The Book of Colossians: Is Jesus Enough?Sýnishorn

Is Jesus enough for your church?

Filmmaker Wes Anderson famously uses perfect symmetry to frame his shots. Every character, set piece, and landscape is dead center. The audience intuitively knows what’s right in the middle is what’s most important. In his letter to the Colossian church, Paul does the same thing, framing everything around a perfectly symmetrical midpoint: Jesus. The truth is, Jesus is the most compelling person who ever lived, and when He’s at the centre of the church, He changes everything.

We’re invited to experience the same mind shift as the church in Colossae, because what was true of them is true of us today: the church has the potential to be the most passionate, faith-filled, people-loving, life-changing community on the planet—but we can ruin our potential to be this if Jesus isn’t the center of what we do, why we gather, and how we worship, lead, and move into our cities on mission.

At the start of his letter, Paul highlights three characteristics of the kind of community we can become when Jesus is central to the church. There’s both potential for greatness and a pitfall of disaster associated with each.

The first characteristic is compelling faith (Colossians 1:4). We’re to be a people who live from personal knowledge of and personal encounters with Jesus. As J.I. Packer writes, “Interest in theology, and knowledge about God… is not at all the same thing as knowing Him.” We’re to be walking billboards advertising the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The pitfall here is settling for second-hand knowledge of God (resulting in masses of people going through the motions of lifeless, religious practices). The potential is to pursue relationship with God for yourself through His Word, Spirit, and people.

Secondly, Paul says the church can become a community of compassionate love (Colossians 1:4). Christian love is fiercely inclusive, moving people beyond the comfort zones of ethnic, cultural, and economic background. We’re called to love “all the saints”—even those nothing like us. Is there someone in your life who has loved you enough to be both loyal and honest? Perhaps you can pay that forward to someone in your church who may feel lonely or judged in what feels to them like a disconnected crowd.

Finally, Paul says that with Jesus at the center, the church can become a community of constant life change (Colossians 1:5-6). Our faith should be like a seed planted in our hearts, nurtured by the Spirit, the Word, and fellowship. Growth is steady, gradual, and undeniable. If the pitfall is to stagnate in your walk with Jesus, the potential is to become sensitive and obedient to the Holy Spirit, having a deep desire to become like Jesus.

Consider the church you’re part of as a group photo: both the togetherness and your personal role are vital. When our individual passions align and combine, the effect is incredible. The church’s best days are ahead of us if we ensure that Jesus remains the center of everything we do.