Known

“All my affairs will be made known to you by Tychicus, the beloved brother, faithful servant, and fellow bondservant in the Lord.”

What trust the Apostle Paul is able to have in the Christian believers in Colosse! Could this be true of a local church in our day? Are we able to have the confidence in each other that we judge kindly and positively and are open and sincere?

The Apostle had an open account with the Christians churches in his day and could be trusted by everyone to do and say the right thing. He was such a man of God and so faithful to the heavenly vision and the Word of God. His wisdom was peerless and he had an answer for everyone. This is because he also kept short accounts with the Lord and kept his life daily perfect before God. Every sin was confessed and expunged and so his life was holy. He could tell the Christians to be like him, because he was like Christ.

“Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.”

1 Corinthians 11:1

The attitude and life of Paul was open to the scrutiny of others and he was able to live this life by the power of God. The same Spirit of God dwells in every Christian, so why is there such falling away and apostasy in our days? We have lost the attitude of godliness and excuse our sin and do not seek the perfect life of God. We excuse ourselves by saying that Paul was special, but he was saved in the same way as everyone else and is just a son of the kingdom like everyone else too. The search of holiness will lead us in the way of Paul and of Christ.

Paul was obviously keen that the other brothers in Christ should report about what he was doing in the other churches and continued his life as a living testimony to the grace of God. Paul did not hide from people, but freely conversed and wrote to them many letters of teaching, encouragement and news about what he was doing. His accountability was universal, and every Christian could know about what he did. His letters were to the churches and were read to the churches so that everyone could see and be clear about what Paul thought and did.

Paul’s witnesses were also solid and reliable people. He calls Tychicus his beloved brother, faithful servant and fellow bondservant in the Lord. Paul had many who lived and worked like this, a far cry from the celebrity preachers and pastors we have nowadays. The work these men of God did was sacrificial, hard and cost them their lives in the end. They relied on the love of God rather than the acclaim of men and on the faithfulness of the Lord rather than the fickleness of the human heart. They did not play to the gallery, but were honest and sincere and took the place of humility rather than fame and fortune.

What would happen if we were to live like that today? Perhaps we instinctively know that it would not necessarily go well with us. Look what happened to the Christians in the early church and to our Lord Jesus Christ…

Beloved, let us put on courage and faith as we step out and step up for God. May we live our lives in holiness and honesty before the people God has put around us and make ourselves as the example of our dear brother, Paul and our Saviour JESUS.

Seasoned

“Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”

Our marker for how we are is the way we speak, to ourselves and other people. Our words betray our mindset for good or bad. Whether we are talking with ourselves and reasoning about or situation and other people, our inner speech should be gracious, remembering we are heard by the Lord. We might think we can be “ourselves” in private, but it is too easy to be hypocritical. We think negative thoughts about others in our private places in our heads, and speak differently about them, as is socially acceptable. Which is true?

God sees our inner life up close and clearer than we do, and it behoves us to pay more careful attention to our private lives.

“Anyone who doesn’t stumble in word is a perfect person, able to bridle the whole body also.”

James 2:3

If we are in control of what we say, we are in control. This includes the private conversations we have with ourselves. It is difficult to patrol the various areas of our psyche. How careful we are and how persistent, betrays our efforts in godliness. We blow hot and cold and still our loving God holds us fast.

We must practice using the seasoning of the Word of God to remind us and teach us how we should be. Applying it to our lives and specifically our speech is our daily task. Watching our private speech will automatically improve our public speech and our general mindset. It is good to rehearse good conversations with people and have a good mindset at all times to help us to speak helpfully to people and not with rancour and bad feelings. The Apostle is instructing us that our speaking should be gracious and helpful to the hearer, and not destructive or encourage ill will or bad feelings.

This can be a difficult skill because there are times we have to speak plainly and point out the bad things that are happening around us, but that also is an acquired skill born of the Spirit of God. It is our attitude to others that is key. We speak to improve their situation and build the other person up, not to continually knock them down. Even as we criticise it is seasoned with the salt of the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

“Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for building up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear. Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander, be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.”

Ephesians 4:29-32

Redeeming

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

“Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.”

God constrains us to be wise and to live wisely in our lives before all people. We do this because time is short and we do not know how long we have allotted to us. We see his glory in our lives and want to meet Him one day, with treasure stored up in that heavenly place. We don’t know how many people we will be able to influence and witness to for Christ, so all things must be brought under the subjection of a godly life. We seek the wisdom only God can give to live and speak for Him, and to be honest and sincere in all we are as God’s people.

