Keeping the Edge – Colossians 1:24-29

I told someone recently that I felt I had lost my “edge” as a servant of Christ, only to realize once I said it that this implied that my service before was effective because of my edge, because of my skill and experience, when I believe just the opposite. I am still prone, despite all I have learned in Christ, to lean back on myself. Oh, how pernicious is my heart! I can still sing with genuine feeling, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it.”

Paul had an “edge” that came only from Christ and urged it upon us by his example.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. (Colossians 1:24-29, ESV)

Christ is still suffering via his church and Paul is part of the Body called upon to suffer for the sake of reaching Gentiles and Jews with the gospel. It actually causes Paul joy to suffer this way. It is what Jesus promised him he must do (Acts 9:16), it came with his stewardship given him by God to make the gospel fully known, and it resulted in many coming to know the risen Christ.

Paul’s message was a mystery, a previously unrevealed “secret” that God made known with the coming of His Son. What was clearly revealed in the Old Testament was that the Messiah would bring all nations into relationship with God, not just Israel (see, for example, Genesis 12:1-3). But what was not revealed was that Gentiles would come to God apart from requirements to keep the Law of Moses, without, in effect, becoming Jews, but simply by faith in Messiah. This was part of the new wineskins of Jesus’ ministry, the new form faith would take (Matthew 9:17). 

So now Paul is focused on proclaiming Christ and making sure everyone who comes to faith is warned against ungodly living and taught to become mature followers of Christ. This consumes all his energies but, in fact, the energy he has comes from God.

What is God energizing you to do? Is suffering for the name of Jesus part of your calling? Every believer must suffer to some degree if we are going to share the gospel with others, even if it is very minor suffering, the altering of our goals, our schedules, our comfort. God puts on the hearts of His stewards (that’s us) desires to serve Him that are only satisfied by actually doing the work. Are you satisfied?