The Forgotten Third: Developing a Relationship with God the Holy Spirit — What Do We Learn from COLOSSIANS about the Holy Spirit?

There are two ways of approaching the doctrines of the Scriptures. One way is to collect all the data throughout the Bible into logical categories (called “systematic theology”). The other way is to work through individual books of the Bible, collecting the data on a particular subject (this is called “biblical theology,” although the term is used in other ways in less than conservative circles). When we ask, what does the book of Colossians say about God the Holy Spirit, we are taking a kind of biblical theology approach. Our conviction in these posts is that, while some believers overemphasize the Spirit, others overlook Him. We want to do neither, but long to have a balanced view of the Third Member of the Trinity.

What do we find when we unit-read (read straight through at one sitting) the book of Colossians? We find that —

Ch. 1- 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[f] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Ch. 3- 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

In this short epistle of Colossians, we have a couple of significant references to the Spirit of God.

1. He is the One who inspires in us a love of other believers (1:7).

2. He is the One who gives wisdom and understanding — and we may pray for others to be filled with both those important commodities (1:9). [By the way, what a powerful prayer in verses 9-14! Don’t you wish you had an army of believers praying that way for you?]

3. He is the One who provides us with psalms, hymns, and songs to sing to God — and to use to teach and admonish one another (3:16). As an introvert, I’m pretty happy going through my day not speaking (much less singing) to anyone else. But that’s not what God wants! (to be continued)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some Challenges from Colossians! (Part 1)

I’ve always wanted to study the book of Colossians a bit in-depth. And now’s my chance! Let me begin our study by making some basic observations on the book as a whole. To do that, I need to unit-read Colossians (= reading it straight through at one sitting). That’s not hard to do. The book is only four chapters’ long.

I want to pick out one theme that I see in each chapter. Today the theme is fulness from chapter one. Note the use of the term “fulness” or “full.” We see that word used five times in chapter one. In verse 9, Paul prays that God would “fill you with the knowledge of his will . . .” In verse 19, we read that God “was pleased to have all his fulness dwell in [the Lord Jesus].” In verse 24,we have the strange statement by Paul that in his sufferings he is able to “fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions”! In verse 25, he speaks of his commission to “present to you the word of God in its fulness . . .” And in verse 28, the Apostle refers to the Lord Jesus as “the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.”

Feeling a bit empty today?  Focus on the fulness you have in Christ! (to be continued)

 

The Joy of Unit-Reading #16 (the book of Colossians)

Today we continue our journey in reading 65 (of the 66) of the books of the Bible in one sitting — one book at a time, of course.   Some of the longer books may take an hour or two.  But there are benefits to reading a whole book at one time — and that’s called unit-reading.

Most of us can get a lot better in the habit of READING!

John Wesley wrote to a fellow minister, George Holder, on November 8, 1790:

“It cannot be that the people should grow in grace unless they give themselves to reading. A reading people will always be a knowing people.”

 

Several Questions:
1. Have you taken up my challenge to unit-read any books of the Bible? Which ones?

2. What else are you reading — and why?

3. Do you agree with the statement, “If you wish to be a leader, you must be a reader!”?

 

Six Reasons to Give Thanks for Each Other (a sermon)