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COLOSSIANS - Christ in you, the hope of glory!
Studies in the Letter of Paul to the Colossians

Part 3 - What Does Your Resurrection Life Look like? (Colossians 3:1-17)

17. How Can the Unity of a Church Grow? (Colossians 3:11-15)


Paul gave some marvellous titles to the group of united believers in Jesus: He called them the chosen, who understood themselves to be those called out (ecclesia) from their people and nations. They understood that they had been placed into service for those suffering death in sin. Any form of an indefinable “volkschurch”, common in Europe, is, in the long run, an illusion. The flock of disciples gathered around Jesus consisted of those “called-out” and “chosen” from their own people groups. The majorities in each of these peoples and tribes, however, remained opposed to Christ and His followers. For the sake of their faith, they had become strangers and rejected of their own people. The same unfolding awaits many Christians in various countries as soon as they begin truly following the Lord Jesus.

Paul called the lumped-together church in Colosse “saints”, for they had been justified and cleansed through the blood of Christ: “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). Furthermore, the Holy Spirit had united the followers of Christ, in this mountain town of Anatolia, and made them a part of His holy temple, in which God dwells. They were still entangled in many mistakes and problems, but their faith in the Lamb of God kept removing mountains of guilt.

Paul dared to address the church, sitting amidst the loneliness of the Anatolian high plain, “beloved of God”, what the Koran angrily rejects and condemns as presumption (Sura al-Ma´ida 5:97). The one, however, who opens himself to the Son of God, who loves Him and believes in Him, is also loved of God (John 14:21; 16:27; Eph. 2:4). The pleasure of God rests upon those cleansed and made holy through the blood of Christ and His Spirit.

Question 40: What titles and attributes does the Apostle Paul ascribe to active church members?

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