Colossians 1:3–8: “The Kind of Church Paul Thanks God For.”

Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to the book of Colossians. Colossians 1:3–8 is our passage for today. 

And let me start by saying this. This is a very positive section of Scripture. This is a tough book. Paul’s writing to a church that has issues. But Paul starts positively. 

It’s easy to be negative and pessimistic in our modern-day world. I increasingly have my “get of my lawn” moments as a middle-aged man. Just opening up the newsfeed on my phone makes me cranky. The world seems to be exploding with violent conflicts everywhere. Politics in America is depressing. The church in America is not as healthy as I’d like her to be. I’m not as physically healthy as I’d like to be. At least the Spurs are good again. That’s a bright spot. 

And it’s easy to be negative and downcast. And it’s not always our first instinct to thank God. In other words, gratitude is back-burner. Petition and lament are front-burner. And that can make us mopey, despondent, ungrateful Christians.

But Paul says, in another place of Scripture, “Do not be anxious for anything, but in everything, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Phil 4:6–7). Paul says in another place of Scripture, “Be always thankful” or “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess 5:18). 

I think it’s instructive for us that the Lord’s Prayer, “Hallowed be your Name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done.” That comes before there is any petition mentioned in that prayer (see Matt 6:9–10). In other words, Jesus wants us to get our prayers vertical before we ever go horizontal with our material needs, concerns, issues. 

Now, let’s talk Colossians. This is a church that is not in great shape. They got problems. They’ve allowed false teachers to influence and maybe even infiltrate the church. They are drifting from the sufficiency of Christ and the supremacy of Christ. That’s bad!

It was so bad, that one of their parishioners, Epaphras, has run off to Paul, hundreds of miles away, in prison in Rome to get help. Paul could start this book by dropping the hammer on this church. 

But Paul does something curious. He does something that I think we should emulate. He thanks God for some good things happening in the church first. He’s going to drop the hammer on them. He will! Just you wait! But that’s not how he starts this letter. He starts by being thankful. And he starts with prayer. 

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In fact, let me show you the structure of the beginning of this letter, and then we’ll get into our passage today, Colossians 1:3–8. In verse 3, Paul writes, 

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

The “we” there is probably a reference to Timothy, Luke, and the others in Rome with Paul. Maybe Epaphras too, who had a hand in planting this church. And they are thankful in prayer for the Colossians. And that thankfulness goes all the way down to verse 8. So this whole section is controlled by that first statement in verse 3 about “always [thanking] God.”

And then, in verse 9, Paul switches to prayers of petition. 

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 

In verse 9, thankfulness gives way to petition. And those petitions go all the way down to verse 14. And then in verse 15 we have the amazing Christ hymn that goes down to verse 20, which is absolutely amazing. We’ll get there. 

But today, we’re going to look at the thanksgiving of verses 3–8. Next week, we’ll look at the petitions of verses 9–14. And then, two weeks from today, we’ll get to that Christ hymn. 

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But today, let’s talk thankfulness. Write this down in your notes. Today, I want to give you five things to be thankful for in a local church… assuming that this is part of a local church. Here’s the first.

1) Its embrace of the gospel (1:3-4a)

A local church’s embrace of the gospel. Now you can see this first point implicit already in the introduction. Paul says in verse 2, 

2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. 

Paul is piling on gospel terms here—“the saints,” the “faithful brothers in Christ,” “grace,” “peace.” None of this language is possible or intelligible without the gospel. In other words, there is no such thing as “saints” without the gospel. There is no such thing as “faithful brothers in Christ” without the gospel. There is no such thing as “grace” without the gospel. There is no such thing as “peace from God” without the gospel. 

The part of about grace and peace is typically Pauline. It’s a reference to the fact that grace comes from God through Christ, as a result of our faith. We are saved by grace. And that grace leads to peace with God. There’s no peace from God without grace. That’s typical in a Pauline letter. 

