Time Well Spent Bible Study with Cornelius F. Warren

All is not well in Colossae. A heresy is growing that promotes empty ritual, useless asceticism, and false mysticism. In order to encourage the Colossians to hold to the truth, Paul refutes the heresy in a positive way – he shows them who Christ is. Christ as LORD of all gives complete salvation, and He is sufficient for every need. And if Christ is all and in all, then He should be in all we say, do, and think. So Paul encourages the Colossians to pursue a godly lifestyle befitting those whose real life is in Heaven with Christ. Join Pastor Cornelius F. Warren as he teaches.

Our text, Colossians 4: 7-18, is one that you tend to skim over in your Bible reading. It’s a bunch of names of people who don’t mean much to us. You may wonder why God inspired these verses to be in His Word. But, actually, there is so much here that I couldn’t fit it all into a single message! The main idea is: Christians are on a team devoted to serve Christ.

Even though the apostle Paul was one of the most gifted men in the history of the church, he was not a one-man-show. Surrounding him was a team of faithful people devoted to serving Jesus Christ. We see the team and learn a lot about how God wants His church to function. It’s striking that in this short letter, where Paul devotes only one verse to lust and greed, one to anger, one to wives, one to husbands, and one to fathers, he spends the final 12 verses mentioning various people with him and in Colossae. Clearly, Paul wasn’t the only guy doing ministry! He was part of a team. We can learn a lot from this text.