This Week’s Reading
Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here.
My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.) Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my co-workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me.
Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis. Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings. Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.
After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea. Tell Archippus: “See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord.” I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.
—Colossians 4:7-18
Listen to the Podcast
Caleb Clardy, founding pastor at Trinity Grace Church, teaching from Colossians 4:7-18 on the last Sunday after Pentecost, the eighth in our "In Christ by the Spirit for the City" series, speaking at Middle School 51 on November 24, 2019. The weekly teaching is contextualized specifically for our church in the Park Slope neighborhood and our local congregation.
Themes to Consider
The real life connections of the communities on either side of the sending and receiving of this letter demonstrate the shared life of the Body of Christ and the living out of the theology of the letter.
Many members of the roll call of greetings at the end of the letter having been willing to personally suffer to show the love of Christ to the others.
Paul and John Mark have experienced reconciliation from their falling out in the book of Acts.
Endurance and perseverance are powerful in our lives in Christ and carry many blessings. They are both sustained by grace.
Discussion Questions
What are the real life ways that you draw strength and encouragement from the other members of the Body of Christ? Share some stories if you can.
N.T. Wright said the calling of the church is to implement the victory of Jesus through suffering love. What do you think it looks like to express the victory of Jesus in suffering love?
If you were going to make a roll call of greetings, thanks, encouragements, and shout outs in this season of your life, who would you include?
How do think this ending section connects the theology of the rest of the letter?
This Week’s Practices
We are challenging ourselves to engage two practices throughout the series as a whole and they are listed under Daily Spiritual Practice and Love in Action. Below those, we will also provide a couple other weekly practices that correspond to each passage as we move through the letter.
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1 / DAILY SPIRITUAL PRACTICE — ONGOING
Spend daily time in the Gospels; be with Jesus.
There are many ways that you might select a Gospel reading for the day. You could just pick one of the four Gospels and start making your way through a bit at a time. Or you could use a resource like the Daily Office Lectionary which always has a selection from the Gospels as a part of its daily readings. The main thing is simply to find a passage that is a manageable length for the time you have set aside.
Before you read, offer a short prayer asking the Holy Spirit to guide you. You might pray that you would like to spend this time with Jesus and ask that the person of Christ would be revealed to you during your time.
Slowly read the passage from the Gospel, asking the Holy Spirit to direct your attention to Jesus. What do you see Jesus doing? What do you hear Jesus saying? What is the situation and circumstance that Jesus is in? Does Jesus act according to your expectations or in a different way? What is challenging? What is encouraging? What is confusing?
Once you have read, perhaps a few times if needed, sit in silence for a moment and see what the Holy Spirit brings to your mind. Perhaps you have a question to reflect on later or in community. Perhaps you have an insight. Imagine Jesus being right there present to you.
You may want to end by jotting down something you sensed from the Spirit, or by worshipping Jesus, or by writing or saying a prayer.
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2 / LOVE IN ACTION — ONGOING
In our time and context it may feel challenging or embarrassing to speak openly about faith in Christ, but there are some powerful and important reasons to overcome those difficulties.
Jesus directs us to let the light of our life with God and His Kingdom shine. It is an integral part of how the relational Kingdom of God expands. We tell our story and we tell the story of Jesus. We are not proselytizing to grow the tribe of those who agree with us, but so that many others may experience the tremendous love of God that has changed our lives. It is one of the greatest joys of the Christians life to be involved in someone coming to faith in Christ because we were willing to share the Gospel with them.
We are challenging ourselves and our whole church to share the Gospel this fall. You may begin by opening up to a friend or coworker about your story and faith. You could begin by inviting a friend to Apha. You can make a list of people you would like to pray for and ask God for opportunities to speak with them about faith in a meaningful way.
You may also want to have a conversation with those in your group about the idea or experience of sharing your faith. What thoughts or feelings does it bring up for you? Do you feel like you would know some of what to say? Do you wish you had some specific help in the process. These are all things that are helpful to process in community.
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3 / Share a meal with loved ones — WEEKLY
Take some time this holiday week to gather with those you love over a meal.
Look for opportunities to be specifically encouraging to those you are with. You might even practice thanking God for them and asking the Holy Spirit to guide you in lifting them up with your words and actions.
Recommended resources
PDF: Excerpt from Colossians Remixed: Poetics of Community
Read this short excerpt by Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia C. Keesmaat.
QUOTE: N.T. Wright’s Paul For Everyone: The Prison Letters: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon
N.T. Wright discusses the implications of this passage from Colossians 4: “But the point Paul is making throughout is the thousand ways in which Christians belong to one another in a fellowship of mutual love, prayer, instruction and service. It is undesirable, and ultimately impossible, for any individual Christian or church to ‘go it alone’ and imagine they have nothing to gain or learn from other Christians and churches. The greetings at the close of Paul’s letters—there are more here than in some, perhaps precisely because he didn’t know the Colossians personally and wanted to be sure to bind them to him in love and fellowship—serve as constant reminders to us of what the gospel is all about. Three things stand out: the gospel is not about abstract ideas but about people; in Jesus the word became flesh; and the God who is the main subject of the gospel is known supremely as the God of love.”
QUOTE: Mike Mason’s The Mystery of Marriage
Mike Mason discusses the nature of our relationships and vulnerability: “It is no small thing to open our hearts and our arms and allow another to enter there, to grant another person the same worth, the same consequence, the same existential gravity that we take for granted in ourselves. The fact is that our natural tendency is to treat people as if they were not “others” at all, but merely aspects of ourselves. We do not experience them as the overwhelming, comprehensive realities we find ourselves to be. Compared with us, they are not quite real. We see them through a haze, the haze of our own all-engulfing self-hood. We are constantly filtering others though the fine electronic mesh of our own private system of perception, so that what finally reaches our awareness and registers there is not usually a real person at all, but a sort of computer image, a reconstruction based on our own personal programming and biases. We live in a heavily screened, body guarded reality. Not much gets through the barbed-wire, not much gets by the great bulldog of ego.”
QUOTE: Henri Nouwen’s You Are the Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living
Henri Nouwen shares his perspective that community is heart calling to heart: “Community has little to do with mutual compatibility. Similarities in educational background, psychological make-up, or social status can bring us together, but they can never be the basis for community. Community is grounded in God, who calls us together, and not in the attractiveness of people to each other. There are many groups that have been formed to protect their own interests, to defend their own status, or to promote their own causes, but none of these is a Christian community. Instead of breaking through the walls of fear and creating new space for God, they close themselves to real or imaginary intruders. The mystery of community is precisely that it embraces all people, whatever their individual differences may be, and allows them to live together as brothers and sisters of Christ and sons and daughters of His heavenly Father.”