In fact, grace and peace are packaged together in every single Pauline letter in the NT (Rom 1:7; 1 Cor 1:3; 2 Cor 1:2; Gal 1:3; Eph 1:2; Phil 1:2; Col 1:2; 1 Thess 1:1; 2 Thess 1:2; 1 Tim 1:2; 2 Tim 1:2; Titus 1:4; Phil 3). And grace is always mentioned first. It’s grace and then peace; it’s never peace and then grace. Why is grace always mentioned first? Because there is no peace without grace. And there is no grace without the gospel. And the gospel has transformed the lives of these Colossians.

The back-to-back terms, “saints” and “faithful brothers,” reinforce the idea that these people in Colossae are believers. They’ve been saved. They are faith-filled, faithful brothers in Christ. They are saints who have embraced the gospel. 

And speaking of “saints,” look at verse 3. 

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus

Now let me say three things about Paul here, two things about Christ, and one thing about the Colossians. Let’s start with Paul. 

There are three Greek verbs in this section (1:3–4a). And the people doing the action in those verbs are Paul and his posse in Rome. They are (1) thanking God, (2) praying, and also (3) hearing about the Colossians. 

(1) Paul is thanking God. That’s the controlling verb for this entire passage. Paul is thanking God, thanking God, thanking God. Paul has a thankful heart with the Colossians. And that goes right into his prayer life. (2) He’s praying thanks for the Colossians. (3) And also he’s hearing. He’s listening to people like Epaphras who come to him and tell him about the churches. 

Paul says elsewhere, “And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches” (2 Cor 11:28). And by the way the “other things” in that Scripture includes beatings and whippings and shipwrecks. Paul puts anxiety in that same category. 

Why is Paul anxious about the churches? Because people like Epaphras keep coming to him, even while he’s in prison, telling him about the problems in the church. That’ll give you anxiety! If Paul would stop listening, then he wouldn’t have anxiety. But that’s not good leadership. What’s the cure for anxiety according to Philippians 4? Prayer with thanksgiving! Paul practices what he preaches. He anxious about the church in Colossae, so he’s praying. Why is he anxious? Because he’s listening. 

Notice also two things about Christ in this verse and a half. First of all, notice that Christ is God’s Son. He is the eternal Son, as we’ll find out in a few verses in the Christ hymn. And yet he is also “Lord.” He’s the κύριος in Greek, which was the Greek word that translates “Yahweh” in the LXX translation of the OT. 

Those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God but not God himself will be sorely disappointed in the book of Colossians. I’m sorry, you’re wrong. How can God the Father be God, and God the Son be God? How does that come together? How can they both be referred to as the Lord (Yahweh) in the NT. Answer—the Trinity. We clear on that? 

Look, if you are confused about Christian theology, Christology, or the Trinity… just stick around. This book is going to solve that for you. And for those of us who have this down already, this book is going to reassure us about these most important doctrinal truths.

And speaking of doctrinal truths, notice the one thing here about the Colossians. They have faith in Christ. Paul’s heard about it. He thanks God for it. 

And applicationally, church, let me just say we should thank God for this too in this church. Have we embraced the gospel here? Do we believe? Have we been saved? 

We’ve had a few baptisms here lately at Messiah. But not as much as we’ve had in the past. And not as much as in other places. We’ve prayed for that. Keep praying for that. But one of the reasons we don’t have a lot of baptisms right now is because most everyone in our church is saved and baptized already. Praise God for that! 

Which means that we need to redouble our efforts in evangelism to get the gospel out to those who need to hear it. But praise God for the saints that are here right now. We’ve got faith in Christ Jesus here at church! Thank God for that! Paul thanks God for that in Colossae. Let’s thank God for that here.

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Write this down as a second thing to thank God for in a local church.

2) Its love for brothers and sisters (1:4b)

Just to specify, this is a reference not to familial siblings, but spiritual siblings. In other words, your brothers and sisters in Christ. 

Paul ends that statement in verse 4 with an important note. 

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,

The church in Colossae has love for all the saints. And Paul says, “Thank God for that!” 

Now here’s the question. Is that a reference to the “saints” or the brothers and sisters inside the Colossian church or outside the church? Is that local church love? Or church universal love? 

