Colossians 1: Love reaches out

Major Steven Turner unpacks the benefits of God’s rescue plan.

Key texts

Colossians 1:15–20

Contemporary politics is becoming increasingly divisive, often placing the blame for society’s problems on ‘them’ – usually meaning ‘someone who is not like me’. Many people do not tolerate or even listen to other opinions or experiences. Friends can become enemies over a difference of political views, sexual identity or perceived immigration status.

As we enter the season of Advent, we will be considering how God reached out in love to a hostile world, and what that means for us as Christians today.

Pause and reflect

Who might be your enemy?
Who might consider you to be their enemy?
Keep your answers in mind as you read this Bible study.

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul describes his readers as former enemies of God (see v21). He wants them to be confident that they have now been rescued and redeemed through Jesus (see v13).

In countering a heresy, Paul begins to articulate what will become a foundation of the Christian faith. Echoing the prologue in John 1:1–3, he identifies Jesus as the agent of creation: all things were created in and through and for him (see v16).

Paul includes a list of superlatives: ‘firstborn over creation’ (v15) implying inheritance and authority, ‘he is before all things’ (v17) in time and status, ‘firstborn from among the dead’ (v18) following his resurrection. He also refers to Jesus as ‘the image of the invisible God’ (v15). Thomas L Constable’s Notes on Colossians explains: ‘The Greek word translated “image” (eikōn) … does not imply a weakening or a feeble copy of something. It implies the illumination of its inner core and essence.’

Pause and reflect

Does Jesus’ divinity thrill you or intimidate you?
Why is that?

People often say I’m like my dad. Our school photos look remarkably similar; we share a love of books and motor vehicles, walk with the same gait and read the Bible in a similar style. The council of Nicaea in AD325 introduced the Greek word homoousios, meaning ‘of the same substance’. Jesus doesn’t just look and act like God as I am ‘like’ my dad – he is God.

Although I resemble my dad in many ways, I neither share his tidiness nor his ability to do practical tasks. I also take some of my nature from my mum. And some of my characteristics are unique within my family – I’m a bit of a mixed bag!

Pause and reflect

What characteristics do you share with your family?
Which aspects of Jesus’ character would you like to reflect?

In contrast, Paul says that Jesus shares the full nature of God. What theologians call the hypostatic union – from Greek meaning ‘one substance’ – makes it clear that Jesus was not just another human being, but God in the flesh (see Colossians 2:9).

This is all summarised in The Salvation Army’s fourth doctrine: ‘We believe that in the person of Jesus Christ the Divine and human natures are united, so that he is truly and properly God and truly and properly man.’

The importance of this truth cannot be overstated: only God has the power to save us, but only a human could fully represent our condition.

In his book Reaching Out, Henri Nouwen – a one-time member of the L’Arche Daybreak community in Toronto – argues that it is a Christian obligation to turn hostis (enemies) into hospes (guests). According to Henri, ‘hospitality means primarily the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy’.

L’Arche communities seek to model hospitality in one specific area. They state: ‘We are people with and without learning disability, on a mission to build a world where everyone belongs.’

Reconciliation can only take place if we are willing to set aside our prejudices and love the other person.

In his human life, Jesus expressed this hospitality in his loving encounters with the marginalised of his day. Despite the holiness inherent in his divine nature, he reached out, without condemnation, to people as they were.

He initiates a conversation with a despised Samaritan woman, offering her dignity. As a result, she becomes a witness to her entire village (see John 4:1–42).

He invites himself to tea with Zacchaeus, a traitorous tax collector, who then offers reparations for his wrongdoings (see Luke 19:1–10).

Other examples include a paralysed man in John 5:1–15, the woman with a haemorrhage in Mark 5:24–34, and the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16–22, one of the few who didn’t respond to Jesus’ offer of redemption.

Pause and reflect

Which encounter with Jesus most reflects your current situation?
Where in your life do you need Jesus to reach out?

Reconciliation can only take place if we are willing to set aside our prejudices and love the other person.

In 1940, railway enthusiast and Royal Signals Officer Eric Lomax set sail for Singapore. Captured by the Japanese, Lomax was forced to work on the ‘death railway’ from Thailand to Burma. When he was found with a radio, his captors subjected him to beatings and torture as an alleged spy.

Fifty years later, Eric heard that one of his interrogators had set up a Buddhist monastery as part of his repentance. Sceptical at first, he travelled to Kanchanaburi in Thailand. Eric greeted Takashi Nagase with polite formality. In an interview with The Forgiveness Project, he said: ‘I had come with no sympathy for this man, and yet Nagase, through his complete humility, turned this around.’

Takashi had created a space where hostility succumbed to hospitality. Eric Lomax and Takashi Nagase were reconciled and became friends for the rest of their lives.