A Church in MotionSample

Learning to walk before we run

In Colossians, Paul is drawing upon his overall theological understanding to help the recipients find that genuine human and spiritual maturity which God wills for his people. God has done what the law, and ‘wisdom’, could not do by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, to achieve reconciliation. He dealt with sin on the cross, so that the life which the law had sought to give, the true life of God’s people, might be brought to expression in those who, through faith and baptism, belong to Jesus Christ. The church does not need to look anywhere else for forgiveness for the past, for maturity in the present, or for future hope.

Within the life of the church overall, the letter to the Colossians will always have an important part to play. We, too, need to become mature as Christians and as human beings. We need to grow in our knowledge of who God is, of what he has done for us in Jesus Christ and of how we can express our gratitude in worship and life. We, too, need the warning that true maturity, whether Christian or human, is not to be had by any other road.

We hear this call echo through the first chapter of this letter, setting the foundation of our understanding of Jesus correctly, so that we learn to walk on sturdy legs of knowledge and understanding before we can run the race our Christian faith calls us to.

Spend some time today reflecting on the divinity of Jesus, and the process he followed in complete obedience, to bring you salvation. As Colossians 1:19 says, For God was pleased to have his fullness dwell in Jesus, and through Jesus reconcile to himself all things. It is from this place of awareness that our hearts can’t help but to be moved to true worship and adoration – offer that up to him today.