Hope Laid up in Heaven

Colossians 1:1-8

¹Paul, 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.

There are some books of the Bible that really call for close scrutiny because they contain so much wisdom and point us so quickly to Christ. Colossians is just such a letter. While this is a short letter – only 95 verses – it is worth every moment that we spend reading and digesting its content. This letter is attributed to the Apostle Paul, who signs it with the first word of the missive. While he wrote the letter and was largely responsible for helping to start the church in Colossae, he did not ever actually visit that city. There is some discussion as to exactly when he wrote this letter although we know it was penned with he was in prison, which happened on three separate occasions. Paul was imprisoned in Caesarea (57-58ad), Rome (60-61ad), and Ephesus (53-55ad). Most scholars believe he wrote to Colossae from Ephesus. Paul clearly had many who accompanied him on his missionary journeys and they are responsible for the beginning of many of the churches in the area. The missionary who probably began the church in Colossae was Epaphras under the supervision of Paul. Paul also includes the name Timothy in the byline for this letter. Timothy was Paul’s mentee and close companion throughout much of his ministry. He is mentioned fondly and with great joy many times in Paul’s writing.

Paul names himself as “apostle” which is an important designation. An apostle is one who is sent. But this word carries more impact than simply “being sent”. It carries with it the authority of the sender.

In Jewish sources, an apostle was an authorized representative of the individual or group who sent him, so that the identifying characteristic of an apostle is his authority. Thus the rabbis said, “The one sent by a man is as the man himself.” Therefore, the apostle had to subordinate his will completely to that of the sender, as the apostle had the authority of the sender himself in the execution of his commission.

Deterding, P. E. (2003). Colossians (pp. 21–22). Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Pub. House.

So Paul does not use this designation lightly. It carried great responsibility for him, the bearer of the title.

The main thrust of these introductory verses is that of hope. Hope is the confident dependence upon a God who can and will follow through with every single promise that He has made to us. So far, God has been faithful in the fulfillment of those promises and at this point we are awaiting the final culmination of all things in the return of Jesus on the Last Day. Hope, which is actually birthed from our faith, produces the ability to wait with endurance for that final reward. And endurance is indeed required, for life can be difficult sometimes. But in those difficult times we have hope. Sure, that hope wavers from time to time, but faith brings us back time and again to the knowledge of God’s greatness and His sovereign power. As we read through Colossians, let’s keep our minds and hearts set on that hope born of faith.