Colossians Notes

Colossians 1

A Well-Cultivated Garden

Colossians 1:3-6, 9-10

We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth… For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

The truth of the glorious gospel causes a person to bear fruit. This is an inevitable result of the gospel working in a person’s life. The fruit that a person produces is evidence that the gospel needs NO addition or supplement! But while being a fruit-bearer is good and necessary as a Christian, the gospel is primarily for God pleasure. By that, I mean that a life is really only fruitful when God is well-pleased. Any fruit that we produce in our own strength and for our own purposes is rotten fruit. Note verse 10 when Paul says, “so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work”. This passage in the introduction to Colossians tells us that the word of truth is the gospel. The gospel is the agent for producing fruit. Producing real fruit is well-pleasing to God.

Just as a well-cultivated garden produces lots of healthy vegetables or a well-maintained apple tree grows many beautiful and delicious apples, so shall the true gospel-loving, truth-believing, Bible-studying Christian exhibit characteristics that will be different from the world. These characteristics will, in fact, bring pleasure to our Father and cause His face to shine upon us.

Colossians 2

Colossians 3

Holy and Beloved

Colossians 3:12

So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Wow! If ever there was a passage to memorize, this is it! It has doctrine (Biblical teaching about the nature of God and the condition of man) and it has practical application (what our response should be to Biblical truth).

If you love the Lord, it is because He first loved you (1 John 1:19). He chose you as his adopted child (Ephesians 1:5). Colossians 3:12 says that true believers are holy. That means that if you are a true Christian, then you have been set apart. You are different. Unique. You have been singled out for His special purposes. The verse also says you are beloved! He has set His affection on you. He loves you very much.

And in response to these wonderful truths, we have a responsibility to display (put on) characteristics that identifies us as being different from everyone else. As objects of God’s great love, we must show that we are set apart. The Apostle Paul, the writer of this verse, tells us a few things we must do: We must show a genuine compassion to others. That means to show mercy. We must practice kindness and humility. That means to consider others more important than ourselves by treating them with goodness and grace. We must also exercise gentleness and patience toward others.

God has acted in these ways toward us and has granted us forgiveness through His Son Jesus. If we are to please God, who chose us and loved us and made us holy, surely we must put on these character qualities in our actions towards those around us.

Put on Love

Colossians 3:14

Beyond all these things, put on love which is the perfect bond of unity.

The Holy Spirit is saying to us through the Apostle Paul, that in addition to the things we just learned to cultivate in our character in the previous verses (compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience), there’s one more thing we need to put on. Love.

When he says to ‘put on’ these character virtues, he is using the image of putting on a garment. Just as you would put on a coat or put on a sweater or hat, so put on these Christian characteristics. Not as a fake or a fraud, but literally when you get up in the morning, don’t forget to put on genuine love on top of everything else! These virtues are meant to be intentional. It’s easy to forget about them or not to emphasize these things in our lives, but this passage is a reminder from God that just like we put on clothing every day, we need to put these characteristics on display. And the result is clear: we will have unity, one with another.

Peace of Christ: Our Umpire

Colossians 3:15

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.

There are many things that want to rule in our hearts, but peace isn’t often one of them. As we become more and more entangled in the affairs of every day life, peacefulness, calmness and tranquility will get squeezed out. Confidence is Christ’s ability to deliver us from evil and sin is the foundation and root of our peace. Peace doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is going our way. It actually may sometimes mean quite the opposite: when things AREN’T going our way, Christ gives us the wherewithal to stand up strong when we’d rather collapse.

And when Paul says that this kind of peace should ‘rule’ in our hearts, he is using a word choice from the day that means ‘umpire’. Just like an umpire in a baseball game who makes decisions that affect the outcome of a game, this peace that Christ provides gives us guidance that affects how we live. When the peace of Christ is the umpire in our hearts, unrest, anxiety and instability no longer characterize our way of living. This is what Christians have been called to!