I think it’s both. In other words, the Colossians love each other in the local church. But they also love the saints in their sister churches in Hierapolis and Laodicea and Ephesus. They also love Paul and Luke and Timothy, although some of them have never met them. They have love for all the saints. And we should too.

Now let me argue something here. I think it’s both. I’ve said that now explicitly and publicly. We need to have love for all our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world. But let me also say that your love for the brothers is going to be primarily demonstrated in your local church. 

By the way, Colossae was a small, out of the way, town. There were probably people in that church who never left the city of Colossae and who didn’t know any Christians outside of their own church. So the primary way that they demonstrated love for the saints is through their local church. So let me say again that your love for the brothers is going to be primarily demonstrated in your local church. 

In other words, if you say, “I love my brothers and sisters in Christ out there. I love ‘em all. I just don’t love my brothers and sisters in here.” That is a fail! That doesn’t work. That’s like the spouse who treats other people at work or around town with love and kindness and tenderness. But then he or she totally disregards a spouse at home. They love other people’s kids, but they don’t really love their own. That’s not logical. 

I run across these people sometimes who are like, “I love that church in San Diego. I love that church in Oklahoma City. I love those preachers on the radio. I wish I lived there. I wish I could go there.” What’s wrong with the church family that God has given you here? That’s like a husband saying, “I sure love that other guy’s wife.” Why do we allow for church envy, where we don’t allow for spouse envy?

Listen, bloom where you’re planted. Love the people that God has given you in your local church. There’s no such thing as a perfect church. Stop looking for a perfect church. And love your brothers and sisters in Christ both inside and outside your local church. 

And I hate to cross-reference here. But this is just too good. It’s as if the Apostle John was reading Paul’s mail. Because John says this, “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:19–21).

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Write this down as a third thing to thank God for in a local church.

3) Its hope laid up in heaven (1:5a)

Look at verse 5. And notice there’s no final punctuation at the end of verse 4. Paul is the king of run-on sentences. And this is important, because it’s a continuation of the thankfulness and the prayer that we saw in verse 3. So Paul is still talking about what he’s praying for and what he’s thankful for. 

Here’s another reason why Paul is thanking God in his prayers. 

5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. 

It’s laid up for you (plural), Colossians. And there’s no doubt about this hope, because biblical hope isn’t hope like we understand it in English. It’s not like, “Gee, I hope the Spurs win in the NBA playoffs.” No, our hope is secure in the promises of God which are immovable, unshakable, unchangeable, unstoppable. That hope is laid up for you in heaven!

What does it mean to have your hope laid up for you in heaven? It means two things. It means (1) Christ is in heaven right now interceding on your behalf. Your hope is in him. Your hope is him. He is in heaven. Your hope is laid up for you in heaven, because Christ is holed up in heaven. When you die, you go straight to him. You fall asleep in Christ Jesus and go right into his presence. 

And there you wait for your resurrection body at Christ’s return. Just like those of us who are still alive are waiting to be raptured to receive our resurrection bodies. For more on that, see the “Final Things” series on our website that just finished up last Wednesday night. 

And secondly (2), it means heavenly treasures that are laid up for you in heaven as well. If the Colossians were suffering, or experiencing hardship for their faith in Christ, then they are earning treasures in heaven in light of that. That’s highly possible in light of what we saw with Paul in his missionary journeys. Paul suffered everywhere he went. And then he wrote these letters to churches that were suffering. 

And if the church in Colossae was suffering, then Paul is assuring them that there’s no need to despair about that. Because that suffering is earning treasure in heaven. Those are being laid up for you. And that’s true for you right now, Christian. Praise God for that! Thank God for that! Your life will come to an end soon, but you’ve got nothing to worry about… because heaven awaits. Keep laying up treasure in heaven.

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Here’s a fourth thing to thank God for in a local church. 

4) Its fruit-bearing among the saints (1:5b–6)

Look at the middle of verse 5. Paul finally ends a sentence and begins a new one. 

Of this you have heard 

Of this? What’s the “this”? Heaven! Heaven is the “this” from the previous statement. Or more precisely, “the hope laid up for you in heaven.” The Colossians heard about this. And it’s part of the gospel, because let’s finish the verse.

Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 

Let’s just stop here for a moment. Part of the gospel is the hope of heaven. Everyone with me?

When you share Christ with someone, don’t forget to talk about heaven. Don’t forget to talk about our eternal future. Don’t tell people, “If they put their faith in Christ all their wildest dreams will come true in this world.” That’s not true. That’s over-realized eschatology. You don’t get heaven now. Heaven is not a place on earth! Our hope, as Christians, is a hope for the future. Christians don’t sacrifice the future on the altar of the immediate. We sacrifice the immediate on the altar of the future. 

And by the way, that’s part of the gospel. Tell people about heaven. Tell them about new resurrection bides. Tell them about the new heaven and the new earth and the new Jerusalem. Paul links the word of truth, the gospel, to our hope laid up in heaven. So when you share the gospel with people, tell them about heaven.

Now don’t start with heaven. Start with sin. Start with the bad news—we’re rebels. And then you can transition to the good news. There’s redemption for rebels.

When I was younger, we used to walk people through “the Romans Road” as part of our evangelism strategy. And it was great. It was useful. And part of it was because it started with the bad news. Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.” And then it went to Romans 6:23, “the wages of sin is death.” That’s the right place to start. We’re sinners and rebels. 

And from there we would move to redemption. Romans 5:8 says, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Yes! There’s good news. The bad news makes the good news gooder! And Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” It was great! You got 1) Rebels, 2) Redeemer, and 3) Redemption with the Romans Road.

But we didn’t have a great go-to verse for heaven. That’s important. It’s implied in Romans 6:23, “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” That’s good. 

But we can be more explicit than that when we share the gospel. God has established an eternity for us free from pain and death and disease and anguish. That is our hope of heaven. That is the “rest” that we anticipate in the presence of Jesus forever. 

So when you share the gospel, let me give you four Rs to emphasize: (1) Rebels, (2) Redeemer, (3) Redemption, and (4) Rest. 

(1) We are rebels far from God. Our sin has separated us from him. (2) We have a Redeemer, whose name is Jesus. He died on the cross for our sins. (3) And that provides redemption for us. We are redeemed by his blood, and our sins are cleansed. (4) And because of that we have a heavenly rest awaiting us in eternity in the presence of our Redeemer, Christ Jesus. (1) Rebels, (2) Redeemer, (3) Redemption, and (4) Rest. There’s the gospel in four words.

Back to the text. Look again at verse 5. 

Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, 

I don’t know who brought it to Colossae. It was probably Epaphras. 

6 … as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 

What’s Paul thanking God for here? He’s thanking God for the fruit-bearing of the gospel. The proliferation of the gospel—it’s increasing. But the gospel is also taking root in the lives of the Colossian believers and producing real, lasting fruit. 

What is the fruit? What is Paul talking about? What does it mean to bear fruit as a Christian? It means you demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit—“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control” (Gal 5:13). That’s just logical. 

If you’ve believed the gospel, then you are indwelt with the Spirit. And if you are indwelt with the Spirit, then you’re going to produce the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of your flesh. The flesh will decrease. The Spirit will increase. You will put off and put on. That’s fruit-bearing. 

Also there are the gifts of the Spirit. If you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, then the Holy Spirit wants to use your gifts for the edification of the church. He has to be utilized in that way. Otherwise he gets antsy. Otherwise he gets restless inside of you. I feel that! “Use your gift. Use your gift. Use your gift. Use your gift, Tony.” I’ve got to use it. 

Also fruit-bearing means works. Martin Luther said once, “Good works do not make a man good, but a good man does good works.” We are not saved by works, but we are saved to do good works! 

Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:16). The Apostle James said that faith without works is dead faith (Jas 2:17). Paul said in Ephesians that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10). 

Christianity has no place for works-based righteousness. But we are all about grace-based works of righteousness. That’s all over the Scriptures. Grace is the locomotive. And the works are the box cars behind the locomotive. We’ve got lots of cars behind our locomotive. We just don’t mistake the cars for the locomotive. 

