Last week, we walked through a message titled “Revealing the Reflection.”

I asked two questions: 

What does your reflection reveal about you? 

Do you reflect Christ—or your own ambitions?

I said: We may be in this world, but that doesn’t mean we have to reflect it.

In fact, it’s the opposite as Christians. When we are raised with Christ, we are to seek and set our minds on things above.

Today, we continue this thought with  “Renewing the Reflection.”

To summarize today, “by being raised with Christ we are able to seek the things of God, set our minds on the things of God, and reflect the things of God.”

Before we get started this morning, let me ask — how many of you looked in a mirror before you came to church?

And who was staring back at you? YOURSELF!

We’re going to go back to that moment — to that reflection — and gaze a little longer.

In movies, there’s often a scene where the main character stares into a mirror and we get a flashback — a reflection of their past. As they look, they begin to think about who they are and what they’ve become. That reflection reveals something about their heart.

Reflection is an image representation — it reveals what’s really there.

Today, we’re going to live in one of those moments…because these moments “reveal the reflection” of our hearts.

So the question is: What does your reflection reveal about you?

Paul has just reminded the Colossian believers that in Christ, they are complete — their sins forgiven, their debt canceled, their enemies defeated. 

He guides them to realize the cross is not only the place of salvation; it’s the scene of triumph (1 Cor. 15:57).

Galatians 5:1

5 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

But whenever there’s victory in Christ, the enemy’s next strategy is subtle — not to destroy our faith, but to distort it. 

If he cannot keep us from salvation, he’ll try to rob us of the joy and freedom that comes with it.

That’s exactly where Paul goes next. After proclaiming to us what it means to “See to it that no one takes us captive,” he now warns us not to let anyone pull us back into the shadows of religion — the kind that looks holy on the outside but denies the sufficiency of Christ on the inside.

In Colossians 2:16–23, Paul exposes the danger of adding rules to grace, rituals to faith, and human effort to divine accomplishment. 

He calls the church to live in the freedom Christ has already purchased — not in the bondage of self-made religion.

He says: Don’t let anyone drag you back into living like you’re still incomplete.

As Paul calls us to be rooted, built up, and established in Christ, he knows that anything rooted in Christ will eventually face resistance.

The deeper our roots grow, the stronger the winds that try to pull us up will be.

So after urging them/us to be rooted, built up, and established in Christ, Paul immediately issues a warning: “See to it that no one takes you captive…”

Paul knew that the Colossian church was facing spiritual storms —those storms were subtle ideas and attractive teachings that sounded wise but were pulling people away from the truth of Christ.

Paul desires that the culture of the Colossian church be one marked by spiritual maturity. He says the evidence — the identifier — of that maturity is a love that is rooted, built up, and established in Christ alone.

Last week we talked about how every group — whether a business, family, or church — has cultural identifiers. These are words, phrases, traditions, or symbols that make that group unique and recognizable.

We used the “Row the Boat” mantra as an example of such identifiers — oars hanging throughout a building to remind players of a shared purpose: keep rowing, no matter what’s happening around you.

Paul is doing something similar in his letter to the Colossians. He’s helping them build a spiritual binder — a set of cultural identifiers unique to God’s people. He wants their defining culture to be centered on one thing: Christ Himself. 

One of the most important truths we can remember is that God has chosen us to be His cultural identifiers — living symbols of Christ to our families and to the world.

This word culture over saturates the business world right now. Leadership gurus are constantly telling us to define our cultures. There are businesses who have three ring binders full of words and phrases and definitions of what words and phrases mean to them.

For example, PJ Fleck was a football coach at Western Michigan University and became a very popular “culture builder” based off his success at WMU. He had this saying, “row the boat.”

What most don’t know is this was birthed from hardship in his life. He and his wife had lost their son to a heart condition.

“Row the boat is my second son’s life, as I continue to live his life for him” said Fleck. According to Fleck, there are three parts to Row the Boat; it involves an oar, a boat, and a compass. - Declan Goff

Now, oars hung throughout the football building to emphasize this mantra. To remind his players to keep on rowing despite what was happening around them.

Just as Fleck’s oar symbolized his culture, in our text today Paul points us to the cultural symbols of Christianity — being rooted, built up, and established in Christ (we’re going to discuss these next week).

But Paul makes clear: first, above all—love is the identifier that ties everything together.

Last week we marveled at Jesus. We saw that marveling at who He is fuels our faith and steadies us in the gospel.

But here’s the question we’re left with: How can we actually reflect Christ in our daily lives?

If He is the radiance of the Father’s glory and the exact imprint of His nature, how can we—broken, weak, and prone to wander—bear His likeness to the world?

The answer is this: no Spirit, no reflection—without the indwelling Spirit of God, we cannot. On our own, we can be a caricature of Christ, but we cannot reflect Him consistently.

Our own strength burns out, but the Spirit kindles a flame that cannot be extinguished.

Last week we saw that God has rescued us out of darkness and placed us into the light so we might reflect Christ by bearing fruit, growing in knowledge, be strengthened by his power, and live with thankful hearts (Col. 1:3–14). That rescue changes where we stand.

This week’s message looks at who stands over that rescue: Paul’s portrait of Jesus in Colossians 1:15–23. Marveling at Christ’s person and work—his preeminence in creation, his fullness of deity, and his reconciling work on the cross—is the wellspring of the faith that allows us to reflect Him.

In short: we were rescued so we could reflect, and we reflect because we marvel at who Jesus is.

But that raises an important question: how do we truly see Jesus for who He is?

Have you ever noticed how a mirror only works when it is in the light? In darkness, a mirror reflects nothing—it is useless. But once the light shines, that same mirror reveals an image clearly.

Paul writes this letter to the Colossians with a deep burden: that the people of God would reflect Christ in every part of their lives.

He wants us to be mirrors of Christ glory—shining His character, His love, His truth—in the dark world around us.

But he also knows the danger: when darkness creeps in—whether through evil actions, false teaching, sin, or spiritual apathy—that reflection becomes distorted, blurred, or even hidden.

In Colossians 1:3–14, Paul reminds the church of two great truths: first, that we have been rescued out of the domain of darkness and redeemed into the light.

In our last series, Dear Church, we looked through Jesus’ letters to the seven churches in Revelation. We saw how Christ celebrated faithfulness but also called His people toward repentance when compromise crept in.

The heart behind that series was: knowing the difference between the two so that we are not a church playing on ours heels—we take the fight to the kingdom of darkness.

But here’s the next question:

How do we keep living that way?

How do we make sure our strength, our confidence, and our pursuit are not just bursts of momentum, but a steady way of life? Paul’s letter to the Colossians helps answer this, showing us two dangers to avoid and one goal to pursue.

We live in a world drowning in distraction and chasing distorted reflections of identity. Yet Colossians reminds us, as believers we have been raised with Christ and if we are raised with Christ we ought to be walking like He did.