Colossians 1 (3 - 23)

 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you have heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

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• We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, ...

Paul always opens his letter giving thanks to God and always finds things to give praise to God for. In this case its "Faith in Christ Jesus" and "Love for all the Saints". And why are these qualities present in Christians in this church? Because of the hope that is laid up for you in heaven. 

The hope is one day receiving eternal life and being with Jesus -- which is still crazy to think about. But interesting it's highlighted "hope which is laid up for you in heave" being the reason for those qualities to increase -- where usually one would think "your love for Jesus" is what increases your faith in Jesus and Love for the Saints.

But... I think if we love Jesus, our hope is to be one day with Jesus so our hope (due to our love) of Jesus is to be with him one day (in this case) more so than the eternal life. 

• ... of which you have heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

And here we see it that we've heard it before in the word of the truth of the gospel... That our hope is Jesus is for our sins to be forgiven and have eternal life and be with Jesus. (Accepting the free gift). And this Hope is bringing forth fruit -- in us.

So in the end, I think that the our Faith and our Love for the Saints shouldn't be pinned on "healings" or "performance of God" (so-to-speak) like "Is my Life Perfect?" or "Am I getting healed?", "Did I get the Job" -- but rather be pinned on the Love of Jesus which leads us to the Hope that is laid up for you.

Like what do you seek to gain if your hope is simply "Eternal Life in Heaven", Eternal Life in Heaven (Christianity) what do you think it looks like? It's literally being with God and Jesus 24/7... And in that case... Why would you want to spend an eternity with someone you're lukewarm (or even dislike/despise).

I think more so than anything -- this reflects a mindset. A mindset that Paul is focusing on the Hope of having an eternity with Jesus (almost like getting married and having a hope or a mindset of a life with your partner). That's Paul's Goal and effectively almost working towards a wedding and is what Paul is trying to get at here.

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For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

• For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

For the reason that they loved the Lord, Paul says that they do not cease praying for them. What for?

• Filled with the knowledge of His will in all Wisdom and Spiritual Understanding
• Walk Worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work
• Increase in the knowledge of God

Of the three, "Walk Worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him and being fruitful" is important to note the connotation that this doesn't say "Earn your place in Heaven". Rather Paul urges us to act in a way worthy of his calling (or rather they have died for you -- don't let the death be meaningless but live a life worthy of it). The Price was already paid and you have reaped the benefits.

In an anime, if a character dies for a villain. The reformed villain seeks to redeem himself by suicide. What happens next? He always gets a message, "No... rather live your life out saving lives instead - Don't let his death be in vain." 

I think its common especially for Christians to focus on pleasing God and crossing a line where it becomes... "I must do this or I'll..." And yes, you shouldn't sin and you should confess all sin. But there's a mindset issue, I think... when you do things out of obligation -- it feels like a task which makes it feel like "earning something" which creates guilt if its not done.

Rather -- Living a Life Worthy of something... makes note that... it's something you want to inherently do and you already know that you can't earn something already given. You'll of course regret if you don't live up to it. But praise God, that he's a God who forgives sins. But that's why the saying is "as much as I know how, I'll follow you".

Filling yourself with knowledge of His will is also something being worked on (in me)... It's tough to say because there are stories of Christians that do NOT receive clarity when asking from God since... we don't get a roadmap of our lives. But that doesn't mean we should actively pursue it (and the next step).

I do think however that there's a Spiritual Urging when something needs or wants to be done. And I think the Lord grants us the tools to do it. Yet we should pray for it continually that we follow the Spiritual Urging and not misstep out of it. (Wisdom being Physical Wisdom and Spiritual Wisdom being Understanding)

And Knowledge of God, that is to know his heart, his will and his plans and his character. I seek to see and learn greater knowledge of God's Love for us. How Deep, how wide, how tall how long, how vast the love of God is for us. For knowing God is the transformational power of Christians.

• ...strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

And here... Paul asks that we get those 3 things -- Strengthened with all might that we may face all Patience and Long-suffering with joy. Giving thanks to the Father that we may inherit that hope. Being solid in the former 3 things.

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He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

He (The Father) has delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us to the Kingdom of His Son. Because through Jesus' blood, we have received redemption (what is that redemption? - the Forgiveness of Sin).

