THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CHURCH

I want to thank Eric Fields for his excellent Sunday school lessons this winter as we have looked at two of Paul’s prison epistles, Philippians and Colossians. Until recently, my favorite Book of the New Testament was Galatians. A clear presentation of God’s grace doing for us what I could never do myself. After this short study of Colossians, I’m now challenged by the significance of the Church.

Paul’s letters often start with a declaration of Jesus deity and authority so having this beautiful summary in Colossians 1:13-18 is consistent but the content of Paul’s praise is overwhelming:
             
In vs 1;16-18, Paul tells us that 1) Jesus was God; He created everything that ever was. 2) Jesus is God; Jesus is sustaining everything He ever made. And finally, 3) Jesus will continue to be God to the end when everything is subject to Him - that is our eternal hope.

But what caught my attention in Eric’s study was that Jesus is the head of the church. In the past I’ve downplayed, skipped over, or not understood that truth as I should. Jesus is the head of an important entity that He has dedicated to a task. Jesus is the head of the body of believers that represent Him on earth - the Church.

Dr. John Dyer developed a Y’all Bible version that is now available on YouVersion free to download. This version of the Bible translates every “you” into the singular or plural version of “you” based on the translation of the original language. For every plural use of you, Dr. Dyer used Y’all.

As you read through the rest of Colossians, the majority of the time Paul says “you”, it is properly translated y’all. Each time you read y’all, that is a statement, command, or a promise to the believers (plural) at Colossi. And by inference, these are not personal promises (although some are repeated elsewhere in Scripture to individuals) but these promises to the church at Colossi in chapter 1 include:
- Jesus delivered us from the dominion of darkness (1:13)
- Jesus reconciled y’all in the body of his flesh to present y’all blameless (1:22)
- God was pleased to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the ethnic groups, which is Christ in y’all, the hope of glory (1:27)

Jesus loves you individually. But there is a mystery that God has revealed for these last days. Jesus loves the world and He does so through the church - Christ in y’all, the hope of glory.

Please pray for Faith Bible Church. Pray that in 2026 we can reveal, in word and deed, the mystery that Jesus is, was, and will be our hope of glory. Happy New Year!