Paul's Burden for the Church

Paul says, I pray that their hearts might be comforted.

Now what's the next line? Being a Christian, what we have heard less about is how that invasion has also energized the Church. Christians in Ukraine and Russia and throughout the globe began praying fervently for Ukrainian believers and non-believers, people they don't know and probably will never meet. And now, it's great to see Christians passionately love and care for one another in a crisis. But how do you do that in normal, non-crisis times? How do you demonstrate love to your congregation?

week after week. Scripture has the answers, and John MacArthur points you to them today on Grace to You as he continues his study called Complete in Christ. And now here's John. And we have seen in the passage, at least in an introductory sense, the first of what amounts to five basic things that he really wants for the Colossians to experience. Now these items become a checklist for every church and a checklist really for every Christian. Number one, strong in heart, verse 2, that their hearts might be strengthened. Now we translated that term strengthened rather than comforted because we think that that is the more particular emphasis that the apostle is making here. The word means to comfort, to console, or to strengthen. It embodies all of that idea. It even means to grant endurance. So it's a lot of things. But it seems to me that the sum of it all, and what Paul is really working on, is that their hearts would be strengthened.

Now that brings us to a second thing. The second thing that the apostle wishes for the Colossian Christians, and the second thing we should wish for ourselves, is that we be united in love. Strong in heart, united in love. And this, of course, is the beautiful balance to number one. We don't want to get carried away with the intellect.

We don't want to turn Christianity to something that is coldly academic because that isn't it. There's a great beating, pulsing heart of Christianity, and that is love. And so hastily Paul says, I pray that their hearts might be comforted.

Now watch the next line. Being knit together in love. Being knit together in love. He wants a one-mindedness of hearts that are knit together in love.

And this is, as I said, this is the balancer to doctrine. The word knit, or knit together, simply means to unite. But it really is a beautiful picture of the body of Christ, all of us being knit together in an indivisible kind of oneness. Your body is a combination of billions of cells, all knit together. You can't pick any one of them apart because they blend indiscriminately together, and that's the thing that the apostle Paul is after. As the cells of a body are indistinguishable because they're lost in the mass, so should you be indistinguishable as you're lost in the unity of love that exists among the brethren. The sense of the word here as it appears, and also it appears later on in chapter 2 verse 19, you'll see it knit together again. They're talking about the body again being joined and knit together.

It's the idea of all the parts being put together in a way that leaves them almost without any personal identity. Love is the thing that ties believers together. Now all Christians are connected by a common life. In one sense we're like a whole bunch of beads strung on a string, and the string that runs through every one of us is the common eternal life. That's why 1 Corinthians 6 17 says, he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. That's why 1 Corinthians 12 says we've all been made to drink of one spirit. We've all received one spirit. We've all been baptized into one body by one spirit.

There's a basic positional unity. We've all come to Christ in the same way. We were all saved by the same method, by the same God. We were placed in the one body by the same spirit in the same way and indwelt by the same divine life in the same fullness as every other Christian. So there's a basic positional unity that ties us all together, common eternal life. We are knit together. We are knit together by this fact of life. As if we were all people who existed in a special place, only able to breathe a special air, and all able to do that and thus having commonness, we are Christians in the same sense.

There are absolutely no differences in the basic identity of our common life. In Galatians 3 28, there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female. You are all one in Christ Jesus. Verse 26, you are all the sons of God by faith. For as many as you have been baptized unto Christ have put on Christ.

So there you see the positional unity. There is a oneness that is a part of every Christian's identity. In Romans, I'm thinking of another passage. Chapter 10 verse 12, there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

You'll be saved and you'll receive the same benefits and the same riches and the same spirit and the same life and the same eternity and the same everything. So, He says, I pray that you be knit together. And we all say, but we are knit together.

John just proved it to us. We are already knit together. Yes, we are knit together positionally.

Positionally. And I think this, in the primary sense, answers the prayer of Jesus in John 17. Jesus prayed, Father, I pray that they may be one. And I believe primarily that prayer has been answered in the identity of the church as the body of Christ.

I believe that Jesus was basically talking about a positional thing. And it was answered. The prayer was answered in the unity of the Spirit.

But, there is still a part of it that is unanswered. And that's the part that Paul is dealing with here. Because if you'll notice carefully, Colossians chapter 2, he says, being united or being knit together, not in common life, positionally, but in what? In love.

