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Christ in Y’all versus Christ in You

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Colossians 2:1–3

I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

CONSIDER THIS

When we see a writer of Scripture use the two words, “my purpose,” we should lean forward a bit because we are about to find gold. Of course all Scripture is gold, but I think we can agree there are those extra 24-karat gold deposits.

Colossians 2:2–3 served as the focus of my work for over a decade as I pastored the community of preparing pastors at Asbury Theological Seminary. For our team, this text served as the focus and force behind our work in forming a community that formed men and women into mature followers of Jesus Christ. We developed a shorthand, or symbol, among our team that we used in all manner of signs: 2:2. Yes, the whole domino effect idea began with #2/2.

Colossians 2:2 became “our goal” and the organizing principle of what a growing community of growing people should look like. Let’s break down the passage and take a closer look.

1. “Know the mystery.” Let’s begin with the end in mind. As with all his churches, Paul wanted the Colossians to know something beyond what mere knowledge could convey to them. After all, a mystery is a mystery because it is unknowable in the conventional sense. Knowing a mystery is something of an oxymoron, isn’t it?

2. “The mystery is Jesus Christ.” More specifically, just a couple of verses back, Paul told us the mystery, long hidden and now revealed, is Christ in you (Col. 1:27). This is indeed a mystery, and Paul points it out because it is the proverbial gold mine of all gold mines: Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3). The very meaning of life is hidden in this mystery: Christ in you. We can stop our quest for all the false treasure that isn’t treasure because the true treasure, real wealth, unsurpassed riches, even, is now available to us.

3. The way is together. Here’s the part that is not apparent to those of us who happen to be twenty-first century Americans. When Paul identifies the mystery as “Christ in you,” what he really means is “Christ in y’all.” The you, as is the case so often in the New Testament, is plural. The New Testament rarely addresses me as an isolated, individuated, privatized person. To be sure, God addresses me personally, but my identity is not primarily as an individual. In fact, this is more a sign of my brokenness. I simply cannot know who I am outside of my relationship with God. And here’s the kicker: I can’t know God apart from other people. That’s where we want to push back.

4. This explains Paul’s goal: “My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love” (v. 2a). Paul understands his task as that of crafting courageous communities of profound love. Love is the means and the end, the way and the goal, the beginning and the end. The biblical idea of love has no meaning outside of relationship. For the gospel to be the gospel, it requires a community of people, and even two or three will do. The gospel advances on the supernatural power of courageous love.

5. Note Paul’s emphatic redundancy: not just riches, but “full riches,” and not just  understanding” but “complete understanding.” Paul is reaching for something that can hardly be expressed in words. He’s trying to tell us there is something we are missing and will miss until we find one another “in Christ,” which is to say together enjoying the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

6. This is why banding together is so critical if we are going to sow for a great awakening. “Christ in you” only comes to full expression when it becomes “Christ in y’all,” or as my more Southern colleagues point out, “Christ in all y’all!” This will not happen in our churches in any significant way until it begins to happen significantly in many small ways, that is, with a growing number of small bands of people who become “encouraged in heart and united in love.”

Okay, I’ll just show you my cards. That’s “my goal” for you—encouraged in heart and united in love . . . banded together to sow for a great awakening. And all this time you thought this was a daily devotion.

THE PRAYER

Abba Father, we thank you for your Son, Jesus, who with you and the Holy Spirit band together to show us the perfect picture of what encouraged in heart and united in love looks like. Band us together in the same way you are banded together, that you might awaken the world through our love. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

1. What do you think of the implications of “Christ in y’all” versus “Christ in you?”
2. How will we overcome our deep formation as privatized individuals in order to express the gospel as God intends—through our relationships?
3. Are you in a band, or do you need a band? Are you open to banding in the way I am talking about?

For the Awakening,
J.D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com

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WHAT IS THIS? Wake-Up Call is a daily encouragement to shake off the slumber of our busy lives and turn our eyes toward Jesus. Each morning our community gathers around a Scripture, a reflection, a prayer, and a few short questions, inviting us to reorient our lives around the love of Jesus that transforms our hearts, homes, churches, and cities.

Comments and Discussion

2 Responses

  1. JD, thank you for showing us your “cards”.
    #1) As someone who’s calling is to facilitate small group ministry, I really appreciate this particular Daily Text. I believe that your end goal should be the proper focus of everyone involved in facilitating the building of a Christian community – Encouraged in heart and united in love.
    #2) I really hate to say it, but I believe that in order to overcome our deeply embedded Western autonomous,
    sovereign, independent, sufficient self wills might require some type of severe suffering initiated by God. It certainly would not be the first time that God had to use extreme means to discipline His children.
    #3) I am currently involved with two band/class/Bible study hybrids. One of them at this time is a mens group, the other includes married couples. I’m hopeful that the mens group might eventually provide the potential to spawn a true band. That group is composed of mostly male leadership from various local area churches.

  2. JD: Today’s post inspired me to write this about the implications of “Christ in y’all.”

    “Ekklesia”

    God’s supernatural assembly
    Consists of a multitude of
    Worldwide members
    Invisibly banded together
    Not by agreement
    Or by organization,
    Not superficially,
    But by deep
    Heart-connection
    With the risen
    And living Jesus
    And with all
    Who truly love Him.
    When they meet
    With open hearts,
    Even as strangers
    They discover Jesus
    Working in each other
    And behold His glory
    As they experience
    His presence.

    Lord, open our eyes
    So we can see
    That’s there’s no place
    In Your body
    For us to be
    Privatized.

    The Christ-band I continually interact with starts with my wife and then our close brothers and sisters in Christ. It includes a group of students at Lincoln Technical School in Nashville and expands to Christ-followers near and far. It’s continually being expanded as God brings us more and more people to open our hearts to and to practice the 50+ New Testament “one another” verses. Heart-connection isn’t bound by time or place!

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