Jan 23
30
“Christ Is All!” Colossians 3:11
It is not possible for any mortal to comprehend the full scope of those three words, but here are ten statements that might help to enlarge our understanding of them. After you have read this brief article, carefully study each statement, asking God the Holy Spirit to seal these words to your heart – “”Christ is all!”
- “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). If you know Christ, you know enough, even if you are ignorant of other things. If you do not know Christ, it is nothing to have all other knowledge. “That I may know him” (Philippians 3:10).
- (Matthew 13:44-46). There is no way to obtain this treasure and purchase this Pearl, but by selling all that you have. If you would save your life, you must lose it to Christ.
- “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). His blood is atonement. His righteousness is acceptance with God. His advocacy is our assurance. His grace is preservation. His providence is our provision.
- “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). All other loves must be burned upon this altar, so that nothing and no one comes between my heart and my Savior.
- “The desire of our soul is to thy name” (Isaiah 26:8). Seek Christ to the exclusion of all else; and you will find everything you need in him, supplied from his fulness.
- “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). If a person has that which he desires above all else, he rejoices in it, and all who know Christ rejoice in him.
- “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). Think on Christ, and think of all things in the light of the knowledge of him (Philippians 4:6-8).
- “I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). The rebel must be ruled by law. The mercenary is motivated by reward. The believer is ruled by love. “The love of Christ constraineth us” (2 Corinthians 5:14).
- (Colossians 3:11). In preaching, praise, and prayer, “Christ is all!” He is all our beauty, all our attraction, and all our entertainment. All our activities serve him. All our ordinances remember him and proclaim allegiance to him.
- “Jesus Christ, which is our hope” (1 Timothy 1:1). His obedience is the basis of our hope, his coming its fulfilment, his presence its satisfaction, and his likeness its consummation. “Christ is All!” Don Fortner
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Where Does God Dwell?
Our God is not on a shelf somewhere in some building; our God does not dwell in houses made with hands. Even the heaven of heavens cannot contain him. God is too immense to be contained in a space or place. However, there is one person who contains all that God is; Colossians 2:9, “For in him (Christ) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” Jesus Christ contains in him the fullness of God. If we desire to know and study God in the fullness of his person, look no further than Jesus Christ. “Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” (John 14:9). ~John Chapman
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THE FULL GOSPEL
I had a man to ask me if I attended a “full gospel” church. I knew what he was referring to. He wondered if I attended a church that believed in the “baptism of the Holy Spirit”, with the evidence of speaking in tongues. He thought the “full gospel” was one that taught that if a man or a woman has enough faith that they will prosper in both “health and wealth.” He believed that the “full gospel” was the preaching of the deeper things of God embraced by a, “spirit-filled Christian.”
I simply answered, “Yes, I believe in the full gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.” I told him that Colossians 1:19, plainly taught that it pleased the Father, (the God of heaven and earth) that in Christ “should ALL FULLNESS dwell.” I told him that God taught in His Word, according to Colossians 2:9, that in Christ dwelt “all the FULLNESS of the Godhead bodily.” There is no fuller gospel than the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no fuller salvation than redemption by Christ’s substitution in the place of wretched sinners. There is no deeper or fuller gospel than the message that God Almighty became flesh and died in the room of chosen sinners. There is no fuller revelation than “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2) Yes, I most definitely believe and rejoice in the FULL GOSPEL! There can be no fuller Gospel than the True One! -David Eddmenson
The golden key that fits all locks!
(John MacDuff, “Thoughts for the Quiet Hour“,
1895)
“If I have not charity, I am nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:2
What a magic spell there is in love!—the absolute devotion
of a beautiful soul that loses itself in the hallowed mission
of radiating peace and joy and sympathy all around.
When other charmers have failed to charm, many dull,
unsusceptible ears have been arrested and won by the
music of kindness. By it . . .
old-age renews its youth,
sick pillows are smoothed,
burdens are eased,
tears are turned into smiles,
dirges are turned into songs.
Love is, of all magical charms, the most irresistible.
Love is the golden key that fits all locks!
“If I have not charity, I am nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:2
Psalm 133
The blessings of peace and concord are commended. May they be sought and enjoyed by us!
1-3. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard; that went down to the skirts of his garments; as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.”
