Strength Training

By Jeremy Dehut

Most fathers get excited as their sons grow larger and stronger. We teach them to wrestle, race, hike, fish, throw, and play various sports. As our sons get older the training equipment also gets larger and more costly, but we look at the price tag and justify it by seeing them mature and improve.

Paul got excited about the spiritual development of saints in the same way! We know that the gospel is the “power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16). It is the tool that God uses to strengthen and make us mature. In one of his four prison epistles, Paul emphasized the importance of God’s Word in the life of the Christian, and reminded them how it worked to ground them and give them endurance.

In the beginning of his letter to the Colossians, Paul complemented them on three areas of their spiritual life, faith, love, and hope (Col. 1:4). He reminded them that all of these things, particularly hope, were found by them when they were presented with the “the word of truth, the gospel” (Col 1:5). Let’s look at each of these qualities and how they are attained and strengthened.

Stalwart Faith - Investigates the past

As almost any religious person in the world would admit, faith is essential to religious life. But the faith that blesses and saves is a Biblical faith in Jesus Christ. By “Biblical faith” I mean:

• A faith educated by God’s word (Rom. 10:17). Faith is not entirely blind as some believe, faith does not call us to check out brains at the door. It requires investigation and critical thinking.
• A faith that chooses to believe in what it cannot see (Heb. 11:1). Faith is a decision made by a man who has investigated the truth of the gospel, and despite the fact that he has not personally met Jesus, God or visited this promised rest of heaven, believes all of them to exist.
• A faith that convicts and changes us (Jas. 2:18). Biblical faith is a strong conviction that motivates our behavior! Faith without a change on our part is not complete (Jas. 2:22)!

Faith is based on knowledge of the past; a knowledge of who Jesus was, and what he said and taught (Jn. 20:30-31). Without this knowledge, faith cannot flourish! Like the apostles who desired an increase of faith (Lk. 17:5), we must constantly return to God’s word and scour its pages in order to bolster our faith.

D.L. Moody said, “I prayed for faith, and thought that someday faith would come down and strike me like lightning. But faith did not seem to come. One day I read the tenth chapter of Romans, ‘Now faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’ I had closed my Bible and prayed for faith. I now opened my Bible, and began to study, and faith has been growing ever since” (Halley’s Bible Handbook, p 22).

Grow stronger in you faith! Study the truths of the gospel!

Active Love - Serves in the present

Paul revealed to the Colossian brethren that Epaphras had reported to him their love (Col. 1:8) which they demonstrated to all the saints (Col. 1:4). The second quality that Christians must grow stronger in is their “labors of love” (1 Thess. 1:3).

In other epistles Paul is perfectly clear explaining what he means when using the phrase “love”. It is not some fleeting emotional state that leaves someone euphoric. Paul uses it to describe someone choosing to act in the best interest of someone else, even in difficult and seemingly impossible circumstances (see 1 Cor. 13). Service is a word that can be used to describe this kind of love.

Loving service is seen by Paul as the natural by-product of faith, it is the fruit produced by the seed of faith (Col. 1:10). Whereas faith examines and is reinforced by the things of the past, service focuses on the needs of present. Although we are told to love the souls of all mankind (see Matt. 5:43-48 & Lk. 10:25-28), there is a special bond that exists between brothers and sisters in Christ, who have been united through salvation into one family, one kingdom of faith (1 Cor. 12:12-26; 1 Pet. 2:9-10).

For the Christian the ability to demonstrate love for our spiritual family is not optional! Jesus was perfectly clear when he explained that the world would know his disciples by how well they loved each other (Jn. 14:35). Since love is a fruit of faith, love also finds its source in the Word of God. If we need to grow stronger in our ability to care for one another, we need to immerse ourselves in God’s word. Where else can we go to “be filled with the knowledge of his will”, “increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Col. 1:9-10)? Just like every other important lesson that needs to be learned, we find ourselves like Peter saying to Jesus, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”
(Jn. 6:68)? When learning how to love, where else can we go but to the recorded words of our heavenly Father who “so loved the world, that he gave his only Son...” (Jn. 3:16)?

Grow stronger in your love! Seek to serve according to the gospel!

Steadfast Hope - Looks towards the future

Whereas faith is based on the past, and love serves in the present, hope looks to the future, and for the Christian our source of hope is the same as the two qualities!

As Peter already declared “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn. 6:68)! Jesus told the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn. 4:14). Jesus promised his disciples that “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (Jn. 14:23).

It was this very message of promised eternal life and second coming of Christ that the Colossians heard preached, which inspired their hope for salvation! It’s the same message that you and I are invited to respond to today!

Strengthen your hope! Look toward the future the gospel promises!

Conclusion:
If you have already responded to the gospel call, then your hope needs fortification just as the Colossians did. Paul prayed that they would be “strengthened with all power...for all endurance and patience with joy” (Col. 1:11). The Colossians’ hope was strengthened and reaffirmed by the power of the gospel, just like their love and service was instructed by the gospel, just like their faith was based on the truth of the gospel! Do you see a common theme?

Do you want to strengthen your Christian faith, love and hope? The best tool you that will ever find is on your coffee table, bookshelf and pew. Pick it up and use it, knowing the pride and joy your heavenly Father experiences when he sees his children grow stronger and mature.