Colossians 1:1-8: The Fruit of Gospel Ministry

Colossians 1:1-8: The Fruit of Gospel Ministry

This morning, we’re beginning a journey working through the book of Colossians passage by passage. And the first passage we come to is Colossians 1:1-8. It says,

¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, ² To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. 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.

May God bless the reading of his Word.

 Let’s pray: Father, we thank you for the gift of your Word. And we pray what Jesus prayed in John 17—sanctify us in the truth, your word is truth. We understand, from this, that your Word isn’t just true but the very standard of truth itself. So please use your Word by your Spirit to sanctify Your people. And we pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

One of the most famous structures in Europe is what’s commonly known as the “leaning tower of Pisa.” This tower is part of the Pisa Cathedral in Italy and leans to the side by nearly 4 degrees. And as you may have heard, the reason this tower is leaning is because of its foundation. Apparently, when they built the tower, they didn’t dig down deep enough for the foundation. And unfortunately, the ground beneath the tower was rather soft. So, after they finished constructing the first floor of the tower and started constructing the second floor, one side of the tower began to sink into the soft ground. It then kept on sinking—very slowly—for hundreds of years. This would have caused the tower to fall over if modern engineers hadn’t intervened. That’s what happens when the foundation of a structure isn’t properly laid. 

And just as a faulty physical foundation can have devastating effects on a building, a faulty spiritual foundation can have devastating effects on our lives. To put it another way, if we don’t have an accurate understanding of Jesus and specifically of who he is and what he’s done to rescue us from our sins, it’s going to have a ripple effect throughout our lives and throw off just about everything else in our lives. Even relatively small misunderstandings related to Jesus will affect us in very real ways.

And out of all the books in the Bible, I believe the book of Colossians exalts Jesus perhaps more than any other book. It’s for this reason that, now that we’ve finished our journey through 1 Samuel, I’d like to turn our attention to Colossians and spend the next few months working through this book passage by passage.

We learn some basic historical facts about this letter in the first two verses of chapter 1. So, look with me at Colossians 1:1-2: ¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, ² To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

So, the author of this letter is Paul. He also lists Timothy as a coauthor, but the primary author was undoubtedly Paul, as evidenced by the numerous times throughout the letter that the first-person singular pronoun “I” is used. The recipients of the letter are the Christians of the city of Colossae. Colossae was a city toward the western portion of modern-day Turkey, approximately 80-100 miles east of Ephesus. The reason I mention Ephesus is because many scholars believe that it was while Paul was ministering in Ephesus during his third missionary journey that the church of Colossae was started. And Paul refers to the Christians of Colossae in verse 2 as “the saints and faithful brothers in Christ.” Every Christian is a “saint” because we’re all clothed with the perfect righteousness of Jesus. His righteous status is imputed to us. Not only that, the phrase “brothers in Christ” reminds us that we’re all a part of the same spiritual family.

And even though Paul doesn’t give us a specific date for the letter in these verses, we do know from later in the letter—specifically Colossians 4:3—that Paul wrote this letter while he was imprisoned for his gospel ministry. That fact, combined with a few others details from the New Testament, makes it very likely that Paul wrote to the Colossians sometime around 62 AD. And as we see from many places throughout the letter, his purpose in writing was to address some false teachings that had found their way into the church. And we’ll look at those in detail over the next several weeks and months. 

But for this morning, our main passage is Colossians 1:1-8, and the main idea of this passage is that Paul expresses thankfulness for ways in which the gospel is bearing fruit among the Colossians. Again, Paul expresses thankfulness for ways in which the gospel is bearing fruit among the Colossians.

So, having already looked at verses 1-2, let’s look now at verse 3 through the beginning of verse 5. Paul writes, 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….

