[Read Colossians 1:24-2:5]
We all know the numerous benefits of technology that we experience on a regular basis, but we’re also increasingly realizing some of the significant drawbacks and dangers as well. It’s really great that we have access to so much information right now. We can figure out the answer to most of the questions we have immediately by pulling out our phone. We don’t even have to type things into it but simply talk to Siri and she will give you the answer. That’s only going to become more effective as AI continues to develop and grow. So, it’s a good thing to have access to all of this information.
However, it’s also a dangerous thing. Along with all of this information comes innumerable opinions and ideas and theories. Our passage this morning talks about the concept of “plausible arguments,” which seems to be extremely relevant in our current cultural situation. It’s not that we simply have access to tons of information, but we’re also being fed plausible argument after plausible argument—ideas that sound like they could possibly be true, but we don’t know for sure. The more we hear arguments like this, the more we lose our footing and our foundations are shaken little by little.
This week I heard about a recent poll that said “The research found that 66% of American adults reject or doubt the existence of absolute moral truth…Among non-Christian faith adherents, 67% deny absolute truth. Among those with no faith, the figure is 77%, up from 68% in 2020. Even among mainline Protestants and Catholics, rejection of absolute truth stands at 61% and 69%, respectively.Notably, the report found that only one segment saw meaningful improvement: theologically-defined born-again Christians, among whom rejection of absolute truth declined from 57% to 49%.” (https://www.arizonachristian.edu/2025/05/01/awvi-2025-report-5-americans-abandon-christianity-moral-truth-barna/). That’s not good news. Two-thirds of all adults reject the idea of absolute truth—including mainline Protestants and Catholics—and only fifty-percent of born-again Christians believe in absolute truth. That’s insane. I think the reason is because we are constantly being flooded with plausible arguments that continually undermine the reality of absolute truth. We no longer know what to believe any more. So, we reject the idea that there is any standard of truth—even self-proclaimed Christians.
Now, this is obviously not the first time Christians have struggled with this throughout history. Paul is warning the Colossians about this very thing in this morning’s passage. He says, “I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.” (Colossians 2:4, ESV). These plausible arguments work toward deluding or deceiving people. And to make sure we recognize where all of this comes from, who is the father of lies and deceit and delusions? Satan. When you find yourself in a situation where you don’t know what to believe about anything because there are lies and plausible arguments everywhere, you can be rest assured that Satan is behind it. He hates the truth and is actively doing everything he can to undermine it.
The dangers of this undermining is that we lose our footing as we go through the world. Paul talks about this same thing in the book of Ephesians, saying that he is working “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (Ephesians 4:14, ESV). Picture your life as a boat in the lake of culture. The moment you untie yourself from the dock, you are unmoored and floating around wherever the wind blows. You’re like a little boat in a raging sea being tossed about all over the place. You have nowhere to turn. No place to tie off. It’s an extremely frightening place to be—really. And that’s where the vast majority of culture is right now and it’s the result of plausible arguments slowly removing the foundations from underneath our feet, slowly untying the knot, slowly pushing our boat out into the middle of the ocean.
What we see in this morning’s passage is that the core of Paul’s ministry is fighting against this tendency—working hard to ground people in the absolute truth of Christ and the gospel—and he has suffered for it. He begins by saying, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings…” (Colossians 1:24, ESV). Paul is suffering so that he can defend the church against these plausible arguments that keep destroying the church. He is suffering in prison as he writes this. Yet, remember what God told Paul when he called him into the ministry, he said, “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” (Acts 9:16, ESV). Paul’s call to ministry was a calling to suffer as he fought against plausible arguments that continually infected the church.
Now, there’s a line in here that causes some confusion because Paul says, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,” (Colossians 1:24, ESV). People immediately react to this passage and say: What does he mean that he is filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions? Is he saying that Christ’s death on the cross wasn’t enough, that Paul is adding to those afflictions through his own suffering? I’ll just answer the question by saying, NO, that’s not what he is saying. He says the opposite of that in numerous places. So, we know he’s not saying that here.
So, what is he saying? The best way to understand what he is saying is based on the context and based on something Christ said to him when he called him to ministry. Remember what Jesus said to Paul on the road to Damascus? He said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4, ESV). Paul wasn’t physically persecuting Jesus. He was physically persecuting the church. Yet, Jesus so identifies himself with his people that you could say—you mess with the church, you mess with Jesus. When you understand that, and then look at the context of this passage, you realize that Paul is not talking about filling up the afflictions of Christ himself, but filling up the afflictions of Christ’s people—the body of Christ, the church.
