Paul’s letter to the Colossians describes the kind of community God was calling them to be. But he makes clear that this was not inward-focused. Their daily lives were to be marked by love, kindness, and compassion in their places of work or activity, and in their relationships. The social conditions assumed in the passage aren’t the same social conditions that most of us face today. However, the principles that flow from it are as applicable now as much as then. Commitment to Jesus as Lord is to be worked out in daily life, in relationship with others, and bound up in our service of Jesus himself.