The three virtues Paul mentions in these verses—faith, love, and hope—are frequently found together in Paul’s writings. The most famous example is 1 Corinthians 13:13, where Paul identifies them as the three most important virtues there are—with love being the greatest of the three. Paul states, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” There are also several other places in Paul’s writings where he mentions these three virtues together such as Romans 5:1-5, Galatians 5:5-6, Colossians 4:2-5, 1 Thessalonians 1:3, and 1 Thessalonians 5:8.

The first of the three virtues—faith—refers to trusting in Jesus to rescue us from our sins on the basis of who he is and what he’s accomplished in his death and resurrection. The Bible teaches that each one of us has sinned against God and therefore that we all deserve eternal punishment. And since God’s holy and righteous and just, he’s absolutely committed to do what justice requires and bring upon us the punishment our sins deserve.

However, that’s where Jesus comes in. God the Father mercifully sent his own Son Jesus to enter this world as one of us—a real human being—so that he could live a perfectly obedient life in our place and eventually die on the cross in our place. All of the punishment our sins deserved was poured out on Jesus on the cross so it wouldn’t have to be poured out on us in hell. He suffered as our substitute and made atonement for our sin. Then, three days later, Jesus was raised from the dead and now offers to save everyone who puts their trust in him.

And that trust is what Paul’s referring to when he speaks of “faith” here in verse 4. We have to have faith in Jesus not just in the sense of believing he exists or giving intellectual assent to certain things about him. Rather, we have to actively rely on Jesus and put our trust in Jesus to save us from our sin.

You might compare it to the way we put our trust in a bridge. Whenever I’m driving to downtown Pittsburgh, I obviously have to cross a bridge in order to get there. Usually, for me, it’s the Liberty Bridge. And every time I cross over the Liberty Bridge, I’m putting an incredible amount of trust in that bridge—specifically, that it’s strong and stable enough to hold the weight of my car as I’m driving over it. Note that I’m not merely looking at the bridge from an overlook and theorizing that the bridge is safe to cross. Instead, I’m actually driving across the bridge and am in that way going beyond mere intellectual assent and am actively entrusting my life to that bridge. And that’s what Paul means when he speaks here in verse 4 of “faith in Christ Jesus.”

In addition, it's important to note not only the nature of faith but also the object of faith. Paul’s very clear that our faith has to be “in Christ Jesus.” As one preacher named Kent Hughes has observed, “Faith has no intrinsic value in itself. It must derive its value from its object.” Going back to the bridge analogy, let’s say that, instead of putting my trust in the Liberty Bridge as I crossed the river, I put my trust in a bunch of pool noodles floating on the river and tried to drive across those. Obviously, although my trust in those pool noodles might be very genuine, it won’t do me any good because those pool noodles have nowhere near enough load-bearing capacity for me to drive across them. It would be a disaster. So, our faith is only valuable insofar as it’s placed in the right object. And according to Paul, the only worthy object of our faith for eternal salvation is Jesus Christ.

Then, after Paul mentions the “faith in Christ Jesus” that the Colossians possess, he goes on to mention “the love that you have for all the saints.” When many people today think of love, they view it primarily as a feeling or an emotion we experience when we’re around someone. Yet love in the Bible is quite distinct from that. It’s perhaps best described as genuine care for others that leads us to pursue their welfare even above our own. That is to say, biblical love is sacrificial in nature. It leads us to sacrifice our own interests in our pursuit of the interests of others. And of course, the ultimate example of this love is Jesus sacrificing himself on the cross to pay for our sins.

And finally, the last of the three virtues Paul mentions is hope. He commends the Colossians for “your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” Hope in the Bible isn’t merely wishful thinking about the future but is instead the confident expectation those of us who are Christians have of our heavenly inheritance.

This mentality is strikingly different from the mentality that’s so common in our modern society that revolves around instant gratification. People usually don’t like waiting for their desires to be satisfied but instead want their desires to be satisfied right now. One area in which this is particularly visible is the way many people handle money. They make it a habit to buy what they desire now and then pay for it later. This is why the average household credit card debt in the United States is between 7 and 11 thousand dollars.

