In looking at Colossians we have seen how Paul presents the centrality of Christ. The only issue is that here Paul is writing to a group of believers that all they know is that he led their pastor to faith and that he is now a Roman prisoner. The false teachers in Colossae tried to use this one fact to discredit Paul and lead the Colossian believers astray. So what Paul does next is to take a break from building up who Christ is and to explain his situation, who he is, and what his ministry is. The first aspect of who he is that he mentions is his ministry to share the Gospel; he is an evangelist. We see this in Colossians 1:21-23, “Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions. But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him—if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.” Again while Paul did not personally evangelize to those in Colossae, he points out that a large part of his ministry is through the spreading of the Gospel, as he states “I, Paul, have become a servant of it.” In explaining evangelism as being a major part of his ministry, he essentially shares the Gospel with the Colossian church right there by explaining their spiritual state past, present, and future.
Past
Paul starts out by pointing out a person’s spiritual state before they come to faith in Christ. He states that we were alienated and hostile, our actions were evil. You see before we come to faith in Christ we all have an issue with pride. We view ourselves as being the most important and all our actions tend to revolve around what will best suit us. If others benefit from our actions it is because we were to also benefit from it. Essentially before Christ we are trying to be our own god, the unbeliever will do whatever they can to make themselves look good, or to better their situations. This is even seen in works based religions; no matter who they claim to worship they are basically worshiping themselves, because according to their religion they are the ones to bring about their own entrance into their concept of heaven. What I am getting at here is that you can’t live in such a way that views yourself as god and not be on hostile terms with God. This is why humility is a major part in a believer’s life, they recognize who God is and repent of the previous behavior and thoughts.
Present
The past spiritual state leads right into the present spiritual state of the believer, that being we are reconciled to God. The thing is it is not anything that the believer does that reconciles them with God, but it was God who took the initiative. This was done through the work of Christ on the cross, this was all done while we were still considered to be enemies with God. To refute the false teachers that denied Christ having a human body, Paul stresses that reconciliation came by “His physical body through His death.” Paul then mentions the purpose of the reconciliation is to make the believer holy, faultless, and blameless before God. You see it is not how we look to ourselves or others, but it is all about how God sees us, which once we accept His grace and salvation we have a perfect standing in Christ.
Future
Finally Paul points out the believer’s future spiritual condition, in that of our glorification. Paul refers to this as the “hope of the gospel.” Before Christ the Colossians were without hope, but once they came to faith in Christ they were given the promise of eternity in the presence of God. The imagery Paul uses here was to illustrate that if one’s faith is built on the solid foundation of Christ, then nothing will cause you to move away from that faith. We are not saved by continuing in our faith, but we continue in our faith because we are saved.
