Colossians Booklet
God and His ways are mysterious. Deuteronomy 29.29 says:
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
Though there is much about God that remains shrouded in mystery, there is much He has revealed. The dictionary defines Mystery as: “a religious truth that one can know only by revelation and cannot fully understand.” Apart from God we cannot know His truth. Apart from God we cannot fully understand His truth. Apart from God we will believe the lies of sin. It is only through the revelation of God’s Spirit that our eyes are opened to discern truth; that our hearts our softened to receive the life-giving truth; and that our bodies are moved to respond walk in His truth.
God’s truth not found in a set of precepts, its complete expression is found in a man, Jesus Christ. For thousands of years, God’s plan for the redemption remained mysteriously hidden in His relationship with Israel. At His resurrection, Jesus Christ proved to be the supreme and sufficient revelation of the mysteries of God. Heretical teachers with claims that Jesus is only part of the answer to our spiritual problems threaten the faith of this young church. Paul’s letter is a brilliant and timeless response written to authoritatively set forth the preeminence of Christ, our new life in Him, and the means of spiritual growth which comes through continual dependence on His work and not our own.
How this all works is a bit of a mystery. What is not a mystery is that living a life like that, one radically shaped by Jesus, is challenging to do. Other priorities — even important and good ones — compete for our attention. Temptations and opportunities to live for ourselves abound. Worldly philosophies distract us and the false promises of sin attract us. The urgency of living here and now seems all too often to trump the urgency of living for Christ. This reality makes the study of a 2000 year old letter to the Colossians important for us today.
Our prayer for this study is that God will use it to make us more Christ-Centered than when we began.
Introduction | 1.1 – 1.2 | Text
Mystery of the Gospel | 1.3 – 1.8 | Text
Mystery of Prayer | 1.9 – 1.14 | Text
Mystery of the Supremacy of Jesus | 1.15 – 1.20 | Text
Mystery of our Reconciliation | 1.21 – 1.23 | Text
Mystery of our Maturity | 1.24 – 1.29 | Text
Mystery of Life in Jesus Part 1 | 2.1 – 2.5 | Text
Mystery of Life in Jesus Part 2 | 2.6-2.15 | Text
Mystery of our Death to the World | 2.16 – 2.23 | Text
Mystery of a Jesus Mindset — pt.1 | 3.1 – 3.4 | Text
Mystery of a Jesus Mindset — pt.2 | 3.5 – 3.17 | Text
Mystery of Family — Wives | 3.18 | Text
Mystery of Family — Husbands | 3.19 | Text
Mystery of Family — Children | 3.20 – 3.21 | Text
Mystery of Work | 3.22 – 4.1 | Text [Missing]
Mystery of Evangelism | 4.2 – 4.6 | Text
Mystery of Mission | 4.7 – 4.18 | Text