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in the arena, part 2 (or things to fight for: encouragement)
By Amber | August 21, 2008
In part 1 of this post, I told you about my discoveries of the connection between striving and the Christian life (from Colossians 1:29-2:1) and the goal of our striving (from Colossians 1:28). Today I wanted to go a little further in Colossians to look at some specifics of Paul’s “striving prayer.“ But then I decided to break it up into pieces and look individually at each item for which Paul contends. So what was going to be a 2-part post is now a 5-part post. Enjoy.;)
Colossians 2:1-3 says:
For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Another of my father’s Biblical studies books is Oneness with Christ: Popular Studies in the Epistle to the Colossians by Bishop W.R. Nicholson. Many of the ideas I want to share with you are owing to Bishop Nicholson.
Notice the striving prayer Paul prays. Remember that his goal is to bring Christians into the clearness of the gospel doctrine and under its abounding power. These are the specific ways he prays to accomplish that goal. As we look more closely at this prayer, keep in mind that Paul’s goal for the Colossians is also our goal for our small groups. The specific things he fights for in prayer are our struggles as well.
First, he prays that their hearts be encouraged. The Greek tense gives the sense of ongoing encouragement: past, present, and future. You may ask, as I did, why encouragement? What is so important about our hearts being encouraged that it would be the first victory Paul fights for in the hearts of disciples? Nicholson’s answers,
In the comforting of the heart by the truth, the truth is secured. …If one is not in sympathy with the subject [of his study], he will make poor progress in its understanding, and so a man may theoretically receive every doctrine of the Gospel, but if he himself is not comforted thereby, he may fall an easy prey to the archers of error.
You can see this idea elsewhere in the Bible when Jesus tells his disciples in John 15:11 that the reason for his teaching was that “My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Another common reference to this is Nehemiah 8:10: “The joy of the LORD is your strength.”
Nicholson defines the heart that is being encouraged as “entering consciously into a feeling of [the Gospel's] reality and all-pervading sense of its sweetness.” He reminds us that this is attainable for every believer, is their safety from falsehood and deception, and may be habitually and aboundingly their possession.
Bruce Wilkinson, in his book Secrets of the Vine: Breaking Through to Abundance, underscores the importance of this joy and encouragement in the gospel:
One of the primary reasons [so few Christians fervently pursue relationship with God], I’m convinced, is that we don’t really believe God likes us. Sure, we believe God loves us in the theological sense (”God loves everybody, right?”), but we don’t feel particularly liked by Him. We’re convinced that He remembers all the bad things we’ve done in the past and is quick to judge how we’re doing now. We assume He’s impatient, busy with more important things, and reluctant to spend time with us.
Encouragement from the gospel is the first thing to contend for in your own heart and in the hearts of your disciples. Without a deep, abounding joy in God’s love for us in Christ, any knowledge we have is dry and lifeless. We are left weak and wide open for spiritual attack. I’ll close with another quote from Nicholson:
No ministry is true to its God-given aim which does not preach this happy privilege and duty of believers and urge it upon them, and endure a mighty conflict before God to make them conforted, and therefore [to make them] the always-triumphant holders of the truth in the midst of a gain-saying world.
Topics: Inspire, Small Groups |