Perhaps we have wasted a lot of time procrastinating and backsliding one way or another, and we need to get the discipline back in our lives to live for Christ. We do this through devotion to the person of Christ, realising that He is a person and we relate to him as a person. We do this through the Word of God and daily meditations on the Word to discover more and more about our God and Saviour JESUS the Lord. As we get to know Him more fully we ask for the wisdom of God with a clearer view of what that is. Then we can walk in the ways of wisdom and be wise people in the Lord.

“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts; who having become callous gave themselves up to lust, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you did not learn Christ that way; if indeed you heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus: that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man, that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit; and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.”

Ephesians 4:17-24

We put off the old way of life that feeds off a futile and unwise mind and put on Christ. We learn from Him in humility and peaceableness, denying the uncleanness of self and greed, and are renewed daily. We seek wisdom, righteousness, holiness and truth, not just to satisfy ourselves with the things of this life and the desires of our earthy selves. If we live according to righteousness, we will necessarily be happy, for the Lord will bless us in our inner souls and others will see the difference from what we used to be and what the world is like around us. Our witness will be strong for it will be sincere.

If we are living right then we have the opportunity and authority to speak right too. Otherwise we are simply hypocrites who deny the power of the Holy Spirit and have no real faith in the ways of God. Christians are not like other people, and if they are, they are not!

Ignorance of God breeds lack of understanding and so hardness of heart ensues. No one will be attracted by this and no semblance of the love of God will be seen in us. It’s all or nothing. A life of faith or the life of unbelief.

Beloved, let us redeem the time, lest we waste the time and the outsider goes on in their sin and are lost. There is so much at stake for eternity, so let us walk worthy of our Lord Jesus.

Reveal

“that I may reveal it as I ought to speak.”

There are times when our attitude may not be right and we lack love towards other people and speak out of turn or out of tone. Paul asks for prayer that this will not be true of him.

He also seeks to have the ability to share the gospel fully and openly to show the whole message of God and His plan for sinful people. Paul seeks the confidence that comes from God to preach the gospel with the authority that it should have. Nothing must be hidden or apologetically explained, but put forward as the Word of God and the only way for the forgiveness of sins and the daily walk of fellowship with the Lord.

There are times when we can be over-awed by our audience and intimidated by the people we are around, and so we soft-pedal the message, not wishing to offend. We must fight the urge to water down the gospel so that it is more acceptable to the fallen human psyche. We are not to hide any part of it, or save ourselves from the embarrassment of giving negative information. We need to reveal the gospel as it is portrayed for us in the holy scripture and preach it from the scripture.

The classic side-step is the reality of the punishment of God to all those who refuse to repent and believe. It is very offensive to the human mind that God should have that kind of right over us. We believe and are taught in self-determination and the fact that God is in control, offends us greatly. We need to ask for the courage and strength to stick to the message and not be put off by social considerations. Losing friends is a distinct possibility but you will have told them the truth and God will ensure the sharing of His Word will bless and save the lost.

As the message is revealed in the Scripture so we reveal it to others around us, and especially those who preach it from the front.

“For if I preach the Good News, I have nothing to boast about; for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me, if I don’t preach the Good News.”

1 Corinthians 9:16

The messenger of the Lord is compelled to preach the Good News of the gospel in all its glory and fulness. There are warnings against not sounding out this aspect of warning to people, about the wrath of God to come against all who wickedly refuse salvation.

“When I tell the wicked, You shall surely die; and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand. Yet if you warn the wicked, and he doesn’t turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.”

Ezekiel 3:18-19

This is the warning against not sounding out the warning! We are naturally reticent to do so, but the Lord will help us at the right time and in the right way as the Apostle has prayed for.

Open

“praying together for us also, that God may open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds;”

This is what we live for as Christians people. To speak the Word of Christ. Either using voice or the written word, we seek to tell the sinner about the reality of forgiveness and a new life, and the saint, the building up of faith and love. We pray that God will open doors for us to speak for Him and we take every opportunity that He affords us to spread the good news about Jesus. We pray for each other that we will have the courage and knowledge to speak when we get a hearing and the ability to make the most of every opportunity to comfort people with the love of Christ.

We speak the mystery of Christ. It is a mystery because it is not from the human psyche, and therefore cannot be understood without the Spirit of God teaching us. The message is from God and relates His love for us when we were still His enemies and dead to His voice, He died for us. No one else would do such a thing for us and no one else will love ignoble us. Though we are far from God, He reaches out to us and calls us to come to Him personally and repent of our sin. We can know the freedom from its stultifying bonds, as a gift from God. God is willing to give us total forgiveness for everything and eternal life when this life is over. The love of God knows no bounds and He offers it freely to us. The mystery is His sacrificial love that will hold us fast and bring us safely home to heaven. There is no other gospel and no other salvation.

