Wednesday after Populus Sion, The Second Sunday in Advent
Posted on December 11, 2019 by under
Scripture: Colossians 1:1-8 (NKJV)
1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; 5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; 7 as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
Devotion
The pagan Greco-Roman world did not have the same view of time or history that the Christians did. For the pagans, time and history didn’t have any goal or meaning. There was nothing in the future that they were looking forward to. This is quite different from the text of Colossians, where it says: “…your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven.” The Colossian Christians had a belief in the future because there is a future. They had a future to look forward to. That future was “laid up for you in heaven.” All the events in this life are connected to that future goal.
Our lives of faith in this world are one thread with the glory of our lives in heaven. What we do here matters there. What we suffer for Christ here redounds to our glory there. We are on a pilgrimage toward our heavenly home, and our lives as Christians have meaning and purpose. When the world collapses around us, we do not despair. Destruction of earthly dreams cannot destroy “the hope which is laid up for you in heaven.”
We pray: Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the way of Thine only-begotten Son, so that by His coming we may be enabled to serve Thee with pure minds; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee 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.
