We live in a world filled with anxiety, turmoil, and constant change. We may be tempted to think that feelings of instability and insecurity are mostly modern problems, but they have plagued the human heart from the beginning. They were challenges of the church in Colossae.
Through You Are Secure: Devotions for When Life Is Uncertain, an eight-week devotional centered on the book of Colossians, Aimee Joseph helps us see that it is our union with Christ that fills our hearts with peace. Amidst a largely insecure world, our security is anchored into the unchanging person of Jesus.
In this interview, we talk to Aimee about her devotional study for women.
Q: You spent a year doing a deep-dive study on the book of Colossians. Why did you do such a deep study on a book just four chapters long? Why did you then decide to write a devotional study on Colossians?
I began studying Colossians because it was such a short epistle, and I wanted something accessible to the women in my church. The more I studied, the more I realized how much this ancient book speaks to our present culture. Initially, it might seem like we have little in common with the saints in Colossae, but our cultures share many similar realities: both are pluralistic, syncretistic, and prone to insecurities without and within. We need the remind ourselves the same truths the Apostle Paul reminded them! We need to remember that Christ is our only lasting and true center (Colossians 1:17). Everything else shakes and totters. Our culture offers us endless potential idols to build our lives around, but they over-promise and under-deliver security. Christ is our steady security.
Colossians is amazing in its theological heights and its practical, boot-on-the-ground principles. Paul writes of the security that flows union of Christ (Christ in you, the hope of glory), but he also goes on to address the security that comes through authority structures and healthy community. Colossians is a great entryway into the Pauline epistles. As it was written at the same time as the book of Ephesians, the two books can act like a X-ray and CT scan, which paired together give great insight into our God!
Q: Why is the book of Colossians so relevant to Christians today?
Outside of the prologue to the gospel of John and the beginning of the book of Hebrews, you will find no other place in the New Testament with such soaring Christology (the study of the person and work of Christ). We live in an age full of counterfeit truths which leave us spiritually bankrupt. In the letter to the Colossians, Paul presents Christ as He is—the only rightful center of human existence. He invites the Colossians (and us) to stare longer at the real thing so that we will be able to identify the counterfeit truths peddled all around us.
In a self-obsessed and humanistic age, we are told to put self at the center to make things right. However, putting self at the center is what caused all the brokenness of the world (see Genesis 3). As such, self-at-the-center cannot fix our problems. Only Christ at the center offers us the security our souls so desperately desire. We need to look less at self and more at the Savior, which is exactly what the book of Colossians invites us to do! Additionally, the book of Colossians anchors believers in the ancient truths that offer us hope and stability amid suffering.
Q: Why is our sense of security only as stable as the object of our hope?
Whatever you make necessary for your security, you crown the king of your life. If finances are the source of your security, your hope will rise and fall with the volatile stock exchange. If your children’s success or well-being is the source of your security, your hope will rise and fall with their fevers and failures. If any human relationship is the ultimate source of your security, you are investing all your hope in a terribly feeble frame.
Human beings were created from God’s fullness for God’s fullness. We were created from the inter-Trinitarian security for inter-Trinitarian security. Nothing else will anchor our souls. As Paul told the Colossians, “Your life is hidden with Christ in God.” This devotional seeks to work out the implications of the incredible doctrine of union with Christ. If our life and security are truly wrapped up in the work and person of Jesus Christ, then our lives must be marked by profound purpose, resilience, and freedom. Suffering, injustice, insecurity, fear, failure, and anxiety won’t have the last word over us when Christ is our center, holding all things together.
Q: There is much talk in our present culture about identity. How do we confuse our identifiers with our identity? What does Paul tell us is our ultimate identity?
Identity is a buzzword in our current culture. We are told that we get to define ourselves by ourselves, which sounds like freedom. However, this self-centered approach to identity leads to exhaustion, burnout, anxiety, and bondage. Every identity on this earth is achieved and must be maintained. A gospel identity is the only truly received identity. An identity founded up the person and work of Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8) offers the security for which our souls were intended.
