Based on Colossians 1 (New King James Version)
“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.”
If we see the complete passage, we should notice that there is a process, a divine cycle in God’s purpose for man. We see something that should happen in each of us, and that there must be a proceeding, a continuity. And together with this, we are given a reason, a why so that this cycle that we see continues.
I don’t know if people question now the way they used to, that what was (and is) the purpose for their existence. The great philosophers before tried to see this issue and give people some sort of an answer to the common man, because the great majority of people did ask themselves that question: “Why do I exist?” Today, I really don’t know if many people ask themselves this same question, or at least, it does not seem noticeable. And the reason for why I say this is because what we can quite evidently see today is that many people have determined that the purpose for existence consists of egocentrism or of looking for their own happiness. Many are very ready to accept that answer, and unfortunately, the great majority of believers also like that answer. The majority look to just do what they want; they look for their own happiness.
Now then, many then may ask, “Is it bad to look for our own happiness?” And the answer is yes and no. For starters, happiness is something that depends on circumstances, and circumstances change moment by moment, just like many people’s mood. And if we see what is obvious in the world, we would notice that we do not live in a perfect world, but rather in something corrupted and distorted, and I will always give this clarification: that God did not want things to be like that, but rather, sin and man’s decision to follow sin is what mainly has made this place so imperfect and unjust. And this takes us to give an explanation for why it is not necessarily good to look for our own happiness. When a person looks to fulfill their own interests, it is very easy to run over and harm others. And why does this happen? Because first of all, a person should think if what they are looking for is truly good. And secondly, when a person is so focused on themselves, their tendency will always be to ignore the welfare of their neighbor. This is one of the reasons for why families are so dysfunctional today, for example. A husband forgets that one day they decided to marry their wife and that there are certain things that must happen to take care of that relationship. And vice versa, a wife married a husband and they fail in the same manner. And also, a married couple decided one day to have children and forgot that there are certain things that need to be done so that children can be raised properly. But today, both men and women are so focused in what they want for themselves that they disregard their duties with their families. And this is only one example.
What is then this cycle of salvation that we see in this passage? We came to Christ because God was the one that started the cycle, by creating us, and then, by doing something for us that we could not do for ourselves. We were born and lived very far away from God in our beginnings, because of our sin. But He has made a way for salvation through Christ. But salvation does not have egocentrism as a purpose (although if you genuinely live out faith, you do obtain what is most convenient for you). We should not forget neither what God has done for us, nor the good we should do to our neighbor. Salvation is a process of beginning or of being born again in Christ, of growing and strengthening in the Lord, so that we can do the work He has for each of us, so we can help others come and enter the kingdom of God. And like that, help others grow and strengthen so that they could continue with this cycle of salvation, just as the Lord designed it for man. This is something very similar to the natural process of a marriage, of raising children, to at least try to make this earthly place better, so that as many people as possible can come to the eternity that God has for those that love Him and follow Him faithfully. So then, are you part of this cycle of salvation, or do you follow the devil’s way of egocentrism, the same that will leave you empty here and without any eternity in the end? Lord bless! John