Colossians 1:24-29
Christ in You
24Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, which is the church.
25I became its servant by the commission God gave me to fully proclaim to you the word of God,
26the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations but is now revealed to His saints.
27To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
28We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.
29To this end I also labor, striving with all His energy working powerfully within me.
Berean Standard Bible
Paul has told them what God did. Now he says what it has cost him to be the one carrying the news, and he opens with a sentence people trip over.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions for the sake of His body, which is the church.
Paul has just said God was pleased to reconcile all things by the blood of that cross, and he will say at 2:14 that the record of debt was canceled and nailed to it. Whatever is lacking here, it is not that.
What he says is that it is being filled up in his flesh, for the sake of the church. He is in prison as he writes, and the suffering lands on him rather than on them. He does not say he rejoices despite it. He says he rejoices in it, and the reason he gives is who it is for. That is as hard out loud as it looks on the page, and it is meant to be.
Then he names his job.
the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations but is now revealed to His saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Mystery in this letter does not mean a puzzle nobody can solve. It means something that was kept back and has now been said out loud, and Paul tells them exactly what it turned out to be, which is Christ in you.
Sit with how ordinary the recipients were. The people reading this were Gentiles, outside the whole history of Israel, with no claim on any of it. The thing hidden for ages and generations was that Christ would be in them. Not near them, not available to them. In them, and Paul calls that the hope of glory.
The last two verses are about the work that follows from it. He proclaims Christ, he admonishes and teaches everyone, and the aim is to present everyone perfect in Christ. Everyone, twice in one sentence, with nobody sorted into the ones worth the effort. And he says he labors and strives at it, which is honest, and then he says whose energy he is doing it with.
How We Know
Two of the things Paul says here are said again elsewhere in the letter, and both of the places are named below rather than left for somebody to hunt for.
He says in verse 24 that he is suffering for them. The letter signs off at 4:18 in his own hand, and three words of it are "Remember my chains." Whatever the suffering was, it was current and it was physical enough to leave him writing from custody.
He says in verse 29 that he labors and strives for people. Colossians 2:1 says who they are: the people he is writing to, those at Laodicea, and everyone who had never met him. The striving in chapter 1 turns out to be aimed at strangers.
Questions
1 Paul says he fills up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. Does that mean the cross was not enough?
AnswerNo, and this letter says the opposite more than once. God was pleased to reconcile all things through the blood of the cross at 1:20, and the record against us was canceled there at 2:14. What Paul is filling up is the cost of carrying the message, and he says it is happening in his flesh, for the church.
2 What was the mystery, and what did it turn out to be?
AnswerSomething kept back for ages and now said out loud. It turned out to be Christ in you, the hope of glory. Not a fact about God to learn but a person living in people who had no claim on him.
3 Paul says everyone twice in one sentence. Who is he leaving out?
AnswerNobody. He admonishes and teaches everyone, so as to present everyone perfect in Christ. There is no shorter list of people worth the trouble.
4 Paul labors and strives. Where does he say the energy comes from?
AnswerFrom Christ, working powerfully in him. He does not pretend the work is easy or that he is not tired. He says whose strength he is spending.
What This Means for Us
Christ in you was written to people Paul had never met, most of whom had no religious credentials at all. Whatever we imagine qualifies somebody for God to live in them, the original recipients did not have it.
It also reframes what Paul is asking of them later. Everything in chapter 3 about putting things to death and putting other things on comes after this, and it comes to people who already have Christ in them. The instructions are not how to get him there. They are what it looks like when he is.
So ask the youngest person in the room what they think Christ in you means, and let the answer stand without correcting it into something more theological. Then ask everybody else what would be different about tomorrow if it were literally true. Do not resolve the question tonight.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for people who carried this at a cost so that we could hear it. Thank you that the thing kept back for ages turned out to be you, in us, and that nobody here earned that. Work powerfully in this house, and give us your energy for the parts we cannot do on our own. Amen.