The topic for mutual encouragement today is taken from Colossians. We first turn to Colossians 1:13-14;

13 ‘He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.’

These 2 verses are a summary of the gospel in short. If we were to read Paul’s epistles, he’d often retell this passage. Why does Paul keep reminding us of this grace of salvation? Paul understands our weaknesses; humans tend to take things for granted.

On Wednesday, Pr Silas talked about a story of a hunter. The hunter was starving when he found the 10 apples and was very happy when he ate the first apple. However, he became less happy the more he ate the apples. The speaker found this very true of our human nature. For those of us working, if you were promoted or received a pay increment, how long do you think you’d be happy? Someone told the speaker that you’ll only be happy for a very short period of time. Our level of happiness will go back to before soon.

Actually, we don’t really need a study to give us these statistics; how many of us are still as happy as we were when we were promoted 10 years ago? We were probably very happy then but if things remained the same as before, we’d probably be very unhappy now.

The problem is if we carry the hunter’s mentality to our salvation as well. We were elated when we first believed but how long did the joy of salvation last for us? We were elated when we first received the Holy Spirit but how many of us are still as joyful today because we received the Holy Spirit 20-30 years ago? Presently some may even think that we deserve the Holy Spirit because we prayed very hard before. What is worse if we think that receiving the Holy Spirit is not such a big deal anymore. We take things for granted as time goes on. We lose sight of what we have as time goes on. Therefore, Paul reminds us that there is nothing worse than what we were in the past; there is also nothing better than what we’ve received today. Today, the speaker would like to use this verse as mutual encouragement.

Let’s take a closer look at Colossians 1:13;

‘He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

“We have been delivered from the power of darkness” This is the state we were born into; we were once in darkness. The kingdom of the Son is ruled by the Son. The domain of darkness is ruled by the devil and he exerts influence on people. We turn to Ephesians 2:2;

‘in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, ‘

Here, Paul calls the devil the prince of the power of the air. In other words, he has the power and authority over everyone in his dominion; it’s not just those demon-possessed that are under his control but the whole world. How were we under control when we were in the domain of darkness? Let’s turn back to Colossians 1:21;

‘And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled ‘

Here Paul describes us as enemies in our minds. The English Bible uses the word “mind”, meaning that it’s the mind that is in enmity with God. Our lust tempts us but it’s our mind that comes out with ways that satisfy these lusts. No one needs to teach us how to sin. Take a look at a child; we don’t have to teach the child to sin but the child instinctively knows how to do what’s wrong. Recently the speaker’s daughter has been destroying things in the house; she even split a CD into two. When she spoils something and you ask her, “Who spoilt it?” She’d point back at the speaker, “Papa spoil!”

Or when she’s asked who’s naughty when she’s naughty, she’ll reply, “Popo is naughty”.

Many times she’s just being cheeky but when we reflect on ourselves, we’re the same! We do not need anyone to teach us how to lie because we all know how to. No one taught us how to throw tantrums but all of us have thrown a tantrum before. Our minds instinctively know how to do what’s wrong/how to go against God. Without the word of God to transform our minds, our minds will very naturally digress worse. We all know what happened to the world after Adam and Eve sinned; civilisation became more and more advanced and men became more and more evil.

Let us look at the final state of the world just before the flood came. We read Genesis 6:5;

‘Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ‘

At the end just before the flood, every intent of the thoughts of men’s hearts were evil. It’s not surprising for the sons of men to be evil but it’s surprising for the sons of God to fall so quickly. Except for Noah, everyone’s thoughts were evil. Why was this so? Weren’t they just worshipping God before? Paul explains in Romans 1:28;

‘And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; ‘

The mind and knowledge of God are very closely linked together. When a person gives up the knowledge of God, here says that the mind becomes debased; was originally precious but is now a lower level. V30 tells us one of the characteristics of a debased mind;

‘backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, ‘

“Inventors of evil things” Men will think of evil ways to satisfy the flesh. This is also our minds when we were in the power of darkness; this is exactly what we were like.