Yet the “hope” of which Paul speaks in verse 5 is the exact opposite mentality. Instead of seeking to “buy now and pay later,” we’re instead willing to pay the social cost associated with being a Christian now so that we can receive the infinitely greater rewards for being a Christian later.

So, those are the three virtues Paul commends the Colossians for possessing—faith, love, and hope. And I believe the order in which Paul mentions these virtues is also very deliberate. He mentions faith first because it functions as the foundation of everything else. Without saving faith in Jesus, it’s impossible to have the truest expression of any other biblical virtue.

After that, if our “faith in Christ Jesus” is genuine, it will inevitably manifest itself in “love…for all the saints.” 1 John 3:14 teaches this even more directly. It says, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.” If you truly possess faith in Christ, it’s going to make a radical impact on the way you live—particularly in the form you loving other Christians and demonstrating that love in practical ways. And of course, we’ll be inclined to love not only other Christians but also everyone we encounter—following Jesus’s command to love our neighbor.

And according to Paul in our main passage, a key reason why we live this way is “because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” That word “because” in verse 5 indicates that hope is the fuel of our faith and love. We’re encouraged in our faith and love by the hope of our heavenly inheritance. We live in the present in light of what God’s promised us in the future.

After that, Paul continues in the second part of verse 5 through verse 6, ⁵ …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…

So, in verse 5, Paul states that the hope those of us who are Christians possess is something we’ve heard about “in the word of truth, the gospel.” The word translated as “gospel” literally means good news. The gospel is the good news of who Jesus is and what he’s done to save us from our sins. And Paul identifies this gospel message as “the word of truth.” In contrast to the lies that the false teachers were spreading in Colossae, the gospel is “the word of truth” against which all other truth claims must be measured.

Then, in verse 6, Paul shares how delighted he is that “in the whole world” this gospel “is bearing fruit and increasing.” Now, “the whole world” is best taken as a reference not literally to the entire globe but to “world” of the Roman Empire and perhaps also some of the various regions surrounding it. And that is indeed something to celebrate—the fact that, not only in Paul’s day but even today, the gospel is spreading and being embraced by more and more people. The Bible also teaches that the gospel will continue to spread until, one day, it actually will cover every square inch of this world. As Habakkuk 2:14 declares, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” 

It's also worth noting the contrast between the gospel Paul was proclaiming and one of the heretical teachings he was opposing in Colossae—a teaching that would eventually become known as “Gnosticism” and that focused on a supposedly “secret” knowledge that was reserved only for a select few. Unlike this elitist mentality of Gnosticism, the true gospel is for everyone and freely offers salvation to all who will receive it through faith. And I want you to know, even this morning, that includes you. Regardless of who you are or what you’ve done and what kinds of messes you’ve made, God offers salvation to you. 

Yet, according to Paul, not only is the gospel bearing fruit all over the world, it’s also doing so among the Christians of Colossae. Paul states in verse 6 that the gospel “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.” So, there are two ways in which the gospel’s bearing fruit. On the one hand, it’s bearing fruit “in the whole world,” but on the other, it’s bearing fruit “among you”—speaking of those in Colossae who are already Christians. So, we might say that Paul’s rejoicing both in the progressively greater breadth of gospel impact “in the whole world” as well as in the progressively greater depth of gospel impact “among” the Colossian Christians. 

And brothers and sisters, that should be true in our church as well. Not only do we desire to see the gospel have a progressively greater breadth of impact throughout the South Hills area and even throughout the world, we should also be praying that the gospel would have a progressively greater depth of impact within our own church. In other words, the gospel isn’t just something we believe in order to become Christians; it’s also something that should be continuing to form us and shape us as Christians. 

In fact, I’d like to very briefly just list for you 13 ways that should be happening—13 ways the gospel should have a progressively greater depth of impact among us and be bearing fruit in our lives. The first is humility. As we see the depth of our sin and how underserving we were of anything but eternal punishment in hell and then think of how gracious God’s been to us in the gospel, it should absolutely demolish our pride and produce within us a humble spirit. 

