Colossians 2:1-3

The four July messages at SSB were thoughtful of what should mark Standing Stone Bible the second half of 2019.

We opened the series with the three thoughts of verse 2.  That is; be encouraged, be knit together in love, and be driven to know this God and Jesus in a much deeper way.

God has done great things for us over the past couple of years and in the first half of ’19 so we need to be encouraged as we look to the next months.  Furthermore, our God is the God of the Old Testament which is full of reasons to be encouraged even when things are not pleasing or right.

Then 2:2 notes that those people were knit in love.  That has marked us in the months past and does mark us today.  We must press on still desiring unity and love for God uses such to impact our world (all will know we belong to God by our love, John 13:35-36, and by our unity, John 17:21).

Thirdly, in Christ are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (2:3) which we should greatly desire that we might know how to live pleasing to Him in a crazed world.

We considered the treasure we have in God the Father for He adopted us, enlightened and guides us, and forgave us our sins.  We are reminded of God bringing the Israelites out of Egypt and lovingly leading them with a fiery pillar to the Red Sea where He destroyed that which had been their past – the Egyptians (forgave sins).

Then we talked about Jesus in two parts – His salvation and His will for us.

About His salvation, we used Colossians 1:27, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  So how does one get into Christ?  We looked at Ephesians 2:1-6 which tells what God does that we might be saved. Then we looked at Luke 23 and the one on a cross by Jesus who was saved and stepped into Paradise because Jesus said so!  The man on the cross knew quite a bit about Jesus because someone had been talking – telling him about Jesus.  That is where Jesus’ people come into view.  So, a great treasure we have is that Jesus saves terrible sinners.  ‘Tis great wisdom to grasp what Jesus did on Calvary and through the Spirit and His people to bring us into His salvation.

We took a little salvation test from Colossians 1:3-8 which culminates in Paul noting that they loved him.  We asked the question, “Do you love Paul?”  We considered Romans 3:10, 5:9, 6:22, and 9:22-23 (also I Corinthians 7:10-11) asking ourselves if we love Paul.

Then we talked about the wisdom and knowledge found in Jesus that we might know Him – His ways, His will, His work.  The will of Jesus is Colossians 1:28 – “to present every person perfect [mature] in Christ” – peppiC.  To desire Jesus is to study Jesus that we might grow in love and obedience to Jesus together.  The will of God is that we become like His dear Son, Jesus.  The will of God is to treasure Truth as did Jesus.

Lastly, we considered ways that we need to grow in the remaining months of 2019 looking at Ephesians 3:14-16.  So, how is our prayer life?  How well do we do with the Father idea?  What about family?  Who is in Heaven and how?  And what about God’s family at 321 So. Hwy. 6?  Paul was asking God to strengthen his readers which implies trials and troubles.  What do we think of such and are we prepared for such?  We have much to learn and much to work on.

May SSB grasp the points of Colossians 2:2-3 and work on them diligently the second half of 2019.