#222 – We Heard of Your Faith

WE HEARD OF YOUR FAITH

Colossians 1:1-4 "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,"

IT WAS A SAVING FAITH THAT PAUL HAD HEARD ABOUT

The Pulpit Commentary has this to say: “If so be that ye continue in the faith.” To have so much done for us as is implied in our fitness for presentation to God, we must persevere, and persevere in the right way. Our position is to be toward Christ. Within ourselves we have not the elements of strength. We are powerless to form character. We are not only to come into the position of faith, but we are to rest in it. However our outward position may be altered, our inward position is to remain unaltered. Result. “Grounded.”“My soul hath found the steadfast ground.” We try other foundations, only to find them insufficient. When we have gotten past our own doings and the services of the Church down to Christ, then we feel that we have found the immovable Foundation, the steadfast ground for our being. “And steadfast.” A building even by its own weight gets steadied when it is up on a secure foundation. So by faith are we to get steadied upon the Foundation. We are to become like the Foundation. The immovableness that is in Christ is to come up into us.”

Their faith in Christ had literally turned them around. They were new people in the Lord and they were manifesting it in their daily lives. Saving faith cannot be abandoned. Someone might say, “I know a person who was at one time a great Christian, but they now deny the Bible, God, and Jesus His Son. I would have to say that they never got it right to start with. I have been one who slipped away. I can tell you the Holy Spirit grieved over me daily. He finally brought me back and I have been there ever since. It was this kind of saving faith that Paul had heard about. Next,

IT WAS FAITH IN THE RIGHT PLACE

Acts 4:12, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

It was faith in the One person who could save them. You may try all the religions of the world but the search will end without satisfaction. Jesus is not just a good way to be saved, He is the only way to be saved. The poor Moslem dies in a holy war and has been told that he will have a special place in heaven surrounded with a harem of wives and that will be his lot forever and ever. What a disappointment when he blows up a bus load of Jews and before the smoke is cleared he is screaming in the lake of fire and discovers that his Moslem friends have deceived him and it is too late to do anything about it.

IT WAS A TALKED ABOUT FAITH

Colossians 1:4, "Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,"

The word “Since” is a time word. There was a time when Paul heard of their faith in Christ and from that time forward his joy over their salvation had only increased.

Jesus expects His children to be vocal about their faith in Him. Matthew 10:32 33, "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."

The Christian faith can't keep its mouth shut. What we have in Him is so wonderful the truth of the gospel has to be told. Peter denied he knew the Lord when he was in a hostile crowd who were determined to crucify Jesus. But it wasn't any time until he went and wept bitter tears of repentance over his denial.

Matthew 10:27, "What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear,