The Tuesday after Ad te levavi Sunday, the First Sunday in Advent
Posted on December 2, 2025 by under
Scripture: Colossians 1:12-23 (NKJV)
1:12 Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Devotion
Greek grammar does not indicate whether “the Son of His love” means “the Son whom He loves” or “the Son who is the manifestation of His love.” From the rest of Scripture and the context of today’s reading we can conclude that both are true and that the Holy Ghost wants us to understand that neither can be separated from the other.
It is most certainly true that Jesus is the Son whom God the Father loves, for His voice announced from out of the cloud at His Baptism and His Transfiguration, “This is My Beloved Son” (Matt. 3:17 and 17:5). And St. Paul says, “it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell.” God’s great love resulted in the Son’s divine nature being personally united with His human nature, being full of divine power, glory, and honor, to accomplish our redemption.
It is most certainly true that the Son of God is the manifestation of the Father’s love toward us men. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). St. Paul says that the Father’s love for us caused His Son to take on our flesh so that by His bloody death upon the cross He might redeem us from the power of darkness and reconcile us to Himself through the forgiveness of our sins.
Collect: Stir up, we beseech Thee, Thy power, O Lord, and come, that by Thy protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins, and saved by Thy mighty deliverance; Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
