What's your favourite book of the Bible? Like my dad, you may have 66 favourite books of the Bible, but most of us have at one time or another been specifically ministered to by a particular book. For many, that book is Ephesians. A great theological jewel, chockablock full of rich spiritual truths that we can draw upon. For others, it's Philippians, a book of great joy. For others, it's the Psalms, the 150 chapters expressing praise, frustration, anger, sadness, joy, and exaltation in the Lord. Others love the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. Still others love Romans, or the Gospels, or Proverbs, or 1-3 John, or Hebrews, or so many others. But how many of you would say Colossians? Not many, I bet. A man at my church summed it up perfectly when he read a passage from Colossians 3 one Sunday morning. He began with: "I'll now be reading from Colossians 3:12-17." Here he paused. "Hm ... Colossians isn't a book I much think about." And, for many of us, and as of last year, me included, that's what comes to our mind when we hear Colossians. But after my dad and I memorized the whole book last May-September, my view slowly shifted until Colossians was my very favourite book of the Bible!
You see, Colossians is a sort of unsung hero of the Bible. If you ask people why they don't read it or think about it much, it isn't because it's hard to read, or lacking on rich theology, or too long, or too short. It's because we simply don't hear about it much. It's a somewhat quiet book with a few famous passages that everyone has heard about, yet with so many other wonderful verses that no one has ever heard about. Now I'm not saying that everyone ignores Colossians or hardly anybody reads it. Most assuredly not! I'm simply mentioning the fact that compared to others, it's a less thought of, or popular, book of the Bible.
For example, how many books have you read on Colossians? How many sermons or Sunday School lessons have you heard on Colossians? How many blog posts have you read on Colossians? If the answer to any of those questions is Few, Not Many, or None, then I hope you'll enjoy this next blog series. For I'm going to take several posts to discuss some of Colossians' main topics. We're going to look at what Colossians says about Christ. We're going to look at what it says about the family. We're going to look at what it says about salvation, sin, the gospel, life and death, and even more. I hope that by the end of this series, you'll be able to look back and have a pretty good overview of this magnificent book. Hopefully, you'll even be able to remember some key themes, some incredible verses, and some of the exciting topics it covers. Until then, why don't you read Colossians? Four chapters, 95 verses. It's not long. I assure you, it will be well worth your time.