Gary Gleans

Walk in wisdom toward   outsiders, making the best use of the time.    Let your speech always   be gracious,   seasoned with salt,   so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.   God has called us to reach unbelievers with the Gospel.  Evangelism should be a part of everything we do.  It is the only reason believers are left on earth after salvation.  Every other aspect of our Christian walk we will do better in heaven.  However, once we are in heaven our opportunity to evangelize is over.  As we saw in the previous passage, evangelism should mark our prayers.  This passage gives us two important instructions as to how our walk and our talk should be used to engage with the world with the goal of evangelism.    HAVE A WISE WALK: As we seek to impact the world around us, it is important that we be wise in the way we live.  Jesus instructed His disciples to be wise like serpents while living as sheep amongst wolves.  As we live in this fallen world, we must understand that

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it   with thanksgiving.    At the same time, pray also for us, that God may   open to us a door for the word,   to declare the mystery of Christ,   on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.   Prayer is an important part of the teaching of Scripture and was modeled by both Jesus and the Apostle Paul. This passage includes instruction on how to pray as well as what Paul’s specific prayer requests were.  There are important lessons for us to learn as we seek to follow these instructions about prayer.    PRAY INTENSIVELY: There are basically three instructions in this passage about how we should pray.  First, we should be consistent in prayer.  Paul says that we should continue and be steadfast in prayer.  In order to continue something, it must first be a habit in our lives.  Certainly, the greatest enemy to prayer is our lack of prayer.  Often this lack of prayer is based on a mis underst

Bondservants, obey   in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.    Whatever you do, work heartily,   as for the Lord and not for men,   knowing that from the Lord   you will receive the inheritance as your reward.   You are serving the Lord Christ.    For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.   Everything we do is important to God.  This includes both our actions and attitudes.  God works, and created us in His image to be workers.  Work was not a consequence of the fall of man into sin.  The productivity of our work is certainly diminished by sin and the motivation behind our work is affected by sin.  God calls us to work diligently out of a desire for God’s glory and the eternal rewards He has promised.   WORK SINCERILY OUT OF FEAR OF THE LORD: We are always under some sort of authority, especially when we are working.  Our bosses may n

Wives, submit to your husbands, as   is fitting in the Lord.    Husbands, love your wives, and   do not be harsh with them.    Children, obey your parents   in everything, for this pleases the Lord.    Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.   The family is a vital part of God’s mission in this world.  It is through the family that we understand and experience many aspects about God and His relationship with us.  We are members of the family of God as a result of salvation through faith in Christ.  Our families are to be used as instruments to expand God’s mission by reproducing image bearing children and evangelism.     MARRIAGE MATTERS: Submission is one of those teachings that has fallen out of favor in the modern world. However, it is a vital part of the Christian life.  We are all called to a life of submission to the Lord and to one another.  The call for wives to submit to their husbands is not some denigrating teaching that was invented by male chau

Put on then, as   God's chosen ones, holy and beloved,   compassionate hearts,   kindness,   humility, meekness, and patience,   bearing with one another and,   if one has a complaint against another,   forgiving each other;   as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.    And above all these put on   love, which   binds everything together in   perfect harmony.    And let   the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called   in one body. And   be thankful.    Let   the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,   singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,   with thankfulness in your hearts to God.    And   whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,   giving thanks to God the Father through him.   There is a tendency to think that the Bible is all about telling us what not to do.  However, the focus of this passage is all about the attitudes and actions that should

Put to death therefore   what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity,   passion, evil desire, and covetousness,   which is idolatry.    On account of these the wrath of God is coming.  In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.    But now   you must put them all away:   anger, wrath, malice,   slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.    Do not lie to one another, seeing that   you have put off   the old self with its practices   and   have put on   the new self,   which is being renewed in knowledge   after the image of   its creator.    Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is   all, and in all.   Our new life in Christ involves replacing the sinful practices with those that are aligned with our identity as image bearers of Christ.  Unbelievers are enslaved to sin and cannot escape in a meaningful way.  Believers are made new in Christ and have been set free from sin and are united togeth

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek   the things that are above, where Christ is,   seated at the right hand of God.    Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.    For   you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.    When Christ   who is your life   appears, then you also will appear with him   in glory.   There are three events that shape the lives of every Christian: the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and the return of Christ.  These three events impact the way we live in the present because they give us a correct perspective on both the past and the future.     SEEK HEAVENLY THINGS: The resurrection of Christ is a first fruits of the resurrection meaning that it is also our resurrection.  All who have placed their faith in Christ are given new life in Him.  We are no longer dead spiritually but have been made alive by the power of the Holy Spirit that indwells us.  Because of this new life we have new desires i

Therefore let no one   pass judgment on you   in questions of food and drink, or with regard to   a festival or   a new moon or a Sabbath.    These are a shadow of the things to come, but   the substance belongs to Christ.    Let no one   disqualify you,   insisting on asceticism and worship of angels,   going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by   his sensuous mind,   and   not   holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.    If with Christ   you died to the   elemental spirits of the world,   why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”   (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to   human precepts and teachings?    These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in   promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are   of no value in st

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,   rooted and   built up in him and   established in the faith, just   as you were taught, abounding   in thanksgiving.    See to it that no one takes you captive by   philosophy and   empty deceit, according to   human tradition, according to the   elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.    For   in him the whole fullness of deity dwells   bodily,   and   you have been filled in him, who is   the head of all rule and authority.    In him also   you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by   putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,   having been buried with him in baptism, in which   you were also raised with him through faith in   the powerful working of God,   who raised him from the dead.    And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God   made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,   by   canc

For I want you to know   how great a   struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face,   that   their hearts may be encouraged, being   knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of   God's mystery, which is Christ,   in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.    I say this in order   that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.    For   though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your   good order and   the firmness of your faith in Christ.   The churches in Asia Minor outside of Ephesus were planted indirectly by Paul while he ministered in Ephesus.  Many people from the region traveled to the port city of Ephesus where Paul and his team were teaching and preparing leaders for the church.  Though Paul knew many members of the churches and the founders, He had never been in the churches personally.  This letter is likely