The Apostle Paul sought to speak this message at every chance he would get and asks the believers at Colosse to pray for open doors to do so. He is in prison at this point and so his opportunities seem limited, but God is able to deliver his servant and raise him up to speak again. Even in prison Paul is reaching out to the Christians in the churches and writing the letters, of which this is one. Perhaps he is thinking of the door of the prison opening for him, so that he can visit the churches again and further spread the gospel. Perhaps he know this is the end of the line for him, but is encouraging us to take up the torch of truth and run with it.

Beloved, do we pray for each other in this way? Do we seek to be useful to Christ and be adept at speaking for Him? We put our trust and confidence in the Lord and know that He will help us as we step up to witness for Him. As God opens the door, so we can go through it and make the most of our opportunities to make a difference for Christ and be ambassadors for His sake.

Continue

“Continue steadfastly in prayer, watching therein with thanksgiving;”

We must pray and not cease…

The Apostle instructs us to continue in prayer and to not give up. We pray and watch for answers and the over arching will of God in all things. We should know the mind of God so that we can ascertain what His will would be because we know his character so well. We can see the work of His will in our own life and therefore get to know His purposes for us and how He works in the life of other people as well. This will inform our prayers and we will pray according to his will, and He will hear us.

As we watch for the outworking of our prayers and the will of God we will be filled with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the burning fuel of the Christian life. It enervates and powers all the praise, worship, service and love for the Lord Jesus. The grateful heart continually rehearses the mercies it has received and this feeds the constant flow of thankful prayer to God. Gratefulness is the fountain head of the power of God in the life of the Christian. The constant flow of it wears away the rock of the hardness of our heart and makes it conform to the will and purpose of the Lord and not the selfishness of our own way.

As we then pray, we will be looking for the outworking of answers to our prayers with joy and faith. As we see the answers to our prayers we will give thanks in gratitude to the mercy shown to us that God should include us in his will in this way. We will have the victory over the gloom that naturally infests our minds and will rejoice in God our Saviour.

“Always rejoice. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

This is the key to the victory over sin and temptation in the Christian life. It is the path of rejoicing and the living of a life full of gratitude to the Lord for all His love. This is the will of God for every Christian and the powerhouse of the overcomer. Continue in prayer…

Equal

“Masters, give to your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.”

This is the instruction to balance the faithfulness of the servant to the master. Masters must also treat servants equitably and fairly. They must have respect for what they do, and for who they are as people. Managers and bosses are put in a position of trust with a duty of care over the people who work for them, and it is all too easy to take advantage of workers and abuse them.

“You shall not oppress your neighbour, nor rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.”

Leviticus 19:13

How we treat those who work for us is very important as it shows our attitude to both ourselves and the workforce. If we think we are successful in our own efforts we will become proud and imagine we can treat people as we see fit. If we are greedy we will be willing to build our success on the back of others with little recompense or recognition. If we are mean we will be unable to share the good things that we are able to have.

God has given all for us. He did not hold back the sacrifice of His own beloved Son that we as sinners should not perish in our sins. How can we take advantage of others knowing what was given for us?

God is our Master and will recompense us according to what we have done. We must also recompense others fairly as we also would like to be treated by God. The measure we judge others is the measure by which we also will be judged. If we take unfairly from the efforts of other people, we will lose out in our eternal reward. There are those who will be saved by the skin of their teeth, and will have no reward. The way we operate in this life as Christian people is very important. Taking what is not ours has serious consequences, even in this life. A bad reputation can ruin our labours and render our work useless. We should be imbursing those who serve us in an appropriate manner and giving them the opportunities to improve and make progress in life.

“Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged. For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.”

Matthew 7:1-2

Fairness in all things. We should find ourselves judging on the side of generosity rather than short measures, as this is the way of the Christian. God will honour those who honour His ways and standards, and those who are evil will not succeed in the long run. We lay up treasure in heaven, not in this fallen doomed earth.

Partiality

“But he who does wrong will receive again for the wrong that he has done, and there is no partiality.”

God does not have favourites, but he does have His own people who he loves with an everlasting love. God does not treat us as our sins deserve. We receive full and free forgiveness from His mercy and everlasting life as a free gift of His grace.

However, if we sin and sin wilfully, we will suffer consequences in our lives. God will not allow us to run on in our sinfulness without there being some kind of chastisement. The child of God will act and react and seek the Lord again. There is redemption for our backsliding, but there are often life situations that we must deal with and difficulties we will have to face up to.

Sin in the life of the Christian is serious, for it stops the blessing of God and separates us from the close fellowship we all seek and need. God will not allow it to continue and will find a way to stop it and bring us back into the fold once more. We wander away at our peril and are vulnerable to ravenous people who would destroy our faith and lead us away from God. In our life circumstances we need the protecting hand of God and His over-ruling will that will guide us and keep us in the heavenly way.

