My Righteous God

Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. (Psalm 4:1)

Simply put, righteousness is rightness. God always does what is right and He comes to set things right. Righteousness is a term that also relates to keeping covenant. That is, those who have been faithful in a covenant relationship are considered righteous, and fit for community. In calling on “God of my righteousness,” or more properly, “My Righteous God,” David appeals to the covenant God made with Israel, for God committed Himself to be good to, and set things right for, His people.

We can find out about the righteousness of God throughout that psalms. For example, the psalm writer says that the “right hand” of Yahweh is “full of righteousness” (Psalm 48:10), that is, everything He does is thoroughly and completely according to what is right. Another says that “the heavens declare His righteousness” (Psalm 50:6). The heavens, which witnessed the covenant Yahweh made with Israel, declare that He has done what is right according to that covenant. And David’s testimony is that Yahweh answers “by awesome deeds in righteousness.” He does right by His people through powerful acts of protection and provision (Psalm 65:5).

Yahweh, the righteous God, honors the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish (Psalm 1:6). He blesses the righteous and surrounds them with His favor, as with a shield (Psalm 5:12). David says that “the righteous God tests the hearts and minds” (Psalm 7:9), examining each of us in the deepest places of our being, to see whether we are upright or ungodly, straight or crooked, and He delivers those who are in alignment with Him (Psalm 7:10). Yahweh “judges” the righteous (Psalm 7:11), bringing justice and vindication to those who keep covenant with Him. Yahweh is “with” the generation of the righteous (Psalm 14:5). That is, He makes His presence, protection and provision known to them. He delivers the righteous out of all their afflictions (Psalms 34:19). He supports and sustains them (Psalm 37:17). This list could go on, for there is much more in the psalms about how God is faithful and right with those who know and trust and keep covenant with Him.

We see this same rightness and faithfulness carried over into the New Testament. Jesus teaches us to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” with the promise that everything else that concerns us will be taken care of (Matthew 6:33). Paul says that the gospel of Jesus the Messiah is “the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith” (Romans 1:16-17). The rightness of God is revealed “through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe” (Romans 3:21-22).

God has now also made a new and better covenant through the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 8:6; Luke 22:20), just as He promised in the Old Testament. He reveals His righteousness in that covenant, and all are counted as righteous members of it who trust in Jesus. With David, then, we may each call on Him as My Righteous God.

I Will Build My Ekklesia

On this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 16:18-19)

“Upon this Gospel I will build my Ekklesia.” That is essentially what Jesus was saying. The rock is the revelation* Peter received from the Father that Jesus is God’s Anointed King (see Upon This Gospel). The gospel is the proclamation that the kingdom of God, and its King, has come into the world to fulfill the promise God made to deliver His people and set the world right.

The English word “church” comes from the Greek word kuriakos, which speaks of “belonging to the Lord.” It is found only twice in the New Testament, in reference to “the Lord’s supper” (1 Corinthians 11:20) and “the Lord’s day” (Revelation 1:10). However, the Greek word translated as “church” is actually ekklesia (or ecclesia), and Matthew 16 is where we first find it in the New Testament.

Ekklesia is a compound word that literally refers to that which is “called out” (from ek, “out,” and kaleo, “to call”). It has also been translated as “assembly.” By the time Jesus first used it, it already had an well-established meaning.

In the Septuagint (the earliest Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures), ekklesia renders the Hebrew qahal, which usually refers to an assembly of the people of Yahweh, sometimes en masse but often in representative fashion. It is often seen as a deliberative body, agreeing together (1 Chronicles 13:1-4), making covenant as a body (2 Chronicles 23:2-3), deciding together about administrative matters (2 Chronicles 30:1-5), taking counsel together (2 Chronicles 30:23), acting together (Ezra 10:12 and Nehemiah 5:13). When the assembly says “Amen” together, as in Nehemiah 5:13, it is no small thing, it is a deliberative agreement and determination about what shall happen.