And that's practical. Paul says, I want you to be practically united, experientially united, experimentally united as you are positionally. In other words, make your life match your position. You are one, now act like it. Live out your oneness that's inside. Paul says to the Corinthians, he says, I beseech you, brethren, by the name of the Lord Jesus that you speak the same thing. There be no division among you. You be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment. In other words, you are one, now act like it in practice. Behave as one.

In 2 Corinthians 13, 11, finally, brethren, farewell, be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind. Unity. Now this is something, folks, that we have to work on. Because basically speaking, we are one.

But practically speaking, we have a lot to be desired. We don't manifest that unity. And that's one of the things that confuses the world. The Bible says that the world would know the Father had sent the Son if the church is one. And part of the problem that the world has in defining Christianity and who Christ is, is our failure to practically live out our unity. In Philippians 1, 27, he says that you should stand fast in one spirit with one mind. One spirit, one mind. In Jude, we studied recently, verse 3, he says, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write and exhort you. Even though there was a common salvation, there were some believers wavering away from what should have been a unified kind of lifestyle within a common kind of salvation.

So it is very important that we live out our unity. You say, well, John, how do you do that? Well, look at Ephesians 4, 3, and I'll show you basically what is the key to everything.

Ephesians 4, 3. Now listen. Endeavoring to keep, or to guard, if you will, the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now notice something very important here. He says you should endeavor to guard the unity of the Spirit.

Listen to me. We do not have to create unity. The Spirit has already created it. We just have to what? Guard it. We have to guard that unity.

You say, how do you guard it? By being a peacemaker. It is the unity of the Spirit that is guarded by the bond of peace. That is that you and I have a covenant that we will be at peace with each other. That's the bond of peace. That you and I agree that we will not argue, that we will not fight, that we will not hassle, that we will be at peace. We're peacemakers. And we will keep, we will guard the unity the Spirit has already put there positionally. We will guard it and allow its practical manifestation by being peacemakers. Now you say, John, what's at the heart of being a peacemaker? How can I be a peacemaker? Alright, that takes you back to Colossians chapter 3.

How can you be a peacemaker? Watch, verse 12. Colossians 3, 12. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, tender mercies, and that's really a heart of compassion, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, that is tolerating one another, forgiving one another, if any man has a quarrel against you, even as Christ forgave you, so also do you.

And above all things, put on what? Love, which is the bond of perfectness, or which binds everything perfectly together. Now listen, what is the bond of peace then? The bond of peace is love.

He says, first of all, put on this, put on this, put on this, all these humility things, and then he says, above everything else, the key ingredient, put on love. Love is what binds everything together. How do you keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace? The bond of peace is love. The thing that makes me at peace with you is when I what? When I love you. Love is the basis of everything.

Now you say, I still don't understand how this thing works out. Let me take you a step further and look at Philippians chapter 2. In Philippians chapter 2 verses 1 to 8, we have a great illustration of how love works. Now Paul says, if there is any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion, in other words, if there are any of these good things, comfort and love and fellowship and mercy toward one another and suffering with each other, if there's anything at all to this stuff, fulfill ye my joy that you be like-minded. Now watch, having the same love, being of one accord of one mind.

Now watch this. Paul says, I want you to be like-minded. What does that mean? I want you all to be the same. I want you all to, like Corinthians 1, I want you to speak the same things and have the same minds and the same judgments. I want you to have beautiful unity. Oh, I want unity for the church. You say, but how could you have that kind of unity? It's impossible. You can't just get all these people to have unity.

How does it happen? Notice verse 2, like-minded is based on having the same what? Same love. You know what having the same love means?

Loving everybody the same. You say, you mean I got to love everybody? That's impossible.

That's impossible. Not if you understand what love is. You say, what's love? How can I love everybody the same? Some people are much more wonderful than others. And some people are more deserving of my love than others.

How can I love them all the same? Well, the answer comes in the next verse. Unity is built on love then in verse 2 and love is built on in verse 3, humility. Let nothing be done, here's the key to love, through strife or vainglory, seeking self-glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others, what? Better than themselves. Now listen, if you believe that everybody in the world, in the church of Jesus Christ is better than you, you're on the ground that you have to be on to love them.

Get that? That's where you have to be. Unity, the Spirit gave it to us, positionally. Practically, we can maintain it when we're at peace with one another. We will be at peace with one another when we love each other. We will love each other when we get down on the bottom shelf and see everybody else better than ourselves. See, that's a lot of humility you're talking about.

