Colossians 1:1-8 – Christ is Enough. Faith, Love, Hope and the Gospel

Jon Beck

Enough:  Colossians and the Supremacy of Christ in the Church

Colossians 1:1-8 – Faith, Love, Hope, and the Gospel

Paul opens his letter expressing his thankfulness to God for the church at Colosse and their faith in Christ.  He wanted to encourage and strengthen them in the fact that CHRIST WAS ENOUGH!

He was thankful for their Faith in Christ

  • Pistis – persuaded something is true and to trust in that thing.
  • From the root word peitho…to obey
  • Belief, Trust, Action
  • The object of our faith is IN CHRIST. The person of Jesus Christ.

 

He was thankful for their Love for the saints

  • Agape love…
  • Me nothing, Him and them everything.
  • We love because He first loved us.

1 John 2:9-11 9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. [10] Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. [11] But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

3:10-14  – [10] By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. [11] For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. [12] We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. [13] Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. [14] We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. [15] Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

4:20–21 – [20] If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. [21] And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

  • Starts with Him and then works our way out. Relationships
  • As we love Him…we love others
  • Christ, Family, Church, Friends, Others

 

He was thankful for their Hope in eternity

  • The big picture in life.
  • Hope.  Futuristic and Certainty
  • The Kingdom of God.  The already and the not yet!!

 

He was thankful their faith, love and hope were grounded in the Gospel

The first 3 mean nothing without the Good News of the Gospel

 The characteristics of the Gospel  (The Good News)

  • Word of truth
  • Individual
  • Universal
  • Productive
  • Heard, Understood and Received
  • Centered on Jesus
  • Based on Grace

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