Read: Colossians 1.24-2.5
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: In his commentary on Colossians, Ben Witherington III writes: "At verse 2.1, Paul continues to explain his own ministry and says that he has been struggling vigorously, like an athlete straining in a contest, for those in Collosae and Laodicea, even though they had never seen his face. How then is Paul struggling for them?...Paul says that he has been struggling in order to encourage their hearts, or, better said, to give their hearts courage, and in verse 2 he is surely referring to this letter. The goal, then, of this discourse is to bring them together or even knit them together in the bond of love and to encourage them, bolstering their faith and resolve to stand firm in the gospel they have already received, and to reaffirm them in the knowledge of the mystery of God - that is, their knowledge of Christ."
"It is in Christ that all the riches of wisdom and hidden knowledge are to be found, not in some ascetic practices or esoteric teachings about angels (verse 3)...In Christ this wisdom is now accessible, and so it is now an open secret, though hidden from those who are not yet in Christ. Paul will be stressing the all-sufficiency of Christ for wisdom and for redemption throughout this section. Christ himself is 'the mystery of God': not just a clue or a key to it."
In Christ, the One all-sufficient for wisdom and redemption, it is possible for members of His body to be "knitted together in the bond of love." This is the exclusive ground, foundation, and key to Church unity. In the words of a old familiar hymn, "All other ground is sinking sand."
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