by Dennis Stackhouse<\/p>\n
As the apostle Paul was beginning his letter to the Christians at Colossae, he made this statement in Colossians 1:3-4:\u00a0“We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints.”<\/em>\u00a0 What a wonderful commendation that is coming from the apostle Paul to the Colossian brethren.\u00a0 This undoubtedly gave the Colossians a great sense of satisfaction that Paul was thanking God for them in his prayers regarding their faith and love, faith and love that were known beyond the confines of their own local congregation and community.\u00a0 But that begs an interesting question for Christian men and women living in the twenty-first century: Is our faith known by others?<\/p>\n Let’s consider a few more Scriptural examples of this concept.\u00a0 In Ephesians 1:15-16 we read the following:\u00a0“For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers.”<\/em>\u00a0 These verses seem to indicate that Paul had not solicited this information about the brethren in Ephesus, but that news had made its way to him that this congregation also embodied a noteworthy faith and love.\u00a0 And again, because of how the Ephesians were conducting themselves, he did not cease giving thanks to God for them in his prayers.\u00a0 Can the same thing be said about us?<\/p>\n Another similar passage is found in I Thessalonians 3:6-7:\u00a0“But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always think kindly of us, longing to see us just as we also long to see you, for this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith.”<\/em>\u00a0 In this case, Paul got word directly from Timothy that the Thessalonians were praiseworthy in terms of their faith and love.\u00a0 This was not only an encouragement for the Thessalonians, but for Paul as well.\u00a0 We remember that the apostle’s first trip to Thessalonica did not turn out that well; he had to leave town at night because of the Jewish opposition (Acts 17:1-10).\u00a0 Notice also that Paul was comforted by what he heard about the Thessalonians from Timothy even though he was personally experiencing distress and affliction.<\/p>\n One more verse is taken from Philemon 5:\u00a0“Because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints.”<\/em>\u00a0 Paul had once again heard about the love and faith that characterized Philemon’s life.\u00a0 All these statements we have noted are commending Christian men and women because they were, in essence, letting their faith and love shine forth to the world around them.\u00a0 In light of this, it seems appropriate to once again ask, what about us?\u00a0 Are our faith and love known by those who work and live around us?\u00a0 Could such commendable statements be made about us?\u00a0 Is this something we need to give greater consideration to in our own lives?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Dennis Stackhouse As the apostle Paul was beginning his letter to the Christians at Colossae, he made this statement in Colossians 1:3-4:\u00a0“We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1570,49],"class_list":["post-48001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-examples","tag-faith"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":56572,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-gospel-paul-preached\/","url_meta":{"origin":48001,"position":0},"title":"The Gospel Paul Preached","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Sean P. Cavender The book of Romans is Paul's defense of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Throughout the epistle, Paul details man's sin, man's need for justification, the conditions for justification, the effects of God's grace, and the assurances of the child of God. He makes several statements of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93651,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/saved-by-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":48001,"position":1},"title":"Saved by Faith","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 3, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh DeLong \"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-\u00a0 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40177,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-efficacy-of-baptism-in-our-faith-in-god-does-that-mean-faith-is-more-important-than-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":48001,"position":2},"title":"Is the efficacy of baptism in our faith in God? Does that mean faith is more important than baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is meant by Colossians 2:12, \"in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead\"? Is it teaching the efficacy of our baptism lies in our faith in God? If so then one of the faith\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35264,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-paul-a-false-apostle\/","url_meta":{"origin":48001,"position":3},"title":"Was Paul a false apostle?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have recently stumbled onto some information. Apparently, some Christians think that the apostle Paul was a false apostle and false teacher. They say that he taught Jesus \"faith only\" while Jesus himself clearly taught faith + works. I am deeply troubled by this and feel my world has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12761,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-dont-think-you-proved-paul-to-be-an-apostle\/","url_meta":{"origin":48001,"position":4},"title":"I don’t think you proved Paul to be an apostle","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: There are so much strife and debate among the world and believers in Christ that it seems to be a waste of time that we debate among ourselves. So please understand that I do not come in the spirit of debate, but truly searching the Scriptures to see if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":618,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/doesnt-romans-51-teach-we-are-saved-by-faith-alone\/","url_meta":{"origin":48001,"position":5},"title":"Doesn’t Romans 5:1 teach we are saved by faith alone?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 11, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Doesn't\u00a0Romans 5:1\u00a0teach that we are saved by faith alone? Answer: Romans 5:1\u00a0says, \"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.\" This proves that justification requires faith, but your stated goal was to prove that justification was by faith\u00a0alone. 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