Be Still And Know

Colossians 3:11 'In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.' Every society is full of divisions, but the world of the apostle Paul was sharply and deeply divided, far beyond anything we know today. The biggest divide of all was between Jew and Gentile. Jews were the chosen people and Gentiles were basically the outsiders. There was a Jewish daily prayer in which they would thank God that they were not Gentiles. There was deep suspicion, and even hatred, between Jews and Gentiles, focussed on male circumcision, the physical evidence of the distinction between the two groups. Meanwhile Greeks looked down on anyone who didn’t speak Greek, calling them ‘barbarians’ (which literally refers to people who could only say “bar bar”). And then there was the massive difference between those who were slaves and those who were free. In ancient law, slaves were not even cl

Colossians 3:10 'Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.' I wonder what your aims are for your life. Perhaps they focus on your family, your job or your sport. You may want to become better at what you do and more fulfilled in your life. In this verse, we hear what God’s aim is for our lives – and isn’t it amazing? His aim is that we should become like him. Wow! He, the creator of the world, wants us to resemble him. In Genesis 1:27, we read that God made us in his image. From the very beginning, humankind had a resemblance to God. Sadly, through sin, that image became distorted. But now, through a relationship with Christ, God wants to restore his image in us. This is amazing language! I am sure we are all very well aware of our shortcomings and failings. Perhaps the thought of resembling God sounds incredible to you. But that is precisely what God wants for our lives. Clearly, we are never going to resemble God through our own effort. That cannot be

Colossians 3:2-3 'Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.' The apostle Paul’s message was quite simply a matter of life and death. In the previous chapter he referred to baptism as being an act of burial (Colossians 2:12). In baptism, one life comes to an end and another one begins in which the focus is Christ. That is why Paul encouraged his readers to make sure their primary focus was on heaven and not the things of earth. We all know the description of someone as being “so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly use”. Paul would absolutely disagree with that, believing the person who was focused on heaven would be of the greatest possible use on earth. His view was that the person who was earthly minded was of no earthly use. Paul had a very clear idea of the dangers of allowing our earthly, sinful nature to be in the driving seat of life. He told his readers to put to death sexual immorality, impurity, l

Colossians 2:16-17 'Don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.' Throughout history, religious people have been famous for their rules and regulations. We see it particularly clearly with the Pharisees of Jesus’ time. They lived according to the law of Moses but also to layers of other regulations which had been introduced by rabbis over the years. It isn’t surprising that in the early Church, one of the greatest challenges came from those who wanted to impose complicated regulations upon the new Christians. These came from many places but particularly from the Gnostics, whose religion was built upon complicated rules about eating and drinking and the observance of special days. Paul was not saying that all rules were bad. A well-ordered family, church or society will only work smoothly and harmoniously if there are rules.

Colossians 2:14-15 'Christ cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.' The cross stood right at the centre of the apostle Paul’s understanding of the good news. Put simply, if you want to understand Jesus, you have to see him through the lens of the cross. In his book The Cross of Christ, author John Stott summed this up when he wrote: “There is then, it is safe to say, no Christianity without the cross. If the cross is not central to our religion, ours is not the religion of Jesus.” For this reason, Paul focused his preaching on the cross even though he was fully aware that the message didn’t always go down well. Jews found it a stumbling block because the law of Moses declared that anyone who hung from a tree was cursed. Non-Jews just found the idea of someone dying on a cross completely foolish. How could anyone find anything comm

Colossians 2:8-9 'Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.' The apostle Paul didn’t believe in beating around the bush! He was so convinced that Christ was the complete answer to the human predicament that he saw every other philosophy as a waste of time. That didn’t mean that he was unwilling to spend time listening to people with other beliefs. He simply didn’t believe that they had anything to offer when compared with Christ. When Paul visited Athens, he spent a great deal of time speaking with the philosophers there, and gladly accepted an invitation to address the Areopagus (the forum in which they held their debates). He sensitively referred to their own poets and thinkers but his focus was always to proclaim Christ. It is the fact that Jesus was both fully man and fully God which marks him apart from o

Colossians 1:22-23 'You are holy and blameless as you stand before Christ without a single fault. But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News.' What Christ has done for us is absolutely amazing. Failed and sinful as we are, he has totally forgiven our sins and made us right with God. He has made it possible for us to stand before him, holy and blameless and without fault. But that doesn’t mean we can now take it easy and do what we want. We need to stand firm in our faith and ensure that we don’t slip away from the truth. In my experience, very few people who drift away from Christian faith do so because they suddenly disbelieve it. What normally happens is that they become distracted or busy with other things. Suddenly their work, family or hobby claims their attention and they find it inconvenient to attend worship. Sometimes, they move house and find it difficult to find another church in which they

