Thank God for You (Colossians 1:1-8), April 26, 2009

Thankfulness

During the welcome time this morning, I asked you for some sermon help.  Specifically, I asked you for an antonym or opposite for gratitude.  How did you answer?  The simple answer would be ingratitude, or maybe thanklessness.  But I want to go deeper.  What about words like preoccupation or presumption?

When I went to Bible college in 1974 as a 17-year-old, within the first month I received a $100 check from a friend.  Bill was (and still is) the Camp Director at Grace Bible Camp near Goshen, Virginia.  I had worked at the camp all through high school.

A couple of months later, Bill came down to visit me at Columbia Bible College.  He asked me if I had received the check, and I said something like, “Oh, yes – thanks for sending that.”

Bill went on to say very graciously, “You know, that was a sacrifice for me.”  (Looking back, I know it was.  It could have been his whole tithe for a month – or maybe in addition to his tithe.)  “But you never acknowledged it.  I had really thought I might try to send you $100 every month while you’re at CBC, but you weren’t very grateful for it.”

It was a tough lesson for a teen to learn.  Was I thankful?  Well, yes and no.  I was glad he sent the money.  But I was too busy, too preoccupied, perhaps even too presumptuous, thinking the money would just come as I needed it.   

Colossians

Let me tell you why I asked.  The back of your bulletin offers a brief introduction for Paul’s letter to the Colossians, where we will be spending some time for the next ten weeks or so.  I encourage you to read the whole letter.  Maybe read it weekly; it’s short.  You can read the whole letter out loud in less than 15 minutes – silently in less time.

The theme of the letter is “Christ is supreme.”  He is the best.  He’s first.  He’s the ultimate.  He’s the absolute.

Sounds good, right?  Who can argue with that?  But what I’ve been asking myself is, “If Christ is not supreme, what takes his place?  What do we tend to substitute for Christ’s pre-eminence?  What does it look like in our lives when Christ is not supreme?”

Paul will give us many answers in this letter.  The first is that it looks like ingratitude.  It looks like being so preoccupied that we can’t take time to say, “thanks.”  Because Paul had learned to put Christ first, he had also learned to say, “thank you.”

Paul’s introduction to his letter demonstrates that he had learned gratitude.  We will learn later in the letter that he is in prison, but that is not how he opens the letter.  It is all thanks.

If I were to summarize Paul’s first 8 verses in a sentence, it would be this:  “You are my reason to give thanks.”  He says to them, “I thank God for your Father, for your faith, for your future, for your fruit, and for your friend.” 

Your Father (vv. 1-2)

At the risk of being called “Captain Obvious,” the first observation we need to make about the New Testament book we call Colossians is that it is a letter.  Paul is in a Roman prison awaiting trial, and he writes to the church in Colosse.

Do you remember personal letters?  Thirty-two years ago today I asked Linda to marry me.  We were both Bible college students, so eight months out of the year we were able to see one another on a fairly regular basis.  During December and from June to August, we were separated during our dating and engagement.  E-mail hadn’t been invented yet.  Nobody I knew personally owned a cell phone.

We wrote letters when we were apart.  I dug a few out last night – a couple from our first separation after we started dating, and one from the final summer we were apart.  I was working at camp, while she was in Pennsylvania.

I was amazed and amused to read my letters.  I would write pages on every day stuff – how late I slept, what I had for breakfast (a LOT!), 9 hours working at the department store, and, of course, how much I missed being with Linda.  But it all brought back to me how much more a letter meant in those days before instant and ubiquitous communication.

Paul is writing a letter here – personal, thoughtfully crafted, handwritten, hand-delivered by a traveling friend.  Can you imagine the thrill of getting a letter when it might take weeks to arrive?  The entire Colossian church would have gathered for the reading.

Paul opens his letter in a typical style for Graeco-Roman writing: who I am, who you are, greetings.  Paul is “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.”  He includes Timothy his co-worker probably as a courtesy, not because Timothy helped write the letter.

He is writing “to the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse.”  More literally, they are “in Christ” and “in Colosse.”  Same preposition in the Greek.  Geographically they are living in a city 120 miles to the east of Ephesus, a city that had once prospered because a main trade route ran through it. ts importance had diminished and its economy had dwindled.  Positionally they are “in Christ.”

Paul calls them “holy and faithful brothers.”  You’re going to be surprised by that when you learn through the book what’s happening in their church.  But he can still give thanks for them.  Why?  Because of what he says in his greeting.  “Grace and peace to you from God our Father” (emphasis added). 

If you can’t be thankful for any other reason when you encounter or think of a brother or sister in Christ, be thankful for their FatheIr in heaven. 

Your faith (vv. 3-4)

Paul continues that theme as he opens the body of his letter, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints” (vv. 3-4).

Paul gives them the benefit of the doubt.  It’s amazing to me how many reasons Christians give for cutting themselves off from one another.  In our Christianity 101 Sunday School class this morning, we had a mini-debate on the subject of baptism.  How should a person be baptized – by sprinkling or immersion?  When should a person be baptized – only on profession of faith, or should children of believing parents be baptized?

Christians not only divide from one another over that issue but see one another quite condescendingly.  That’s rather remarkable given the fact that they share a common faith in Jesus Christ.

Paul says, “I can thank God for you even with the negative reports I’m hearing about you because the core of our faith is shared.”  You believe, and you show you believe with your love.

