Live on Purpose
This is the column that I wrote this week for our local newspaper.
A few years ago, while we were living in Germany, my husband was sent to work in Moscow. During that time, our boys and I went to see him and this remarkable city. The Muscovites are a unique people; those who say we’re all alike just living in different places, don’t understand the effect that environment plays on personality, both individually and nationally. Fifty years of oppression takes it toll and colors the way people think and behave.
While I was there I was able to attend a Bible study at the home of one local woman. This was my first experience interacting intimately with a group of people from a different culture, a different language, a different background, without any ties to the military or anything else familiar to me. The study was similar to the Let’s Start Talking Ministry, which offers English conversation classes in exchange for cross-cultural experiences, using Scripture as text. It was therefore, conducted in English, but as the participants became more animated they would often revert back to their native language. Russians are a reserved people, and these women were a little hesitant to speak of heart issues in front of me. But maybe because it wasn’t my first language, they felt safer when they spoke in Russian. I understand Russian, even if I speak it only poorly, so this discussion was fascinating for me.
We were studying the book of Colossians. Because I now associate this short letter with my stay in Moscow, it has occupied a special place in my heart. During the hours I spent in the company of my Russian sisters, I saw the words through different eyes, I heard them spoken in a different tongue. Thus, its meaning is richer to me. At any rate, I have internalized Paul’s writing and some of the thoughts he shared with those early Christians have become my own.
He starts the letter with “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” He was what he was due to the will of God. He was chosen, he was commissioned, he was sent out, he was persecuted, and he was martyred because of will of God. I’m not implying that God wanted him to die or suffer in a certain way. What I do believe is that God wanted him to live a certain way. On purpose. According to His purpose. The tag is mine as well. “Kaye, a disciple of Christ Jesus by the will of God.”
He then addresses the letter to the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Colosse. I don’t think these people were “super Christians.” I imagine they were a lot like many of us. They were probably believers who sincerely wanted to serve and please their Lord, in spite of their failures and pettiness. But Paul called them holy and faithful anyway. Could he have just as easily addressed the letter to us? Could it have read, “To the holy and faithful brethren in Christ in Cookeville?”
That’s the key, you know. In Christ. That is the whole mystery of this letter. That is the whole mystery of our faith. That is the whole mystery of the world. We are a holy people, redeemed and changed, because of Christ in us.
After declaring in chapter one the priority, preeminence, and sovereignty of Christ, the One and Only, Paul then discusses the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations. The amazing thing, he tells us, is that this mystery is actually “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (1:27). How can this be? The firstborn over all creation, He who is before all things and in whom all things hold together is the One who lives in me, who works so powerfully in me (1:29). Mystery is the word to describe it and certainly all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him, but understanding is ours for the asking. As a matter of fact, Paul tells us in 2:2 that his own purpose is to encourage believers in heart and help them be united in love so that they can have the full riches of understanding this mystery of God.
This book, like all the books of God, is living Word. It has application to my life; it has the power to unleash the Holy Spirit’s work in me. It needs to be so embedded in my subconscious and such a part of my make up that it permeates all my thoughts and actions. Chapter 3 gives better commentary than I can. Verse 17 says, “And whatever you do (did I catch that? Whatever I do), whether in word or deed (in case I missed it the first time, that would be all talk and all behavior), do it all (there it is again, everything I do, no exceptions) in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. In other words, live on purpose. Live according to His purpose.
How do I do that? Early in Chapter 4 Paul tells me to devote myself to prayer. I am to be thankful. I am to be wise in the way I act toward unbelievers, making the most of every opportunity He gives me with them. I’m not to forget that my conversations are always to be full of grace. This is a good start.
My time with the Russian believers ended with the study leader offering this suggestion: Read Colossians 4:17, replacing Archippus with our own names. Now whenever I read this letter, I think of my morning with these dear women, and with the directive to live my life on purpose. Because this is what Paul writes:
“Tell Kaye: ‘See to it that you complete the work that you have received in the Lord.’”
That’s my encouragement to each of you as well. God have given you work. See to it that you complete it. Live on purpose.
