LORD Jesus has endowed us – particularly Christ’s love for all people, which binds all these Christ-like characteristics together in Him.

Paul begins the third chapter of his letter to the Colossians by reminding them (and us) that those who are “in Christ” – that is, everyone who has proclaimed Jesus as our personal Savior and LORD – have died to our former life of worldliness and sin and are reborn to new life in Christ. Therefore, Paul encourages believers to focus our lives upon Jesus and Heavenly things, forsaking not only our sins, but all the worldly pursuits, pleasures, and entertainments which might distract us from our relationship with Him.

In Colossians 2:6, Paul encourages Jesus followers who have received new life in Christ to “walk with Him.” We will naturally start out just barely able to walk, but as we persevere in following our LORD Jesus, we will eventually learn to run with endurance the race that He has set before us in service of His Kingdom. Along the way, we will encounter distractions – snares set by our great enemy to distract us from abiding in our Christian walk. In the latter part of Colossians 2, Paul warns us about some of these snares – legalism, asceticism, worship of angels, and the “elemental spirits of this world.” Paul encourages us to set such things aside and focus squarely upon the LORD Jesus alone.

God directed Jeremiah to go to the potter’s house and observe the potter working. God then told Jeremiah that if the potter could remake a flawed pot, so God could remake fallen Israel and indeed all of fallen mankind, if we will but allow Him to rework us with His firm but gentle hand.

In chapter 2 of his letter to the Colossians, Paul encourages Christ followers to continue working on their relationship with the Lord Jesus. Certainly, we can rest assured in our salvation through faith in Jesus’ Gospel, but our new spiritual life in Him should be much more. Paul also tells us of the benefits of growing in the knowledge of our Lord. Of course, we must continue to learn about God through His Word, but even more so, we must cling as closely to Jesus as possible and allow the Holy Spirit to direct us throughout our days – all while remaining intentionally focused on Jesus as Lord over our entire being.

When Jesus’ disciples asked who is the greatest in His Kingdom, Jesus showed them a little child and proclaimed that if we don’t come to Him with childlike faith, we cannot even enter His Kingdom, much less be great in it. We can do nothing to earn our salvation. We must simply believe in Him and His Gospel unreservedly as an innocent child believes.

In his letter to the church at Colossae, Paul reminded the Colossians of who Jesus really is – God the Son. Certainly, Jesus is our Redeemer and Savior, but for the true Christ follower, Jesus must be much, much more. He must be our everything – the very center of our entire life. In short, Jesus must be our “All-in-All.” In this video, comedian Jeff Allen shares the story of his own journey out of atheism and alcoholism into a true saving relationship with our Lord Jesus.

Since mankind’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden all of us have been estranged from God our Father by our sins. But Jesus made the way for everyone who believes in His Gospel to be reconciled to God and returned to our proper relationship with Him as His beloved children.

In his letter to the church at Colossae, Paul addressed a misconception among them that Jesus can’t be Immanuel – God in human flesh, because their view was that all flesh is inherently evil. Paul reminded them that Jesus – the Word of God – is the instrument by Whom our Three-In-One God created the world. Therefore Jesus was before all things as John reminds us in the introduction of his gospel account. In describing this concept to the Colossians, Paul used the Greek word πρωτεύω) prōteuō – preeminent. In our lives and our belief, Jesus must not only be important. He must be the only and central focus of our entire being. In other words, we must hold Him “Preeminent.”

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