Bible Reading

Colossians Chapter 1 - A Cowardly Evangelist Reflects

Overcoming ourselves to proclaim Christ effectively.

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Under the fig tree

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2 min read

While we, as one church, ramp up our efforts to spread the gospel across our nation, I’ve been reflecting on my own evangelism. 

Oh, but what if I preach and they don’t believe? What if I can’t bear their rejections—or I lose their friendship?

But what if they do believe? Why do I worry about an imagined outcome that I cannot control, instead of focusing on what I can control: actually sharing the gospel?

Colossians 1 reminds me that so much is in God’s hands. Focusing on my worries so much in preaching takes away from the might of God’s gospel. 

After all, it is the gospel that points people to Christ. 

It is God who qualifies anyone to share in the heavenly inheritance. 

And it is God who delivers anyone from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light (Col 1:13-14). 

Having first received these miracles ourselves, we proclaim it. We believers are also recipients of the gospel’s power: “indeed in the whole world [the gospel] is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you” (Col 1:6 ESV, with my emphasis). 

To boldly share the gospel and this opportunity to know Christ, then, is to be like what Epaphras is: a “fellow servant” and “faithful minister of Christ” (Col 1:7). Faithfulness is to persist despite the obstacles, even when the obstacles are ourselves.

Additionally, our preaching is made more powerful when it also come from love. This isn’t just an ordinary love, but love driven by heavenly hope—for ourselves and for others (Col 1:5). When we love people’s souls, we are strengthened us to endure all things to support their faith, just as Jesus and Paul suffered for the sake of souls (Col 1:24). 

Paul earnestly poured his heart into faithfully loving God and man, God worked powerfully in him:

“Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.” (Col 1:28-29)

With this, I encourage myself: I’ll work to present the souls entrusted to me as mature in Christ, beginning with myself. With God working in me, what do I have to fear? Whatever happens as I proclaim the gospel, God is the mighty one who saves—and so I can rejoice (Col 1:24).

See Also

Colossians Chapter 2 - Spiritual Scams

Colossians Chapter 2 - Spiritual Scams

Scams. They’ve been on the forefront of the news for the past couple of years. We’ve seen the headlines - an elderly lady loses her retirement money to an online love scam, people get their accounts hacked when they click on links claiming that they can claim some vouchers.  In the spiritual realm, the devil has always been looking for opportunities to scam God’s people - from the time he deceived Eve to eat the fruit and sin against God, to the time of Paul writing Colossians, and even till today.  While physical scams can cause us loss of money or security, spiritual scams can cheat us of our very lives! Let us therefore take heed from Paul’s warnings in this chapter today.  One of the most common tactics used by scammers is to sway their victims by their emotions. Scammers leverage our affection, our pity, our fear of missing out, to persuade us to help them or buy something from them. Likewise, in our faith, our emotions are often harnessed to deceive us. “If God is love, how can the way of salvation be so narrow that so few people in this world of billions can be saved?” Such emotional arguments can sway us to compromise on the truth. We must remind ourselves that our emotions do not override the righteousness and wisdom of God. Let us always strive to attain the full assurance of understanding and knowledge of the mystery of God (Col 2:2-3), so that we will not be persuaded away from what we have received (Col 2:6-7). Another tactic scammers employ is to exploit our own confirmation biases. We humans have a tendency to easily believe things that seem aligned with our own prior knowledge and beliefs. This leads us to believe the scammer more easily, because it isn’t just what they told us - it’s what we know ourselves! Paul tells us to beware of philosophies that are according to the “basic principles of the world” (Col 2:8). Such arguments appeal to our own rational thinking - it makes logical sense to us intuitively - and thus we like to believe these things.  In Colosse, these heretical philosophies may have been trying to reason about the nature of Christ. Today, there are also many deceitful philosophies that can cheat us of our salvation. For example, the devil may tempt us to think that it is ok to do something - as long as we don’t “cross the line”. This seems to make a lot of rational sense - as long as we haven’t committed the act of sin, aren’t we technically still innocent before God? Let us remind ourselves - God is not mocked (Gal 6:7). As followers of Christ, we have to submit everything to Christ - even our own human wisdom. The message of the cross is foolishness to the world, but it is in fact the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:20-25). We must learn to put down our own logic and arguments, to submit in fear to the will of God, lest we be deceived. The third way scammers deceive us is by presenting something that appeals to our desires. That magical weight-loss pill that requires no diet or exercise, and has no side effects. That investment scheme which has no risk and promises the best returns. All the benefits, none of the hard work required. In other words, the easy way out.  God’s people always suffered from this problem as well. They focused on the form of worship (sacrifices and festivals), rather than practicing true religion - justice, mercy and humility (Micah 6:7-8). Even in the times of Jesus, He rebuked the Pharisees for doing the same (Matt 23:23).  In Colosse, there were people who preached that one had to practice various religious rites - keeping certain festivals, abstaining from various things (Col 2:16,18,20). Have you considered why the believers could be swayed by such teachings? Wasn’t the liberty in Christ that they originally received much easier to practice?  Perhaps it was due to this same reason - that practicing these things made them feel like they were being religious and allowed them to feel good about themselves. All the while ignoring what Christ truly called them to do - put to death the old man and be transformed into a new man (Col 2:11). The easy way out.  Today, there are many things we can busy ourselves with in our church life - various duties, services and fellowships. Let us not deceive ourselves into thinking that these things can replace our need to do the will of God, to spiritually nurture ourselves, and to bear fruits.  May we always examine ourselves as to whether we have fallen for any of these spiritual scams today.

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