Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Colossians 1:9-14 (NIV)
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Paul takes something practical – forgiveness – and places it at the center of God’s cosmic battle against sin. Sin destroyed our relationships with God and each other, but Jesus rescued us through forgiveness on the cross and brings us into His kingdom where we will “share in the inheritance of His holy people”. Because of what Jesus did we have restored relationships! Shame has been removed! And with a restored relationship with God we can live by His will, filled with the Spirit to guide us and work in us. Since we have been forgiven, we forgive. Since we have been loved, we love. Since we have been restored we, too, restore. That is the beauty of Christian fellowship.