Colossians 1:1-8
Heard About Your Faith
1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
3We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
4because we have heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all the saints—
5the faith and love proceeding from the hope stored up for you in heaven, of which you have already heard in the word of truth, the gospel
6that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood the grace of God.
7You learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf,
8and who also informed us of your love in the Spirit.
Berean Standard Bible
Paul had never set foot in Colossae. He says so plainly at 2:1: he is struggling for them, and for the people at Laodicea, and for everyone who has not met him face to face. A town he had never seen, and the apostle writing to it had never walked down its street.
Which makes the opening strange. He names himself an apostle and then does nothing with it. He does not press the point or explain why a stranger's letter should carry weight. He tells them he is thankful for them.
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all the saints
He is glad about people he has taken on report. He has never watched them be patient with each other or sat through one of their meetings, and he still prays for them and means it.
The report came from Epaphras, who was from Colossae himself, went home with the message and taught it there. Paul calls him a beloved fellow servant and a faithful minister of Christ. Beloved fellow servant is not a courtesy. It is Paul putting himself and Epaphras on the same line, in a letter Epaphras is the reason for.
Then he says where the faith and the love came from, and the order runs backwards from the way we would tell it.
the faith and love proceeding from the hope stored up for you in heaven, of which you have already heard in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you.
Hope comes first, kept somewhere they cannot reach it, spend it or lose it, and the believing and the loving come out of that. They did not work themselves up to this. Something was already being held for them, word of it arrived, and they became people who trust Christ and look after each other.
The gospel that has come to you. Somebody had to carry it there. And Paul tells them the same thing is happening everywhere, bearing fruit and growing all over the world and doing it here since the day they heard it. A church Paul had never visited, in a town he names in the same breath as the whole world, is told that what is happening in it is the same thing that is happening everywhere else.
How We Know
Two details in these verses only make sense together with things Paul says later in the same letter.
Verse 4 says he has heard about their faith, and Colossians 2:1 explains why: "For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me face to face." The greeting is secondhand because Paul had never been there.
Verse 7 names Epaphras as the one they learned it from. Colossians 4:12 adds that Epaphras "is one of you," a man from Colossae, and 4:13 says he goes to great pains for Colossae, Laodicea and Hierapolis. Verse 7 names the man who taught them and the last page says where he is from, so it takes both ends of the letter to learn that the teacher was one of their own.
Questions
1 Paul thanks God for people he has never met. Who could say something true and good about this family without having lived here?
AnswerSomebody has watched us from outside: a neighbor, a teacher, a grandparent. Paul had only Epaphras's report and it was enough to make him glad. What reaches other people about us tells us something.
2 Where does Paul say the faith and the love came from?
AnswerFrom the hope stored up for them in heaven. Not the other way round. Something was being kept for them before they had done anything, they heard about it in the gospel, and believing and loving followed from it.
3 Why does it matter that Epaphras is the one who brought the gospel to Colossae, and not Paul?
AnswerBecause it means the church did not need the famous apostle to be real. Paul calls Epaphras a faithful minister of Christ and thanks God for the results. Most churches, then and now, were started by somebody nobody has heard of.
4 Paul says the gospel is bearing fruit and growing all over the world. What does that tell a church in a town he had never visited?
AnswerThat they are not an outpost of somebody else's project. The same thing happening in them is happening everywhere, and it started in them the day they heard it and understood the grace of God.
What This Means for Us
Nothing in this greeting starts in Colossae. The hope is stored somewhere else, the message was carried in by somebody else, and even the good report about these people reached Paul from a third party. He thanks God for all of it rather than congratulating them, because on his reading none of it was theirs to begin with.
That order holds for the rest of the letter, which gets demanding. Warnings about people wanting to add requirements to Christ, then habits that have to be put to death. All of it comes after this, and all of it is a response to something already stored up rather than a way of earning it.
So tonight, before anybody names something this family should work on, name something you are thankful for in each other, out loud. Not what you would like to see more of, something that is already there. Paul only had it secondhand and he opened with it anyway.
Prayer
Father, thank you for a hope we did not build and cannot lose, kept somewhere safe for us. Thank you for the people who first told us about Jesus, most of whose names we do not know. Make us glad about each other before we are anxious about each other. And let the same thing that is growing everywhere keep growing here. Amen.