Colossians 1:15 'Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation.' Most people have kind things to say about Jesus. They like the fact that he welcomed every kind of person; they admire the fact that he was willing to stand up to the religious rulers of his time; they enjoy the fact that he told compelling, down-to-earth stories and went out of his way to get alongside people; and they value the fact that he was so full of love. But the apostle Paul goes far beyond these kind comments. For Paul, Jesus showed the world exactly what God was like because he existed from before the beginning of creation. Just as we can look at a coin and see exactly what the sovereign looks like, by looking at Jesus we can see precisely what God is like. We don’t know exactly what Paul’s opponents were teaching but it seems to have been a combination of Jewish and Greek thought. Paul’s answer was to give them the most magnificent and clear description of

Colossians 1:13-14 'God has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.' The apostle Paul was absolutely clear that when someone becomes a Christian, their whole life changes completely. We move to a new country! The kingdom of darkness is now behind us and we have entered the kingdom of light with Jesus Christ standing at the centre of it. In that new country, we experience freedom for the first time in our life, having been set free from all those things that conspire to enslave us. Slavery was a normal everyday part of Roman society and Paul often spoke of life before becoming a Christian as being like a form of spiritual slavery. Without Christ we are slaves to our own selfish will and passions, all of which are ultimately destructive. But Christ has made it possible for us to be set free. Under Roman law it was possible for a slave to be freed from slavery. It was a process called manumission and one of th

Colossians 1:11-12 'We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father.' Life can often be incredibly tough. Paul often spoke of the challenges which he had faced personally which included rejection, betrayal, shipwrecks, imprisonment, beatings and much else besides. He also knew that the Colossian church was going through a difficult time, and would have to face many challenges in the future. He knew that they needed huge strength to keep going in a godly way. Most people who face attack will fight back, but Paul knew that this was not what God wanted. They needed to know how to endure and be patient when they were under extreme pressure. The word for patience used to be translated as ‘long suffering’ and that is a very good literal translation of the Greek. Being patient is tough enough but to be long suffering is beyond all of us. The only way in which we will keep on bei

Colossians 1:9 'We have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.' I recently heard someone saying that the situation they were facing was so desperate that all they could do was pray about it. They made it sound as if their situation was so hopeless that they were willing to grasp at any option, however daft. We need to be clear that the apostle Paul saw prayer in a completely different way. For him, prayer was not the last resort but the first. He prayed for the people in Colossae because, even though he didn’t know them, he cared about them desperately and, having heard of their faith in Christ, he longed that they would thrive as Christians in a tough environment. Paul’s prayer for the Colossian Christians was that they would know God’s will. That always needs to be at the heart of our prayers. Prayer is never our opportunity to tell God what we think is best, or to ask him to im

Colossians 1:6 'This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.' Following Christ always involves radical change. James and John had to leave their boats and their fishing nets to follow Jesus. Zacchaeus, the tax collector, had to make things right with all the people that he had defrauded. And Saul, the devout Jew who was determined to stamp out the Church, changed his name and his whole direction of life by becoming Jesus’ most passionate ambassador. Christ meets us as individuals. And so the changes that take place in our lives will be unique to us. As a teenager, I heard many amazing testimonies from people who had been dramatically changed by Christ. I heard about people who had been on hard drugs for years and who had found new life and liberty in their faith. I listened to people who had pursued a life of crime and w

Colossians 1:4-5 'We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven.' Having hope is incredibly important. The famous Russian writer, Fyodor Dostoevsky, wrote: “To live without hope is to cease to live. Hell is hopelessness.” Above the entrance to Dante’s hell was the inscription: “Leave behind all hope, you who enter here.” The Colossian church had the precise opposite experience. They were so confident of the future that God had for them that they were full of hope, and that inspired both their faith in Christ and their love for their Christian brothers and sisters. It was like an engine inside them producing nothing but blessing. Human life is often, tragically, characterised by hopelessness. In 1850, Bishop Wilberforce said: “I dare not marry for the future is so dark and unsettled.” In 1851, the Duke of Wellington, who will always be remembered for his outstanding military victories, said:

Colossians 1:3-4 'We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people.' We have no reason to believe that Paul and Timothy had ever visited the church in Colossae. It was a relatively minor town in what we now know as Turkey, and there is no reference in the book of Acts to them paying a visit. However, although they hadn’t met the Colossians, Paul and Timothy had heard all about them and kept them constantly in their prayers. The key facts that they knew about the Colossian Christians included their strong faith in Jesus and their love for other Christians. This is the calling of every follower of Christ, because loving him immediately brings us into relationship with other Christians. When we start following Christ we are, unfortunately, not cured of our natural self-centredness. It is, unfortunately, totally possible for Christians to be extremely self-centred in their discipleship.