The primary meaning of ekklesia in Jesus’ day was much the same:

• Thayer’s Greek Lexicon calls it “an assembly of the people convened at the public place of the council for the purpose of deliberating.”
• Vine’s Expository Dictionary calls it a “gathering” of citizens to “discuss the affairs of state.”
• The Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament by Bauer, Arndt and Gingrich gives its primary meaning as “assembly, as a regularly summoned political body.”
• The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (Longman and Wilhoit) considers it the “calling out of citizens for a civic meeting”
• The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says it was “the designation of the regular assembly of the whole body of citizens in a free city-state,” that was called out “for the discussion and decision of public business.” The ISBE concludes with this, about the pre-Christian usage of ekklesia: “To the Greek it would suggest a self-governing democratic society; to the Jew a theocratic society whose members were the subjects of the Heavenly King. The pre-Christian history of the word had a direct bearing upon its Christian meaning, for the ekklesia of the New Testament is a ‘theocratic democracy’ (Lindsay, Church and Ministry in the Early Centuries, 4), a society of those who are free, but are always conscious that their freedom springs from obedience to their King.”

It is very significant, then, that Jesus says, “On this rock [the confession that Jesus is God’s Anointed King] I will build my Ekklesia.” He is not talking of a merely localized community of followers in Israel. The scope of it is no less than the kingdom of God, the will of God being done on earth as it is in heaven. His Ekklesia is the community of those who belong to that kingdom, and to Him as King.

The Ekklesia is a divine community on a cosmic scale, as Jesus’ next words confirm: “And the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” The word “Hades” speaks of death, the place of death and the power of death. The “gates of Hades” includes the devil, who has the power of death — which power has been defeated in the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah (Hebrews 2:14). Neither death, nor the devil, nor all the demonic forces can prevent the Ekklesia of King Jesus from fulfilling His purpose of manifesting heaven on earth.

Indeed, Jesus has given the keys to the kingdom of heaven to this divine assembly on earth for that very purpose: “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Binding are loosing are deliberative actions. The sense of “will be bound” and “will be loosed” is “will have been bound” and “will have been loosed.” The deliberative action of the Ekklesia in the exercise of these keys brings earth into alignment with the will of God in heaven. Jesus amplifies on this in Matthew 18:18-20.

Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.

The Ekklesia acts in the name of King Jesus to fulfill His purposes. Whenever it comes into agreement on earth about a matter, it is done for us by our Father who is in heaven. In this way, the kingdom of God is made manifest, the will of God being done on earth as it is in heaven.

* Peter himself is also called a rock and, as an apostle, is foundational to the establishment of the Church. Paul says that the Ekklesia is built “on the foundations of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20).

Upon This Gospel

Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 16:17-18)

Jesus asked the disciples what people were saying about who He was. “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets,” they answered. These were not bad answers. They all ran in the right direction, but they did not go nearly far enough.

“But who do you say that I am?” Jesus asked. The first question was a setup but this next question was what Jesus was really after. How far had the disciples progressed in their understanding about Him?

Peter stepped forward and opened his mouth. No one was surprised, that was how Peter was. But what he said was a surprise, perhaps even to himself. He answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!”

Understand this in the context of a Jewish book written to a largely Jewish group of people. Understand it in the context of the messianic expectation of the Old Testament. Understand it, for instance, in the context of Psalm 2, a messianic psalm. There, God speaks of His Anointed, against whom the kings and rulers of the earth were conspiring (Psalm 2:2). But God laughs at them and says, “Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion” (Psalm 2:6). Then David, the psalm writer, says,

I will declare the decree:
The LORD has said to Me,
“You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron;
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

(Psalm 2:7-9)

The Anointed, whom God calls “My Son,” is to be King over all the nations of the earth. Now, with that in mind, listen to Peter’s confession again: “You are the Christ [the Anointed One], the Son of the Living God.” He suddenly understood that Jesus is God’s Messiah, God’s Son, God’s King. The One Israel had long awaited, who would deliver His people and rule over the nations.

This has everything to do with the kingdom of God, His rule and reign over all the earth, which has been Matthew’s subject from the beginning of his gospel account. The genealogy in Matthew establishes the lineage of Jesus as the one who fulfills the promise God made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, then on through Judah, to King David and beyond. In Matthew 2, the magi recognize Jesus as a long-prophesied king. In Matthew 4, Jesus begins His ministry preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). His entire ministry is focused on the kingdom, teaching about it through parables and demonstrating it through healing, signs and wonders. At the end, after the cross and the resurrection, but before He ascended to heaven, Jesus declared to the disciples, “All power has been given to me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). The is the language of the King rising to His throne.

