Points to Ponder week of 10/24

What does it mean to suffer as a follower of Christ in ways he left behind for us? In the last part of Colossians 1, Paul seems to see his own suffering for the Gospel as necessary for his own oneness with Jesus, but also for the sake of Jesus’ church. He sees a connection between his own “toil, struggle, sufferings” and proclaiming Christ to people. He also seems to want the church in Collossae, Laodicea, and anywhere else to catch his vision for suffering purposefully in order to put the glory of the Gospel on display. It is in Jesus that all the treasures are hidden and nowhere else. That would seem to make any suffering in Him a work of exposing the emptiness of living for anything else. To be satisfied in Jesus alone is an encouragement to ourselves and to others. We’ll talk about it on Sunday.