Colossians 4:2 … Alert in Thanksgiving (04/25/17)
“Devote yourselves to prayer;
keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.”
~ Paul (Colossians 4:2)
First & foremost, it is important to remember that Paul would have us devote our lives to religious worship of Jesus himself (much like the Christian church that was founded on his self-authored teachings) – which is exactly the opposite of what Jesus himself wanted us to do (namely, to pray in secret whenever we pray – see Matthew 6:5-6, and to worship not himself but the Father, via acts of selfless service for others – see Mark 10:18, Matthew 16:28, John 13:15-17, Matthew 25:35-40 et al).
Second, note that Paul would have us pray for our own salvation, and somehow “keep alert” by giving thanks for our own blessings, while Jesus would have us pray only “in his name” – in essence only to be of ever-greater service to those around us (see Matthew 1:23 + Matthew 21:22, John 14:13-14, John 15:7, John 16:23 et al). And the only way we can remain truly “alert” in such a spiritual paradigm is to return continually to Loving others selflessly (see Matthew 18:3-4, Matthew 23:12 et al) – and to giving thanks for the Grace that allows us to do this in every moment of our lives.
Finally, note as well in closing that Colossians, if it was written by Paul at all, would have been written by Paul while he languished away in a prison cell near the very end of his life; possibly the reason he would invite others to a similar form of passiveness (seeing as how the misery of all those steeped in self-centeredness tends to love the company of those in similarly meaningless misery).
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