Countless blessings gladden and enrich the pilgrims whose feet happily climb the hill of life. True joy is the companion of a close walk with God. These pilgrims are dressed in a lovely robe. Their garment is love of the brethren in the faith. This is the evidence of real union with Christ. This grace was the admiration of the heathen of old. It was the well-known testimony, See how these Christians love one another. This precious hymn exhibits this union as good, and pleasant, and fragrant, and fertilizing. It is good, as it is in accordance with the character of our Heavenly Father, of whom it is sublimely said, God is love. It is good, as those who exhibit it show the lineaments and features of the first-born among many brethren. It is pleasant. What can be more charming than to see the smile of love, to listen to the words of love, and to feel assurance that we are encircled by those whose hearts are knit with ours! It is fragrant, for it sheds around the perfume of true happiness. Ointment poured forth cannot refresh the home more than the constant sweetness of harmonious feeling. It is fertilizing as leading to the growth of grace, and as uniting hearts in every holy word and work. Thus it is figured by the holy oil which, poured upon the head of Aaron, ran in fragrant streams to the lowest portion of the priestly robes. It is fruitful as the dew which moistened the summits of Hermon and softened the heights of Zion’s range. Let us seek this grace, so blessed in itself, so blessed to all with whom there is communion. But this unity implies not tolerance of error. Two cannot walk together except they are agreed. Light can have no fellowship with darkness. Those who thus walk together must first have met in Christ. Oneness with Him is the only true bond of union.
Henry Law
“Beloved, let us love one another: is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”–1 John 4:7-8
J.C.Philpot
If ever you have loved Jesus with a pure affection; if ever you have felt him near, dear, and precious to your soul, that love can never be lost out of your heart. It may lie dormant; it does lie dormant. It may not be sweetly felt in exercise; but there it is. “If any man loves not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema” (1 Cor. 16:22). You would be under this curse if the love of the Lord Jesus Christ were to die out of your heart. But this love is often sleeping. When the mother sometimes watches over the cradle and looks upon her sleeping babe with unutterable affection, the infant knows not that the mother is watching its slumbers; but when it awakes, it is able to feel and return its mother’s caresses.
It is so with the soul sometimes when love in the heart is like a babe slumbering in the cradle. But as the babe opens its eyes, and sees the mother smiling upon it, it returns the smiles, and stretches forth its arms to embrace the bending cheek; so when the eyes of the soul are opened to see the smiling face of Jesus stooping to imprint a kiss of love, or drop some sweet word into the heart, and there is a flowing forth toward him of love and affection–this is the power of love.
“The Greatest Of These Is Love”
1 Corinthians 13:13
Is your heart ruled, governed, and motivated by the love of Christ? Do you have within you the kind of love that Christ produces in his people! Do I?
LOVE IS ESSENTIAL
Love is absolutely essential to true godliness. Paul tells us that if we have all other things, and have not love, they shall profit us nothing. The absence of love is fatal. As you read 1 Corinthians 13, do not think to yourself, “Love is a very great virtue, most commendable and useful, it would be a great thing if I could obtain it.” Oh, no! We must have it!
The Holy Spirit tells us that this love is something which characterizes all who are born of God. We must have it, or else we are not born of God. If I do not have this love, no matter what else I may have, no matter what else I may do, if I do not have the love of Christ in my heart, I am a lost man; and the same is true of you. This love is not a condition to be met in order to get salvation. But it is the sure result of God’s saving grace in Christ.
THE GREATEST GIFT
Christian love is greater than all other spiritual gifts and graces. Without love, all other gifts and graces are meaningless and useless (1 Cor. 13:1-3). This one thing, love, is the fulfilling of the law of God (Matt. 22:36-40; Rom. 13:8-10). And love is the one sure mark and evidence of a saving union with the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35).
Where this love is absent grace is absent. No man is born of God who does not have the love of Christ implanted in his heart as a ruling principle of life (1 John 2:9-1 11; 3:14, 23; 4:7, 8, 16, 20; 5:1).
EASILY IDENTIFIED
The love of Christ, or the absence of it, is a thing easily identifiable. This is not some profound, mysterious point of theology. It is not some sweet-sounding, but useless, emotion. The love of Christ is a gift of divine grace that is clearly demonstrated in the lives of God’s elect (1 Cor. 13:4-7). This love causes a person to be kind, patient, content, gentle, even tempered, humble, self-denying, generous, honest, truthful, forbearing, and forgiving toward others, both in the church and out of it.
NEVER CEASES
Love is preferable to all other gifts and greater than all other graces, because love is the only thing that will last forever (1 Cor. 13:8-13). All other gifts will come to an end. All other graces will cease. But love will go on in heaven. Faith will be no more, when we see him whom we have believed. Hope will be no more, when we have that for which we have hoped. But love will continue and come to perfection when we enter heaven. Love is the only thing we have in this world which we can carry into the world to come. Heaven is a world of love, perfect, unceasing, glorious, Christ-like love. No one will enter that city of peace and world of love except those who have the love of Christ in their hearts.
Don Fortner