Then, second—and closely related—is gratitude. The more we comprehend how lavishly God’s poured out his grace upon us, even at the cost of his own Son dying in our place, we should be the most grateful people in the world. After that, a third way the gospel should be bearing fruit among us is love. We’ve already discussed this to some degree this morning, but basically, as we comprehend the sacrificial love Jesus has demonstrated toward us in suffering the agonies of the cross to pay for our sins, it should inspire us to demonstrate sacrificial love toward those around us. 

Then, number four is forgiveness. When we truly comprehend the astonishing way God’s forgiven us of our sins, it should make us willing to forgive others for any sins they’ve committed against us. Next, number five is generosity. The fact that God’s given us the greatest and costliest gift that’s ever been given—the gift of his own Son—should motivate us to be exceedingly generous in using the resources God’s blessed us with for the advance of the gospel and the blessing of others. 

After that, number six is contentment. As we recognize how immensely and comprehensively God’s blessed us in the gospel, it should produce within us a deep and pervasive contentment even if our earthly circumstances aren’t what we want them to be. And closely related to this is number seven, which is joy. As we consider both what Jesus has accomplished in the past and what he guarantees for the future, it should produce a deep and durable joy within us that transcends whatever earthly circumstances we might be facing.

Next, number eight is holiness. The fact that Jesus died for us should make us want to live for him. This involves walking in holiness and obedience to everything he’s commanded. Then, number nine is compassion. As we consider the incredible compassion God’s demonstrated toward us even when we were in such a helpless condition, it should motivate us to demonstrate compassion toward those around us who are hurting and suffering and who have needs of various kinds.

After that, number ten is peace. The fact that we’ve now been reconciled to God through the gospel and are now at peace with God should produce both peace within our own hearts as well as a disposition to be at peace with those around us. Then, number eleven is perseverance. As we consider the fact that our future is secure because of what Jesus has accomplished on the cross, that understanding should help us persevere through whatever earthly trials come our way—since we know that those trials are incredibly temporary, whereas the heavenly inheritance God’s promised us is eternal.

In addition, number twelve is boldness. The fact that we’re fully accepted and eternally secure in Jesus should make us less concerned about what other people think about us and therefore feel greater freedom and boldness to share the gospel with them—even if we’re not sure how they might respond. Essentially, knowing that we’re fully accepted in Christ helps us care less about people’s approval and more about their souls.

And finally, number thirteen is worship. I’ve made this the final item because it’s the culmination of everything else. As we grow in our understanding of the magnitude of God’s grace in the gospel, we should be inspired to greater and deeper worship of our glorious God.

So, these are all ways in which the gospel should be bearing fruit in our lives. And I might ask you this morning, to what degree is the gospel bearing fruit in your life in each of these areas? Maybe it would be good idea to turn these items into a prayer list that you pray for yourself and for our church as a whole.

Also, let me emphasize that the gospel is indeed the root and the foundation of all of these qualities. If you try to acquire these character qualities apart from the gospel—like maybe, let’s say, through self-help books—it just won’t work. Even though you might be able to make some outward progress in some of these areas, any changes you manage to implement will be lamentably shallow and superficial.

Remember, in our main passage, that the analogy Paul uses is of the gospel “bearing fruit,” much like a fruit tree bears fruit. This means, of course, that the fruit that appears on a fruit tree is something that’s produced by the tree itself rather than from any other source. So, when we try to acquire godly character qualities apart from the gospel, it’s kind of like trying to tie plastic fruit onto a tree.

Imagine seeing your neighbor out in his yard trying to tie plastic apples onto some random tree. And when you ask him what in the world he’s doing, he responds that he desires to have an apple tree in his yard. But, rather than plant an actual apple tree, he decided it would be easier if he just tied on some plastic apples to whatever kind of tree he already has. If your neighbor said something like that to you, you’d probably look at him a little strange and perhaps explain to him that that’s not really the way things work.  

