Change

Do you have some change?

I am currently preparing a talk for this sunday on Colossians 1:1-23
Great passage, but very hard to preach. Why? Good question, I am glad you asked.
It is hard to preach because there is so much in there. I could probably spend hours unpacking this passage. But for the sake of the listeners on Sunday I wont.

Even though this passage is so chunky (lots of good bits to chew over) there is a clear message of 'Change'.

For the past few hours i haven't been able to get the segway song of 'Change' out of my head (it is a song by Black Eyed Peas aka. BEP, in between the second last and the last song on their Monkey Business album). Thinking about it the BEP ask serious questions on making the world a better place. They reason the world would be a better place if we changed. Thinking about this I couldn't help but notice that this is what God will do. As you read Colossians 1 you realise God is bringing change to make the world better.

Starting at verses 3-8 Paul comments that the gospel changes people. It gives them hope of eternal life free from pain, death and fear. It gives them faith in Jesus Christ which is in response to the hope. And it gives them love for one another. The faith, hope and love change the Colossians to be unified and at peace with one another. This is exactly what the BEP want to see.

Verses 9-11 Paul comments that the Colossians will be continually changed to harmonize with God's will. This is in thankfulness of the salvation they have received (v12-23). But these qualities and ways of life provide great change and continual peace with one another, making the world a better place, which is what the BEP ask for in track 15 on the album.

This is all tied together as we see everything changing in verses 12-23. Paul tells the Colossians of the change God has made to reconcille them to himself. And then he tells them of Jesus being the one who will reconcille everything to himself. Both heaven and earth. All things will be either reconcilled (the one's coming under Jesus' rule) through Jesus or destroyed (those who do not come under Jesus' rule) by Jesus. This will bring a change to the world. There will be peace.

This chapter is amazing and I have done little justice to the vast meaning in these verses. But to the BEP change is coming and is happening. God is changing the world and those in the world.

Take home question: Have you been changed?