Week One - Colossians 1:1-14

Father God, help us empty our minds of worries, examine our
hearts for sin, and be focused upon Your Word as the Holy
Spirit instructs us in Your will. In Jesus name, Amen


Book Chosen Colossians

What is the overall theme/purpose of this book?

Jesus Christ is God; He is the Creator and sustainer of all

things, the head of the church, the first to be resurrected into

heaven, fullness of God in the form of man. In a nutshell, Paul is

telling the Colossians that all we need is Jesus.Col 1:15-22

Why was this letter/passage written?
To tell the Colossian church of the adequacy of Christ and to

guard against deceptive and hollow philosophies. Col 2:8

What type of literature is this (doctrinal, poetic, historical, etc.)?

I think this is doctrinal, as this book seems to deal directly with

the sufficiency of Jesus and is contrast to how other things that

fall short or are empty of promise.

Who wrote the book?

Paul, he identifies himself in Chapter 1:1
To the Church at Colosse: Chapter 1:2

THIS WEEK'S SCRIPTURE FOCUS: Colossians 1:1-14

1: Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and

Timotheus our brother,
2: To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at

Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father

and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3: We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus

Christ, praying always for you,
4: Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love

which ye have to all the saints,
5: For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye

heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;
6: Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth

forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it,

and knew the grace of God in truth:
7: As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is

for you a faithful minister of Christ;
8: Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
9: For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not

cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with

the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual

understanding;
1: That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being

fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of

God;
11: Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power,

unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
12: Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to

be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath

translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
14: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the

forgiveness of sins

What are the recipients of this letter doing right?

Their great faith is known. The love for other people, and they

were proclaiming the Gospel of Christ.

What are the recipients of this letter doing wrong?

Nothing mentioned thus far in the focus passages, but Paul

does pray that the Colossians "live a life worthy of the Lord and

may please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work,

growing in the knowledge of God"

How can I apply this passage to my life? What similar situations

do I face

I’ll be adding to this tonight after my prayer time

ok had to repost, not sure what i did wrong in the initial post
i'll be adding my self-application later. Looking forward to responses and input from others as God has lead them to share.

I am extremely blessed by Colossians 1:5:6
Speaking of the Colossians faith in Jesus, and the worth of Truth, the Gospel of Jesus Christ....
..."constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth."

Jesus is always at work in us. When we are obedient and faithful, the gospel of the saving grace of Jesus will bear fruit and increase in our lives...as it has been. Wow. That got me to wondering, and remembering, of how God used me in the past. I remember one day inviting a young tawianese women to the ladies bible study. SHe lived near the church and a women of our church had invited her to attend. I saw her and had invited her to Women's Bible Study. I was inviting everyone then as I was groving in leaps and bounds. Her name was Spring and she is a missionary now in California, and there are talks of her going to the orient. The point is, I was doing the simple task of studying, praying and learning of God's will for my life. Hiding His word in my heart *Psalms 119:11*, and telling all of what I learned. God has placed many others times that; while I was not the one praying and leading people in the sinners pray; that my obedience and trust in His sufficiency did bear fruit. It truly was nothing special on my part EXCEPT my obedience.

Have any of you been like me? Have you let the the basic trust of sufficiency of "grace of God in truth" . Well the Bible says Jesus has been working a great work in us since the day we heard. satan would love to whisper to us and say.... well... if your such a high and wonderful christian why don't you feel wonderful...why don't you .... why don't you...

Remember, it was Jesus and Him crucified, nothing more, that obtains us grace.

Get obedient... whether we feel it or not...God promises His simple message will bear fruit. In doing so, we will walk in a manner worth of God, *increasing* in His knoweldge (v.10); strengthened in according with God's power (v11)

God has delivered through Jesus from the "domain of darkness"...

We have been redeemed, Praise Him.

I'll have more on this tomorrow

Yesterday at 08:09 PM nomad said this in Post #5

...in order to be fruitful they must understand what God wants and learn how to go about it.  In order to do this they must learn to listen to God and apply what God shows them.  They then experience for themselves what God is really like and begin to know Him better. 

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I cannot stress this enough.  Amen for your posting this.  This is exactly what God is laying on my heart for myself.  I stopped reading, studying and praying.   These three things will help us increase in the Knowledge of God, but its the Holy Spirit the illuminates.  And God will.  Obedience always and daily food from God's word is a great way to start so that the promise of "bear fruit in every good work and increase in the knowledge of God" (v10).