Yet that’s essentially what many people are doing whenever they seek to acquire godly character qualities apart from the gospel. They’re basically tying on plastic fruit to a fruit tree. By contrast, genuine fruit is the result of the gospel taking root within our hearts and bringing about meaningful and lasting transformation in our lives.

Then, moving on to verses 7-8, Paul speaks of the ministry of Epaphras. Referring to the gospel, Paul writes, 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. So, even though Paul started many churches and even though he’s writing to the Colossian church, it actually wasn’t Paul who started that particular church but rather a man named Epaphras. It was Epaphras who originally shared the gospel with the people of Colossae. It appears that Epaphras heard the gospel from Paul while Paul was ministering in Ephesus and then returned to his home city of Colossae, shared the gospel, and started the Colossian church.

A key verse that supports this is Acts 19:10, which says this about Paul’s gospel ministry in Ephesus: “This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord….” So, during his time in Ephesus, we’re told that Paul was reaching not only people from Ephesus itself but also people from the surrounding region of the Roman province of Asia. And if you remember from the map we displayed earlier, the city of Colossae was relatively close to Ephesus—less than 100 miles away—and was in the province of Asia. So, that’s why the scenario I mentioned with Epaphras hearing the gospel in Ephesus and then bringing it to Colossae seems likely.

And that’s a great reminder for us of the way God desires to use us to make an impact with the gospel on others. We have no indication that Epaphras was anyone special. As far as we know, he was just an ordinary guy who embraced the gospel and was radically transformed by the gospel and who therefore had a burning desire to share the gospel with the people of his home city of Colossae. And just as God used Epaphras to spread the gospel in Colossae, he desires to use you to spread the gospel in your family, your circle of friends, your workplace, your neighborhood, and in whatever other spheres of influence you have access to.

And when you think about it, the fact that God invites us to be a part of what he’s doing in this world by sharing the gospel with those around us is an incredible privilege. God could have chosen to use angels as his gospel messengers—and they probably would have been much more effective gospel messengers than we are. He could have also written the gospel in the clouds for everyone to see. And he could have even remained on this earth in his incarnate form and told people directly about the salvation he offers.

Yet God hasn’t chosen to work in any of these ways. Instead, he’s chosen to use us as his instruments for proclaiming the gospel to the world. What an incredible thought! You know, I’m sure most of us would consider it a privilege to be appointed as a United States ambassador to another country. Yet how much greater of a privilege is it to be appointed as God’s ambassador to the world with the mission of telling everyone about his glory and grace!

So, for those who are Christians, is that something you’re deliberate about doing on a very regular basis? Is that mission an integral part of your life as you go through your week? How are you seeking to make a gospel impact on the people around you?

We can do this in a number of ways, the most obvious of which is simply having gospel conversations with people we know or simply people we encounter. Also, one resource I’ve found very helpful is this booklet that bears the title “The Story” and that offers a concise summary of the story of the Bible with a particular emphasis on Jesus as the very center of that story. This is a resource that you can use to walk through the gospel with someone in the span of about 15 minutes simply by reading the booklet to them or switching off with them as the both of you take turns reading through it—with you reading one page and them reading the next page. And we’ve placed several stacks of these booklets on the Resource Table in the back.

You know, I once heard a preacher say that “Every saved person this side of heaven owes the gospel to every lost person this side of hell”—and I absolutely agree. If you’ve experienced God’s saving grace, how could you not have a burning desire to share that with others? Just as, I imagine, we’d all consider it unthinkable for a person to discover a cure for cancer or something like that and keep it to themselves, it would likewise be unthinkable for us to keep the gospel to ourselves. The gospel isn’t something meant to be hoarded but something meant to be shared—just like Epaphras did in the city of Colossae.