Colossians 1:3\u20138 (ESV)<\/p>\n
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\u2014as 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.<\/p>\n
To Paul, this church had a noble reputation. This church was apparently well known, famous if you please, for how they lived.<\/p>\n
From what Paul says about this church, we can answer the question:<\/p>\n
WHAT SHOULD A CHURCH BE FAMOUS FOR?<\/p>\n
First, a church should be famous for its\u2026<\/p>\n
1. FAITH SOUNDLY DEFINED\u00a0 (verses 3-4)<\/p>\n
The second thing a church should be famous for is\u2026<\/p>\n
2. LOVE SPLENDIDLY DISTRIBUTED (verses 3-4)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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,\u201d<\/p>\n
Having received God’s love, the church at Colossae became famous for its love for all believers.<\/p>\n
It is interesting to remark that Paul expresses thankfulness for similar blessings, in the two letters written at the same time as Colossians.<\/p>\n
Ephesians 1:15-16<\/p>\n
15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,<\/p>\n
Philemon 4-5<\/p>\n
4 I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and all the saints,<\/p>\n
So, the second thing a church should be famous for is love splendidly distributed.<\/p>\n
Notice what Paul didn\u2019t say, in Colossians 1:4,<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t say, \u201clove for SOME of the saints.\u201d<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t say, \u201clove for MOST of the saints.\u201d<\/p>\n
No, he said \u201clove for ALL the saints.\u201d<\/p>\n
Believers should be concerned for the wellbeing of saints everywhere, especially of their own fellowship.<\/p>\n
Paul didn’t say that they LIKED all of the saints. That would have been the Greek word PHILEO, which carries the idea of tender affection.<\/p>\n
This word translated “love” is the word AGAPE. It means to maintain an attitude of care and actions to go along with it. It means to want the best for others, even if they are your enemies. It means to accept others even if you don’t understand them.<\/p>\n
Jesus said in John 13:35, \u201c..By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, the thing that should be so amazing to the lost world is to be able to look into the church and see people of varied personalities, people of varied backgrounds, people of varied perspectives, people of varied temperaments still being able to love each other – to show actions of care – to want the best for each other – to accept each other.<\/p>\n
Love does not mean that we agree on everything. Once, in college, I went up to my philosophy professor and said, \u201cI really like your lectures, but I don\u2019t agree with half of what you say.\u201d\u00a0 His response was classic: \u201dIf you and I agree on every thing, then only one of us is doing any thinking.”<\/p>\n
Love means that we still care for each other, want the best for each other and accept each other even if we don’t agree. You see, love is the fruit of faith and it is the proof of its genuineness.<\/p>\n
Galatians 5:6 “For in Christ Jesus … the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”<\/p>\n
1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.”<\/p>\n
Let me ask you a question: Right this minute can you say in your heart\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2014-that you love every member of your church?<\/p>\n
\u2014-that you care for every member of our church?<\/p>\n
\u2014-that you want the best for every member of our church?<\/p>\n
\u2014-that you accept every member of our church?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Colossians 1:3\u20138 (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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4386"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4386"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4390,"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4386\/revisions\/4390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}