As Iron Sharpens Iron...

Colossians 1:3

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.”

What an encouragement huh? This makes me think of SWO and the body of believers that I was a part of there. It made me think about small group in the mornings when we would prayer for each other and the SWO missionaries. The past few days the SWO homesickness has started to creep its way in. But that’s not to say that God hasn’t been at work here at MC since yesterday afternoon. I’ve already had 3 convos with MCGs (all in my class) about their relationships with Christ. One is definitely seeking Christ and becoming more and more like Him, the other 2 I would say are half-way, not wholeheartedly seeking Christ. But still it’s been really encouraging. To me this one little verse shows the importance of working together as a body and encouraging and praying for each other. Edification in the body of Christ is key, very important so that the Great Commission can be fulfilled. What’s funny is that neither one of my study Bibles mentioned what the Holy Spirit was showing me. This is definitely God comforting me in this time of homesickness but eagerness for ministry at MC.

We need to EDIFY, ENCOURAGE, and PRAY for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Colossians 1:4

“…because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints.”

Ok, so this is really a continuation of v.3. However, what I got out of v.3 was about us praying for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. And something that has struck me here in v.4 is that we need to live a life that shows our relationship with Christ-- A life that is very evident of a daily pursuit of Him and intimacy with Him. Paul prayed for this group of believers because he had HEARD of their faith and of their love. We need to shine so bright that other believers not within our closest borders will know of us or the work that God is doing so that they can pray. And also that more lost people will see Christ in our lives and seek Him out so that they can come and known Him personally.

Faith and love are two out of the 3 main Christian virtues (according to my 2 study Bibles). Faith is very important b/c it is the basis of everything that we do. It is why we can love each other and have the hope that Christ gives.

Loving people can be hard, trust me. Excuse me, let me rephrase that… loving people on our own strength and based on our own standards can be hard. But if we love people the way Christ did, relying on His strength, we can love people unconditionally the way He did.

Now there are some Christians out there who believe that we should share Christ through our actions. To an extent that is correct. But we don’t just do that. We talk about Christ. A way to show our love to somebody is to have a lil cuppa coffee and chat about life and through the time of the chit-chat bring up the things that matter… the Eternal things. That’s a way to love somebody. Sharing Christ with them so that they have the opportunity to turn to Him and be saved from the bondage of sin and hell.

Now, here, in this verse it mentions saints. So it’s not referring to the lost, but I just felt that I should go on that little soap box for a minute. The work “saint” means “set apart” that is referring to Christians. God has set us apart to do His work, through us. Isn’t that cool? That God would choose somebody like me and you, ordinary people to do extraordinary things. An extraordinary thing that God wants us to do is to love the others that He has set apart. By loving each other and building community then we can continue to further the kingdom and increase the number of those who are set apart.