Jesus dying for us is like a passcode... a key into the castle. By his blood, the King goes - you have helped my son - come though you are a peasant (or in this case a sinner). We are loved.

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He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have preeminence.

This describes Jesus - and his preeminence (fact of surpassing all others; superiority). So first off... if all things are created by Jesus and all things consist him as well. That means that all things are subjected to his judgement, power and control. Again... so that in all things, he can have superiority. 
If that is true -- He has the ability through all troubles we go through whether illness, sickness, etc. He cannot have preeminence if your illness is stronger than his power.

Which brings us to the question if All things were created by him/through him. What about the bad stuff? And it says "...for Him" and I think we need to remember that bad stuff can exist to bring Glory to God and for him. Love cannot exist in the absence of choice (Garden of Eden example). And a Loving Family is something created for him. And something evil to allow love to exist is also for him.

Consider this -- Jesus who had everything you see created for him and created everything and had superiority over everything -- experienced unimaginable pain and died for you. Because he loved you and wanted a loving family back. Nobody can create love. Love comes from a choice otherwise, its not love but just a robot (heartless) - there's no decision there. Even if you could mind-control someone to "love" you is that truly love?

And in that case, the cost of Love is so high but so to is the power of Love. The power of love is so romanticized its used in all the TV shows and books and Hollywood. The power of love has created adrenaline rushes to give Mom's super human strength. Love changes people for the better or for the worse. Love is actual power.

Paul wants to make clear Jesus has superiority over everything and his blood... how valuable is the blood of one superior to everything. That it is a mark that we are saved, protected and loved by the one who created all things and superior to all things. This man is who you are taking blood from.

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For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to Himself, by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

Jesus has superiority in all things because it pleased the Father!! It pleased the Father that by Jesus he can reconcile all things to himself -- by making peace through blood of His cross.

Now we get into meat and potatoes... The hope that God has called us to...

Watch this... Jesus Blood on the Cross made peace. How? Peace's opposite is Conflict/Chaos. So without his blood, there'd be conflict... But Conflict where?

We were in conflict with God because... we have fleshly desires. We generally love to sin because its better for us in our flesh. We could quite literally lie, cheat and steal our way to victory because people do do that. And the truth of the matter is... we do do that.

And the thing is... whether you steal a bag of money, you do indescribable sexual acts to an underaged or... you murder someone... it's all labelled the same - Criminal. And likewise anyone who sinned is labelled the same way -- Sinner. (Whether you lied or whether you murdered).

And as a Sinner we are in conflict with God because we clearly believe our way best and don't think God's way is the right way. We don't "want" to live the way God wants us to live -- or we do but we cannot.

THUS, God's solution (our Father's solution) isn't to just go - welp yeah shiee can't help... or to just snap fingers and transform to holy (because again Love requires choice). But rather Jesus comes down and shows what love is like/how to love and dies a sinless death. And we essentially ride off his coattails.

And so Jesus makes peace with us by going... come reconcile with me, believe in the fact that I am the Son of God, I died so that you can claim me as your sacrifice (essentially Jesus died in our place). And because the cost of sin is paid -- then, we can have peace with God. BUT if you aren't reconciled with him, if you aren't with Jesus, you can't claim him as your "lamb offering". Right?

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight -- if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Off the same vein, Paul here goes -- You who were once enemies by our wicked works, alienated from God...

He has reconciled you -- how? in the body of His flesh through death (e.g He died for you)

That way we can be considered holy, blameless and above reproach in God's sight. THAT WAY we aren't considered sinners. 

This second part is cool -- "if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard".

Paul is not so arrogant as to say "if indeed, you continue in the faith and never sin again." Which is many a Christian's thoughts... rather Paul does say -- If we continue in the faith AND ARE GROUNDED in the hope of the Gospel.

What is the hope of the gospel? That Jesus came down and died for us granting forgiveness of our sins and that one day if we believe and claim Jesus Christ as our Lord -- that we will gain eternal life in Him"

Keeping in mind that THIS isn't a license to sin. But rather if you live in the hope of the gospel that one day we'll be with Jesus in Heaven and we love him. -- Then... how can you continue in sin knowing that one day you'll be with him?

That's not love is it...? So... we should always remember the hope of the gospel. That one day Jesus Christ and us will be buddy buddy in heaven -- that he has cleansed us free from sin." And from that all of God's transformative power comes from.