Whatever You Do

One of them was going inland. About a hundred miles east of Ephesus the road leaves the coast and climbs a river valley up into the hills, and there, in a small town called Colossae that had seen better days, was a gathering Paul had never met. He had never been there. He says so in the letter: most of them had never seen his face.

They had heard the good news from one of their own. A man named Epaphras had gone down to Ephesus in the years Paul was teaching every day in the hall there, heard him, and carried it home up the valley road. He taught Colossae, and Laodicea a few miles down the river, and Hierapolis across the water with its hot white springs. Now Epaphras was far from home, sitting with Paul, and he had brought word of how the little town was doing — and news of something that had started up among them.

Somebody had arrived in Colossae with extra things to do. There were rules about what you could eat and drink. There were days you had to keep: feasts, new moons, Sabbaths. There was talk about worshiping messengers, and about visions a man had seen and would tell you about if you were far enough along. There were things you must not touch. All of it sounded wise, and all of it sounded humble. Paul writes to tell them they already have everything there is, and that the extra things are only shadows.

He puts Timothy’s name on it beside his own, and starts with thanks. “We thank God whenever we pray for you, because we have heard about your trust in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the holy ones. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave, and he is the one who told us about your love.” “So from the day we heard, we have not stopped praying for you. We ask that you be filled with the knowledge of what God wants, in all wisdom and understanding, so that you walk in a way worthy of the Lord and please him all round: bearing fruit in every good work, growing, made strong with all the strength of his glory, so that you can hold out and be patient — with joy.”

And then, before he says one word about the extra rules, he gives them a piece of a song.

“He is the picture of the God nobody can see. He is the firstborn of everything that was made. Everything was made in him — in the heavens and on the earth, the things you can see and the things you cannot, thrones and lordships and rulers and authorities. All of it was made through him and all of it was made for him.” “He is before all things, and everything holds together in him. He is the head of the body, which is the gathering. He is the beginning, the firstborn out of the dead, so that in everything he comes first. All the fullness was glad to live in him, and through him to bring everything back home to himself — making peace by the blood of his cross — everything on the earth and everything in the heavens.”

“And you were far away once, enemies in your own minds, in the bad things you did. Now he has brought you back, in a body, made of flesh, that died — so that he could stand you in front of him holy and unmarked, with nothing to be charged with. Only stay in it. Stay founded and firm, and do not get shifted off the hope you heard.” This was the secret, he says, hidden from ages and generations and now told out loud: Christ in you, the hope of glory. That is the whole of it, and he says he will keep announcing it, warning everybody and teaching everybody, working himself hard at it.

“I want you to know what a struggle I am having for you, and for the people in Laodicea, and for everybody who has never seen my face. I want your hearts comforted, and you fitted together in love, and sure of what you understand, and knowing God’s secret, which is Christ. Every treasure of wisdom and knowledge there is, is hidden away in him. I am saying this so that nobody talks you out of it with a good speech.”

“So then: you took Christ Jesus as Lord — now walk in him. Put your roots down in him. Be built up in him. Stand firm in what you were taught, and let it spill over into thank-you.” “Watch out that nobody carries you off like stolen goods, with clever talk and empty tricks, the sort of thing men hand down to each other, and the elements of the world, and not Christ. Everything God is lives in him, in a body. And you have been filled full in him. He is the head of every rule and authority there is.”

Then he gives them a picture. “You were dead, and he made you alive along with him, and forgave us every single thing. There was a note, written out by hand, with what we owed on it and the rules that stood against us. He wiped it out. He took it out of the middle where it was standing between us, and nailed it to the cross.”

And now he turns and deals with the extra rules, one at a time. “So let nobody sit in judgment on you over eating or drinking, or over a feast or a new moon or Sabbath days. Those are the shadow of things that were coming. The body that made the shadow is Christ.” “Let nobody rule against you who enjoys being humble and worships messengers, going on about what he has seen, puffed up over nothing by his own fleshly thinking, and not holding on to the head — when it is from the head that the whole body, supplied and joined up through its joints and ligaments, grows the growth God gives it.” “If you died with Christ, away from the elements of the world, why do you go on taking orders as though you still belonged to the world? Do not handle. Do not taste. Do not touch. Every one of those things is used up in the using. They are the commands and teachings of men. They have a sound of wisdom about them — homemade religion, and looking humble, and being hard on your own body — but they are worth nothing.”

