Rescued from the power of darkness
Colossians 1:3-14 NRSV
In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Q: Who are the saints?
A: The saints are all those in heaven and on earth who place their faith in Jesus Christ, who are set apart, holy to God in Christ, and transformed by his grace.[1]
Psalm 16:1-3 NKJV
Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust. O my soul, you have said to the Lord , “You are my Lord, My goodness is nothing apart from You.” As for the saints who are on the earth, “They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”
[The apostle Paul’s] great concern is that they should know the Lord’s will, then that they should live their lives in a way consistent with it. They should seek to please the Lord in all they do, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in their ‘personal knowledge’ (Greek) of the Lord. He longs for them to know the Lord’s glorious power in their lives, and this will produce endurance and patience—with joy. He wants them to be full of gratitude to the Father who had seen fit to bring them into an inheritance among the ‘saints’ (a name for Christian believers: it means people set apart for God) in the realm of light. God has rescued them from the power of darkness and transferred them into the kingdom of the Son he loves. In Jesus they (and we) have redemption (the idea is freedom for those in spiritual bondage, gained at the price of Jesus’ death) and this has resulted in the complete forgiveness of sins.[2]
O eternal Lord God,
You hold all souls in life: Shed forth upon your whole Church in Paradise and on earth the bright beams of your light and heavenly comfort; and grant that we, following the good example of those who have loved and served you here and are now at rest, may enter with them into the fullness of your unending joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
(Anglican Book of Common Prayer, 2019)
For All the Saints
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Corinthians 4.15).
[1] “To Be A Christian” Anglican Catechism, question 100 (Wheaton, IL, Crossway, 2020).
[2] Michael Green, Through the New Testament with Michael Green: Matthew to Revelation (Nashville, TN; Bath, England: Kingsley Books, 2019), 247–248.