 

Today at 02:30 AM Doreen said this in Post #6

Written cAD60-62 by Paul

Overall theme/purpose is the preemminance and glory of Jesus Christ as God's Son

It was written to warn against legalism and so that ethical demands and intellectual standards would be properly intergrated into their pattern of Christian living. 

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Awesome input.  Amen on the Preeminance and Glory of Jesus, and the Caveat....warning against legalism.  This is so overlooked today.  Its not about how much you do; but how much God did

I'll be posting Monday Morning my study in Colossians 1:15-23. I've been enjoying digging into God's word again, and I thank those of you who have posted and others who have encouraged me to trust and obey

These verses coming up talk about Jesus being Supreme God and man and us as sinners being reconciled through Him. It talks of being a servant at one part. It would be nice if someone here, not necessary though, would do a devotional on what is a servant heart.

Blessing to you all, and may God place a hedge of supreme protection around our troups in the middle east.

Love

Reeann

WoW, this is great. Amazing that God directed to me to this book, the basics of the Gospel, Jesus Christ

I found something on Gnostism, i'm gonna post it here.

I appreciate this input it is teaching me alot and is appreciate

Blessings to you all

Love,
Reeann

Here it is :


Understanding Gnosticism (from The International Inductive Study Bible)

Much like the church today, many members of the early church were significantly influed by the prevailing philospophy of the day. While some of the New Testament was being written, te church in Asia was being threatened by gnosticism, a philosphy which become the main opponent of the gospel in the early apostolic church.


Many member of the early church were seeking enlightenment, and were easily deceived by Gnostic teachers and led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. Some had aparently left the church to form their own community, teaching a different gospel from what the apostles had preached. This movement away from the church caused those who remained to question what was true, and thus confusion crept in.

The term 'gnosticism' comes from te Greek work, gnosis, meaning "knowledge" Gnisticism is a philosphy of which centers on a search for higher knowledge. The Gnostics taught that this knowledge was not intellectual knowledge but a knowledge which the ordinary Christian was incapable of attaining. Once a believer came into possession of this extraordinary knowledge, according to Gnostic thought, he had "salvation."

-the first major Gnostic doctrine was the supremacy of knowledge. Certain 'pneumatikoi' or "spiritual ones' claimed ot have special knowledge of the truth. Ordinary Christians did not or could not possess this secret of higher knowledge.

-The second major doctrine of gnosticism was the "separation of spirit and matter." All matter was considered to be evil and the source of evil. The spirit was considered to be good and impervious to defilement by anything the body (matter) did.

Claiming a so-called higher knowledge beyond that revealed by God in Christ Jesus and through the prophets, gnosticism had its origins in the philosophies of the Greeks and the Romans, in the creeds of Plato and Philo, and in the religions of the East, especially those of Persia and India. As long as Christianity kept its Judaic roots, it was free from these heresies. However, when Christianity spread to Gentile territory, an attempt was made on the part of Eastern philosophical religion to form an alliance with it.

Many Gnostics allegorized the Old Tesament and did not interpret its teachings literally. They strayed from the veracity of the Word, which would have exposed their erroneous teachings regarding creation, sin, and restoration of all things. They failed ot see how a supreme God, pure in spirit and essentially good, could create a universe of matter which they considered evil.

When the Gnostics embraced Christianity, they split into factions on the subject of Christ's diety. Two of the major factins taught as follows:

1. The Docetic Gnostics denied the humanity of Jesus. The word 'docetic' comes from te Greek wod "dokeo", "to seem." According to the Docetists, it was impossible for God, who was spirit and good, to become flesh, which was matter and evil, in the person of Jesus Christ. They believed that Jesus was a phantom; He didn't possess a real flesh-and-blood body. He only seemed to have a body.

2. The Cerinthian Gnostics (followers of Cerinthus) separated the man Jesus from the aeon, the power of Christ. They believed that when the dove came on Jesus at His baptism, the power of Christ came and rested on the man Jesus. This power then departed before His death on the cross. So it was simply the "man" Jesus who died, not Jesus Christ, God in the flesh.

These Gnostic heresies denied that God became man and walked this earth in the person of Jesus Christ to bring redemption and salvation to mankind. Having eliminated Jesus Christ as the only way to God, the Gnostics believed they could make their own way to God through their inquiry and knowledge. Faith and one's deeds were viewed as having no significance in salvation or the life of a believer.

Understanding the basis of gnosticism and the forms of thought that it took in the early days of the Christian church will enable you to better understand te doctrinal heresy which some of the New Testament writers addressed.