A few years ago, while we were living in Germany, my husband was sent to work in Moscow. During that time, our boys and I went to see him and this remarkable city. The Muscovites are a unique people; those who say we’re all alike just living in different places, don’t understand the effect that environment plays on personality, both individually and nationally. Fifty years of oppression takes it toll and colors the way people think and behave.
While I was there I was able to attend a Bible study at the home of one local woman. This was my first experience interacting intimately with a group of people from a different culture, a different language, a different background, without any ties to the military or anything else familiar to me. The study was similar to the Let’s Start Talking Ministry, which offers English conversation classes in exchange for cross-cultural experiences, using Scripture as text. It was therefore, conducted in English, but as the participants became more animated they would often revert back to their native language. Russians are a reserved people, and these women were a little hesitant to speak of heart issues in front of me. But maybe because it wasn’t my first language, they felt safer when they spoke in Russian. I understand Russian, even if I speak it only poorly, so this discussion was fascinating for me.
We were studying the book of Colossians. Because I now associate this short letter with my stay in Moscow, it has occupied a special place in my heart. During the hours I spent in the company of my Russian sisters, I saw the words through different eyes, I heard them spoken in a different tongue. Thus, its meaning is richer to me. At any rate, I have internalized Paul’s writing and some of the thoughts he shared with those early Christians have become my own.
He starts the letter with “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” He was what he was due to the will of God. He was chosen, he was commissioned, he was sent out, he was persecuted, and he was martyred because of will of God. I’m not implying that God wanted him to die or suffer in a certain way. What I do believe is that God wanted him to live a certain way. On purpose. According to His purpose. The tag is mine as well. “Kaye, a disciple of Christ Jesus by the will of God.”
He then addresses the letter to the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Colosse. I don’t think these people were “super Christians.” I imagine they were a lot like many of us. They were probably believers who sincerely wanted to serve and please their Lord, in spite of their failures and pettiness. But Paul called them holy and faithful anyway. Could he have just as easily addressed the letter to us? Could it have read, “To the holy and faithful brethren in Christ in Cookeville?”
That’s the key, you know. In Christ. That is the whole mystery of this letter. That is the whole mystery of our faith. That is the whole mystery of the world. We are a holy people, redeemed and changed, because of Christ in us.
After declaring in chapter one the priority, preeminence, and sovereignty of Christ, the One and Only, Paul then discusses the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations. The amazing thing, he tells us, is that this mystery is actually “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (1:27). How can this be? The firstborn over all creation, He who is before all things and in whom all things hold together is the One who lives in me, who works so powerfully in me (1:29). Mystery is the word to describe it and certainly all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him, but understanding is ours for the asking. As a matter of fact, Paul tells us in 2:2 that his own purpose is to encourage believers in heart and help them be united in love so that they can have the full riches of understanding this mystery of God.
This book, like all the books of God, is living Word. It has application to my life; it has the power to unleash the Holy Spirit’s work in me. It needs to be so embedded in my subconscious and such a part of my make up that it permeates all my thoughts and actions. Chapter 3 gives better commentary than I can. Verse 17 says, “And whatever you do (did I catch that? Whatever I do), whether in word or deed (in case I missed it the first time, that would be all talk and all behavior), do it all (there it is again, everything I do, no exceptions) in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. In other words, live on purpose. Live according to His purpose.
How do I do that? Early in Chapter 4 Paul tells me to devote myself to prayer. I am to be thankful. I am to be wise in the way I act toward unbelievers, making the most of every opportunity He gives me with them. I’m not to forget that my conversations are always to be full of grace. This is a good start.
My time with the Russian believers ended with the study leader offering this suggestion: Read Colossians 4:17, replacing Archippus with our own names. Now whenever I read this letter, I think of my morning with these dear women, and with the directive to live my life on purpose. Because this is what Paul writes:
“Tell Kaye: ‘See to it that you complete the work that you have received in the Lord.’”
That’s my encouragement to each of you as well. God have given you work. See to it that you complete it. Live on purpose.
posted by Kaye @ 4:03 AM
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