0013 Colossians 1: 21-23

Episode 13– Colossians 1:21-23

In this episode of The Break Check Podcast, we continue into Colossians

For the first time, we’re walking verse-by-verse through a book of the Bible—starting with Colossians . Together, we read the passage and unpack Paul’s message to the church in Colossae: faith in Christ, love for the saints, and the hope laid up in heaven.

We talk about:

• Who Paul is writing to—and why it matters
• The power of a Gospel that is “bearing fruit and growing”
• What authentic Christian faith actually looks like
• How encouragement and gratitude shape a healthy church

This marks a shift for us as we begin reading Scripture in order and slowing down to really discuss it. No cherry-picking. No rushing. Just opening the Word and letting it speak.

If you’ve ever wanted to study the Bible more intentionally but didn’t know where to start, this is a great place to jump in.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Break Chick Podcast. I'm Lewis. And I'm Joe. And this is episode 13. Um, as we proceed through our study in Colossians, we've made it a whole 21 verses in about five episodes. So if that doesn't uh kind of speak to the pace that we're going at and kind of how we're trying to break down um this book of Colossians, um, just a little recap of kind of what's happened up till um now is we've gone through Paul and his introduction to the Church of Colossae, kind of how the Church of Colossae was founded. That was episode or the first episode we did in Colossians, and then we'd spend a little bit of time breaking down this initial prayer he had for the church and kind of the expectations he had, um, having never been to this church. Um, and then last week we really dove into some of the theological stuff that Paul gets into as he um breaks down what it means to be a Christian in this church um through the preeminence of Christ and kind of what the power that Christ has and what that means for you and I as believers. That's right. And that really transitioned us well into what we're talking about today.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Oh man, and you just said it. I'm so excited about today's three verses. We're Colossians chapter one, verse 21 through 23. Um, but before we get going, let's let's let's make sure we gotta because I know the people are really enjoying these questions we're asking. The Christian culture questions that I bought when my wife and I were at the store. So today's question, we'll answer it and then we'll we'll pray before we do this. So um so I'm gonna start, Lewis. Uh I'm gonna ask you this question. Which Bible translation do you use and why? It's a good question. It's a really good question. I'm actually more excited about this question than I think I am this episode. All right.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Um yeah, Joe loves his Bibles and his Bible translations. Um I think it's important to kind of preface this with the best Bible translation is the translation you'll read.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

I second that. I agree with that completely.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

And so if anybody tells you you can't read this, you can't read that, unless it's like the New World Translation or like the Passion Translation, where they take creative liberties with the Word of God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, you know, you really can't go wrong. And so I read the ESV. Um, the reason I read the ESV is I'm a very analytical person. Yes. Um, I'm very by the book. I read a lot of things to the letter. Um, and so I spend a lot of time in the NLT uh as an early Christian. And if you're familiar with Bible translations at all, you know the NLT is a little bit more uh readable. It's a little bit more uh like thought for thought translated, right? And so they don't really uh translate it to the its purest form, to to as letter by letter as we can possibly translate the Greek and the Hebrew into English. Um and that was cool for a little while until I kind of did a little bit of reading in my King James um and I couldn't read it, but I found more meaning in the words. Sure. Um, and so that's how I settled on my ESV. Very good.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Yeah, yeah. I love it, man. I love it. I also mainly read the ESV. Um, that is the translation that my pastor preaches out of, and so I love my ESV Bible. Um I also the NLT, solid, right? And then um one that I'm surprised you didn't bring up, the CSB, um, is to me probably my favorite Bible to read from. Um and so I read a book called Bible Translations for Everyone by a guy named Tim Wildsmith. This is the second time we've shouted him out. Maybe I'll send him another email. But really great guy. He's got a YouTube channel. Um, he reviews Bibles, and he and his wife are doing a read through the Bible plan this year and all this kind of stuff. He's got a podcast, really good, really popular influencer guy. He wrote a book, and something he suggested in the book, and I love it, is it's build a Bible team. Build a translation team, right? And let's go far to the right side of the spectrum on the Bible scale, which far to the right is that thought for thought, far to the left is the word for word, right? So you're getting the sentiment on the right and the actual, you know, translated word for word on the left, and then get one in the middle. So NLT, CSB, ESV. Um, so that's kind of how I do it. But I would say if if I were to just if I had to give away all my Bibles and I could only keep one, which would be really hard. It'd be really tough. I would probably keep my ESV. Because it's just it's just my like this is my um emotional support Bible. It is with me all the time. But I do have a really killer zipper NLT that I also keep in my bag, and it is great. It's like I could just throw it at somebody and it would be okay because it's a zipper Bible. It's got a zipper around it.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

So I don't condone throwing Bibles at people, by the way. Sometimes it's necessary. I don't condone it.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

