A Worthy Life Series

A Worthy Life

CCCAG, February 12th 2023

Scripture: Colossians 1:9-14

Introduction:

I was looking back through my files last week and since I came here as the pastor in 2014, we have done sermon series focusing on the Gospel of John, and the epistles of Romans, James, Ephesians, and Philippians. The last two, Philippian’s and Ephesians are 2 out of 4 of the prison epistles, or letters that Paul wrote while he was under arrest in Rome. The other letter are Philemon, and the letter we will be looking at for the next few weeks- Colossians.

When I was planning this out, I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes, trying to picture Paul as he was dictating this to a scribe. He is chained to a Roman soldier, but stubbornly refusing to give up on his calling to build the church.

Paul was writing to a people living in a Roman culture. This is a culture which-

Believed that Rome was your god, and the emperor was to be worshipped. In fact, that is what Paul was imprisoned for- speaking about Jesus.

In addition to emperor worship, Roman culture supported and encouraged other pagan worship

Used male and female prostitutes in the various temples as a part of their pagan worship, and then would use the children born to those women as a ritual sacrifice.

Had widespread drug and alcohol usage.

Brutally suppressed any uprising. You did NOT have freedom of speech, of assembly, of the press, religion, or the right to bear arms.

I bring this background about the world that Paul was writing to because sometimes we think that the words we find in scripture may have had meaning then, but not for our modern world.

This is known as chronological snobbery- that we in the 21st century are so much more advanced morally than they were in the times the bible was written.

I don’t think you can watch the news for more than 1 minute and honestly think that outside of technologically, humanity hasn’t really changed since the time of Paul writing this letter.

We still have pagan worship. If you don’t believe me, then you didn’t see the Grammy’s this last week, which is probably a good thing.

We will worship at the altar of sexual sin as porn is readily available and we have a booming sex trade, even here in west central Wisconsin.

Even in church’s, swinging is becoming the naughty secret.

Many of the freedoms that were ours since our nations founding are being eroded away, most notably the right to keep and bear arms. But, we shouldn’t ignore the thought police trying to strip us of our freedom of speech by telling us what we have to believe and say or they will do everything they can to destroy you.

I say that just to establish that the people that Paul is writing to in the book of Colossians are not that different from you and me.

So- as we go through this letter in the next several weeks, I want you to resist the thought that this is just a historical dive into an ancient culture that has little bearing to us today.

This letter is meant for you and for me today in 2023.

A little more historical background-

Collosae as a city does not exist anymore. It was located in what is today central Turkey, and was about 9 miles SE of Laodicea. It was home to 25-30, 000 people, and had a reputation as being the center of a cult of people who worshipped angels.

The church was founded by a man named Epaphras, an apostle working under Paul’s leadership. It was founded in the late 40’s AD, and Paul writes this letter to the church to clarify doctrine about who Christ is to us, and to avoid having that cult of angels influence the beliefs of the new church.

In verses 1-8, Paul begins his letter to the Colossians by greeting friends and fellow workers like Epaphras in verse 7, before getting to the teaching he wanted to bring.

Col 1:9-14

9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 And we pray this in order that you may 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, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.