Faith in Christ Jesus

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: grace to you and peace from God our Father.

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.” (Colossians 1:1-8 ESV)

The apostle Paul is known as the author of this book, but he was writing on behalf of both himself and Timothy to the Christians in Colossae who were “the saints and faithful brothers in Christ.” And a saint in Christ Jesus is one who is set apart from the world and for God and for his purposes, who is holy because he is unlike (different) from the world. For, by genuine faith in the Lord Jesus, he is being conformed to the likeness of character of Christ, which is a life-long process of being made holy by faith in our Lord.

These Christians were also faithful in the Lord, who were reliable, full of faith, believing, and trustworthy. For they were the persuaded of God who were loyal to the faith that Jesus provided and that he taught and that the NT apostles taught. And to be persuaded of God regarding such faith is to be persuaded as to his holiness and righteousness and of our sinfulness and of our need to repent of (turn away from) our sins and to now follow him in obedience to his commands in holy living, in the power of God.

[Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23; Acts 26:18; Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians 4:17-24]

Now, what is described for us here is a model, although perhaps not a perfect one, of what it should look like if our faith in the Lord is genuine faith and if we are true followers of Jesus Christ who are walking in obedience to his commands in holy living, and who are no longer walking in sin. We should have a good reputation of being people of faith in the Lord Jesus whose faith is consistent with what the Scriptures teach regarding our faith and what genuine faith in the Lord should look like.

This faith should produce within us love for all God’s people, for all who are called of God to be his holy ones, and who are following him with their lives in surrender of their lives to the will of God. Now we should love all people, even our enemies, but this is a specific reference regarding how we relate to and how we treat others within the body of Christ. And this love is agape love which prefers what God prefers, so this will be according to the will and purpose of God, and it will be honest, fair, morally pure, and upright.

And this love will be modeled after Jesus Christ and how he loved the people of the earth when he was on the earth. And he healed the sick and afflicted and raised the dead and fed the hungry and cast demons out of people and he comforted the sorrowful. But he also preached repentance for the forgiveness of sins and obedience to God and to his word, and he taught holy living and that we must no longer walk in sin, for if we do, we will die. And he called out the hypocrites for who they were and spoke truth in love.

So “love” isn’t just all this mushy-gushy stuff connected solely to our emotions, but it is doing for others what is for their good, as God defines good, even if they hate us and mistreat us in return. And it is speaking the truth in love to one another, and it is us exhorting one another so that we are not led astray by sin’s deceitfulness, and so that we are not taken captive by people in their cunning and craftiness and deceitful scheming. And it is helping one another to grow to maturity in the Lord Jesus.

[Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-5; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:15-21; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:12-16; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20]

Now the love and the faith that we are to have in Christ Jesus, and the hope that is laid up for us in heaven, must all come from the teachings of Christ and of his NT apostles regarding our salvation and our walks of faith in the Lord. For all of this is based in the gospel message. And that message is that Jesus died on that cross so that we will die with him to sin and now live for him and to his righteousness. Sin must no longer be our practice, for if it is, we will die in our sins. We will not have eternal life with God.

And if we are believing in the true gospel of our salvation, as taught by Jesus and by his NT apostles (taught in context), then our lives should be bearing fruit for that gospel message and for our salvation and for the kingdom of God, but the kind of fruit that the Scriptures describe, and not necessarily the kind that human flesh likes to believe in. And all this will be modeled after Jesus Christ and the things he did and taught and said when he lived on the earth, for he is our model. For we are to be Christlike in character.

Songs in the Night  

An Original Work / December 18, 2013

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84

Lord, I praise You forevermore.

You, my Savior, I now adore.

Hope in heaven awaiting me,

Because You died at Calvary.

I have been forgiven,

And I’m bound for heaven.

Jesus set me free from

All my sin, I say.

I will praise Him always!

Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:

Overcame death, my vict’ry won!

Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!

I rejoice in His love for me.

I will walk in vict’ry!

My sin is but hist’ry!

I am free to please Him

With my life today.

I will love Him always!

Lord, I thank You for giving me

A new life bought at Calvary.

Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.

Tender mercies now flow within.

Lord, I am so thankful;

Through my Lord, I’m able

To sit at His table;

Fellowship with Him.

I will thank Him always!

https://vimeo.com/379484387