It took a year to read the Bible, then almost 9 months to read the Apocrypha. Now, I'm going to try to offer reflections on the Narrative Lectionary. But, I won't be posting daily--at least, for a while.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Be thankful and don't be misled, a Reflection on Colossians 2:6-15

"As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith...." this week's passage begins.

Paul is writing to a congregation that has already received instruction in the way that Christ intends for us to live and has already begun to live that way.

"Be thankful for this way of living," he tells them "and don't be misled by any alternatives."

As a Jew, Paul had a visible reminder of his inclusion in God's covenant people. But, that particular requirement was not necessary for other Christians who were not also Jews. "You have a spiritual circumcision, baptism" he told them.

"When you were baptized," he told them, "you were buried with him, and you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God."

"For in him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fulness in him," Paul said.
Christ is the way that we can see God living in human form and Christ is the way we can see how humans ought to be living.

And for those times that we have already failed to live that way Paul reminds them that God has forgiven them.

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