In Colossians 2, Paul begins by writing, “I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you … 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” (vv. 1–2). One detail that is often missed in our English Bibles is that the word "you" is second-person plural. Paul is not addressing isolated individuals but the church as a body—what we might say in

When we recite the Apostles’ Creed, one of the truths we affirm is our belief in the communion of saints . This statement refers to our shared participation in Christ and one another. When we are united to Christ by faith, we are also united to His people. Scripture uses the analogy of a head and a body to describe this union (Col. 1:18). Yet Western culture prizes personal autonomy, self-expression, and individualism. As a result, the communion of saints  aspect of the Chris

In Colossians 1, the apostle Paul identifies one of the defining aims of Christian ministry: “to present everyone mature in Christ” (v. 28). This goal, Paul says, is worth toiling and struggling with all God’s energy that powerfully works within him. A similar emphasis appears in Ephesians 4, where Paul teaches that gospel ministry exists to build up the church until the saints attain “mature manhood” (v. 13). These passages raise an essential question: what is Christian matu