3C's Bible Study

Despite the difficult circumstances surrounding its authorship, the letter to the Philippians drips with joy throughout its pages. In this book, we learn how Paul puts to practice the truths of the gospel that he doctrinally expounds on in other letters. Fellowship emerges as the agency through which God transforms our minds and circumstances into channels for His glory.

The concluding part of this beautiful love song unveils the capacity of the love of God to administer a fullness and permanence that can neither be doused nor blotted out.

Song of Songs 3:6-8:4. From this point onwards, the attention switches from our satisfaction to our satisfying the heart of Christ. He invites us into a life of consecration because of our calling to operate from ascension and nurture a garden on earth. Our garden should continually gladden the king's heart and produce a fragrance that draws the world to Him.

Song of Songs 2:8-3:5. Though the love of Christ comes leaping over mountains and skipping over the hills, it stops short of breaking through our walls. Instead, the Lord reserves for himself a window and beckons on us to come out of our walls. Sanctification is not about feelings but about faith that the Lord's will is best.

Song of Songs 1:1-2:7. The first section of this love song reveals that we can relate to God in the manner of two lovers. This episode covers the qualities of God's intimate love and how it satisfies us more than any other love.

Paul expands on the revelation that "Christ is our life" by providing practical guidelines for Christ-centered relationships at all levels, beginning in the family. He concludes the letter with the charge to "redeem the time" through consistent prayer, graceful speech and faithful ministering.

Having established the preeminence and sufficiency of Christ over every philosophy, tradition and religion, Paul turns his attention to the practical outworking of this truth. If Christ is Lord indeed, our lives ought to demonstrate its verity as much as we proclaim it. This chapter contains foundational imperatives for transitioning from a legal understanding of salvation to a practical appropriation of its blessings.

Paul writes to the Colossians in this chapter to warn them of the possibility of being lured into false confidence in vain philosophy and empty religious legalism. This chapter examines what is wrong or missing in these spiritual ideas by comparing them with the nature of reality and offers Christ as the one who fulfils what is lacking in us.

The second half of Colossians follows up on the first to reveal the content, author and mystery of our hope in Christ. Paul presents Him as the centre of the visible and invisible creation and thus the one who gives everything its reference and meaning. And much more, Christ is also the firstborn from the dead, making Him the head of the church and the agency by which we have access to glory.

These early verses focus on the quality of our hope, which is the value that enables us to endure. When our hope is right, our faith and love can last on it. Paul also highlights here the way to materialize or realize the hope in our hearts, an outcome he prays every sincere believer in Christ will become acquainted with.