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Kingdom-Tinted Glasses

Kingdom-Tinted Glasses

Words of Faith 12-10-19

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2019

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

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Colossians 4

[12] Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.   [13] I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis.

 

       Paul also included a closing greeting from Epaphras.  He was with Paul during this Roman imprisonment and joined in Paul's greetings to Philemon (1:23).  We don't know much about Epaphras beyond this place in Christian history, but his name means “lovely.”  Certainly, he was a believer who stood alongside Paul, whose faith and life in God was lovely.

       Several things stand out.  Epaphras was the original missionary that God used to evangelize the Colossians and bring them to Christ.  He had not hesitated to carry the Good News of Jesus to the region.  He then served as “a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf” (1:7).  Not only was he the founding evangelist and pastor of the Colossian church, but he also served the churches at Laodicea and Hierapolis.  This movement was all part of an overflow from the great outpouring that took place at Ephesus (Acts 19).

        Epaphras never achieved any sort of fame beyond this region.  Paul described him merely as a servant of Christ Jesus, who was always wrestling in prayer for his people and working hard for them.  The word Paul used here was reminiscent of Jacob wrestling with the angel by the river Jabbok (Gen. 32).  Jacob would not turn loose of the angel until he received a blessing that would tell him who he was in God.  That wrestling match represented Jacob’s quest for self-discovery and identified the people of God as Israelites.

       Paul’s description of Epaphras was actually quite different from that of Jacob.  Epaphras was not one who wrestled for self-discovery.  Instead, he wrestled in prayer… for his people.  What Paul described was a powerful ministry of intercession.  Epaphras never stopped praying that the Colossian believers would stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. 

        Apparently, Epaphras never wrote a book or preached beyond the region.  He traveled to Rome only to be of support to Paul, but we never see him rise to any other sort of office in the early church.  Today, some would say of such a person that he “lacked vision” or “had no ambition for God.” 

        But is it possible that Pastor Epaphras actually had a huge vision and ambition… for God’s Kingdom?  We might ask: Is it truly a “lesser calling” to wrestle in prayer for God’s people?  Or is that the higher calling?  Perhaps he did not lack vision but instead had a very clear one.  Epaphras could see the much greater good that would be achieved through believers who would “stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.”  We might say that Epaphras looked at the world through Kingdom-tinted glasses.

         Epaphras was not about making converts or followers or church members.  He was about wrestling in prayer against the powers of darkness that thwart growth in believers.  He was about presenting believers mature and prepared to do the same sort of battle.  He was about seeing strong believers grow to maturity and assurance that would not depend upon him.  He was not about self.  He was not about fame.  He was about serving God and seeing people grow in God.

         Perhaps this was not a lack of vision at all but rather a man who looked at the world through Kingdom-tinted glasses and then would not turn loose of that vision.

 

        Father God, help me to see life through Kingdom-tinted glasses.  Help me to see the investments in people that eternal.  Help me to set the priorities in this life that will truly make a difference in eternity. Give me the resolve to wrestle in prayer for believers and for Your church—to stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.  In Jesus’ Name.

 

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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, and our website, and our church app, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.  

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