You don't what about Joe can say otherwise, but I do not condone. What about walking up and just like hitting somebody in the forehead with the Bible, just popping them with it? Thump it first and then hit them right in the forehead with it.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

I don't condone any sort of Bible abuse or assault of others.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Okay. Yeah, you know, two each their own. I'm just kidding. I ain't gonna hit nobody with my Bible. Hey, let's read this. Or let me let me let me pray this in. Okay. Does that sound good? Father, thank you for this day. God, thank you for your love and your grace, God. We're so eager to read your word out into the internet, Lord, and we just hope that it lands on someone's heart and helps them through whatever they're going through, Lord. We just ask that you guide our words and our conversation to your glory. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. So we're Colossians chapter one, twenty verse twenty-one through twenty-three. I'm gonna read it. Verse twenty-one, and you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless, and above reproach before him. If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. Very good.

unknown 6:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Yeah. Doesn't that just make you just excited?

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Um I don't know what emotion I'm expressing at the moment.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Well, you're just you're expressing uh you're seeing the emoji movie? Have you seen the emoji movie? Yeah, terrible movie. Terrible movie.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

But I mean you're still kind of meh right now. Well, yeah, I'm always meh though. No. It's gotta stay centered.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Gotta keep it solid. Gotta keep it stable and steadfast. Yep, yep, yep. Well, let's unpack let's unpack verse 21. Okay. Alright. So I'm I'm seeing Paul highlight the total depravity and alienation um from God. So and and what I picked up from this was the Colossians' alienation was not just some sort of passive distance, but more of more of an active hostility. You know, as he as he says, you know, uh alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. Right? So I mean, with that, we we pick up on the fact that the Colossians were not about God until they heard the hope of the gospel, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Well, I think it's important to kind of put some of this into context, right? Because the Colossians, I believe, are Gentiles, right? Sure. So we're outside of the Israelite clan. Right. So to them, God is not a thing, right? Right. And that's part of what Jesus did dying on the cross is um taking the love of God and the promise, promised land and promised covenant um from beyond the Israelite people to the entire world.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Um, and so I think it's I think it's very interesting when kind of what you're talking about, the what alienates somebody from God, right? Um, and it's not a skin color or a race or a nationality like it used to be before Jesus, right? It is it is this sin that is um inherently an all-human race that was put into the world back in the Garden of Eden. Um, and so when we when we simplify that into this, right, um I don't I don't I would need to read up a little bit more on what Paul meant by hostile in mind, but I'd think back to uh Judges. And every single time in the deepest of the troughs, um in the book of Judges, right before some good king comes around to bring everybody back to Jesus, good judge, not king. Good judge. Um not to and not to Jesus, but to God. Um every single time they hit the lows of lows, it's like, and there was lawlessness in the land, and every man did as he so pleased.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Um and I kind of think when I when I hear hostile in mind, that's what I immediately think of. Everybody there's lawlessness and everybody's doing what they want. Um, and so it's these these thoughts and these actions that separate somebody from God, not necessarily, you know, who they are or what they do, um, well, like what they do job wise or whatever, but more so your your thoughts and actions when it comes to you know being a good human being.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Yeah, absolutely. I think if you know you're you're actively distancing yourself, you know, whether you whether you know God at this point in your life or you don't, right, whether you're Gentile or Jew, um you know, there there is an active you know, distance. You're distancing yourself, and that can almost be like could be could be looked at as a as a hostile move, right? And then when we go into verse 22, and I you know what I put here is verse 22 is the only solution for verse 21. Yeah. Right? And so um, and that's God's intervention. You know, we're reconciled before God by way of Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Yeah. Verse 21 and 2 kind of flow together, right? Um because verse 21 starts with you who were once, or and you who once, right? And so 22 is the answer to that. Um, and so you can almost cut out the middle. Um, you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, um have been presented uh holy and blameless and above all reproach before him, right? Um, and that little middle I got is what happened, which is obviously Jesus' death on the resurrection, um, which is kind of fitting. We're recording this on Good Friday. So um, you know, we're kind of in the middle of that. It's happy Good Friday and Easter, everyone.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

You're not gonna hear that until it's after Good Friday and Easter. Late Good Friday. We're we're celebrating.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