We turn to Ephesians 4:17-19;

17 ‘This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.’

When we read these verses, let us not think that they do not have anything to do with us. Paul tells us to not continue to walk like this, meaning that we USED TO walk like this. What will happen if we continue to walk like this? V19 tells us;

who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.’

We’ll just go from bad to worse when in darkness. One may say that this is just in the past since we’ve now been delivered. What do these verses have to do with us presently? Should we not put our past behind us? We should put our past sins behind us, but we must never forget how we were in the past. If we do so, there’s a danger of our faith regressing.

We shall take a look at the example of the Israelites after they left Egypt. They were so happy after they left Egypt; the women danced and everyone sang praises to the Lord. How long did this last? If you read Exodus just before they entered the land of Canaan, they never once thanked God on this scale. All that we read of were murmurings and grumblings.

Numbers 11 records a famous story. The Bible says that they yielded to intense cravings because they’ve been eating the same food (manna) since they left Egypt and they’ve grown tired of eating manna. Some may emphasise with them due to our current situation; many are complaining about eating the same food over and over again.

The speaker was listening to the radio the other day. Before the circuit breaker, the DJ would cook but now he has grown tired of eating his own food. Hence, he started to order food but got bored of it as well. Then, he asked his friends, “I’ll give you a budget. Order anything for me and surprise me!”

We can agree that eating the same food over and over again isn’t the greatest joy in life. What were the alternatives for the Israelites? Originally, they were slaves in Egypt doing hard labour. They were beaten by their past masters. Their children were being killed. Many of us if given a choice, would choose the most bland food over being slaves in Egypt. The Israelites themselves would’ve chosen manna over slavery as well. IF they were still suffering in Egypt, they’d definitely chose manna over slavery! They were beaten and doing hard labour and their children were killed. As time went on, the Israelites seemed to have amnesia. They completely forgot what it was like before; all they remembered in their minds were the good food they ate in Egypt.

Sometimes our memories are not very reliable. When we deal with hardships, like the Israelites in the wilderness, we may feel that the past is better. But nothing can be worse than being in the power of darkness. If we forget this, we may even go back to our former way of life. If we were a gambler and quit gambling because of Christ, we MAY go back to gambling. If we were a drug addict and quit drugs because of the gospel, there’s still a possibility we go back to drugs if we forgot about our past. Therefore, Paul reminds us that we’re all delivered from the power of darkness and we cannot be held by the power of darkness again.

We go back to Colossians 1:14;

‘in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.’

There was a price to be paid. When we were in the power of darkness, there was no price paid for us to be in that power; we were born into that. But when we came into Christ’s kingdom, Christ had to pay a big price. Christ’s kingdom is also very different from the domain of darkness. When you’re under the domain of darkness, you’ve no choice but to submit to the power of darkness. It’s not a matter of choice; you’ll sin even if you do not want to.

In Christ’s kingdom, Christ doesn’t force you. It doesn’t mean, “I want to sin but I can’t sin.” You can sin if you want to, because Christ doesn’t force us to submit to His will By force. He has paid such a great price and wants us to submit voluntarily. Paul said that he was compelled by the great love of Christ.

Does this mean we can do as we please as sons of Christ? “Since God doesn’t compel us to do things, does this mean I can do whatever I want?” Of course not because Christ ultimately will rule over His kingdom. We read Colossians 1:15-18;

*15 ‘He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. *16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. *17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. *18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.’

In v18, Paul concluded that in all things Christ may have the preeminence. How is Christ shown to be the preeminence here? V15 says that He is the image of the invisible God. The speaker has a JC classmate who once asked him, “If we cannot see God, why can’t we have an image to represent Him? I’m not worshipping the image but it’ll help me focus my attention!” He kept asking, “Why is this not allowed in Christianity?”

This is because there can be NO OTHER IMAGE OF GOD. Here says that Christ is the one and only image of God and so in Christ, the fullness of the godhead dwells in us. No one has seen God but whoever sees Christ is seeing the image of God. Therefore, nothing and no one can imitate the image of Christ. Humans are made in the image of Christ but God is the ONLY image of Christ.