Could he nitpick their faith and their love?  Of course he could.  But he could also be gracious and realize that in their own minds they were being as faithful as they knew how to be.

Your future (v. 5)

Faith, love, and hope are intertwined often in the New Testament.  (See, for example, 1 Corinthians 13:13; Romans 5:1-5; Galatians 5:5-6; Ephesians 1:15-18; Ephesians 4:2-5; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:8; Hebrews 6:10-12; Hebrews 10:22-24; 1 Peter 1:3-8; 1 Peter 1:21-22.)

Sometimes you look at a brother or sister in Christ, and think “There’s not a lot about you I’m thankful for.”  But Paul’s attitude is, “There’s always hope.  I thank God for your future.”

He speaks of “the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth” (v. 5).  He expands on this thought a little in Philippians when he writes to that church, “…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

I may not like who you are, but I love who you can become because of the hope we have in Christ.  I thank God for your future.

Your fruit (v. 6)

Verse 6 includes another reason for gratitude:  “All over the world this gospel is producing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.”

“Fruit,” in New Testament language, has to do with conduct.  It is changed lives.  If faith does not result in love for others, in generosity, in forgiveness, in service, in compassion, it is not true faith.  “Faith without works is dead,” James says (2:17).

“I thank God for the fruit I see in you,” Paul says.  Paul will remind them in chapter 3 what their lives used to look like – sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, idolatry, anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language, and dishonesty.  They are being transformed into people of kindness, patience, forgiveness, peace, joy, gratitude, and mutual submission.  That is what the gospel is supposed to do when it impacts lives.

And it wasn’t just happening with them.  It was happening “all over the world.”  For Paul, “all over the world” meant primarily the Mediterranean basin.  Two thousand years later, our geographical awareness is much broader, but this gospel that is changing lives here is changing lives all over the world.

In Cameroon, West Africa, the Mofu people are now gathering around solar-powered radio-like devices to hear the New Testament in what are called “listening groups.”  Ken and Judy Hollingsworth translated the Bible into the Mofu language.  A few weeks ago some Mofu women were listening to a story about Jesus’ interaction with the Pharisees, and concluded that they should stop being so judgmental toward their neighbors.

Larry and Karen Bigelow, missionaries in Alaska who will visit here at Corinth in June, have seen the lives of people in the harsh region of the Yukon come to know Christ through radio and church planting.  The missionaries are even reaching some of the seafarers from Asia who dock their boats in Alaska.

Dr. Salem Barghout, born in the Middle East but now working in Pakistan, is in Islamabad working with the World Health Organization to bring hope to multi-drug resistant tuberculosis sufferers.  280,000 Pakistanis develop TB every year.  This is happening even while Pakistan becomes an increasing area of concern for the West because of its Islamic fundamentalism.

George David, who works on the Nicobar Islands in his native country of India with our support, operates a school there where Indian children can learn to read and write, learning the power of the gospel to transcend the Hindu caste system.  The school has recently opened a Soup Kitchen to reach out to those in the community with compassion.

These are but four examples of many that our congregation is helping to make happen.  In countless other parts of the world where the Christian faith has penetrated, the gospel is bearing fruit.  That is a reason to give thanks.

Your friend (vv. 7-8)

Finally, in verses 7-8 Paul mentions a mutual friend name Epaphras.  It is a shortened form of Epaphroditus, which means that this man was named after the Greek goddess of love.  But Epaphras had apparently come to faith in Jesus Christ through Paul’s ministry in Ephesus, and had gone on to found and pastor the church in Colosse.

Paul, as far as we know, had never visited Colosse in his extensive travels across Asia Minor.  I am sure that Epaphras had spoken often of Paul, and now the people were getting a letter from their pastor’s hero and mentor.  Paul describes Epaphras as “our dear fellow servant” (literally “co-slave”) and “a faithful minister.”

Why does Paul bring Epaphras into the letter so early?  Because he’s trying to establish a personal connection.  Just this past week I was able to re-establish a relationship with someone from whom I had been estranged.  Do you know how it happened?  It came about because of a mutual “friend.”  That friend happens to be my wife.  Linda was the bridge.  “If you love Linda and I love Linda, maybe we should be able to communicate with each other.”

Sincerity or flattery?

As we will see, there is a lot Paul could have criticized about the Colossians.  Some of them had bought into some ideas that countered everything Paul taught and lived for.

Even with all that potential negativity, Paul could say with complete sincerity, “You are a reason to give thanks.  I have some tough things to say to you in this letter, but let’s start with this.  I thank God for your Father, your faith, your future, your fruit, and your friend.” 

Paul is modeling what it looks like for Christ to be in first place.  It looks a lot like someone who can be positive, constructive, grateful.  Why?  Because you trust him. 

Someone here is struggling with a family member or church member or friend who’s driving you crazy.  What does your relationship look like with that person when Christ is not in first place?  It looks like ingratitude.  It looks like a judgmental and critical spirit.  It looks like pessimism.  It looks like arrogance about who you are and condescension toward the other.  It looks like a presumption that all the “issues” belong to the other person. 

But for Paul, Christ is supreme, so he will think differently.  Is Paul being sincere in these words of thanks?  I absolutely believe he is.  He’s not just buttering them up so that he can blast them later.  He is genuinely grateful for all these positives in their lives.

So we begin this journey into what it means that Christ is supreme.  We start here.  It means I can look anyone in the eye, especially a brother or sister in Christ, and say, “I thank God for you!”  And mean it.  Amen.