Colossians 1:24-2:5
"Paul's labor for the church"
Paul begins the passage remarking on how he has suffered for the gospel. he describes his sufferings as the sufferings of Christ left for the church (Wesley's commentary of this passage). Paul then describes himself as a servant of the church as he presents the message of God which was not fully revealed to man until Christ. Paul follows this statement by mentioning that the Gospel is also for Gentiles, or non-Jews. Paul describes his labor as working towards the presentation of everyone as perfect under Christ - that is, striving for the salvation of everyone.
Paul then gives a short exposition about who he is and why he writes the letters and preaches. all of this can be summed up in four statements:
- encouraging the church
- uniting the church
- creating understanding so that the church may further know Christ
- to prevent the church from being misled by seemingly sound arguments
why does Paul care? he is part of the church and the church is his family. while he may not be with each individual church that he writes to, he feels that he is with them in spirit and he rejoices when the church stands strong against adversity and solid in its faith.
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