After last week’s lesson clarifying how setting our minds on things above leads to the glorification of believers upon Jesus’ return, we focused our attention this week on living like a believer. The key to this is found in what our hearts treasure most, and for the believer that is Jesus!
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Proverbs 15 is all about the ways and words of the righteous and the wicked.
We covered topics such as:
• Answering wisely
• Prayer
• Sheol & Abaddon
• Disposition & outlook
• What fool’s feed on
• Little is much for the righteous
• Much is little with the wicked
…and many things which are either pleasing or an abomination to the Lord.
All-in-all, Proverbs 15 is full of practical wisdom and truths to unpack and ponder!
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Colossians 3:1-4 is Paul’s encouragement to these Colossian believers so that they might press on to maturity in their faith.
The baton passed from Christ to His church was one of doing the work of the kingdom until He returns. That work has to manifestations.
First is internally, where the believer is daily conformed, more and more into the image of Jesus Christ. This is done by following the lead of the Holy Spirit who encourages us to set our hearts upon Christ rather than on things here on earth.
The second manifestation is externally, where our lives make us light and salt to the world around us due to the transforming work within us. This is what makes us ‘Living Witnesses’ of Jesus on the earth.
All of this is laid down for us in some detail in Romans 8 which we worked through in order to better understand HOW to live out Colossians 3:1-4.
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From women tearing their household down with their words, removing yourself from foolish company, to understanding what it means to despise the Lord – this chapter is loaded with much wisdom and unexpected advice.
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This week as we continue on in Chapter 2 of Colossians, we run into a word which requires a little bit of defining since it “can” be difficult to translate, especially if you allow your theological bias to influence your judgment.
The key Greek word is katabrabeuō and can be translated in various ways, the two primary ones being condemn, which carries the notion of someone passing judgment on you OR disqualifying.
Given the purpose and overall content of the letter, the context of the statement plus the fact that what was at stake was the continuation in faith of these believers in Jesus alone for salvation – the word cannot be concerned with the judgment of false teachers. No, the word MUST be disqualified. Paul is setting the metaphorical tone of a race or competition. As such, the “race” in question is something you could be disqualified from, and therefore lose your stake in the reward or prize.
But what could Paul be referring to, that these Colossians could be disqualified from, if they forsook Christ and embraced another Gospel, but their very relationship with the Father through Christ!
This is why Paul makes MUCH of the supremacy of Christ. Being IN Christ and the need to continue in their faith steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel until the end!
This lesson is a little more bogged down due to the need to focus on details in the text, but I hope it will aid you in your understanding of both Colossians and the Gospel of our Lord.
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