Thankfully, an identity in Christ does not eradicate our identifiers, it merely puts them in their proper place. God is a God of diversity. Like snowflakes and the stripes on zebras, no two souls are alike! Our identifiers— the unique things about us from hobbies to hairstyles, from interests to foibles—matter to God and bring gifts to bear upon the world. However, they make terrible sources of identity. When we get the two confused (which we often do), our lives become disintegrated and chaotic.
Q: What role does doing life with other Christians in our local churches play in us understanding our identity in Christ?
We tend to think of the beginnings and endings of Paul’s letters in the New Testament as something to quickly plow through to get to the meat of the letter. However, if you slow down at the introductions and conclusions of the epistles, you’ll find a rich, complex web of human relationships. We were never intended to do the Christian life alone, but we have been so deeply shaped by the hyper-individualism of our culture, that we often try to do so. Paul lived deeply connected in community with other believers. The letter to the Colossians was written by Paul and Timothy, with whom Paul partnered closely for his missionary journeys. Similarly, the names Paul mentions at the end of Colossians represent those with whom he shared his life.
Union with Christ, when properly understood, compels us into Christian community with vulnerability and readiness to sacrifice and serve. In a day and age where many friendships take place almost exclusively on social media and through screens, robust communal life within a local church shapes us and changes our souls. We were created from the community that exists within the Godhead, and we are headed to an eternity full of rich, diverse relationships. As such, we would do well to practice living in community centered upon our Triune God!
Q: What can we learn about how to pray from Paul’s prayers recorded in his letters?
The book of Colossians offers countless insights in the role of prayer in the life of a believer. To begin with, Paul mentions “always” praying and thanking God for the Colossians, but we know that he likely had never even met them! The church at Colossae was planted by the church of Ephesus which was planted by Paul; as such, the Colossians are Paul’s spiritual grandchildren. He prays for them with an earnestness and zeal that are equal parts inspiring and convicting. Later, Paul mentions another church he hasn’t met yet (the church at Laodicea) for whom he labors in prayer.
The context in which the letter was written also offers insight into Paul’s prayer life. Paul wrote this letter, along with Ephesians, from prison. That’s right—his prayer requests as a prisoner were centered around the growth of the church and the opening of doors for conversations with those who did not yet know Christ. If it were me, I’d be asking for prayers for my release. But we find Paul praying for the release of the gospel to new people!
Paul considered prayer an integral part of his walk with Christ and his ministry; however, so often we let the busyness of our lives push prayer to the periphery. If we have any hope for understanding our security in Christ, it begins with the prayer Paul prayed for the Ephesian church: “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father…that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:14–17).
Q: What do our prayers reveal about our deepest longings?
If you were to look at the text chat thread on my phone between my husband and I, you would learn so much about our relationship. You would note practical elements to our relationship “Please, pick up milk.” “When will you be home?” “Are you picking up the boys?” You would also note our warmth and intimacy “Thinking of you.” “Praying for you.” “Love you so much.” “Miss you.” You would also note our shared purposes. “Praying for the meeting with the elders. How did it go?” “Can you help with an email to our supporters?”
The same is true of our prayer lives with God! They offer insight into the nature of our relationship with him. What we talk about most often will give hints to what we value most. Things that are missing from our conversation will point out places for potential growth in intimacy and partnership. Our mouths speak of that which fills our hearts most. That for which we most long, we will pray most diligently. In Colossians, we see Paul laboring in prayer for the encouragement of weary saints, the spreading of the gospel, and multiplied glory to God.
Q: No one wants to suffer or struggle, but what can we learn from Colossians about rejoicing in our sufferings and growing in our struggles?