The Lord our Saviour does not punish us, for all punishment was swallowed up on the cross and there is no more condemnation for the Christian. But there are outcomes of bad decisions and sinful mindsets that must be faced.

In all situations and relationships, the Lord does not treat us as our sins deserve, but pours out mercy towards us and binds up our hurts and heals our broken hearts. He does not favour one of His children above another and will work out all things for the good of each one, according to His purposes. His love is everlasting and His grace extends to us in our need and fallen-ness.

The Lord is faithful to us even if we are unfaithful and will never let us go beyond the bounds of His will for us. Even our sinfulness is written into the plan and He can work all things out for good in a way that no one else can. In this time we commit our way to Him and stay away from the sin that would lead us away from Him and earnestly seek to stay close to our Father in heaven who loves us with an everlasting love.

Rewards

“knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.”

When we think of the rewards that are ahead and the inheritance we have in Christ it should enervate us to have the motivation to serve the Lord with gladness in our situation. Too often we do not mediate on our spiritual blessings in Christ and are too earth bound in our search for meaning and significance. We value the good pleasure of others before the well done of the Lord. Some day the people of God will receive the fruit of their labours for the Lord from His gracious hand. It will be personal and we will recieve the words of commendation if we have persevered to the end and overcome our worldly disposition.

One day the trials of our life will all pass away and the petty troubles we have experienced will evaporate into the glory of the Lord. We will enter into the full light of the redemption that has been bought for us at Calvary and we will receive the inheritance we have been promised in Christ. Our earth-bound trials will cease and we will forget them.

“For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory, while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

The remedy for our present troubles is to lift our eyes away for them and gaze deeper into the inheritance from God. We can see it in the Holy Scriptures and by faith lay hold on it and are encouraged. If we are unclear about what that inheritance is or what is laid up for us in heaven, we can get a clear view from Ephesians chapter One. We have here a list of our spiritual blessings in Christ which we can access even now and enjoy. We are guilty of forgetfulness and we look to the temporal blessings in life for validation and encouragement, which they cannot give us in the long term. They are temporary stop gaps to bless us, but they can never satisfy the soul that longs for Christ.

Beloved, as we serve the Lord Christ, let us remember what He requires of us, that we walk in faith and devotion to Him. As our sight is lifted to higher ground we are given better motivation to walk worthy of the Lord, than the fleeting rewards of this life.

Our inheritance is kept for us above and one day we will fully enter into it. No one can take it away and no circumstance in life will spoil what has been stored away. God will renew all things and open all doors for us, so that we will serve Him with all the powers He has given to us and strengthen our hold on spiritual life. Let us hold on in faith and hope to all He has given to us and continue to serve Him in the life that He has allotted to us.

Heartily

“And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men,”

Here in this verse we have the reinforcement of the sentiment to work hard as unto the Lord. If we have this attitude it will make our difficult work sweet and our labours a blessing to us. All things, as unto the Lord. It will then cease to matter who we work for or what they are like, for our eternal Father watches over us and knows what we can bear. He is moulding and making our character, and the circumstances of our life are His express interest and design. What family we are involved with and what job we do, are all under His choosing. Even the difficulties of life and the stresses and strains are under this jurisdiction. Nothing is outside His control, although we might think it is! The sovereignty of God interfaces all our life and will direct our footsteps to the end. We cannot make a mistake, for His guiding hand will keep us and sustain us as we learn our lessons and walk daily with Him.

What if the manager or person in charge is unreliable?

Our hearts do not change whoever is our director in this life. We do all for the glory of God and with a happy and joyful heart, no matter what the circumstances. Perhaps the people around us are untrustworthy, but we pray for them that they will be released from their bonds and find the liberty in Christ that we now have by the grace of God. None of us have any hope without the Lord and we should have some sympathy for those who oppress us, as they are also oppressing Christ and are therefore not in a good state in this world or in the judgment of God. This is impossible for us to feel unless the same Spirit of love is at work in our heart as is in the heart of Jesus. It is easy to be bitter, but we are not of that type. We pray for those who oppose us and put us down. God will deliver us from the grasp of the wicked at the right time and will bless our faithfulness and witness to them.

“But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? If you only greet your friends, what more do you do than others? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Matthew 5:44-48

If we enjoy good over us, we give thanks to God and do our work well so that all may see our good works and glorify God. To live and work in such a godly frame of mind is life and peace and we will live our lives in a perfect frame of mind, even as the Lord Jesus did. He is our pattern and our praise…

Daughters of the Kingdom

Women who glorify God