Hello and welcome to Thursday’s podcast.

This week, we’ve been asking the question – what does it mean to follow to Jesus? To throw off the old self (as we read on Tuesday) and put on the new self (as we looked at yesterday).

REFLECTION

We’ve been going through Paul’s letter to the Colossians and today we reach the end of Chapter Three. Let’s look at today’s passage taken from the Message translation and in particular let’s focus on this section: ‘Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ’.

In this section of his letter to the Colossians, Paul gives instructions for various members of a Christian household in terms of how they are to conduct themselves. What Paul sets out here, as he does in some of his other letters, is challenging. It would have been challenging for the believers living in first century Colassae and it’s just as challenging for us now, as disciples living in 21st century Britain. And whilst it is important to take into account the historical context and the cultural norms of which Paul was writing this letter into, what we’re presented with here is just as relevant now as it was back then.

So what are we presented with? Well this passage is an incredibly practical one. It’s centred around the relationships people have within a household and reads almost like a code of conduct. It’s important to remember that as we read this passage and when we talk about a household, we’re talking about the ‘oikos’ to use the Greek term. The oikos was bigger than just the nuclear family and also included extended family, servants, business associates and friends. They all gathered in the ‘oikos’. They were a community. And Paul takes each of the different relationships represented in the household, the community and gives instructions for how each group are to conduct themselves. You can hear them read out at the end of this podcast.

But what’s noticeable is that there’s a pattern. In the Message version, which we’re using today, we keep seeing the phrase ‘the Master’ repeated. In the NIV version, each of Paul’s instructions are rooted in the term, ‘The Lord’ or an equivalent term. The reason Paul is doing this is he wants to point something out to us.

We read in today’s passage: ‘Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ’.

We serve Christ. That through the cross, Christ died so that we might have this new life, this new self, the new identity he gives us as children of God. But there’s a sense in which that each day we’re faced with a choice –Are we going to serve Jesus? Are we going to put on the new self? Are we going to live that new life Jesus offers us?

And it goes back to what James talked about two weeks ago – it’s all about grace. We read in Ephesians Two – For it is by grace that you have been saved. And this is not your own doing. It’s a gift from God. That through Jesus, and what he did for us on the cross, we are put right with God. Our previously broken relationship with our heavenly father is completely restored. We are rescued, saved and set free. It’s something we could never do or earn for ourselves. But through God’s great love for us, through Jesus, we can!

And so Paul is saying, ‘Keep in mind Christ’ and remember that ultimately, in everything we do, in all of our earthly relationships, we are serving Jesus. That we are to be people who seek to be right with others, to have right relationships with others knowing that we do so because of God’s grace in our lives. Because through Jesus, we have been made right with God.

‘Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ’, Paul writes

Whether you’re a husband, a wife, a parent, a child, a servant –these are al the groups Paul mentions today, keep in mind that ultimately you’re serving Christ – the servant king. The one who washed his disciples’ feet and then said go and do likewise.