But in the middle of the book, Peter finally gets it. Not because he is astute. Not because he is impulsive Peter. It comes to him as a gift, a divine revelation. “For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven,” Jesus said. It comes at a kairos point, a pregnant moment in a propitious time. Jesus has been preaching and teaching and saying and doing the kingdom all along, but now Peter finally recognizes that Jesus is the King. This is essence of the gospel, the good news proclamation that the kingdom of God has come to fulfill the promise of God, and Jesus is God’s Anointed King, come to set the world right.

Now Jesus can build on this revelation and, indeed, He speaks in terms of building. “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church.” This is where Peter gets his name, which means “Rock.” He has received the rock-solid, foundational revelation from the Father: Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus is the Son of God, Jesus is the Anointed King. And on this rock, this revelation — this gospel! — Jesus builds His church, His ekklesia (or ecclesia).

We will look at what that means in the next post, I Will Build My Ekklesia.

Yahweh, Who Lifts Up My Head

But You, O LORD … the One who lifts up my head. (Psalm 3:3)

David was in quite a spot. His enemies were multiplying quickly and now they were coming against him. “Not even God can help him,” was the word being spoken over him. David might have let that bow him down, humiliated and without hope. He might have spoken in agreement with what was being said about him. But he took the opposite direction. Instead of agreeing with the pronouncement of the enemy, David pushed deeper into his covenant relationship with God and declared, “But you, O LORD, are a shield for me, my glory and the One who lifts up my head.”

In Psalm 27, David finds himself in a similar situation. But his confidence is in the LORD. All he seeks, all he needs, all he wants, is to dwell in the house of Yahweh and gaze upon His beauty. His faith is such that he declares how this situation will end: “And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me” (Psalm 27:6).

Sometimes it is the shame of sin or unfaithfulness that bows our heads, as when Ezra fell on his knees and spread out his hands to God, saying, “Oh my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens” (Ezra 9:6). Or when David prayed, in his penitence, “I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day” (Psalm 38:6).

Sometimes it is depression that brings one down, such as in Psalm 42 and 43, where the refrain throughout is, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance” (Psalm 42:5).

But where there is victory, where there is deliverance, where there is forgiveness, where there is hope, there is looking up. David’s daily habit was to bring his prayer and praise before God every morning. “My voice you shall hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up” (Psalm 5:3)

Psalm 110, a messianic psalm, portrays the divine King, refreshing Himself after battle and lifting His head up in victory: “He shall drink of the brook by the wayside; therefore He shall lift up the head” (Psalm 110:7). Jesus, God’s anointed King, has indeed won the victory for us, but it did not look like victory at the time because His head was crowned with thorns and bowed down.

Then the soldiers led Him away into the hall called Praetorium, and they called together the whole garrison. And they clothed Him with purple; and they twisted a crown of thorns, put it on His head, and began to salute Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Then they struck Him on the head with a reed and spat on Him; and bowing the knee, they worshiped Him. And when they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him. (Mark 15:16-19)

So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. (John 19:30).

This did not look like victory on that terrible afternoon, but it was victory nonetheless because Jesus took on all the principalities and powers of the world and three days later was raised up by God from the dead. Now He is exalted at the right hand of the Father, far above every principality and power (Ephesians 1:19-21), and God has given Him the name that is above every name (Philippians 2:9). God has also raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenlies (Ephesians 2:4-6). His victory has become our victory — over sin, death, depression and all the powers that stood against us. Jesus’ head was bowed down that ours may be lifted up, and He is exalted that we may be exalted with Him and share in His glory.

Yahweh, My Glory

But You, O LORD … my glory. (Psalm 3:3)

The Hebrew word for “glory” is kabod, from a word that means to be heavy or weighty. It speaks of the manifestation and abundance of goodness. The psalms are full of references to the glory of the Lord, too many to even begin to list here. The glory of God, the “weightiness” of His great goodness, is very important.

It goes back to the beginning, when humanity was created in the image and likeness of God, that we might bear His glory and reflect His goodness on the earth. But as Paul said, we all have sinned and come up short of that glory (Romans 3:23). So God chose a man, Abraham, and from him created a covenant people, Israel, to reveal His glory to the nations and His goodness to all the families of the earth. But Israel fell under the weight of her own unfaithfulness and failed to show forth the divine glory.