And so it's kind of kind of this story of what Jesus has done for us. Um, and he touched on it when we we spoke about it last week in the preeminence of Christ. Um, but this is it fully fledged out because the preeminence of Christ was really trying to establish who Jesus was and his power and what what that means for you and I and God and all that, right? And so this is what Jesus did um, you know, by dying on the cross. And I I really like how um how Paul writes a lot of this stuff, right, in Ephesians or in Colossians. It's a lot of this is what you did, but this is what God did. And this is how it how it all fleshes out in the end.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Yes, yes. I I was reading that too, and I was picking up on that same thing. It's if you if you just picked really any letter written by Paul, um, it's you were, God did, and you are now, right? And so it's almost like you were lost, God found you, solved all your problems, and now you're reconciled, right? Um, and so and then I'm really and I took more notes on verse 23 than I did 21 or 22. There's a couple things that I kind of got down in the weeds on, I really appreciated. Um, and we even talked about how you know one of these words actually um that's why I really love that we asked this which Bible translation do you use and why? Because we're gonna talk about kind of the difference here in just a minute, and it's a really, really cool, I think a great segue. Um, but verse 23, I I put in my notes, is is in this verse, Paul is warning the believers not to fall away. Right? He's not, he's telling them you know, the only way to reach your goal is to remain stable and steadfast. And Paul states the way to do this is is through the hope in the gospel that they've heard. Right? And not only have they heard it already um by um Epiphras, right? Bapharis, epiphras, I don't remember how to pronounce it. One of those. But but but from that messenger, but also now through this letter that Paul's writing to them. So the the the hope they have, right? The hope in in which something that's already happened, um, that is how they stay stable and and steadfast. Um and then I I one really cool part of this, and and and he says that um through the hope of the gospel that you've heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, in which I, Paul, became a minister. And I when I think about my up until I really kind of read into this and dug into this, when I look at like my pastor or the elders in my church, I I see a position of authority. When I think about it, I'm like, okay, they have a position of authority over the church. But when you get into the weeds of the translation, the is it okay if I go off into these weeds here now, or do you want to did you have a comment on what I said a minute ago? I feel like I might have interrupted you. No, I'm in I'm listening. All right. So Paul was in the ESV that we're reading from today was translated as minister in verse 23, but it's important we understand the context and and what he, Paul, is communicating. So the Greek word for minister is diaconos. This word also means servant, attendant, or one who serves. So Paul isn't stating his position of authority, it's him taking that common Paul humble path. Like he is extraordinarily humble in all of his letters, um, and basically saying that I'm a servant of the gospel. And I I brought this to you the other day, and I said, hey, listen, what do you think about where it says Paul uh w and and of which I, Paul, had become a minister, and and um we kind of peeled back the onion on this and and the the translation of the word, you know, the CSB Bible that we both said we we like, um translate this, translates this as servant. Right? And so I I enjoy um you know Paul's humble approach uh and what he means in this letter, which is I am a servant of the gospel.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Um yeah, I'm flipping to the wrong passage at the moment. Um I think it's interesting that you said um that you see your pastor as a position of authority.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Um Well, let me clarify, if you don't mind. It's that's not a because of the way my pastor behaves. That's just based on my immaturity and my understanding of what his role is. And now that I understand a little bit more, I think I see it differently, right? I see them as, and I now I'm like, okay, thinking back over opportunities I've had to speak with my pastor, like the man really is a servant of the church and of the gospel. Um, so my uh immaturity, looking at it prior to kind of doing this study, um, you know, I was in a in a I had a different outlook, but that outlook has changed now that I've kind of read through this.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Yeah. Um, well, I was gonna read the Great Commission, um, verse 18, chap Matthew 28, 18, and it says that Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven, on earth, and on earth has been given to me. All authority. So, like there is no authority, it's all Jesus'. That's right. And so when we read uh Paul's letter, and I think we're confusing leadership and authority. Right. Because Jesus was a servant leader, that's right. And he calls, especially Paul in uh 1 Timothy, um, calls everybody to be a servant leader. And a pastor, I think pastor is such a new term because when we look at the the Bible and kind of what Paul is and what Paul defined himself as, he defined himself as a minister, right? And he like you talked about with this word diaconos and how that means servant, he talks about himself as a prisoner in Ephesians. Um and when he defines his job title in the the kingdom of God in First Timothy, he says, if you desire to be a teacher of the word, you desire a noble task. Right. So this this pastor term is really just that somebody who is well read and teaches the word of God. Um and so I think it's important to kind of understand these things. Um especially when it comes to just understanding authority. Um, because the only person at the end of the day who has any authority over any of it is Jesus. That's right. Right. Um because at the end of the, like, what authority do we have? I have the authority to drive my cartoon from work and buy Chick-fil-A, but at the end of the day, when I die, what what what what good does that mean? Right? Like I ate enough Chick-fil-A to live for 75 years and now what? Right. So that's where that's where the authority of Jesus lies here in. And right, I think it's important to understand that. Yeah, yeah. Um, because I think that's what Paul is playing at when he's talking to Church of Colossians, um, and understanding what it means to be a leader but a servant all at once.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Absolutely. Well, because that's what a good leader's doing. It's serving by way of their the people that they're leading. Um and what's really interesting is that that diaconos is where we get the English word deacon, right? In the church, the word deacon, and and it again, the deacons of the church are not the ones that sit on the board and make the decisions, they're the ones that are cooking the food at the fellowship times, right? They're the ones that are driving the bus to the the game or to the camp, and they're they're serving the the people of the church. The deacons are the servants. Um and uh it's it's a really cool way to see how that word has translated from the Greek all the way into how we do how we do English now. So um it's a really it was a I don't know, I kind of geeked out, nerded out on this a little bit, and I I was I was glad that I got the opportunity to geek out over the word.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Yeah you have authority to drive yourself to golf galaxy.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

