Sermon for July 13, 2025 (Colossians 1:1-14) by Rev. David Domanski
Visualize a young couple bringing their first baby home from the hospital. There is no instruction manual. There are no nurses around to change diapers or to monitor vital signs. As they carry the child through the front door and place her in her crib for the first time, the truth slowly sinks in that the care of this child ultimately depends on them and on no one else. Not surprisingly, the new parents begin to feel very inadequate.
They’re not alone. Surveys show that fathers and mothers of children, infants through teens, feel ill-equipped to deal with the pressures and challenges of parenting. Issues as diverse as how to discipline, when to engage children in various “talks” about growing up, and addressing matters of faith—these are just a few topics that many parents would prefer to avoid, and often do.
St. Paul knew the feeling of inadequacy well. He struggled with his own sense of measuring up as an apostle of Jesus Christ, and he constantly reminded his readers and himself that his calling was from God. V. 1 of our text: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother.”
Parents, you need to be reminded of the same truth—that your calling to be parents is by the will of God also. God himself has placed you over your child for the child’s well-being, and you should exercise your God-given authority for the sake of the child in full confidence that your exercise of authority is pleasing to God.
The Colossian Christians struggled with feelings of inadequacy too. Paul referred to them as “saints and faithful brothers in Christ” in v. 2, but they were beginning to doubt the sufficiency of Christ to make them holy and faithful.
False teachers were convincing the Colossians that Christ alone was insufficient to guarantee their salvation, and so they began to rely on the works of the Law for assurance. Their faith was shifting from Jesus alone for salvation to Jesus and the works of the Law for salvation. They sought to supplement the ministry of Christ with their works of the Law.
That’s what we all instinctively do when we feel deficient—we try to make up the deficiency ourselves. We look to our own decisions, commitments, and efforts to bring about certainty. Paul, however, directs us not to ourselves and to our own works but to God, who alone is sufficient for all our needs.
Paul writes in vv. 3–4: “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints.”
But where did that faith in Jesus and love for others come from? Not from us. The answer comes in vv. 5–6: “The hope laid up for you in heaven . . . [which] you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you.” Note that we didn’t store up this hope for ourselves in heaven—God did! We only heard of it through the Gospel—the Gospel that came to us. We didn’t come to it. God delivered our trust and hope in Jesus to us!
In v. 9, Paul prays that the Colossians would be “filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” The knowledge of His will is the correct understanding of the Gospel of Christ, who alone is sufficient to guarantee our heavenly inheritance and to stimulate good works today. Look at v. 10: “So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
The Christian life described in v. 10 is the result of God filling us with the correct understanding of His will in Christ. Jesus is the vine; we are the branches. It is the nature of the branch to produce fruit, as long as it remains in the vine. This is a stark contrast against the false teaching in Colossae, which is completely unable to generate the good works that the Law demands (2:23).
And as branches firmly attached to the life-giving vine of Jesus, Paul then prays for his friends and for us that we “May … be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy” (v. 11). Endurance and patience refer not just to steadfastness in general, but specifically to enduring patiently in the one true faith, even while this faith is being challenged by our own feelings of inadequacy and the false teachings of others.
All of us feel inadequate on occasion. We feel inadequate in the presence of others. We see the success of others, we hear others being praised, and we feel deficient. We feel like failures. But what does Scripture say about success? Success isn’t our doing! It’s God’s! Success comes from God! If your neighbor appears adequate to you, it’s only because his adequacy is from God. He has no reason to boast except in God, who alone makes him adequate for the tasks he’s been given by God.
The same is true for us. Paul writes, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent” (2 Corinthians 3:5–6). God Himself has placed you in your various callings in life. God himself has called you to be a parent, grandparent, teacher, supervisor, or associate, not because of any ability in you, but because God has called you and qualified you to serve your neighbor in whatever capacity you find yourself today.
Some false teachers advocate acts of penance. Other false teachers advocate other self-chosen works such as praying the sinner’s prayer, making a personal decision for Christ, dedicating yourself to his service, making a “faith promise” to God, and so on. In their final analysis, they teach that your adequacy before God really comes down to you and what you do. This is not the teaching of the apostles, however.
God’s formula is not Christ and the works of the Law for salvation. Rather, salvation is in Christ alone. Vv. 13–14 make this clear: “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Jesus has brought you out of darkness into light. He alone has cleansed you of all our sins.
When your conscience accuses you, listen and you will hear another voice—the voice of Christ releasing you from your sins and drowning out the accusing voice within. You have this forgiveness, not through the Law, not through self-chosen works, but in Christ alone and in His finished work on your behalf.
To be in Christ is to be fully and completely qualified to share in the heavenly inheritance.
He alone makes you worthy to share in the inheritance of the saints in light and he alone makes you adequate to be the parent or grandparent, the spouse or child, the employer or employee He has called you to be. May you be sure that you are a blessing as you faithfully serve your Savior by serving others. Amen.