14 day plan

The Gospel Centred Leadership

Day 3 of 14

NIV

Colossians 1:5-6

5the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.

Reflection: How the Gospel Transforms Leaders

Most Christians think the gospel is only for unbelievers, or at least baby believers. That is, the gospel is the milk, not the meat of the Christian faith. The truth is, the gospel to the Christian faith is simultaneously the milk, the meat, the appetizer, the dessert, and the coffee and after dinner mint!

We need to continually drink from the bottomless well of the gospel, whether we have been Christians for three weeks, three years, or three decades. To put it differently, the gospel is not just a starting point, it is the reference point for all Christians, including Christian leaders.

Paul wrote to saints in Ephesus, for example, about the grace-alone-through-faith-alone-in-Christ-alone gospel in the first three chapters of his letter, followed by practical application of that gospel in the three remaining chapters.

Here is how the gospel relates to leaders in the workplace (Eph 6:5-9). Christian leaders should treat others (e.g., clients or colleagues) with kindness and tenderness without regard of their past mistakes because that is how they were treated by God. Also, the relationship with their superiors must be characterized by an attitude of voluntary subordination as bondservants of Christ rather than people-pleasers. On the flip side, unlike the cruel masters of the first century, they should be fair and considerate towards their staff, because they have received much more than what they deserve from God.

Paul went to great lengths to show that the gospel should relate to every single dimension of our lives. Has the gospel transformed you as marketplace leaders?

Prayer:  Father, bring me closer to the cross to marvel at what Christ has done for us, not what I promise to do for him. Intensify my hunger for you, not more things from you but just more of you.  Help me to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, such that it transforms every single area of my life.

Colossians 1:1-29

1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

3We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— 5the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. 7You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

9For 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, 10so 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, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The Supremacy of the Son of God

15The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

21Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Paul’s Labor for the Church

24Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. 25I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— 26the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

28He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. 29To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.