In my office there hangs a framed page positioned strategically so that it's the last thing I see as I leave and the first thing that catches my eye when I sit down each day. It's a page from a Geneva Bible. The Geneva Bible is the first mass-produced Bible with verse numbers, and this particular page was printed and then lined by hand in red ink 426 years ago in 1597.
What I think is just incredible is that I didn't acquire this page with any prior knowledge that I'd ever be preaching through Colossians. And it just so happens to be the exact chapter and page that contains a verse that is incredibly important to me. Colossians 3:23.
There was a time in my life when the work I was doing was making me bitter from the inside out. Every single day felt like a waste. I knew somewhere deep down that I needed to be in the church. I needed to be in ministry. And it's easy to look back now and almost minimize those days with thoughts like, "Well it all worked out." But I had no idea that was the plan back then. I just felt stuck. And then one night, reading through Colossians, I came to verse 23: "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men."
Those "nothing" tasks I had been doing were actually noble when done for Christ. That verse changed something in me.
The page doesn't hang in my office because I think it's cool, though I do think that. It hangs there because it's a daily reminder of how God was able to turn bitterness into worship and service, and also because of the connection I share with believers from nearly four and a half centuries ago. People who read those same words. People who found the same strength and guidance and comfort in them that I did. The Word of God doesn't age. It hasn't gone stale. The same truth that steadied someone in 1597 is the same truth that steadied me in 2017.
That's what Paul means in 2 Timothy 3:16 when he says that all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable. It's not just historically interesting. It's alive. And it's still doing its work.