Colossians 4:3
“Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds.”
What interests me here is Paul calling Christ a mystery. There have been attempts, many of them, in recent years to make Christianity out to belike this – There was a man named Jesus who was a good Jewish man who cared for the poor and preached in the synagogues on the Sabbath. Then there was a man named Paul who glorified this simple carpenter and turned him into Christ. This move by Paul was not, according to this theory, something that Jesus would have appreciated. Sounds a bit sinister. Yet, there is this verse.
“The mystery of Christ,” coming from Paul is surprising. What mystery? Didn’t Paul know Christ well? Paul was at the end of his journey as a missionary, not the beginning. Of all the people in the Universe, Paul should have known Christ – some even say Paul invented him. I take this verse to mean that Paul felt he was still learning about Jesus, still finding out the full measure of what the appearance of God on Earth meant.
In the third chapter of Colossians, Paul gives a wonderful set of easy to understand dictums: “And be ye thankful,” for instance, in 3:15b. Simple. But how about 3:11b? “But Christ is all, and in all”? There is no explanation given for this. What does it mean? It’s a mystery. Something to work out every day.
What interests me here is Paul calling Christ a mystery. There have been attempts, many of them, in recent years to make Christianity out to belike this – There was a man named Jesus who was a good Jewish man who cared for the poor and preached in the synagogues on the Sabbath. Then there was a man named Paul who glorified this simple carpenter and turned him into Christ. This move by Paul was not, according to this theory, something that Jesus would have appreciated. Sounds a bit sinister. Yet, there is this verse.
“The mystery of Christ,” coming from Paul is surprising. What mystery? Didn’t Paul know Christ well? Paul was at the end of his journey as a missionary, not the beginning. Of all the people in the Universe, Paul should have known Christ – some even say Paul invented him. I take this verse to mean that Paul felt he was still learning about Jesus, still finding out the full measure of what the appearance of God on Earth meant.
In the third chapter of Colossians, Paul gives a wonderful set of easy to understand dictums: “And be ye thankful,” for instance, in 3:15b. Simple. But how about 3:11b? “But Christ is all, and in all”? There is no explanation given for this. What does it mean? It’s a mystery. Something to work out every day.
posted by Steven at 11:10 AM
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