Seeds for 04/13/2023 - Colossians 4:16
Scripture: “After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.
Observation: Laodicea is perhaps best known for receiving a challenging word in the book of Revelation when John is communicating what the Spirit was saying to the churches. Laodicea was rebuked for being lukewarm—neither hot nor cold, though with the assurance that the Lord’s rebuke is motivated by love.
At the end of Paul’s letter we see a common practice in the early Christian communities. Letters were by and large written with particular audiences/churches in mind, the immediate problems they faced being the primary subject matter. Paul would ground his answers and advice upon biblical and theological foundations as he addressed the specific situations they were dealing with, sometimes as a response to direct questions from those churches.
Once written, the letters contained teaching that might apply to another church’s problems, articulate foundational doctrines in a helpful way, and/or contain wisdom that could aid another church, not necessarily with direct advice, but in helping them think through their own situation and discern a faithful path. In that sense, the letter to the Colossians both was and wasn’t written to the Laodicean Christians. It wasn’t in the sense that Paul has the Colossian church and its particular issues and challenges in mind. In another sense, however, the Laodiceans could have the same experience of reading the letter to the Colossians as we do with any NT letter (and to some degree, many books in the Bible).
First, the core truths of Christ, the Gospel, the kingdom of God, and so forth will be restated. More foundation work is always beneficial.
Second, Paul models how to prayerfully reason from scriptural and theological foundations to practical application on a wide range of issues: morality and ethics, faithful worship, practical discipleship, prayer, life in the community of faith, life in one’s mission field, and more. Whether we do or don’t share a specific concern that is being addressed in a particular biblical book or text at a given time, learning how to think “Christianly” is always good training.
Third, we might someday find ourselves in much the same situation as another person or another church did at another time. After all, we have a notoriously difficult time learning from history or others. So, if we’ve once read something speaking more-or-less directly to the circumstance we’re in now, we may just remember that we’ve got a resource to turn to, then hunt it down and find what we need.
This is not at all a bad way to read scripture. A book or chapter or verse may or may not have practical application to us on the day we read it. But if it builds our foundation, teaches us how to think Christianly, and/or puts a deposit in our spiritual bank that we may find useful later, that is supremely worthwhile.
Application:
When has a biblical story or passage you’ve read in the past come back to mind as applicable to something you faced later?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, “guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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