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COLOSSIANS - Christ in you, the hope of glory!
Studies in the Letter of Paul to the Colossians
Part 3 - What Does Your Resurrection Life Look like? (Colossians 3:1-17)
17. How Can the Unity of a Church Grow? (Colossians 3:11-15)
In order to fulfil this summons, Paul writes:
Colossians 3:14
14 Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.
Jesus Christ was and is the incarnation of the love of God. Just as He lived, loved and served with great patience and spoke with penetrating clarity, even so should His followers learn to love and honour one another, and to imitate Jesus. All practices in us that contradict this Spirit need to die. Jesus issued a clear law for His New Covenant: “34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
This law is no unrealizable command, for the arisen Lord bestows on us an unending great power to enable us to fulfil this foundational instruction. Paul testified: “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5). This merciful Spirit in the church is the power and the driving force that enables God´s inherent love to overcome our selfish ego and to be realized in us. This truth is a breathtaking reality. Whoever believes in and experiences this love, while offering thanksgiving for it, begins to put on the bond of perfection. This divine love is not meant to be the cause of our own personal benefit, but rather, occurs in order that a spiritual bond with other church members can be realized - in heart and mind. Count Zinzendorf is to have said: “I conceive of no Christianity without fellowship!”
Question 42: Why is the love of God the mystery of the Church of Christ?