“For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus [the leaning of your entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness] and of the love which you [have and show] for all the saints (God’s consecrated ones), because of the hope [of experiencing what is] laid up (reserved and waiting) for you in heaven. Of this [hope] you heard in the past in the message of the truth of the Gospel,” Colossians 1:4-5 ->me: FAITH, LOVE, and HOPE – These are the things in the Colossian church that Paul thanks God for (from verse 3). These three things are the signs that new life is springing forth. The FAITH spoken here by Paul is not just any religious belief…It is defined as ‘faith in Christ Jesus’. I also find it awesome that the Colossians acts of LOVE are stories that have made it all the way through travels of people from there – they must have been on fire. Here HOPE is not so much referring to the state or activity of hoping as to the thing ‘hoped for’ -> ‘it is the hope stored up for you in heaven’ (1 Peter 1:4 & 2 Timothy 4:8). The ‘hope’ is that which I have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel. “The Gospel” for Paul, is an announcement, a proclamation, whose importance lies in the truth of its content. It is not, primarily, either an invitation, or a technique for changing people’s lives. It is a command to be obeyed and a power to let loose in the world.
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