Reading for October 3rd

 Read Colossians 1.24-2.19. In 1.24-2.19: A personal witness and warning. An autobiographical sketch describes the church's maturation (1.24-2.5) and leads to a warning against deviating from the truth (2.6-19). In 1.24: A certain amount of suffering is assumed to be necessary (see 1 Thess 3.3) before the end can arrive. Completing ... Christ's afflictions, any suffering brings the end sooner. In verses 26-27: The mystery is Christ in you, the image of Christ growing in you. In verse 29: Toil, struggle, the effort to bring about the community's maturity. See 1 Thess 2.9. In 2.6: Live your lives, "conduct" your lives, see 1.10. In verses 8-9: The warning: although the heresy appears as wisdom because of its ascetic and ritualistic practices, Christ's death and resurrection are sufficient to bring the believers lives into the new dominion. In verse 8: Takes you captive, false teachers are like robbers or kidnappers. In verses 11-12: Putting off, buried with him in baptism, baptismal images joined with spiritual circumcision to describe entry into the new life ((see Gal 3.27). In verse 14: Record, a note of debt. In verse 15: Disarmed, stripped of power. Roman emperors led  captives in a public triumphal procession. In verse 17: Shadow and substances, a familiar contrast in Greek though (see Plato's Republic 514a-518b). In verse 18: Angels worship, worship offered to angels or worship offered by angel, probably the latter. Comments or Questions..