I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Colossians 1-4.

    Paul greets the believers in Colosse by speaking of how he prays for them constantly. Considering that Paul speaks of praying for various believers constantly in his letters we must conclude that Paul spent a lot of time in prayer. We should do the same. I know that I do not spend as much time in prayer as I should. I recently read a study which stated that a couple of hours a day spent in silent time is good for our brains. This leads me to think that I should spend much more time in silent prayer. Paul follows his greeting with what appears to be a creed of the early Church(similar to the Apostles’ Creed, or the Nicene Creed, but not as formally adopted). The creed declares that Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. In many ways I believe the rest of this letter is an exposition on what that means. Christ is the visible image of the invisible God and we are to be the image of Christ.

    In the meat of the letter Paul advises the believers not to be captured by empty philosophies or high-sounding nonsense (I would like to phrase that differently, but it is such a perfect description of so many false teachings that I had to go with it). Paul goes on to explain what he means by that. He refers to those who claim that believers need to be circumcised, follow special diets, or observe certain holy days and rituals. Paul further explains that we should not follow rules which tell us “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch.” He specifically tells us not to follow rules which call for severe bodily discipline. However, no sooner does Paul finish writing that than he writes that we should put to death the sinful, earthly desires within us.

    Paul gives a list of thoughts and behaviors we are to avoid. Actually he goes further than that and tells us to put those behaviors, and thoughts, to death. He then follows that list up with another list of thoughts and behaviors with which we are to replace those. Neither list a short list, but the things in each list are related, despite the attempts of many to divide the first list into unrelated items so as to justify the ones they wish to hang on to.
Thoughts and behaviors to get rid of:

• Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, abd evil desires
• greed
• anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and lies.

I typed the list this way because there are people who believe that they can indulge in one of these three groups and as long as they avoid the other two, they are good people. Not only is that not true, but it rarely happens. One of the great things about the Gospel is that the more we focus on allowing the Holy Spirit to fill us with the second list (I will get to the list in a minute), the less there is room in our lives for the first list.
Here is that list of thoughts and behaviors to embrace:

• tender-hearted mercy, humility, gentleness, and patience
• make allowance for the faults of others, and forgive anyone who offends you
• live with each other with love, harmony, and peace
• sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs

I don’t really think there is much value in separating this second list into categories, but it looked nicer compared to the first list that way. This second list can be summed up by saying that everything we do or say should be done as a representative of Jesus. Look back over your last day, do all of your actions reflect well on Jesus? Even those which no one else witnessed? I am ashamed to say that my answer is,”No”. Even worse, I am convinced that if I repeat this exercise tomorrow at this time, the answer will still be “No”. However, I am going to strive to change that.