A Collaborative Community – Colossians 4:7-18
In this random list of names, more important than any individual name on the list, we catch a glimpse of the good life. Paul concludes his letter to the Colossian people by recounting the work and ways in which God has worked with him and his closest companions. This simple list of names reveals that we are called to be a collaborative community; collaborating with God and one another.
SUMMARY OF COLOSSIANS
This letter is written to a young church: The Apostle Paul writes this letter from prison to a young church in the city of Colossae that they may grow in “maturity to Christ” (1:28), despite the cultural pressures that they were experiencing.
Christ began a new Kingdom: The foundation for resisting cultural pressure is recognizing we have been saved from ourselves and are now citizens of a new Kingdom– established in Christ. (1:13;1:15-20;3:1)
Spiritual maturity is learning to live in that new Kingdom: Paul believes that learning to live in the Kingdom of Jesus transforms every aspect of our lives.
ON THE ACHE FOR BELONGING.
“We all want to be part of something bigger than ourselves”; a phrase that almost needs no explanation for we all know the ache for belonging.
An MIT Study published in Nov. 2020 found that humans crave social interactions in the same region in our brain that we crave food.
A different study indicated that our experience of social isolation or loneliness originates in the same region of the brain in which we experience the sensation of physical pain.
We all seem to be looking for a community of meaningful participation.
The Church is called to be a collaborative community; collaborating with God and one another.
THROUGHOUT THE BIBLICAL NARRATIVE GOD DEMONSTRATES A DEEP DESIRE TO COLLABORATE WITH HUMANITY.
“The human job description…found in chapter 1 of Genesis indicates that God assigned to us collectively the rule over all living things on earth, animal and plant. We are responsible before God for life on the earth. However unlikely it may seem from our current viewpoint, God equipped us for this task by framing our nature to function in a conscious, personal relationship of interactive responsibility with him. We are meant to exercise our ‘rule’ only in union with God, as he acts with us. He intended to be our constant companion or co-worker in the creative enterprise of life on earth. That is what his love for us means in practical terms.” – Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 22
THE GOSPEL CAN BE UNDERSTOOD AS GOD’S INVITATION TO BE HIS COLLABORATING PEOPLE.
“The task of the church is to serve as the best example of what God can do with human community.“ – Stanley Hauerwas
“What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God’s future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether. They are part of what we may call building for God’s kingdom.” – NT Wright, Suprised by Hope
To collaborate with God is to understand his plan for the future, and to simply work towards it.
“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” – Col 3:1–2.
PAUL’S MOTLEY CREW OF COLLABORATORS.
Two Messengers (Tychicus, Onesimus), three Jewish collaborators (Aristarchus, Mark, Jesus “Justus”), three Gentile collaborators (Epaphras, Luke, Demas), and a few final greetings (Nympha, the Church of Laodicea, and Archippus).
“Christian friendships are call-and-response friendships. We tell each other over and over, back and forth, the truth of who we are and who God is. Over dinner and on walks, dropping off soup when someone is sick, and in prayer over the phone, we speak the good news to each other. And we become good news to every other.” — Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary
OUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE IS TO IDENTIFY & CENTER FRIENDSHIPS IN CHRIST.
Make friends with Christians who spur you towards the good.
This means you need to show up to the Christian community.
You must put yourself out there– be intentional.
Keep working at friendship