This brings up a point that we don’t often like to talk about—the church is called to suffer. We serve a savior who suffered throughout his life right up to the end. That means that if we are going to follow a suffering savior it will result in our suffering as well. That’s why Paul says in Philippians that he strives to “know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…” (Philippians 3:10, ESV). Suffering is not just the calling of Paul in his work to build up the church, but it’s the calling of everyone who follows the suffering Savior.
As I keep mentioning throughout this series, we are not to suffer begrudgingly, but with joy. Notice what Paul says, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake…” (Colossians 1:24, ESV). Paul isn’t suffering and frustrated about it, or suffering and bitter about it. He is suffering and rejoicing as he suffers. How is he able to do that? Because he knows he is suffering for the sake of God’s people. He knows that his suffering is not in vain. He knows that his suffering is going to bear fruit in the life of the church. We all understand that to some degree. Pointless suffering is one of the most excruciating things we have to face. But we are willing to suffer if we know something good will come out of it. We are willing to work hard and get blisters—even find joy in it—when we see the fruit of our labors.
Paul also points out that he is willing to suffer on behalf of the church because God has given him this calling. He says, “I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,” (Colossians 1:25, ESV). God made him a minister and gave him something to steward—it was the Word of God. And part of that stewardship involved making sure the Word of God is made fully known. If Paul would have done anything else besides focusing on making the Word of God fully known, he would have been a poor steward and not fulfilled the task God had given him to do.
That’s why later on Paul gives us a glimpse into what he does as a minister. He says, “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” (Colossians 1:28, ESV). This is what God had called him to do—to proclaim Chris, to warn those who are being led astray by plausible arguments, and teach them with all wisdom laying a foundation that will not be undermined by plausible arguments. Remember his prayer from earlier in this chapter: “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,” (Colossians 1:9, ESV). He is following the advice of Saint Benedict who said “Pray and work.” Paul prayed that they would be filled with a knowledge of his will, then worked to make that happen. He warned those being led astray and taught them with wisdom.
And he really did work. Notice how he describes his ministry: “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” (Colossians 1:29, ESV). Again in the very next verse he uses the word “struggle” again to describe his work for the church. The Greek word for struggle is agonizomai—which is where we get our word agonize. He says that he agonizes over the work God has given him for the church. He toils and works hard to preach and teach and warn the church against the plausible arguments that continually come in, attempting to undermine the foundation of their faith.
Yet, also notice the way he talks about this hard work. He says that he struggles with HIS energy—God’s energy—that is powerfully at work within him. So, this isn’t an opportunity for Paul to brag about how hard of a worker he is, or about how he’s a guy who gets things done. Rather, he points out that the only reason he is able to work this hard and toil and struggle in the work of the church is because God is the one who is strengthening him to do the work. If it relied on his strength, he couldn’t get it done. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians as well saying, “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” (1 Corinthians 15:10, ESV). I worked harder than anyone, but it wasn’t me, it was God who was strengthening me to work.
I’ve often thought about what it looks like to live this way. What does it look like to live in a way that works harder than anyone else but isn’t about relying on your own strength. It’s really hard because we immediately and often begin to rely on our own strength. Also, it’s hard to actually know whether someone is doing this on the outside. I could spend a long time talking about this, but I’ll just mention one practical reality, that connects to something I said earlier. It follows the same concept of “Pray and work” from earlier in the sermon. You pray about what God is calling you to do, you pray that he would give you the strength to do that thing, then you trust him to give you the strength to do that thing, and then you do that thing. That’s the closest I’ve gotten to what this looks like on a very practical level. You pray for God to lead and guide you, asking him to help you understand what he wants you to do and where he wants you to go, or what he wants you to say. He leads you into something you don’t think you can do in your own strength. So you ask him to strengthen you to do that thing, and then you step out in faith, trusting him to strengthen you to do that thing.
For Paul, God had called him to make the Word of God fully known to his people and he was going to do that with all of the strength that God supplied. Look at the way Paul describes that word: “…to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:25–27, ESV). He talks about this mystery that has been hidden for ages and generations. When Paul talks about this being hidden, he’s not talking about it being completely hidden so that nobody could see it at all. Rather, he’s talking about what other books of the Bible call shadows. Throughout the Old Testament there are many things that served as shadows—mysteries—that have now become much clearer. This mystery is at the core of Paul’s message and it has three layers to it.