Colossians 1:2 Paul and Timothy wrote: “We are writing to God’s holy people in the city of Colossae, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. May God our Father give you grace and peace.” Colossae was not a particularly important town, overshadowed by its rich and much more illustrious neighbours, Laodicea and Hierapolis. We don’t have any reason to think that Paul ever visited the church there. However, in this important letter he wanted them to know how significant they were. He calls them saints, God’s holy people. What mattered was not how they viewed themselves, or how other people saw them. It was their relationship with God that was all important. And he saw them as a special people, set apart for him. Many people have a very low view of themselves. They are convinced that they are of no importance. They don’t count. It’s the people with gifts, money and influence who really matter in this life. But God would disagree with that. Everyone is important because all of us have been made in his

Psalm 119:1-2 'Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord. Joyful are those who obey his laws and search for him with all their hearts.' This is the beginning of what is by far the longest psalm and the longest chapter in the Bible. It is made up of 22 sections, each one of which begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Each of those sections is made up of eight verses and the whole psalm is beautifully designed like a piece of intricate tapestry. It is nothing like those psalms in which the psalmist pours out his emotions of anger, sorrow and joy. The whole purpose of this psalm is to declare the blessing of God’s laws, because they are the key to living life to the full. It’s as if the psalmist sees God’s instructions as being so beautiful that, like a diamond, every single angle of them needs to be identified and celebrated. When we first hear the word ‘law’ we are inclined to think of restrictions, and no one likes the thought of that. We want to be free to do

Psalm 118:5-6 'In my distress I prayed to the Lord, and the Lord answered me and set me free. The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?' The Duke of Wellington said: “The only thing I am afraid of is fear.” He had good reason to say this. Doctors tell us that fear can have a huge effect on our lives. It can lead to accelerated ageing and even premature death. Fear can cause damage to certain parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus, and this can make it even more difficult to regulate fear and leave a person feeling anxious. The psalmist knew all about fear. We can’t be sure who he was, but it is clear from this psalm that he was a national leader. He reflected on the experience of being surrounded by hostile nations. They swarmed around him like bees and did their best to kill him (Psalm 118:10- 13). Such experiences are far away for the majority of us but whoever we are, we all face situations that can invite us to feel fearful. Perhaps it is a health issue, concerns

Psalm 117 'Praise the Lord, all you nations. Praise him, all you people of the earth. For his unfailing love for us is powerful; the Lord’s faithfulness endures forever. Praise the Lord!' So reads the whole of Psalm 117. It’s the shortest psalm but it has an enormous message which embraces the whole of the Bible. That is to say, every single person needs to join in praising God. Praising him isn’t confined to a little group of fervent believers. He is God of the world and so needs to be worshipped by everyone. I love the fact that all the churches I know draw together people from a number of different nations. Some of them choose to display the flags of the countries that are represented in the congregation and this seems to me a wonderful way of affirming this great psalm. Although God had a very special relationship with the people of Israel, it was never his intention that they alone should worship him. God’s heart was always for non-Jews as well as the Jewish nation. When the apostle Paul wrote to the

Psalm 115:1 'Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name goes all the glory for your unfailing love and faithfulness.' It is said that William Wilberforce marked the passing of the bill to abolish the slave trade by meditating on this psalm. However great our human successes, it is always our first duty to worship God and to praise him for his greatness and provision. The reason for that is simple. Everything we have and are comes to us as a gift from God, and so we need to make sure that he is the first one to get the praise. This is not to ignore the massive amount of hard work, fiery determination and sheer courage that Wilberforce put into the campaign to dismantle the slave trade. From our modern perspective, the slave trade appears so obviously evil that it is hard to believe that the struggle was so great. However, the grim reality is that it was a very long and bitter battle during which Wilberforce and his friends struggled against huge vested interests including, not least, within the Church

Exodus 34:9 Moses said, “O Lord, if it is true that I have found favour with you, then please travel with us. Yes, this is a stubborn and rebellious people, but please forgive our iniquity and our sins. Claim us as your own special possession.” What an incredible job Moses had! The people had rebelled against God in the most dramatic way. They knew that Moses had gone up Mount Sinai to meet with God, but they were fed up with waiting and so they constructed a new god of their own, who they then worshipped with huge enthusiasm. To describe Moses as disappointed would be a huge understatement. He must have been gutted. Who would have blamed him if he had decided to throw in the towel? Who would want to be the leader of such a rude and rebellious people? But the fact is that Moses hung in there, and he did so because he knew the nature of his God. In the previous verses the Lord revealed himself as a God of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and filled with faithfulness, lavishing unfailing love to a thousa