So God promised a Messiah who would come forth from Israel, who would deliver Israel and establish His glory among the nations. This was Jesus who, being born of a virgin by the Spirit of God, was fully human and fully divine. As the “brightness” of God’s glory and the “express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3), Jesus fulfills God’s purpose for humanity, to bear the divine glory on earth. On the night before He went to the cross to defeat everything that stands against or comes short of that glory, Jesus prayed this for Himself and the disciples:

And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was … And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one. (John 17:5, 22)

This is true for every one who trusts Jesus. God has conformed us, in our inward being and by the life of Jesus at work in us, to the image of Jesus (Romans 8:28. That is, we are conformed to the image of the One who perfectly expresses the image of God and bears the brightness of His glory. God is now in the process of manifesting that image and glory in our outward being. The apostle John said, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). Paul said, “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:4). When Jesus appears, His glory will be apparent in us as well. Peter says, “When the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away” (1 Peter 5:4).

David called Yahweh, “My Glory.” Another psalm writer declared, “For the LORD God is a sun and a shield; the LORD will give grace and glory” (Psalm 84:11). God’s desire has always been to give us His glory — indeed, to come and be our glory. That is, to fill us with every good thing and display His splendor in our lives and in the world. He does this by filling us with Himself.

A Colony of Heaven

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 3:20).

Paul knew very well about citizenship. Though he was from Tarsus, in Cilicia (Acts 21:39), he was a freeborn citizen of Rome. And he did not mind invoking its benefits, as we see in this vignette.

And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who stood by, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and uncondemned?”

When the centurion heard that, he went and told the commander, saying, “Take care what you do, for this man is a Roman.”

Then the commander came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman?”

He said, “Yes.”

The commander answered, “With a large sum I obtained this citizenship.”

And Paul said, “But I was born a citizen.”

Then immediately those who were about to examine him withdrew from him; and the commander was also afraid after he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him. (Acts 22:25-29)

Like the American Express ad says, “Membership has it’s privileges.” A Roman citizen had great status throughout the Empire, but Paul knew of a much greater citizenship, one possessed by every believer in Jesus: “For our citizenship is in heaven.”

It is important to understand that citizenship is not about where we are going — it is about where we are from. In Paul’s day, citizens of Rome were sent out to create colonies in every territory that was under Roman authority. They were to establish the life and culture or Rome throughout the empire.

Now think about our citizenship in heaven. Notice that Paul does not say that our “citizenship will be in heaven,” but “our citizenship is in heaven.” He is not talking about where we are going but about where we are from. “We are a colony of heaven,” is how Moffatt’s New Translation puts it.

The Greek word for “citizenship” is about commonwealth or community. It comes from a word that speaks of the administration of a city. To be a citizen of heaven means that our lives are now administered from there. We are no longer in bondage to the lusts and desires of the old way of life we used to know. We are no longer subject to the world systems that are manipulated by principalities and powers.

As a colony of heaven, we are here to establish the life and culture of heaven on earth. For all authority in heaven and on earth has now been given to King Jesus the Messiah (Matthew 28:18), and He has sent out His assembly, the Church, to disciple the nations and teach them everything Jesus taught (Matthew 28:19-20). The end result will be heaven and earth coming together as one (Revelation 21), the will of God being done on earth exactly as it is being done in heaven (Matthew 6:10).

It has already begun — the darkness is already fading away and the true light of King Jesus is already shining (1 John 2:8). Even so, it will not be full and complete until the King comes again. As we watch for that day with eager anticipation, we live out our citizenship here and now, enjoying the favor of heaven and imparting its blessing to the earth.

Yahweh, My Shield

But You, O LORD, are a shield for me. (Psalm 3:3)

The Hebrew word for “shield” is magen, from the word ganan, to defend, cover, surround, or hedge about. We find this name frequently in the Psalms, in connection with other names for God. He is called,

• My Shield and the Horn of My Salvation (Psalm 18:2)
• Yahweh, My Strength and My Shield (Psalm 28:7)
• Our Help and Our Shield (Psalm 33:20; see also Psalm 115:9-11)
• Yahweh, Our Shield (Psalm 59:11)
• Yahweh God, a Sun and a Shield (Psalm 84:11)
• My Hiding Place and My Shield (Psalm 119:114)
• My Shield, in Whom I Take Refuge (144:2)

The first time we find the word magen in Bible, it is identified with Yahweh, who came to Abraham in a vision and said, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward” (Genesis 15:1). Then He made him a promise: “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them … So shall your descendants be” (Genesis 15:5).

