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Colossians 1
We need to seek "the knowledge of his will," Colossians 1:9 so that "ye might walk worthy of the Lord..." Colossians 1:10
And how can we know His will? By reading His book. By praying and then listening.
We are appreciating our Heavenly Father "who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son..." Colossians 1:13
This next passage basically tells us why we exist. That's nice information to have isn't it. People go through life seeking a fulfilling existence but bless their hearts, they're just going to keep on searching unless they get this: We were created for Him and our purpose is to glorify the Son, "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him." Colossians 1:15-16.
This passage tells us to "continue in the faith grounded and settled," also translated "firmly established." Colossians 1:23
"Christ in you, the hope of glory: whom we preach," Colossians 1:27
That just sounds pretty.
"Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." Colossians 1:29.
In the margin of my Bible I wrote, "God does it, not me" by this passage.
Colossians 2
All the answers come from God. We are seeking a deep, intimate knowledge of Him, "In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Colossians 2:3
We women can get a little distracted or starry-eyed (shall we say gullible even?) and need to be careful that we don't get dragged into any sort of cult mentality. Anything someone is trying to convince us to go along with, we should always weigh against scripture, and seek leadership from our husbands who are able to see through a lot of yada yada. "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." Colossians 2:8
Colossians 3
"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Colossians 3:2
I'm taking that one as an order, ladies. I love and enjoy my marriage, which is a blessing from God, and I love and enjoy my children, but we are told not to set our hearts on the things of this earth. That includes people who are precious to us. And certainly we can't set our hearts on worldly things such as riches, or in my case decorating or clothing and lately, ironically enough, my writing. We have to keep our focus upward.
Anything besides Christ that meets your needs, is gonna be idolatry. "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence (desire), and covetousness, which is idolatry." Colossians 3:5
"But now ye also put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another..." Colossians 3:8-9.
Your clothes have changed, once you are a born again Christian. So you put off the old clothes, which is that ugly stuff Paul talks about above, and replace it with behavior that is of God's character. This is one way we can tell if we're dealing with a believer or not. Everybody slips up, but are we seeing a consistent lifestyle of anger and even wrath in someone? Are we seeing a consistent lifestyle based on malice and blasphemy, of lying and filthy communication? I'm thinking run away girlfriend. I'm right behind you.
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom," Colossians 3:16
That's what we're doing now, fist bump, look at us, Oh! We got this.
"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord." Colossians 3:18
Just pretty much read any of my marriage blogs and hear me go off on that one.
"And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men..." Colossians 3:23.
I'm writing for the Lord, I'm working for Him, He's my boss man. If people like it too then hey that's a bonus, and it's exciting when the Lord brings people to my writing. All both of y'all. But I'm doing it heartily for Him. It has taken me a while to really understand that. It's so opposite of the world's way, to yield our work fully to God. It comes so naturally to strive, try, seek, gain, accomplish for our own purposes. We can do this, but scripture tells us it won't satisfy.
Colossians 4
We need to devote ourselves to prayer: "Continue in prayer..." Colossians 4:2.
And all of this "need to do this, and need to do that" we are hearing in Colossians is not a list of tedious stuff we have to do, it's not supposed to be burdensome or hard. It's not the way to gain God's favor. It's not like that. All of this rather is what we can do if we want to be joyful and blessed. It helps us live a victorious life.
"Let your speech always be gracious." Colossians 4:6
Yeah so this verse is why I really try to keep it clean and not let any profanity fly. Not only that, but sarcasm, irritated tone of voice, busting on people, whew so many things I ask God to help me with. How am I doing? Ask my children.
"...always labouring fervently for you in prayers," Colossians 4:12.
I wrote "agonize over you" in my margin. Well isn't Paul a love to agonize prayerfully over the Colossians. So go head Paul wit cho bad self.