That's getting pretty low. Verse 4 says, look not every man on his own things, but every man on the things of others. Be more concerned about somebody else than you are yourself. You say, who could ever live like that? Oh, here's one, verse 5, let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not something to hang on to, to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, took on him the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.

Now stop right there. Jesus, the perfect illustration of humility. He came from heaven to earth. He who was rich, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8, became poor that through his poverty we might be made rich. Jesus, who was far beyond any of us, considered it not something to hang on to, to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and died for us. That's the mind of humility.

It's a mind that says, I will do anything. I will spend myself in total self-sacrifice if it benefits you, whoever you are. See, that's having the same love. That's loving everybody the same. And when you begin to be humble, then you begin to love. And when you begin to love, then there will be unity. And then the bond of peace will exist, and you will be guarding that which the Spirit of God desires. You say, I'd like to be humble and love folks.

How does it manifest itself? How do I love them? Do I sit in the corner and feel something for them? Do I get the spiritual willies when I think about them? How do I love them?

Do I do like some places where they hug everybody all the time? How do I love people? 1 John 3.11 gives us a definition of how love manifests itself.

It's very basic. 1 John 3.11, For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. What beginning? The beginning when they first heard the gospel. This is the tradition of the gospel, as long as they've heard it, that we should love one another. That's not just a duty. That's a proof of being a Christian. That's a proof of sonship. The Holy Spirit energizes love in the believer.

It's there, and we must exercise it. Verse 12, he makes a comparison. We shouldn't be like Cain, who was of that wicked one, Satan, and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. Can you put that into one word?

What was it? Jealousy. You know what jealousy stems from? Pride. Cain didn't love his brother. He killed his brother. Jealousy was behind Cain's act, and jealousy is life on the level of the children of the devil.

Satan first created the rebellion in heaven because he was what? Jealous. Jealousy is a thing of Satan, and if it exists in the life of the believer, just stop and consider where it comes from. Next, jealousy doesn't stay where it's at. Verse 13, marvel not, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we've passed from death unto life because we love the brother, and he that loves not his brother abides in death. Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Jealousy progresses to hatred, and hatred progresses to what? Murder. And so you can have one form of not loving people is jealousy to hate to murder.

But there's another form. You say, boy, a lot of people in the world don't do that. A lot of people don't murder.

More people hate, and more people are jealous, but they don't all progress through that. Let me show you another form of not loving somebody. This is indifference. Verse 16, by this perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Whosoever hath this world's good, you have money, supplies, and you see your brother have need, and you shut up your bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him? In other words, it isn't just murder that results from a lack of love. It is indifference that results from a lack of love.

You see? You see a guy with a need, you could care less. And even though you could supply his need, you don't bother to do it because you just don't care that much.

That's indifference. On the other hand, loving is not spiritual willies or anything. Loving is whoever has this world's good and gives it to his brother. Loving is laying down your life for the brother. Verse 16, that's loving.

It is self-sacrifice. Now that's what Paul says I want to see in the Colossian church. I want to see in the Colossian church you people knit together practically in love. I want you to maintain the bond of the Spirit. I want you to live out that inward unity of common eternal life and the way it will manifest itself is in love, and love is built on humility, and humility has as its consequences acts of self-sacrifice. Let me ask you a question. When's the last time you sacrificed anything to meet somebody's need? Anything. When's the last time you ever made a sacrifice for anybody else?

Any kind of sacrifice whatsoever? That's the last time you loved. That's the last time you loved. So Paul then is saying in Colossians 2, my burden for the church is that they be strong in heart and united in love. Thirdly.

Thirdly. Let's look at verse 2 again. The third thing that he wishes for the church is that they be settled in understanding. That they be settled in understanding.

Strong in heart, united in love, settled in understanding. Now I want to say something to you because I think you have to follow Paul's sequence. When you know the truth in your head, now watch this, and you act it out in your life in deeds of love, you will give to yourself a tremendous sense of confidence and assurance. Because you're not only hearing and seeing Christianity intellectually, but you're watching it operate and that's building confidence.

If somebody comes to me and tries to deny Christianity, they can give me an intellectual argument, they can go through all the intellectual arguments and I'm going to say, but wait a minute, I have seen it operate in my life. I've seen the power of God within me. I've seen things happen that I know was God energizing me because I don't normally do those kind of things toward other folks. I've seen God at work. People come to me and say, well, I have such doubts about my salvation. I know all the verses and I've read all the books and I've got all that stuff, but I have doubts. You know why? All that stuff's never been lived out.

