CHRISTALAYA BIBLE STUDY:

COLOSSIANS

Growing Up Into the Fullness of Christ 1:21-23

Once you were alienated from God

What does it mean to be alienated from God?

Separation?

Estrangement?

Why passive voice?

Why not ‘once you had alienated yourselves from

God?’

Alienation is a sign of ignorance

No one in their right mind would want to be alienated from

God

And were enemies in your minds

Whose enemies?

God’s enemies?

Enemies of other humans?

Enemies of God’s creation?

Why ‘in your minds’?

The mind is where the battle is

Literally – ‘hostile in thought’

Because of your evil behavior

The evil behavior reveals a mind at enmity with God and hostile toward his purposes

In v. 13 there is the idea that Jesus rescues the Colossians from the dominion of darkness. This is more like a hostage rescue—the devil had the Colossians captive and Jesus stormed the dungeons and rescued them.

Here the image is different. The Colossians are not helpless captives but openly hostile to God. That is, their evil deeds reveal that they are partners with the devil.

But now he has reconciled

The Christ hymn told us that everything belongs to

Jesus.

Jesus, knowing that the Colossians belong to him effects

their reconciliation even though they were hostile to him.

In his body of flesh

Word used for ‘body’ is sw/ma

Word used for ‘flesh’ is sa,rx

Why this strange phrase ‘his body of flesh’?

Jesus is human. He did not simply appear to be human

We are not spirit beings trapped in a cumbersome

body!

Reconciliation is a physical act with spiritual

ramifications, not a spiritual act with a rejection of the

physical

By means of death

Reconciliation happens as a consequence of Jesus’

death

No reconciliation if Jesus did not die

No more alienation if Jesus has died

To present you…

The purpose of reconciliation is to present us

Holy

Jesus restores us to our purpose of being consecrated to and

by God.

Blemishless and blameless

Our past hostility is not just not remembered but is treated

as though it had not happened.

If you continue in the faith

Why ‘if’?

Is the reconciliation dependent on our faithfulness?

Is the ‘holy, blemishless and blameless’ aspect

dependent on our faithfulness?