CONTINUED RESPONSIBILITY

Colossians 1:3-8

Context

Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Church

1:3 We always ¹ give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 1:4 since ² we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints. 1:5 Your faith and love have arisen ³ from the hope laid up ⁴ for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ⁵ 1:6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel ⁶ is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing ⁷ among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. 1:7 You learned the gospel ⁸ from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave ⁹ – a ¹⁰ faithful minister of Christ on our ¹¹ behalf – 1:8 who also told us of your love in the Spirit. NET http://bible.org

Do we fall short in our thinking of our responsibility to those around us? It has been the effort of the church for sometime now to report on the number of baptisms and in some denominations there are even acknowledgments in the form of certificates given for the most baptisms in a year! All well and good, as supposedly those that are baptized are then raised up (discipled) into their walk and the teachings of Christ. I am not saying at this point if in my opinion that is true or not, but asking the question..... 'Do we continue in prayer for those who have come into the faith, or do we get them baptized and move on to the next guy?'

This entire chapter, as well as multiple others, implies that we should hold up in prayer those who have come to know the Lord Jesus through the gospel that was brought to them that they might GROW in their faith, being able to receive the meat of the gospel and not just the milk that they have received already.

Just a thought, are you praying today for a new Christian?

EVALUATE THE MOTIVE

Proverbs 21:2-3
21:2 All of a person’s ways seem right in his own opinion,
but the Lord evaluates the motives.
21:3 To do righteousness and justice
is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. NET http://bible.org


What person doesn't justify what he(or she) has done? Not only to others but to ourselves as well. Have you ever had a situation that caused you to lie to yourself about why you did something, said something or even thought something. Not to be harsh but if you said no, you are probably lying right now.
In a dispute, don't you always think you are right. If you didn't there would be no dispute.
The motives of our hearts may be hidden to others, and sometimes we can fool ourselves, but God knows our true motives. Doesn't just the knowledge of that make you want to cry out for forgiveness? Doesn't it break your heart to know that while you may fool others, the God that loves you and gave you everything knows the very heart of you?