V15 also tells us that He is the firstborn of all creation. We know that the firstborn is a very important status in the Old Testament and is superior to the rest of the children. Hence, when here describes Christ as the firstborn over all creation, it means that He is supreme over all creation. This passage says that He is BEFORE creation, He holds all things together, all things were made by Him, through Him and for Him. Christ is not an afterthought after men sinned. Right from the beginning, creation was made FOR Him. Christ is the supreme objective of creation.

*V18 also tells us that He is the firstborn of new creation, on top of being firstborn of creation. He is the first to rise from the dead and therefore is also the head of the church. Here we see a lot of firsts, and hence Paul concluded in v18 that He is the supreme of all things.

How does this apply to us as Christians today? It has everything to do with us. As the head of the church, Christ must be preeminent in the church. Sometimes, there may be people in the church who want to be preeminent. We turn to 3 John 9-10;

9 ‘I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. * *10 Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church.’

Here John says that there is a man called Diotrephes who likes to be preeminent in the church; he doesn’t receive apostles and doesn’t allow people to receive apostles. You may think that he is inhospitable, so why is he described as wanting to be preeminent? He is later described as a backstabber. But Elder John knew his mentality. When workers come and members receive them, he feels that they’ve taken the limelight from him; Diotrephes is no longer the limelight. This is also why Diotrephes spoke malicious words against them because he thinks that when he cards them in the bad light, he is in the good light. Everything he did was to keep himself in the limelight. As John says here, Diotrephes wants to be preeminent in the church.

In the church, we know that there can only be ONE, and only one is preeminent. We have to examine whatever we do in church; are we trying to be like Diotrephes to be preeminent in the church? When we talk about others in church, are we trying to put others in the bad light so that we can be cast in the good light? Are we trying to be preeminent in the church? In the church of God, there can only be one in the preeminent and all our attention should be on Him. Therefore, no one should take any attention and focus away from God. Christ must be preeminent in the church; He is the head of the church.

Next, as citizens in the kingdom of Christ, Christ must also be preeminent in our lives. This means that He must be first in everything in our lives. The question is: is He always the first in our lives? In life, there’re many distractions. We have many things that take our attention away from Christ; our studies, work, marriage, family, children. It’s not that these are not important but nothing should take our focus and attention from Christ. In fact, we should do all these things without losing our focus on Christ. We study for Christ, we work for Christ, we marry for Christ, we take care of our family for Christ, we bring up our children for Christ. Christ must be preeminent in our lives. This also means that we obey Him in everything in our lives no matter how difficult it may be to keep His instructions. Sometimes it is difficult. For example, in both Ephesians and Colossians, Paul gave instructions for husband and wife, parents and children, masters and slaves. Paul gave everyone an instruction on what to do. The difficult part is when the husband says, “My wife is not lovable, how can I love my wife?” The wife may say, “Why must I submit to my husband? I’m not inferior to him!” The child may say, “My parents know nothing, why must I obey them?”

We submit not because we’re inferior and the other party is superior. We submit because Christ told us to. Christ must be preeminent in our lives.

Finally, what happens if Christ is not preeminent in our lives? What if we do as we please even after we’ve been delivered from the power of darkness? In conclusion, we turn to 1 Corinthians 15:24-25;

24 ‘Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.’

V28;

‘Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.’

This verse tells us that ultimately all things will become subject to Christ. All things will be put under Him. There are 2 ways in which this will be realised:

1. Those who subject to Him voluntarily will be the subject in His kingdom

2. The people put under His feet are His enemies

Ultimately, it’s either we voluntarily bow down at His knees, or we will be crushed under His feet as His enemies. Either way, here says that Christ will ultimately prevail. He will ultimately preeminent. The question is: which group do you prefer?

Will we be those who bow down voluntarily before Him or be crushed under His feet involuntarily as His enemies?