God’s love and concern for all people is demonstrated throughout the Bible. Everyone you clap eyes on today is loved by God and precious to Him. God has made it possible for all to know His embrace. 

This is not just the first psalm but a ‘gateway’ psalm introducing the whole psalter comprising 150 psalms and arranged in five ‘books’. These verses declare that those who avoid certain pathways and embrace God’s ways will be blessed. Walking, standing and sitting suggest increasing affinity with evil, and are contrasted with the delight that comes from meditating on God’s Word. 

We need each other – we see this reflected in Paul’s list of people who send their greetings to the new church. Notice how diverse the people are, from Luke the doctor to a former slave to Gentile believers to Jewish people who have converted to the Christian faith. After all, as Paul said earlier, Christ is all and Christ is in all (Col. 3:11). In Him there is no room for discrimination. 

We’ve looked at Paul’s letter to the Colossians mostly from a point of view of our own personal growth in our commitment to Christ. In this passage, however, we see that we cannot forget the gospel imperative to share our faith with others. We shouldn’t live in a closed-off colony where we’re concerned only for fellow believers, but rather should seek that others too will know the life-saving nature of God’s redemption through Jesus. 

We might be surprised at the length of Paul’s household instructions regarding slavery, especially compared with the short directives regarding husbands and wives and parents and children. Perhaps Paul treats this subject in more detail because of the situation with Onesimus, who was a slave of Philemon’s who ran away after wronging his master, probably by stealing money. 

We might find Paul’s change of subject abrupt. Having discussed who we are in Christ and how we are to live out the new life, Paul then addresses what are known as the household codes – his instructions for family life. We also might or might not agree with Paul’s emphasis on the roles within the home. 

The peace of Christ can make a real difference to our lives. For instance, a Christian leader encountered many difficulties and challenges over her life, then finally reached a point where she came to the end of herself and leaned on God fully. 

What clothes do we don? The world often gives us stinky rags, such as those slapped on a young girl who was called ‘fat face’. Our hearts sink when we hear stories such as these, and we pray that young people enduring such abuse will be able to put on the garments of God’s chosen people and to ‘forgive as the Lord’ forgives them (v13). 

A great theme of Paul’s is leaving the old self behind as we daily embrace the new, as we see in this section of Colossians. For the believers to live out of a new self, Paul says that they need to continue putting to death whatever would keep them embroiled in sin; that is, their earthly nature. 

We reach a sort of climax here as Paul says, ‘Since, then…’ With these words he signals to his readers that he’s laid the groundwork and he wants them to take notice. For here is how they should live. Because they have died to their old life, they are now raised with Christ.