Colossians - Faith, Love, and Hope

Having spent three blog posts looking at the first two verses of Colossians it’s time to speed up a bit as we get in to the letter proper. The next four posts are based on a sermon looking at 1:3 – 14. I entitled this sermon, “What is a Christian?”

What is a Christian? Part 1 – The Characteristics of a Christian

Verse 3 of Colossians 1 begins with Paul in prayer, thankful prayer.

Paul has heard from a Christian called Epaphras that the church in Colossae was displaying certain, God given, that’s why he thanks God for them, characteristics. So what were the characteristics, the hallmarks of true, real, genuine Christians that Paul had heard about and was so thankful for?

Verses 4 and 5 tell us – faith, love, hope. He’s heard about their faith, he’s heard about their love, he’s heard about their hope.  It’s this familiar triad of things that Paul often talks about when he describes Christians, you find him speaking of these things as being characteristic of Christians so often, they have faith, they have love, and they have hope.

But of course, it’s not enough to simply and only say that they have faith, love and hope. Faith is always in something, love is always for something, hope is always fixed on something. Without defining what those “somethings” are, faith, love and hope are pretty meaningless.

So what are the objects of these Christians’ faith, love, and hope? Because it really matters what their faith is in, their love is for, and their hope is fixed on, just as it matters what your faith is in, your love is for, and your hope is fixed on!

For example, we don’t read here that Paul is thanking God for the Colossians faith in Buddha, love for the animals, and hope of one day paying off the mortgage. Or their faith in money, love of good food, and hope in an early retirement.

No, Paul has specific objects in mind when it comes to the Christian’s faith, love and hope. What are they?

Faith in Christ Jesus.

Love for all the saints.

Hope laid up in heaven.

These are the key characteristics of any true Christian, characteristics that when we see them in someone else we should rejoice, and thank and praise God for giving a person, or a group of people, these saving characteristics.

First of all faith in Christ. Faith in him as the only one who saves us, the only one who keeps us, the only one who is our Lord and master. We’ll come back to that later!

Secondly, love for all the saints (saints remember is another name for Christians). I want to dwell on this one for a while – Christians love all the saints.

There should be no such thing as a lone Christian – the Colossian Christians loved all the saints. There should be no such thing as a Christian who isn’t interested in the lives of their brothers and sisters in Christ – the Colossian Christians loved all the saints. There should be no such thing as a Christian who doesn’t want to practically show acts of love and kindness to their fellow Christians – the Colossian Christians loved all the saints. There should be no such thing as a Christian who has decided to only show love to Christians who are like them in terms of age and temperament and background and abilities – the Colossian Christians loved all the saints.

It’s always wonderful to see a church where its members love and cherish and care for one another. Where they also love Christians from outside their own church, where there’s a generosity of Spirit towards those not directly within their own fellowship.

I thank God for every indication of that Spirit given love here, and there are lovely indications of that amongst us here. Yet there will be people, there are people, in this church who feel themselves out on the edge – unloved. Can I encourage us all to look out for those people, find ways to speak loving words to them, and ways to back up those words with genuine acts of love and kindness.  It’s so important – a characteristic of Christians is that they love all the saints.

Some other Christians don’t seem easy to love – I know! But always remember as a Christian yourself, that Jesus loves you, loves you enough to have died for you, and next to him you’re a very unloveable mess!  If you’ve realised that about yourself, that you’re an unloveable mess, greatly loved by Jesus, it will help you to show that Christian characteristic of loving others.

Let me move on to the third characteristic though – hope. It’s a characteristic that is often forgotten, or neglected, but that Paul presents here as the basis of our faith in Christ and love for the saints.

What is the Christian’s hope v5 to be fixed on? It’s to be fixed on what is laid up for you in heaven.  Your hope is to be fixed on your future inheritance, which is eternal life face to face with Jesus, enjoying him forever in a new heavens and a new earth.

Notice how Paul speaks of our hope of heaven being the thing that spurs on our faith in Christ and love for the saints in verses 3 – 5;

“³We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, ⁵because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.”

The hope of eternity in heaven with God, in his new perfect world, is what drives these Colossians’ faith in Christ, he’s the only one who can get them there, and it drives their love for all the saints, the very people that they will spend eternity with in God’s presence, who like them have been saved by the precious blood of Christ.

What is the good news of the gospel? The certain hope of eternal life spent with and praising God, alongside countless others who have been saved by Jesus. It’s characteristic of any Christian that they are captivated by this great hope of heaven, and that it results in faith in Christ, and love for all the saints.

In part 2 we’ll look at the call of Christians in verses 9 – 11.