Ignoring the elephant in the room. Colossians 1.

Some days you must think that I'm ignoring the elephant in the room, when it comes to the daily posting on the blog. Certainly our guest writers in Romans took a different approach than I often do when they wrote their entries. (And we'll have more guest writers in the future.) Well, frankly, some days I am ignoring the elephant in the room, and on purpose. This is one of those days.

In Colossians 1, after Paul's preliminaries at the beginning of the letter he launches into what is the heart of this letter to the church in Colosse -- a laser focus on the person and work of Christ as a vaccination against the false beliefs surrounding the church, perhaps even in the church. In v.1:18, Paul says of Christ, "... so that he himself may become first in all things." In many Bibles, this section is often labeled with something referring to the supremacy of Christ. Fair enough. Paul lists attributes of Christ in showing His supremacy. Fair enough. Most sermons on the entire chapter will focus on those attributes. Fair enough.

There's no getting around it. Ignoring this heart of the chapter is like ignoring an elephant in the room. Difficult to do. But I'm going to do it. You can pull out Christ's attributes on your own. It would be wonderful if someone left a comment on the blog about that part of the chapter. I want to look at the beginning of the chapter, in the area of a letter we may dismiss as "introductory", skipping ahead to the meat of the letter. Here's why. I want to connect for you the endings of the last two letters of Paul's we've read -- Ephesians and Philippians -- with what he has written to the Colossians.

If you'll recall, at the end of Ephesians, Paul encouraged the church (all the saints) to pray for the rest of the church. "With every prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and to this end be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints. Pray for me also,..." (Ephesians 6:18,19a NET) As a part of the spiritual battle we are engaged in, we need to help each other out in the church -- in prayer by the power of the Spirit. At the end of the letter to the Philippians, Paul said that in following his advice for right living, and proper thinking, that they could learn from his example: "And what you learned and received and heard and saw in me, do these things." (Philippians 4:9)

Now connect the dots. Pray for our fellow saints, follow Paul's example. First part of Colossians -- Paul describes his prayers for his fellow saints in Colosse. While this certainly isn't the only place in Paul's letters where he tells of his prayers for the letter recipients, it's a really good place to draw from, especially as a way to honor and follow his advice in his last two letters.

Which leads us to this -- how do we pray for other Christians? Here's one way:

• Be thankful for their faith -- exhibited in change lives that manifest in ways such as love for all their fellow believers and a heaven-bound attitude.
• Ask God to help them know what He wants them to do.
• Ask God to give them spiritual wisdom.
• Ask God to help them live a life that honors and pleases Him.
  
• Ask God to help them grow in their knowledge of Him.
• Ask God to give them strength for endurance.
• Ask God to fill them with patience, joy, and thanksgiving.

Amen.

And don't you ignore the elephant in the room.