6. CHRIST IN AND AMONG US

6.1 The Love, the Hope, the Faith 

 

 

In the epistle to the Colossians chapter one beginning at verse three Paul says, “We always thank 

God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in 

Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in 

heaven.”  We should take note of three familiar words he uses when describing their church, 

namely, the faith, the hope and the love.  Paul is giving thanks to God every time he prays 

because he had heard reports that these three things characterized the life of this congregation 

and he therefore knew that they were a spiritually healthy people.  Consider in contrast the 

dubious fame of certain Christian movements spreading around the world in our day.  Often we 

hear news of apparently exciting happenings, sometimes sounding rather bizarre, then there are 

reports of miracles and healings often difficult to verify.  Meetings are described as being 

‘fantastic’ or ‘awesome.’  Power and anointing are measured by how many people are ‘touched 

by the Lord’ and fall over.   Paul does not even refer to these phenomena though; the things that 

confirm to him the authenticity of what has happened in the church at Colosse are their faith in the 

Lord Jesus, their love for all the saints and their consciousness of their heavenly hope.  We must 

always apply the test of the Lord Jesus to every movement and every ministry we hear about; his 

criterion is simple, what is its fruit?  If God is working and moving in us as individuals or together as 

a group the marks will be quite clear.  Paul emphasizes the news of their faith in Christ Jesus, not 

faith in the ministers, the so called ‘men of God.’  They were famous for their love to all the saints 

and the fact that a rich hope was helping to focus them, lifting their attention away from the 

present and setting their eyes upon the world to come.   Unfortunately, many people do not apply 

these tests; they do not look for these marks and so become carried away by many fanciful things.