I do.

unknown 20:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Yeah, I mean, well, no, I don't, though, right? Like it it's so insignificant at the end of the day. It is like there is no authority in me driving myself to golf galaxy. Like I decided I wanted to go and I'm gonna enjoy going, but at the end of the day, what doesn't matter? Because at the end of the day, like I have extra golf clubs, but geez don't care that I shot a 75 or if geez or if I shot 125.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Like is a 75 a pretty good score?

SPEAKER_01 21:05

75. If I shot a 75, I would I'd be over the moon. I would probably I I I could shoot one 75 my entire life and I probably would never shut up about it. Genuinely. And there are some people out there who's like 75, they shoot that every time they hit the golf course. Practice round. Like 75 is a bad round, especially if you're like on the tour or whatever. Oh mercy. Um, you're out there just shooting a practice round, you'd be like, dude, I shot a 75, and there's not even fans out here, right? Um, but I would be over the mid.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

I can't even I can't even watch golf and get that good of a score.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Yeah. Yeah, I think I think I'd be pretty ridiculous. Like if you gave me Tiger Wood's skill set and told me to go out and shoot a 75. I'm confident I could do it, but if you told me I didn't, I wouldn't be surprised. Because Part of the game of golf is so so mental, right? It really is. So, like, yeah, I hit that drive 300, but if I decide to hit a seven iron at the left side of the green and I hit it in the backside bunker and make a bogey, like Tiger Woods probably wouldn't have done that.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

He wouldn't have. He would have remained here, it tells us. Yeah, calm and steadfast. He would have stayed stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope and the gospel you heard. Yeah. Right. He would be locked in. I think Paul would probably be a pretty good golfer.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Yeah. I wonder. I feel like Paul would be a good golfer. I like that. Yeah. It's a very business-oriented sport. Something Paul would get behind, get behind, I think. And I I have hope, right? The question we we we were talking about, like, what is heaven gonna look like? Well, God is gonna remake new earth, which gives me hope at the end of the day that I'm gonna be able to play golf in heaven. There's golf courses in heaven.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

And I'm gonna have a grand old time. Goodness. I I think that what would be really cool is you know, Jesus was a carpenter.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Technically, Jesus was a woodworker. Just gonna throw that out there. I bet Jesus has a saw stop.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

You think he makes a fire uh epoxy table? You think he can make a better epoxy table than John Maliki in less than five tries?

SPEAKER_00 23:16

Well, I think, yes, I think Jesus, whom has all authority as you read the Great Commission earlier. Yes, Jesus has uh uh quite the skills and capabilities. I don't know that he would You don't think he bothers himself with making epoxy tables? I mean, hey, maybe you never know. God's got a hobby, right? God um I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

I'm not sure how much of a blessing. What would God do in the Garden of Eden besides create all of everything? Dude, maybe he would like epoxy tables. He likes creating stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Come on now. He he he sets a table for your enemies. Yeah, that's gotta be an epoxy table. He's got a nice deep pour blue wave in it. Psalms 23, it's gotta be an epoxy pour table. It has to be. We better uh we better pray our way out of here. Yeah, we better get out of here before we commit another sacrilege. We're gonna we're gonna oh man, yeah, we're getting we're getting deep in the weeds here, but um follow us where you follow us. We're on Facebook, Instagram, we got some TikTok stuff. We've not been as active as we probably should be on there. We're gonna work on that. But um breakcheck.net, you can email us uh if you got feedback or wanna wanna just send us your prayer request. We're happy to happy to pray over you. Lewis, are you uh you want to pray us out of here?

SPEAKER_01 24:28

For sure.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

All right, brother.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

All right, Lord. Uh we appreciate this time to come together and uh speak about your word and um we appreciate the everything you do for us each and every day, all the blessings from waking up in the morning to going to bed at night. Um we we don't deserve anything you've done for us, and we love you incredibly so um for all the sacrifices you've made on our behalf. Um please guide us as we go into this Easter weekend to uh honor and revere you as you deserve. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

Amen. All right, episode 13. See you next week.