Verses 1-14
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As with Ephesians and Philippians, Paul begins by expressing how much he prays for the church at Colosse. He also commends them for hearing and believing the truth of the gospel, which is still bringing forth fruit all around the world by bringing more and more to salvation.
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Salvations are the fruit that's produced from the spreading seed of God's Word. Be fruitful for the kingdom by working to bring others to salvation!
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Verses 9-11. Paul's prayer, here, highlights his longing for us to experience the fullness of God. He prays:
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For us to have all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
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For us to be all-pleasing to God,
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For us to be fruitful in all good works,
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For us to be strengthened with all of God's might,
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For us to have all patience and longsuffering with joy.
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The keyword is ALL. Pray and strive to experience all that is available in Christ. Go for being fully Christ-like, not partially!
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Christ died to save you from the control of sins and darkness, and He has brought you into His light with total forgiveness for your sins! Knowing this power, thank God and live the life that He paid for you to experience!
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Verses 15-18
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Important teaching about the identity of Jesus here.
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Verse 15a. Jesus is the physical image of God.
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He now lives as the part of God that we can see, as the Father is invisible.
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Verse 15b. He is the ruler over all creation.
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Verses 16-17. He, alongside the Father, created everything in existence, and all creation depends on Him.
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Verse 18. He is the source and leader of the church, and the first to rise from the dead in a glorified body.
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Remember that Jesus is God, and use this passage of Scripture as support for that doctrine.
Verses 19-23
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God sent Jesus to bring rebellious creatures back to Himself.
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Before we were saved, we made ourselves enemies of God because of our sins. Now we have peace with God (Romans 5:1), and He sees us as holy and blameless, having washed away our sins.
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Remember that the purpose of salvation is relationship with God. He saved us to restore relationship. Keep relationship as your focus—to know and love God.
Verse 24
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This verse does not mean that Christ's suffering wasn't enough to redeem us, but that, as we suffer persecution, Christ is still suffering with us. He continues to suffer in this way. Therefore, we will have to experience in our bodies a continued suffering of Christ.
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As His body, when we are persecuted, He is persecuted (Acts 9:4).
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Jesus' suffering for us showed His love for us. Remember that suffering hardship because of spreading the gospel, to grow the church, shows love to Christ Himself, since the church is His body. So, do not despise persecution.
Verses 25-29
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The message of the Word, which was a mystery in the Old Testament for a long time, is that Christ would live within us.
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And as we continue to be taught, we are to become mature in Christ—Christ-like because Christ is living through us (Galatians 2:20).
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Like Paul, intend to help your fellow believers to become mature, not merely to stay saved.
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To be mature, as Paul prayed earlier (verses 9-11), would mean that we would be filled with all wisdom, fully pleasing God, productive for the kingdom in every action, always increasing in knowledge, and filled with God's strength.
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Work toward this goal to help other believers become mature, as you yourself grow, and God will work in you mightily, to help you in this task.