Did anyone notice in vv. 4-5a the famous faith, hope, and love triad (“since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven”). I didn’t, but a commentary pointed it out to me.
Notice what’s true of these Colossian believers: their faith is in Christ Jesus, they have love for all the saints, and they have faith and love because of the hope laid up for them (by God) in heaven. And Paul thanks God for these things being present in them. This is kind of a summary description of what it means to be a Christian. These are the things we have, and we can thank God that we have them.
You and I could do worse than trying to think a little more today about faith, hope, and love, and to make a point to thank God that we have these things.
Extra note: as you read, keep in mind that Colossians isn't just a sort of magical document that we have to arbitrarily extract things from that we think will help us feel good or make sense of life. It is a real letter, written by a real person, to real people, inspired by a real God who both addressed those real people in it and addresses real people in it today. We have to submit ourselves to it. We have to submit ourselves to God in it, humbly asking Him to help us understand what Paul was saying to this church, and (by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) to all of God’s people, including you today.
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