And let me say this before we move on to the last point. The church in Colossae has lots of problems. They are not in a healthy place, as we’ll find out soon enough. But they are healthy in this. They are fruitful. They are a fruit-bearing church. Paul makes special note of them here. 

Look at verse 6 with me again. 

6 … as indeed in the whole world it [the gospel] is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 

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When did they hear it? When did they receive the gospel? From whom did they hear it?

Look at verse 7.

7 just as you learned it [the gospel] from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit. 

Notice the reference to the Spirit in verse 8. If you are keeping count, we’ve got the first member of the Trinity in verse 3—God the Father. You’ve got the second member of the Trinity in verses 3, 4, and 7—Christ Jesus, the Son of God. And then you have the third member of the Trinity in verse 8—the Spirit. It’s almost as if Paul believed in trinitarianism. 

I would actually say that the reference to the Spirit goes all the way back to verse 6 and all that talk about fruit-bearing. That fruit-bearing took place by the power of the Spirit. And also the love for one another which was mentioned in verse 4 is a reference to the Spirit as we see in verse 8. This is a “love in the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit has his fingerprints all over this section!

Now Paul is thanking God here for the work of the Spirit. He’s thanking God for the faith of the Colossians. But he’s also tangentially thanking God for one of the faithful fellow servants of Christ Jesus who has been instrumental to the church in Colossae. And that faithful fellow servant’s name is Epaphras. 

Write this down as #5 in your notes. Here’s a fifth and final thing to thank God for in the local church. 

5) Its faithful leaders and servants (1:7–8)

Now, here’s the burning question that we’ve got to ask about Epaphras. Here’s the mystery concerning him. Who is he? Who was he to the church in Colossae? Was he the pastor? Was he an elder? Was he a deacon? Was he just a congregant good at evangelism? 

I don’t know. And Paul’s description of him in verse 7 doesn’t help us answer that question. Because Paul calls him both a servant and a minister? Which is it, Paul? 

Now, probably Epaphras brought the gospel to Colossae. I argued as much last week. And that’s the best way to make sense of verse 7, “just as you learned it from Epaphras.” Learned what? The gospel. 

But just because someone brought the gospel to the city, that doesn’t make them an elder or the pastor or a leader in the church. Lydia was the great evangelist in Philippi. And they met in her house. But trust me, she wasn’t the pastor of that new church. And she was not one of the elders. 

Paul use the language “minister” here, which technically in Greek is διάκονος (diakonos). So perhaps Epaphras was a deacon. But that might be reading too much into this term, because the word διάκονος use used for both the office of deacon and also more simply for a servant or minister in the church. We are all “deacons” at church. We all serve Christ here at church. 

The bottom line is, I don’t know. I don’t know if we’ll ever know who Epaphras truly was in the church. Someday in eternity we can ask him. But we know he was faithful. Paul calls him a “beloved fellow servant” and “a faithful minister.” That’s high praise from the Apostle Paul. I want that said about me regardless of whatever role I have in the church. 

And I would just as soon leave his identity ambiguous for the sake of application in our own church. And let me say this to everyone at Messiah Bible Church. Whether you are an elder, a deacon, a small group leader, or a pastor… whether you serve coffee, teach kids, empty the trash, or pass out bulletins… whether you are highly visible at church or you work behind the scenes… whatever the case, you be faithful to the Lord and to the local church where you serve. 

Everyone here should be serving faithfully, shouldering kingdom responsibilities in the church. That is what we’re called to do. That’s what a healthy church does. We don’t let 10% of the people do 90% of the work. That math doesn’t math. That’s not healthy. And that doesn’t please God. No, 100% of the people should do 100% of the work. That math is better. 

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And let me just say, as the pastor of this church, like Paul said 2,000 years ago, “Thank God for this church.” I mean that! Thank God for Messiah Bible Church and its faith in Christ. Thank God for its embrace of the gospel. Thank God for our love for brothers and sisters. Thank God for our hope in heaven. Thank God for our fruit-bearing. And thank God for our faithful leaders and servants. Do we have ways to improve at Messiah Bible Church? Yes, we do. I’m not one to rest on laurels. I need to get better as a servant of Christ Jesus here. But praise God for this church. God help us to continue.