God's Word Well Handled!

This post was a joint effort with my cousin and good friend.









I was encouraged to hear that my cousin had the opportunity to teach a home group study in Colossians 1.


I was not able to attend the meeting but I had a chance to interview him via phone.

I tried to accurately record our conversation but alas we were both in a hurry, so I allowed him to proof read this article before posting it, he was quick to admit that the notes in his MacArthur Study Bible were a big help and he gave his approval to enter this post on his behalf.
His focus was on verses 15 through the end of the chapter. Some highlights of the discussion are as follows:

Colossians 1:15 states that Jesus was the “first born” of creation. This is not to say that Jesus was the “first created”, or that he was even the “first begotten”. That is a common mis-interpretation by some false teachers. The Greek word for firstborn can refer to the chronological order of birth but it usually denotes the rank of the child. In early church culture, the rightful heir would be referred to as the firstborn even if he was not the first in birth order. My cousin tried to emphasize how important it is to understand that Jesus is God and that belief in His deity essential to our faith. It was unfortunate to hear that even though my cousin used lots of comparatives and metaphors, Some in the group did not seem to grasp the concept that Paul's reference to Jesus as the first born was indeed a statement of rank as opposed to a chronological reference of birth order. My cousin tried to argue logically that a chronological interpretation of the Greek word meaning”first born” would be contrary to other references in the bible where Jesus is referred to as being the ONLY begotten. My cousin argued, “How can Jesus be the first begotten when indeed He is the only begotten?”

Argued well, he did!

Colossians 1:20 states that God has reconciled all things to Himself through Jesus. The Greek word for reconcile means to exchange or change, this is evidence that God makes a visible change when purifying the lives of those whom he calls to salvation.

Colossians 1:22 states that God's motivation to reconcile, is to present believers “holy and blameless and beyond reproach. This was done in Jesus flesh through His(Jesus) death. It is amazing to think that true believers are so completely justified before a holy god as to be “beyond reproach”. To quote my cousin. “That can only mean that we are as holy as Jesus himself in the site of God”. Some in the group also had trouble with this.

Colossians 1:23 is best interpreted that only those who “continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel” can be counted as those who are reconciled by God. The evidence of a true believer is one with a firmly established faith, that is steadfast and not moved away from the gospel. Again to quote my cousin, “a true believer will
display a constant need, and desire grow and to be fed from god's word”.

Thanks Cus.

David