We’ve been asking how God brings renewal – and what that looks like. We started with individual hearts and end with a whole new community. The “final greetings” section at the end of Colossians 4 isn’t wasted space: it’s God’s word to us and for us. It shows how the good news of Jesus has created a new community, which shares in a new mission, and depends on a new power – God’s own power, in prayer – for growing in maturity and full assurance. Grace be with you!
new authority
Consider your day and how you spend your time. Where are you? What are you doing? Who are you with? God gives each of us an ordinary life that involves a place in a neighborhood or community, work or school, family and friends, and all other other ways we interact with people. In Colossians, Paul takes this big, bold, beautiful love of Jesus for us and puts it to work. He shows us how enjoying his love and standing under his authority makes a difference in each one of those. This is how God renews marriage, families, friends, work, and every relationship.
new relationship(s)
Colossians 3.1-17 invites us into reality. Since we have been made new in Jesus Christ, it only makes sense to “suit up” for the new life God is fitting us out for! Today we unpack that awesome metaphor: “taking off” the old ways of living and “putting on” the new. It doesn’t happen by joining “team try hard” (based on individual effort). It comes as we participate more deeply in the life-giving power of Jesus at work by his spirit in this community, the church. We need the “y’all” of other people present around us as we pick up the new clothes we “put on” in Christ Jesus.
a new experience
If we’ve been made new in Jesus Christ – received that new identity in him that he talks about in Colossians 1 – well then what? We discover we’re not only set free from the penalty of sin, but also set free from slavery to it. So how do we grow? Does our experience of trusting Jesus lead us deeper into him or – beyond him to something else? In Colossians 2, Paul is keen to warn a church he loves about the wrong ways they will be tempted to grow. The answer isn’t adding to faith in Jesus, but trusting him more and more.
a new identity
From August 9 – September 6, we’re doing a short, five-week series based in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Calling it “RENEW,” here’s what we’re asking – What does it look like when God goes to work to renew a person? A relationship, a group of people, a church, or even a whole community?
We start week 1 with Colossians 1 – and Paul’s brilliant picture of the gospel we hear, it’s heart, it’s hope – and how we get in on it by grace through faith. This is the practical route of all renewal: the work of Jesus for us, worked out in us.
the life you were made for: faithfulness
Faithfulness is a word big enough to hold both sides of trust: the trust we exercise toward God and the trustworthiness we offer to others. As followers of Jesus, we’re called to keep trusting God even when the road is uncertain, and to become people whose lives read as evidence that God is at work in us – so that our community can say, “I’ve seen faithfulness in you,” which is really another way of saying, “I’ve seen Jesus in you.”
the life you were made for: gentleness
Gentleness leads us to careful repair, instead of carelessly condoning.
Reflection questions:
- In what ways am I uncoachable or resistant to learning a gentle way of life?
- In what ways am settling for an easy fix towards the brokenness in my life?
- In what ways am I uncomfortable with gentleness and asserting my own authority over others.
the life you were made for: self control
Come along with us for week seven of our fruit of the spirit – self-control. All summer we’ve been looking at the fruit the Spirit grows in us as “the life we’re made for:” the life of Jesus, showing up more and more in us. Self-control is a personal challenge for each of us, and one we’re reluctant to address. But God’s grace we’ll discover that ”self-control” is my spirit going to work with the power from God’s spirit to bring discipline to my desires – so my whole life is more under God’s control and reflects the light and life of Jesus.
the life you were made for: goodness
Week 7 of Fruit of the Spirit brings us to Goodness. We have a lot of confusion about this one – what do we mean when we call something “good?” What does it mean to say God is good? And how could we know? Come with us and look to Jesus here – and the call in God’s word to pray and to work for the good of others in our communities as we reflect the goodness of God.
the life you were made for: patience
Week 5 of Fruit of the Spirit brings us to Patience – or really, Endurance, Forbearance. It’s a tricky but powerful word, and the scriptures show us that it’s less a virtue we cultivate than a Spirit-grown part of our character that shows up and shows out as we deeply trust in Jesus. Come with us and look to Jesus here and the race he ran, finding inspiration, strength and power for enduring in the daily race of faith.