Don Veitch
Beloveds,
Pssst!! Hey, Buddy; can you spare a minute? I just want to share a secret.
I guess everyone loves a secret or mystery. Bible stories and the body of literature are rife with secrets. Consider just a few, such as the secrets held by The Count of Monte Cristo, Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne, Romeo and Juliet, “The Tell-tale Heart”, Joseph’s brothers, Faulkner’s Emily (“A Rose for Emily”), or King David (Bathsheba). Enough, enough; I’ll stop. (I’m sure you get the point).
You may want to Google some of these to refresh your memories of deep, dark secrets, but each is a situation worth remembering and considering, but not generally replicating, I think. Good fodder for stories of all sorts.
So, in today’s Colossians reading (1:24 – 27), we see Paul writing to share a secret with the Church at Colossae, a different kind of secret. But one entirely more momentous and wonderful than these other literary and Biblical examples I mentioned above.
It seems that Paul and Timothy have recently come into a secret or mystery which has been held for “generations and centuries and has now been revealed to his (God’s) ‘holy people’” (Colossians 1:26). God has shared something incredulous and wonderful after keeping it
“hidden” for generations. What could it be? How does it affect us?
So, this is a secret – divine in nature – held by God, and now revealed by God to God’s “saints.”
What kind of message?
God is pleased to make known this secret: that “great . . . among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”
So a little interpretation or application at this point…
God’s secret for generations had been that there was a “chosen” group to be favored by God. The revelation from Paul and Timothy is that the richness and glory of that mysterious relationship with God is found in everyone. The love which we see in Christ must be seen in us, in our loved ones, in our neighbors, in those we don’t know or don’t get along with – in everyone: “warning EVERYONE and teaching EVERYONE in all wisdom, so that we may present EVERYONE mature in Christ.” (Emphasis is mine).
Here's the same passage from the Jerusalem Bible:
“ . . . the message which was a mystery hidden for generations and centuries and has now been revealed to his holy people.
“It was God’s purpose to reveal to them how rich is the glory of this mystery among the gentiles: it is Christ among you, your hope of glory.
“This is Christ we are proclaiming, admonishing and instructing everyone in all wisdom, to make everyone perfect in Christ.”
God has finally revealed this mystery – that Christ is in you and in Gentiles, and in that is the hope of glory. It is “he whom we proclaim” so that ALL can be presented as mature in Christ. Our challenge as God’s Church is to be working to make all hearts encouraged and united in love and with knowledge of God’s mystery – Christ, himself. As you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, we are told to continue to live our lives -- rooted in Him – seeing everyone else as engaged in the same mystery. That’s it, that’s the secret.
My literary and Biblical references above are mostly about illicit, dark secrets – mostly shameful and worthy of keeping hidden and beyond the sight of the world at large. How different and wonderful is this mystery which God shares with Paul and Timothy – that His love is for one and all of the human race – not for any one group or person. And yet, how awesome, challenging and monumental is the thought that God challenges us to live our lives and form our minds as if Christ is there to be found and encouraged in EVERYONE, and that we must be united in love for EVERYONE in the secure knowledge of this same secret.
Amen!
Don Veitch