Colossians 1:3–8 (ESV)
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

To Paul, this church had a noble reputation. This church was apparently well known, famous if you please, for how they lived.

From what Paul says about this church, we can answer the question:
WHAT SHOULD A CHURCH BE FAMOUS FOR?

A church should be famous for its…
1. FAITH SOUNDLY DEFINED (verses 3-4a)

“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…”

There used to be a saying which I heard many people, Christian and non-Christian, use: ”Keep the faith, Baby.” I always wanted to ask, “Keep which faith?”

Faith simply means that I have trust in something.

For example, you go to a restaurant and eat food prepared by a cook you’ve never seen.
Or, you fly in a commercial plane, made ready to fly by mechanics you’ve never seen, flown by a pilot you’ve never seen, directed by a flight controller you’ve never seen.

The people of Colossae had been saved by grace through faith. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

This is not blind faith. Some people think that in order to be a Christian, you have to ignore facts and blindly trust in God.

I’ll tell you what blind faith is. It is the person out there who ignores the facts of creation.

This is faith based upon facts. John tells his readers in John 20:31, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus in the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

John wrote his Gospel so that his readers might examine the facts as to who Jesus is and then to come to an intellectual conclusion, which would lead them to put their trust in Jesus and receive eternal life.

You’ve heard me say it before and I say it again now. In all my years as a Christian, I have never had to sacrifice my brain to follow Jesus. On the contrary, to follow Jesus correctly requires the highest use of my mental faculties. As a disciple I am to be a learner of Jesus, ever stretching my thinking to grow in the knowledge of God.

This faith is about the object of their faith. It is not so much our faith that is in question, but it is the object of our faith. Think about this: ”Strong faith in a weak plank will land you in the water, but even weak faith in a strong plank will get you to the other side.”

Let’s say there is a 12’ wide plank laid across the two banks of a stream of water. Suppose you weigh 150 pounds and the plank will only hold 100 pounds, but you don’t know that. You look at the plank and to you, it looks like it’s strong enough to hold you up. So with full faith in the plank, you start across the stream. What’s going to happen? You’re going to get wet. You see, the object of your faith was not sufficient.

Now suppose the plank will actually hold more than 200 pounds, but you don’t know that. You look at the plank and while you want to believe it’s strong enough, you are afraid it’s not. But with what little faith you have, you place it in the plank and what happens? You make it to the other side!

You see, it wasn’t how much faith you had, but it was the object of your faith that made all the difference.

The church in Colossae had placed their faith in a specific object – their faith was in Christ Jesus. Their faith was SOUNDLY DEFINED in Christ Jesus.

Now, the heresy, which will appear more clearly in the future, made a big deal of angelic and mystical persons. It was important in these circumstances to state with precision that Jesus Christ is the great object of faith. Paul is reinforcing the basis of their faith in order to combat the heresy.