My wife and I drove past a housing development that was
strongly recommended for us to move into by some family members because of its
relative low cost, and I could only shake my head as I looked around it’s
neighborhood. It was because of the
surrounding homes and businesses that I had written off these apartments over a
year before when looking for housing before we moved back from Oklahoma. Not only is it in a “rough” area of town, it is a concrete jungle with very few trees
or other signs of nature. My wife and I
would have gone stir crazy in a matter of days if we had lived there!
The end of Colossians 1:6 reminded me of all this today. The God’s Word translation states it as: “…At that time (when they first heard the
Gospel) you came to know what God’s kindness (or grace) truly means.” James Murdock’s translation of the Bible into
the English language from the Aramaic version says, “… and know the grace of God in reality.” Even though he had not been to Colossae and
did not know the people personally, Paul could tell of their sincerity and true
understanding of the gospel by their actions of love that he had heard about.
The word “know”
in this verse alludes to the church’s full recognition and acceptance of the
love of God’s grace through Jesus Christ for them. John Gill goes even further in explaining
that “they knew (the grace of God) not
merely in a notional and speculative manner, but experimentally; for the gospel
was not only come to them, but into them; they had a spiritual knowledge of it,
and affection for it; they felt the power of it in their hearts, and tasted and
relished the sweetness of it, and owned and ‘acknowledged’ it…”
In simple terms, they had taken the time to really get to
know the reality of the loving grace of God through what Jesus had done for
them and lived their lives accordingly.
They ‘knew’ Jesus and
successfully interacted with Him in their daily lives. Problems began to arise when other teachers
came in attempting to add certain do’s and don’ts to the simplicity of the
gospel, hence Paul’s letter was written to correct these mistruths.
While I am positive that the advice given to us in the
example above came out of love and concern for us, it was shared without really
knowing our needs, our hearts desires, the kind of outdoors people we are and by
making certain incorrect assumptions of our financial means at the time. In other words, they really didn’t know us, and as they continued to push their
thoughts toward us, their attempt to help turned out as a hurt to us.
This situation was totally opposite to the church in
Colossae. They “knew” God, lived their lives according to this knowledge, successfully
interacted with each other and the reports of their love went out from their
city to be a great blessing to others. I
thank the Lord daily that we “stuck to
our guns” as we moved in and stayed where we are. A few days ago as my wife and I walked away
from the lake in our tree studded, flower laden oasis, I had to stop, breathe
deeply and just enjoy all that my eyes were taking in! God “knew”
exactly what we needed and we keep receiving the blessing because we “know” Him and chose to obey His voice.
So… with that in mind, I would have to say that “knowing” Him and His loving grace is
the key to living successfully for Him in the daily events of your life. How well do you “know” Him? Maybe this
weekend would be a good time to renew your personal acquaintance and
recognition of Him, and to taste and relish the sweetness of His loving grace in
your daily life. Have a wonderful
weekend. Stay in tune to His Word and
keep asking yourself… “What am I
expecting today?”
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