Paul’s letter to the Colossians was written to counter false teachers who were misleading the church. Their teaching was diminishing Christ's preeminence through adding a mixture of Jewish legalism, Greek philosophy, and early Gnostic ideas. Our verses today are a transition to Paul’s main theme which begins with an incredible word portrait of the preeminence of Christ in verses 15 to 22.

This week, we will discover that the truth of your redemption transforms you.

Do you remember the pure delight you experienced on Christmas morning as a child—the rush to the tree, the colored paper flying, the joy of gifts with your name on them? This kind of delight becomes harder and harder to recapture as we age,, and we wonder if we've simply outgrown it. This Christmas, discover that you haven't outgrown delight—you've just been looking for it in places too small to contain it.

The Colossian believers had received sound doctrine about Christ's supremacy and had begun putting off the old man and putting on the new man. But Paul knew that true transformation required more than behavior modification—it required hearts saturated with Christ's word. Speech flows from identity, and identity is shaped by what dwells within.

This week, we will discover how consecrating our words begins not with trying harder to control our speech, but with letting Christ's word dwell richly within us, realigning our heart's identity.

The Colossian believers had embraced the gospel and experienced new life in Christ, but old patterns of behavior still threatened their witness and spiritual vitality. Paul had just commanded them to set their minds on things above because they had been raised with Christ. Now he addresses the practical implications of that heavenly mindset—what must die in their daily habits and what must come alive. The word "therefore" at the beginning of verse 5 connects their union with Christ directly to the habits they must eliminate and embrace.

This week, we will discover how to consecrate our habits by reckoning ourselves dead to sin's power, laying aside the old man, and putting on the new man in Christ.

The Colossian believers faced daily pressure to conform their thinking to the surrounding culture's values and philosophies. Paul had thoroughly established Christ's supremacy and sufficiency in the previous chapters, demonstrating that He alone is the fullness of God in bodily form. Now, at the beginning of chapter 3, Paul shifts from defending theology to directing lifestyle, beginning with the most crucial battleground of Christian living: the human mind.

This week, we will discover how to consecrate our thoughts by seeking, setting, and seeing everything in Christ.

When the exiles laid the foundation for the second temple, a strange sound filled Jerusalem—joy and weeping mixed so loudly that no one could tell them apart. The older generation who remembered Solomon's temple couldn't celebrate what God was doing because they were focused on what God had done. Their past experiences became a measuring stick that drained their present joy.

This week, we will discover what robs our contentment and what God offers in its place.

Picture a courtroom where compelling evidence is presented, witnesses testify, and proof is overwhelming—yet the jury remains divided. This exact scenario unfolded when Paul met with Rome's Jewish leaders. For an entire day, from morning until evening, Paul presented scriptural evidence that Jesus was the promised Messiah, using the very Law and Prophets these leaders had studied their whole lives. Yet when they left, some believed while others refused the same evidence.

This week, we will discover the subtle but dangerous process by which hearts become calloused to biblical truth and how we can guard against spiritual hardness in our own lives.

After surviving a catastrophic shipwreck in violent winter storms, Paul and 275 others washed ashore on the island of Malta, cold, exhausted, and vulnerable. The local people had just witnessed something nearly impossible in ancient maritime disasters: the survival of every single person aboard a ship destroyed in a two-week storm.

This week, we will discover how God uses Paul’s consecrated life in difficult circumstances to reveal His character—and how He wants to do the same through our lives when we are fully set apart for His purposes.