The theme of suffering is less explicit and more implicit in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Other New Testament epistles like First Peter or the book of Hebrews address suffering head on. However, the reality that Paul wrote this letter from prison teaches us about Paul’s approach to suffering. He expected it. He trusted that God had better plans for it than he could imagine. He allowed it to press him more deeply into prayer and dependence upon Christ and his bride, the Church. He let suffering point him back towards the lasting hope found in Christ and to be unveiled in his return to bring the New Heavens and the New Earth.
When Paul talked about his ministry, he used words like agony and labor (Colossians 1:28–29). He prayed that his experiences of suffering would show to the watching world a small sliver of the sufferings of Christ on our behalf (Colossians 1:24). In other letters, he reminded the Church that the sufferings we experience are not worth comparing to the weight of glory they are obtaining for us (2 Corininthians 4:16–18). Suffering tends to bow our heads, but Paul bids us lift them to the throne room above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, ready to return with eternal peace and rest (Colossians 3:1–4).
Q: What does Christian meditation involve, and why is it an important practice to partake in, especially in times of fear, worry, and insecurity?
Defining the terms matters when it comes to meditation. We might use the same term, but at the heart, we can be talking about very different things. Unlike popular forms of meditation, Christian meditation is not merely an emptying of the mind; rather, it is the fixing of the mind on Christ. Paul bids the Colossians to set their minds on things above, not on the things of the earth (Colossians 3:1–2). He goes on to tell them why he commands such a fixing of the soul’s gaze: Christ is your life, and he has ascended to the Father (Colossians 3:3–4). Paul writes something similar in his letter to the Philippian church: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).
Christian meditation is a lifting of our minds to God that involves an emptying of lies we believe and a filling of them with Christ and his word. It is a learned practice of wallpapering our brains with his word and noticing the wonders he offers us in the world all around us. Our minds wander, but we are called to set the Lord continually before ourselves (Psalms 16:8; 119:30–32). Right thinking leads to right living. Likewise, false thinking leads to fleshly living. As such, we learn to practice the art of thinking about what is filling our minds. We listen to Paul who tells us to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corininthians 10:5).
Q: What is the difference between biblical hope and hope as the world defines it?
The word “hope” has become shopworn and slipshod in its use. We use it to convey a vague sense that things will be better or a generic sense of optimism. Biblical hope is far more than a sentiment. Biblical hope is based on absolute assurance, and it is often tied to the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is a down-payment, an earnest seal from God signifying that he intends to finish the good work he has begun in his children (Ephesians 1:13–14). Paul prays for the Roman believers, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13). Paul tells the Corinthians that three things will abide: faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Thus, biblical hope is not a vague “maybe,” but a blood-bought “will be.” Faith and hope are closely tied together. The writer of the book of Hebrews defines faith as the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not yet seen (Hebrews 11:1). Thus, the strength of our hope is closely tied to the security of the object of our hope!
Q: As we close this interview, please share the significance of Paul’s closing words to the church at Colossae.
That’s a natural segue from the question about hope. If Paul’s hope for the Colossians were based in some vague sense of optimism, he would not have ended his letter to them by saying, “Remember my chains. Grace be with you.” Paul knew well some of Christ’s last words to his disciples before he went to the cross: “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Paul’s last words to the Colossians ring with the same idea. Paul reminds the Colossians that he is in chains for the sake of the gospel. He expects similar suffering for them, but he also knows the crown that awaits those who carry their crosses with Christ (2 Timothy 4:6–8).
In his essay “The Weight of Glory,” C.S. Lewis wrote, “But the cross comes before the crown, and tomorrow is a Monday morning.” I feel a similar ring in Paul’s closing of his letter to the Colossians. Hard things will come, but God’s grace will be with you to the end of the age. He is at the center; he is all-sufficient; he is your shepherd, so you will have all you need.
you are secure
Through You Are Secure, an eight-week devotional centered on the book of Colossians, Aimee Joseph helps us see that it is our union with Christ that fills our hearts with peace. Amidst a largely insecure world, our security is anchored into the unchanging person of Jesus.
