Paul's Word to the Church in Colosse (1)

“My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving”   (Colossians 2:6,7 MSG).

   Paul’s writing to the Colossians is filled with advice, no, not advice, but instructions on how to live their best life in Jesus Christ.  In the passage above, he tells them that they already know what to do—just go ahead living it.  It’s easy to read his joy and confidence in them.  I enjoy the Message translation of the middle of the Scripture above: “You know your way around the faith.  Now do what you’ve been taught.”  Pretty straight forward, isn’t Paul?  Practice, no, live what you’ve learned.  It’s time to get out of the classroom and live the way you’ve been taught, and do it while giving thanks to God.

   He’s telling them that they learned about Jesus and how He lived.   All they have to do is do what He did.   And, through the centuries, that message comes down to us.  “Live the way Jesus did.”  So how does that fit into my daily life?  First of all, forgive.  Jesus said to forgive “490” times, which means live to forgive, no matter what.   Jesus even forgave those who cried out for and caused His death.  Wow!  That’s a lot of forgiveness.  I don’t know that I can go that far, but I can forgive the person who has been cutting me down at work, the person who speaks lies about me to my neighbors, the person who dented my car, the person who stole my bicycle.   The word from Jesus is “forgive” period.   It’s a difficult task, but we are expected to try.  

   After we have done all that forgiving, we are supposed to do it with thankfulness—thankfulness for what?  First of all, thankfulness that Jesus has paid our debt for sin.  Second, might I suggest thankfulness for the beautiful world that God has created for us.  Third, how about being thankful for our church and our friends who support us through our problems.  Fourth, we need to be thankful for our families, and we need to let them know that we are thankful for them.  But overriding all--most important--we need to be thankful for and to God our Father. 

   The word, “love” is not used in the Scripture passage above, but it is implied throughout the passage, and  we cannot live “Christ” without living in love.