They've never convinced themselves that Christianity is credible because they've lived it and seen it work. You see? That's the subjective side of it. It's when we live in that kind of love that we become settled in our understanding, that we become convinced, that we become people of conviction. And that's what he's saying. Look at verse 2. Our hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding.

You can stop there. The riches of the full assurance of understanding. I want you to have confidence. That's what assurance means.

I want you to be secure in your minds. Now, you know a lot of Christians aren't. A lot of them, like Ephesians 4.14, are tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine.

You know why? Because they've never been built up by love. By not only the knowledge of the truth, but the operation of the truth. So Paul says, I want you to have a thorough, gratifying insight into spiritual truth, which includes the operation of it in a loving way in your life, so that you become solidly entrenched in the knowledge of truth, settled, confident, having full assurance of understanding.

Now, this is where assurance comes from. It doesn't just come from reading books about assurance. It comes from living it out. It comes from having your life so given over to this pattern, that the Spirit of God is demonstrating and demonstrating and demonstrating and demonstrating through your life, and you're confident. So, truth finds solid footing in a strong heart, and then works out in the love of the believers, and it brings, as a result, deep conviction. You receive the truth in your mind. Your will is strengthened. It manifests itself in obedient love to others, and the result is a settled conviction that this is true.

And so behavior has a great deal to do with nailing down. Every good deed, every act of love drives another nail into your assurance. Doctrine in the mind, love outworking, then settled assurance. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. John is chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. He has titled his current series, Complete in Christ. Well, what we've been seeing in the past few lessons are Paul's goals for the spiritual growth, or the sanctification, of the Colossian church. And so, John, let's talk about this doctrine, sanctification. You've pointed out that in the church there is a fair amount of discussion about doctrines like justification and glorification and the sovereignty of God, but not so much interest in sanctification.

No, I think that's absolutely true. It's very popular to talk about the sovereignty of God. And I get that. I understand that. Because that is the most comforting of all doctrines.

Right. There's an awful lot of discussion about justification, the doctrine of justification. We hear so much about that, and I understand that as well. There is less talk about glorification. Heaven doesn't seem to have the appeal that a more successful, prosperous life here would have.

At least it doesn't seem that people would—they would rather have a happy life here, it seems to me, than go to heaven, which is bizarre, because we don't do enough teaching on glorification. But there's just a willingness on the part of evangelical people, evangelical teachers and leaders, to ignore the doctrine of sanctification altogether, as if it didn't even exist. People are basically labeled as reformed if they believe in divine sovereignty and the doctrine of election, if they believe in the doctrine of justification by imputation. They're sort of, hey, good, you've covered the bases, but what about sanctification? And I think we've all seen the tragedy of people who hold to some elements of the doctrines of grace, but have a weak doctrine of sanctification. That should be the most robust of all doctrines, because the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, once it's established, it's settled in your mind. The doctrine of justification, once it's established, it's settled in your mind. But to sustain a faithful belief in and devotion to sanctification is the 24-7 thing for your whole life. You can get away with things in the past like divine sovereignty and justification, things in the future like glorification. But where the Church should live and move and have its being is in the realities of sanctification.

Thank you, John. And friend, a reminder that John has written a concise but powerful book on this doctrine of sanctification. It will renew your passion for obedience and holy living and show you how Christ modeled those attributes. To order a copy of the book simply titled, Sanctification, contact us today.

You can call our order line at 800-55-GRACE or go to our website, gty.org. You could probably read this book in an hour or two, but the truths you will learn stay with you for the rest of your life. Again, to order John's book titled, Sanctification, call 800-55-GRACE or go to gty.org. And if you're looking for additional study tools for understanding the doctrine of sanctification, and really every part of God's Word, let me encourage you to download our Study Bible app. It's a free app that gives you the text of Scripture in the English Standard and New American Standard versions, along with instant access to thousands of online resources, including blog articles and study guides and more than 3,500 sermons. The notes to our flagship resource, the MacArthur Study Bible, are also available as an affordable in-app purchase. And if you'd like to download the Study Bible app, visit gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, encouraging you to be here tomorrow when John looks at how to have assurance of your salvation. It's a crucial aspect of enjoying the blessings that come from being complete in Christ. And it's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace To You.