This morning I was musing and pondering over the verses in Colossians 1:27-29, which say
To whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we announce, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present ever man full grown in Christ; for which also I labor, struggling according to His operation which operates in me in power.
As I was praying over these verses, and also getting into the morning revival portion for today, I was impressed with some of the matters in these verses, like:
- Paul announced Christ – a wonderful Christ, the indwelling Christ as the hope of glory. This Christ is not so simple – He is a wonderful Person. Also, for this Christ as the hope of glory to be worked in us, we need someone like Paul to labor and struggle over us…
- Admonishing – implies that there are troubles, problems, hardships, and mistakes that we can make – and therefore we need to be admonished. Even more, admonishing here implies warning and rebuking. Paul admonished the saints one by one, face to face, in all wisdom – he did this to present every man full-grown in Christ;
- full-grown in Christ – we need to labor on the ones God put under our care by admonishing them and teaching them in all wisdom until they are full-grown in Christ. We admonish one another in many ways – in ALL wisdom.
- present every man full grown in Christ – as we are being perfected and admonished, we are growing unto maturity and become the active members of the corporate Body of Christ. These kind of persons build up the Body – the perfected members that are growing unto maturity to be full-grown in Christ.
- for which also I labor – for Paul this was not a casual thing, he labored and struggled over the saints. Even though we are sons of God, and we are members of the Body of Christ, many times we don’t live as real God-men but rather participate in worldly or even sinful things/situations. We need to be helped by some more mature saints to grow up in Christ more. The apostle Paul ministered Christ into the believers, served Christ to them, desiring to present them in Christ to God as full-grown ones.
- Paul labored by struggling – struggling here implies fighting, battling, or wrestling. In a way, this work is an out-of-the-ordinary work, since we can’t do it by our natural strength – Paul did this not according to his own ability or strength, but according to Christ’s operation which operated in him in power. Christ indwells us so that He can operate in us and move in us – in power. This power is a dynamic power, the power of the divine life. According to this power and strengthened by this power, Paul labored and struggled…
What can we say but, Lord, grow in us more today! Increase in us and bring us on unto maturity. Even keep us open to Your perfecting members, Lord, so that we may be admonished and taught in all wisdom. Lord, make us those who do the same things as the apostle Paul did by being perfected to do so! We also want to present every man full-grown in Christ – to even labor and struggle for this!
