All Episodes
Displaying 1 - 20 of 82 in total
Episode 1: Reading someone else’s mail
Have you ever noticed? Twenty-one of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament are letters, and thirteen of the twenty-one are traditionally attributed to Paul. Let...
Episode 2: Letters from prison
The letter to the church in the city of Colossae is traditionally attributed to the apostle Paul. But where and when did he write it? It’s one of the so-called “Prison...
Episode 3: Cross-contamination
If you were a fan of Alton Brown’s Good Eats, you know the danger of cross-contamination in the kitchen—of letting bacteria spread from one food or surface to another....
Episode 4: “Dear Colossians…”
In this age of electronic communication, the art of writing out letters longhand is becoming a lost art. It may be hard for us to appreciate the subtleties of meaning ...
Episode 5: The saints below
Most Christians, if they hang around the church long enough, discover that we’re a pretty flawed bunch. By the grace of God, we’re capable of moments of Spirit-led fel...
Episode 6: A next-level greeting
What do we mean when we say, “Hi”? We say it when we greet someone; we often put it at the beginning of our emails. But does the word itself mean anything, or is it l...
Episode 7: Grateful prayer
As we’ve seen, Paul begins his letter to the Colossians with a greeting that both follows and yet meaningfully transforms the conventions of his day. Immediately after...
Episode 8: Faith, hope, and especially love
Even as Paul tells the Colossians how he prays for them, he is again both following and transforming convention. It was common for letter-writers to express their grat...
Episode 9: Bearing fruit
Paul speaks of the gospel “bearing fruit” (Col 1:6) in a way that’s reminiscent of Jesus’ parable of the sower and the soils. And despite the problems he must address ...
Episode 10: Knowing God’s will
When Paul prays for the Colossians, he prays with gratitude for the way the gospel is transforming them. He prays that they would continue to grow spiritually, particu...
Episode 11: Walking God’s way
As we’ve seen, Paul prays that the Colossians would know God’s will. But the Christian life isn’t just about what we know, but how we live—or to use a biblical metapho...
Episode 12: Enduring with joy and gratitude
Sooner or later, we all find ourselves having to endure some ongoing situation we don’t want, sometimes knowing that it’s the price we pay for doing the right thing. W...
Episode 13: Welcome to the family
Many families divide, unfortunately, over issues of inheritance, and this was true even in New Testament times. The importance of inheritance goes back even further in...
Episode 14: Rescued from the darkness
When we’ve heard the gospel presented clearly, our response may be to believe—because it seems like the sensible thing to do. We may not have a sense of being rescued ...
Episode 15: Thy will be done
We’re about to begin exploring the main body of Paul’s letter, in which he repeatedly emphasizes the supremacy of Jesus over all. Before we do, however, I want to take...
Episode 16: Why we worship
If you consider yourself a follower of Christ, why do you follow him? Is it out of gratitude for what he did for you, for all of us, on the cross? That’s certainly an ...
Episode 17: Firstborn, with a capital F
In Jewish families of biblical times, to be the firstborn son was to have a position of status and privilege. That’s still true in many cultures today. As Paul begins ...
Episode 18: From creation to new creation
Compare how the four gospels begin. John has the earliest starting point, traveling back in time past the birth of Jesus, past the birth of Abraham, all the way to the...
Episode 19: The body of Christ
When New Testament writers speak of the “church,” they’re not referring to a place or a building; they’re referring to a people. Moreover, as Paul teaches in Romans 12...
Episode 20: The cosmic cross
Many presentations of the gospel emphasize our need to be saved from our sin through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. It’s the core truth that led many of us to pr...