Colossians 1:4 (ESV)
[4] since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,
This past Sunday Rod Kastner made an excellent point as he was talking about the class on prayer that they will be teaching at the school where he ministers. He said that they are not going to put their emphasis on faith in prayer, but on the righteousness of God and his people. Notice that in the above verse Paul does not commend the Colossian Christians for their faith, but for their faith in Christ Jesus. Everybody has faith. Even the most negative pessimist has faith. She might believe that everything is hopeless, but that is a form of faith. To have faith simply means to believe. A strong pessimist has strong faith in negative results.
To believe is not the issue. Paul is writing to the Colossians to address false teaching. Those false teachers have no less faith than Paul, they just have faith in the wrong things. I often refer to Christians as believers, but the significant thing is not that they believe. What makes all the difference is the one in whom they believe. That is the point of this letter we call Colossians. Who we believe in and what we believe about him is what matters. I have no faith in my faith, but I have faith in Jesus. That changes everything.
Father, forgive me for the times I have thought and acted as though things depended on me and on the amount of faith I could somehow conjure up. Today may I simply trust in your unfailing faithfulness.
By His grace,
Rick Weinert
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