Colossians 1:21-25; 1 Thessalonians 3:2
As I spend the month of November preaching and thinking about Stewardship, I’m focused on what I have, that it is from God, belongs to God, and is for his purpose and Kingdom advancement. In that, I saw two passages this morning – one to the church in Colossae, written while in prison, and one to the Thessalonica, possibly the first of Paul’s letters.
In 1 Thessalonians 2, Paul tells the Thessalonians that he is proud of the way they “became imitators of the first churches in Judea”. What was the similarity? They were suffering for the name of Jesus, persecution among sinful people.
Paul goes on to say that what keeps him going is what they are doing for God – “indeed you are our glory and joy”.
Then Paul says of Timothy, whom he sent to Thessalonica to encourage and strengthen them, that he is “our brother and God’s co-worker”. What an identity for us to be mindful of, that we are God’s co-workers.
While being God’s servant, and we are, is a worthy and wonderful task – yet this is not the word “doulos” (bondservant) often used – but this is the word synergon = fellow worker, working together, joining, furthering, co-laborer, accomplice.
Paul is saying something here about both Timothy and about God.
- God is not giving orders and sending us, while he stays aloof and on the throne, detached from the work. That’s Never God’s Way.
- We could rightly say that God does it all, “it is all grace”. We understand that we are NOT attaining or advancing anything that God cannot do. And yet, God chooses in the mystery of the Gospel, to USE us, to INVOLVE us in the work.
- Timothy is laboring together WITH God.
- God WILL accomplish all that he purposes to do, with our without us, but he invites us to join him. If we will not, then he will use someone else, but praise God he brings us into the labor.
It’s like a Father that hands a tool to a child and says, “do it like this.” Yet God is always a co-laborer, he is always working with us, for us, in us, through us. And so we join and work with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
And then is this companion passage in my study. Paul, writing from prison, to the church at Colossae:
1:21 – Once you were alienated… but now he has reconciled you by his… death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless.
Paul then says that he is working that they might understand and fulfill the gospel / good news.
1:24 – Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s affliction for his body, the Church”
Paul is NOT saying that the death of Christ lacked anything – Oh certainly, Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.
But regarding the church, there is still work to be done. Paul is doing all in his power to co-labor with Christ in making the church a global, multi-faceted, Revelation 7:9 “every tribe” reflection of God’s inclusive love.
Yes, there is only one mediator, but we still join in the ministry of reconciliation. We have, Paul says here, a commission to serve.
As I wrote this, it is 11/11 – a day to celebrate and thank those who serve in our military and the lives they give for the cause of freedom. In our commission, we play a part in the work of God, for somebody else.
Colossians 1:25 – Paul says, I have become a servant (diakonos) according to God’s commission… to make the word of God fully known
Back in 1:23 – this gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I have become a servant of it.
I think of the Moravian Missionary – Leonard Dober – who left Germany in the early 1700s to go to the Virgin Islands to share the gospel with the slave population there.
His story is quite amazing, but he ended up building a little hut and making pottery, to self-support and share Jesus 1-on-1. For Three Years, he did this, and they say he led 12-13,000 to place their faith in Jesus Christ.
Why would he do this? His answer became the heart cry of the Moravian Missionary Movement
“May the Lamb that was slain, Receive the Reward of his Suffering”
We become co-laborers with God that Jesus Christ receive Just Reward for his Suffering, in us, as his Kingdom crows and fulfills his mission on earth.
Pastor Goforth 