To Israel, the nation that came from Abraham, the nation through whom God promised to bless all the nations of the world, God said, “Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD, the shield of your help and the sword of your majesty! Your enemies shall submit to you, and you shall tread down their high places” (Deuteronomy 33:29).

God made covenant with Israel by His personal name, Yahweh (the book of Deuteronomy is the document of that covenant). By calling Him Yahweh, My Shield, David laid hold of the covenant promise and received it as his own. What God was for Abraham and what God was for Israel, God was also for David. In Psalm 35, David calls on God to take up his cause and contend with those who were contending with him, “Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help” (Psalm 35:2).

Not only is God thought of as a shield but so are the kings and tribal leaders:

The princes of the people have gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; He is greatly exalted. (Psalm 47:9)

O God, behold our shield, and look upon the face of Your anointed. (Psalm 84:9)

For our shield belongs to the LORD, and our king to the Holy One of Israel. (Psalm 89:18)

So David himself was considered to be a shield for his people, even as Yahweh was a shield for him. How much more, then, is King Jesus, the Son of David anointed to reign forever on his throne, a shield for all who trust in Him. He is our shield forever, in whom we can always take refuge and find protection, strength and help.

Fulfilling the Ministry of Jesus

Having passed along the greetings of his ministry associates, Paul adds a few of his own:

Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas and the church that is in his house.

Now when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. And say to Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.”

This salutation by my own hand — Paul. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. Amen. (Colossians 4:15-18)

There are close associations between the believers at Colosse and those at Laodicea. For one thing, they are only about ten miles apart. For another, Epaphras actively ministered to both groups (as well as at Hierapolis). So, although Paul writes to the believers at Colosse, it is natural that he has them extend his greetings to those at Laodicea. Indeed, he wants to be sure that this letter itself will be shared with them all.

“Nymphas” appears to be one of these believers. Though the name in the NKJV and some other versions is masculine in form, there are also a number of other versions that render it as feminine, “Nympha,” including the NASB, NIV, ESV, LEB and CEV. The reason for this is that the early copies of this letter speak of the church that meets in “her” house. It is more likely that early copyists would have changed “her” to “his” rather than “his” to “her,” so “her” would more likely the original reading.

Churches did not meet in public spaces but in private houses. Nympha’s was one. Philemon’s was another. Paul’s letter to him is addressed, “To Philemon our beloved friend and fellow laborer, to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house” (Philemon 1-2). Apphia might have been Philemon’s wife, and Archippus their son. The church met in their home.

Paul speaks of a letter he wrote to Laodicea, which he wants to be read at Colosse also, but this has never been conclusively identified. Some have suggested that it is the book of Ephesians, which is very similar to Colossians. Others suggest that it was the letter to Philemon, since he might have been closer to Laodicea and there was a church that met in his house. Or perhaps the letter simply no longer exists.

There is a personal word to Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.” This is not a suggestion that Archippus has somehow been slack in his duties. We do not know exactly what this ministry entails. Perhaps he is a pastor of the church that meets in his house, or maybe he is filling the position at Colosse left vacant by the absence of Epaphras, and Paul is giving him a word of encouragement in this new role. Paul has identified a number of things about which the believers at Colosse and their leaders need to be aware, and it appears that Archippus did indeed “take heed.” Church tradition has him as the first bishop of Laodicea and numbers him among the “Seventy Apostles.”

Finally, Paul closes his letter with a few words in his own hand. His letters were usually written down by an amanuensis, a secretary of sorts. His own handwritten words were usually brief. Here, they are quite simple: “Remember my chains. Grace be with you. Amen.” Paul wants to remind them that he needs their prayers. It is similar to the way the letter to the Hebrews closes, “Remember the prisoners as if chained with them — those who are mistreated — since you yourselves are in the body also” (Hebrews 13:3). The message is that we are all in this together. Paul would also want them to remember that he was in chains for their sake, as well as for the gospel of King Jesus the Messiah.

Paul also usually closes with a benediction, such as, “Grace be with you.” Simple but profound. It is not merely a custom, though. Paul really has the grace of God in mind, and it is for every believer just as much as it is for him. “Amen” affirms the truth of that grace and, indeed, of all he has written to them.

Focus Questions

1. The early Church met in homes. Was this merely because of the times or were there advantages to it?
2. Why did Paul want the church at Laodicea to read the letter he wrote to the church at Colosse? Why is this letter important for us today?
3. What ministry have you received from the Lord and how do you know when you have fulfilled it?