“So if you were raised together with Christ, go looking for the things above, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. Think about the things above, not the things on the earth. You died, and your life is hidden away with Christ in God. When Christ is shown — and he is your life — then you will be shown with him, in glory.”

Then the same kind of instructions the other letter had. “Kill off what belongs to the earth in you: the wrongs people do with their bodies, dirtiness, wanting what you should not want, and greed — which is really serving an idol. You walked in those things once, when you were living in them.” “But now put all of these away too: temper, fury, badness, bad-mouthing, filthy talk out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another.” “You have stripped off the old person, with everything he used to do, and put on the new one, who is being made new all over again into the likeness of the God who made him. And there is no Greek and Jew there, no circumcised and uncircumcised, no foreigner, no Scythian, no slave, no free. Christ is everything, and he is in everything.”

“So put these on, as people God chose, holy and loved: a heart with pity in it, kindness, humbleness, gentleness, patience. Put up with one another. If anybody has a complaint against anybody, forgive each other freely — the way the Lord freely forgave you, you do the same.” “And over the top of all of it, put on love, which ties the whole thing together and finishes it.” “Let the peace of Christ be the umpire in your hearts. You were called into one body. And be thankful.” “Let the word of Christ live in you richly. Teach each other. Warn each other. Use all the wisdom you have, and psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing to God with thanks in your hearts.”

And then he says this. “And whatever you do, in word or in work, do all of it in the name of the Lord Jesus, and give thanks to God the Father through him.”

Then he goes round the house, the same as he did in the other letter, and quicker. “Wives, be under your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.” “Husbands, love your wives, and do not be bitter toward them.” “Children, obey your parents in everything, because this pleases the Lord.” “Fathers, do not keep provoking your children, or they will lose heart.”

“Slaves, obey the masters you have here in everything. Not only when they are watching, not to please men, but honestly, in the fear of the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it from your whole soul, as though it were for the Lord and not for men. You know that the Lord will pay you back with your inheritance. Serve the Lord Christ. The one who does wrong will be paid back for the wrong he did, and nobody gets taken sides with.” “Masters, give your slaves what is right and fair. You know you have a Master in heaven yourselves.”

“Keep at prayer. Stay awake in it, and say thank you in it. And pray for us at the same time, that God will open a door for the word, so that I can say the secret of Christ out loud — it is what I am tied up for — and say it plainly, the way I have to.” “Walk in wisdom toward the people outside. Buy up the time. Let what you say always be kind, with salt in it, so that you know how to answer each person.”

“Tychicus will tell you everything about me. He is a dear brother and a faithful servant and a fellow slave in the Lord, and I am sending him to you for exactly this, so that you know how we are and he can comfort your hearts. And Onesimus is coming with him — the faithful and much-loved brother, who is one of your own. The two of them will tell you everything that is happening here.”

Then the greetings, and there are a lot of them, because a man in chains has time to think about who is in the room. “Aristarchus, who is in prison with me, says hello. So does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas — you have had word about him: if he comes to you, take him in. And Jesus, the one called Justus. These are the only Jewish men working with me for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.” “Epaphras says hello, who is one of yours, a slave of Christ, always wrestling for you in his prayers, so that you can stand there complete and sure of everything God wants. I can tell you he works himself hard for you, and for the people in Laodicea and Hierapolis. Luke the doctor, whom we all love, says hello, and so does Demas.”

“Say hello to the brothers in Laodicea, and to Nympha and the gathering that meets in her house. And when this letter has been read out among you, see that it is read out in Laodicea too — and you read the one coming from Laodicea.” “And say to Archippus: mind the work you were given in the Lord. Finish it.” “The greeting is in my own hand. Paul. Remember my chains. Favor be with you.”

It was a long way inland to that valley, and Tychicus had the road in front of him. And walking beside him, going home, was the man Paul had named in the letter. Onesimus had a letter of his own to carry.