with Elder Elico Manenji
✝️Though the Apostle Paul was not responsible for establishing the church at Colossae, it is thought the church was organized by missionaries from Ephesus who heralded the gospel of the Apostle.
The person chiefly responsible for founding the church in Colossae was Epaphras who then went to Rome to seek advice from Paul who was imprisoned in Rome as the church was troubled by a very persuasive kind of false teaching and the leaders did not know how to deal with it.
In this chapter, the Apostle gives thanksgiving to the Colossians for having accepted the gospel which united them with Jesus Christ.
The Apostle asserted that Christ is God and that He is Supreme over all things, whether things seen or unseen.
Christ did not originate from some intermediate being between God and humankind, but is Himself the Creator of all things, in both the spirit world and the material world.
That Christ is the Saviour of sinful human beings and the conqueror of the powers of evil.
That through Him God entered the world of human existence and shared in a living relationship with His human creatures.
That is the head of the hurch and is united with the body, thus Christ is united with His people, the church.
This union means that believers can share Christ’s victory over evil and that the character of Christ’s life can be reproduced in them.
That the gospel which they heard from Epaphras is the universal truth preached everywhere which changes the lives of people of all nations and cultures.
That its power is proved by the attitude of love that believers show to one another and to God Himself.
1️⃣Colossians 1:1-14:Salutations, thanksgiving and prayer for the Church.
⏹️The Church of God comprise Saints who are united with God in principle, thought and mission and purpose for their salvation and of the salvation of others.
They are referred as faithful brethren as those begotten of the same Father who is God, sanctified by the same Holy Spirit, who share the same hope, faith and salvation in Jesus Christ, who are of the same abode, the heavenly Jerusalem and are thus are partakers of the same Divine nature and share the same inheritance in Christ.
The Psalmist says, "Gather my saints together to me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice"(Psalm 50:5).
⏭️So they are saved by grace, God's attitude of favour towards mankind, His divine pity He offers to repentant sinners, His forebearing forgiving love as He condescended to become a man or human. The Apostle says, "For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God"(Ephesians 2:8).
⏹️So the Apostle urges the Colossians to a personal and practical knowledge of God and His will which produces a healthy spiritual life of fruitfulness to God.
He urges them to a right behaviour which is only possible when one has the right knowledge that Christ has saved humankind from the powers of evil to prepared them for dominion in His kingdom.
The Apostle says, "That you would walk worthy of God, who has called you to his kingdom and glory"(1 Thessalonians 2:12).
⏭️That it is Christ who had delivered mankind from darkness into His light.
That this change is by regeneration as mankind pass from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, from the empire of sin, ignorance and misery, to the empire of holiness, knowledge, and happiness. Jesus Christ said, " Truly I say to you, That you which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, you also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel"(Matthew 19:28).
⏭️That it is in Christ that we have redemption through His blood, that the price of our redemption was fully paid so that our sins might be cancelled and we be made fit to be partakers of the inheritance among the saints in God's eternal kingdom.
The Apostle says, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace"(Ephesians 1:7).
2️⃣Colossians 1:15-29: Supremacy of Christ and the Apostle's sufferings.
⏹️That the supremacy of Christ is that He is the image of the invisible God, that He is the counterpart of God Almighty, the express (exact) image of the Godhead, who made the invisible image of the Father visible in His human nature.
The Apostle Philip said, " Lord, show us the Father, and it suffises us"(John 14:8), to which Christ said , "Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak to you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me, he does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake"(John 14:10-11).
⏫That Christ is the ineffable glory God, the splendour of His concealed nature, the contact of God's inaccessible light which no man, no created being, can possibly see but made known and visible to mankind by this step-down human nature of Christ in the visible man who died on calvary.
The Apostle John says, "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made"(John 1:3).
⏹️Jesus Christ become both divine and human to reachout, first to God and with the other hand reachout to mankind.
By this, Christ became the Mediator between God and mankind and His death made it possible for humanity to be cleansed and reconciled to God.
The Apostle John says, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth"(Joh 1:14).
⏭️That Christ is verily God and that He is supreme over all things, whether seen or unseen, created or uncreated.
That Christ is the Saviour of sinful human beings and the conqueror of the powers of evil, that as head, Christ is united with His people and that this union means that believers share with Him victory over sin and death as the character of Christ is replicated or reproduced in them.
The Apostle Peter says, "Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust"(2 Peter 1:4).
*🅰️Appeal*
Speaking concerning the operations of the Spirit of grace upon us, we must give thanks to God the Father who made it possible for Christ to become our Mediator.
We must give thanks because of the Spirit of grace which was the Spirit of the Father and that the Father works in us by His Spirit to save us from the dominion of sin and darkness, called us from the dominion of Satan, who is the prince of darkness to His marvelous Light in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So, in Christ, the law of the Spirit of life makes us free from the law of sin and death and it is the kingdom of His dear Son, or the Son of His peculiar love, His beloved Son that sets us free from.sin.and death.
The Apostle Peter says, "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light"(1 Peter 2:9).
Amen!!!
Elico Manenji
(+263712952704).
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