The first mystery that has been revealed is Christ himself. Of course, God’s people had promises throughout the Old Testament that a Messiah was coming. As I like to remind us, that promise came already in Genesis chapter three. We see figures throughout the Old Testament that serve to point us to Christ. We see shadowy references throughout the Old Testament to a Messiah and to a Suffering Servant and to God’s Son and a variety of other shadows. However, because these were all shadows, God’s people didn’t see it clearly. It was a mystery to them. However, when Christ took on flesh and dwelt among us, the mystery was revealed to God’s people that He was the Messiah—their Savior—and Paul says that is the core of his message.
But there’s another layer to this mystery. The mystery is not just Christ himself BUT—something almost unimaginable to God’s people at the time—“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27, ESV). Can you imagine the people standing at the foot of Mount Sinai, seeing the power of God so strongly that they were afraid to go to the mountain, so they send Moses up there. Can you imagine them being told that God himself wouldn’t just live among them but IN them? They wouldn’t believe it. It would completely baffle them. Yet, this is what we’ve received in Christ. He not only took on flesh and dwelt among us. He not only lived and died and rose again, but for all those who have put their faith and trust in him, they are in Christ and he is IN you. And we completely take it for granted. Isn’t that wild? The God who created the universe with a few words lives IN you. That’s a mystery—and Paul says that’s also a core part of his message.
The final aspect of the mystery is the fact that “God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery…” (Colossians 1:27, ESV). Again, this was pretty baffling to God’s people. THEY were God’s people and the other nations were not. It was this shadowy reality throughout the Old Testament that he would bless his people and through them the nations—the Gentiles—would be blessed. Yet, because of the shadowy nature of it, this was a complete mystery to God’s people. Yet, in Christ, this mystery had now been revealed powerfully to God’s people that “There is neither Jew nor [Gentile]…for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:28–29, ESV). This was a mystery to them—and Paul said this was another core aspect to his teaching.
Why? When Paul says that God had given him a task to proclaim, to warn, and to teach God’s people, why is the center of that work Christ? Why is Christ the center of his work to make sure people are not deluded by plausible arguments? He tells us: “…the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Colossians 2:2–3, ESV). In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Of course there’s a lot here, but let me point to one important reality. Since all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Christ, then they are not in these plausible arguments. They are not found apart from Christ. So, when we center our lives and minds and hearts on Christ we build stronger foundations that withstand the attacks of the plausible arguments all around us. So, we need to stay connected to Christ. We need to keep our eyes and hearts and minds on him.
The reality is that Paul’s entire goal in his work is that God’s people would be mature. He says this, “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” (Colossians 1:28–29, ESV). He says this is what I’ve devoted my life to, working hard so that God’s people would mature in Christ. That’s why he proclaims, that’s why he warns, that’s why he teaches, that’s why he struggles, that’s why he toils.
Notice how he describes this maturity later on: “…that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ…” (Colossians 2:2, ESV). Notice that maturity isn’t just a bunch of knowledge—which isn’t a bad thing, but doesn’t equate to maturity. Maturity is hearts that are encouraged, being knit together in love with the rest of the Body of Christ, and full assurance of understanding and knowledge of Christ. This is a whole package deal. Maturity involves knowledge and understanding. Maturity also involves encouragement and love and assurance. True Christian maturity involves hearts and minds and lives that are increasingly rooted in Jesus Christ.
Now, this isn’t directly addressed in this passage, but I think it’s a direct application. So far, Colossians has been emphasizing the fact that the goal of our salvation is sanctification and maturity in Jesus Christ. It would be a wrong application to walk away from this passage and say, “Whew! I’m thankful that Paul worked so hard for my maturity” or that pastor works so hard for my maturity or my elders. Rather, the direct application should be a realization that Christ saved you and lives in you so that you would have the power to mature in Him. And that means you should walk away saying something like Paul “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” (Colossians 1:29, ESV). Walk away with this commitment to work hard in the process of your sanctification and your maturity in Christ. Word hard with all of the energy that Christ works within you because he is IN you.
Finally, I want to bring this back to the center of this passage, which is defense against all of the plausible arguments. How do you stand firm in the midst of all this? You do it by working hard in the process of your sanctification and maturity in Christ—doing it in the strength that he supplies. You stand firm by growing in knowledge and understanding and assurance of God’s Word. You stand firm by having your heart encouraged and strengthened and transformed. You stand firm by being part of a community that is being knit together in Christ. When all those things are happening you will not be deluded with plausible arguments but there will be “rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.” (Colossians 2:5, ESV).