Monday, July 22, 2019
I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for many other believers who have never met me personally. I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments. For though I am far away from you, my heart is with you. And I rejoice that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong. And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Colossians 2:1-7
The letter
to the believers at Colossae was one of Paul’s prison epistles,
written while the Apostle was chained to a Roman guard. Prisoners have a lot of time on their hands. Paul spent his time trying to encourage and
help disciple the folks he’d met…or those he just heard about. Loving others from a distance is not an easy
thing; there are times when only face-to-face will
do.
I bumped
into one of those times recently. In
writing this devotional (which is always evolving, because it is a daily unfolding
of what Scripture speaks to me) there is always an element of risk that I might
send out a message not quite what I intended.
Since there is nobody in the room at 5 am but my snoring dog I don’t
talk to anyone before sending it out; so, feedback is something I take seriously,
and count-on to double-check what I’m communicating.
My friend,
who is several states away, busted me on something I hadn’t seen, or even
suspected, that my views on a certain political figure were seeping into these
daily offerings. So, in a few private
messages, I asked for a deeper explanation, and we “talked” back and forth. Then I did a bit of reading of my recent messages
and found out that my friend was spot-on the target.
Mia culpa! My bad!
Thank you, my friend.
A friend
willing to risk a few words of helpful criticism is a treasure.
Which brings
me to this morning’s urgent call from the Apostle. Even in person loving others is difficult;
when you’re at a distance it borders on impossible, because you miss so much of
the communication process – context, facial expression, inflection and volume,
to name just a few.
But,
still, when you’re in the prison of distance, you do the best you can. Paul expressed his love and care for the
church at Laodicea. Do you remember them
from Revelation(3:14-22)?
They were the lukewarm, complacent church Jesus warned to get a little
fire under their feet. Their very
existence as part of God’s family was at stake.
Yet, Paul wrote words of encouragement, and expressed his confidence in
their ability to grow strong as a witness, and entreated them to be on guard
against deceiving influences that would continue to work against true
discipleship. Even with the flat medium
of words, you can sense the urgent message of love for these believers living
on the edge of mediocrity (at best), or (at worst) apostasy.
For You Today
There are those whom you get to love up-close-and-personal,
and there are those for whom loving-from-a-distance is the
only option. When it comes to the later,
use today’s social media carefully – the seeds of misunderstanding have a
fertile soil there for a bumper crop of heartache.
Remember Jesus’ advice in the Sermon on the Mount about Kingdom-living[2] to
find agreement with others quickly before a little misunderstanding ends up in
really messy consequences. That’s a
non-negotiable Kingdom imperative for believers, face-to-face,
or from-a-distance.
Go to VIDEO
[1]
Title Image: Pixabay.com Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from
The
New Living Translation©
