When God brings us out of the kingdom of darkness, he rescues us into a people. He adopts us into his family; the Church. The Church is a people—a community. God creates us to relate to him and each other. However, there’s an area of our lives we tend to keep private, and we absolutely cannot afford to—Bible study.
Don’t study in a Vacuum
We do a lot of personal things together as the Church. We sing, pray, and take the ordinances together. Those are personal things we do as a family, but we tend to keep our Bible reading separate. We don’t tend to talk about it with others. Hopefully, we read in the morning, at night, or somewhere in between. If we are reading whenever we have the opportunity, why don’t we talk about it? We might ask what book someone is reading, note it, and move on, but no deeper than that. Studying the Bible isn’t particularly easy, yet sometimes we do it on our own, believing no interaction is necessary.
I recently purchased an organ at a thrift store. My friend helped me load it into my truck, but no one was helping me at my destination. I didn’t want to bother anybody, so I got to where I was going and I unloaded it myself. I almost hurt myself and damaged the instrument in the process. It turned out alright, but just barely. If I had just asked someone to help it would have saved me some stress and frustration.
That story captures how some of us study the Bible. We study alone, we struggle alone, and we get frustrated alone. Don’t study in a vacuum.
The Challenge
I have come across difficult Bible verses in the past I didn’t know what to make of. I know the Bible doesn’t contradict itself, I know everything it says is true and is the Word of God, and that makes difficult passages all the more… difficult. If I found a contradiction in Cujo, it’s likely because Stephen King was drinking so much he has no recollection of writing it. I wouldn’t be surprised to find contradictions in that story. It’s different with the Word of God. I can’t lazily sling difficulties onto a mistake, drunkenness, or imperfection. God makes no such errors.
One of our most important activities is reading the Word of God, and we can greatly enrich it by sharing it with others. I want to challenge you to try something, and for good measure I challenged myself to do it as well. Pick something confusing in the Bible and ask people in your church what they think about it. Ask your pastor, ask the resident theology nerd, ask your home group leader, ask that old usher guy too. That’s it. Just do that simple thing and see where it goes from there. When there’s a difficulty, there’s an answer; you just have to find it.
In a former church of mine, I employed this tactic by asking every member of the elder board whenever I had a Bible question. I received all kinds of responses: “It’s referring to the Last Day,” one might tell me, “that day is Pentecost,” another might say, or “that’s the day of the crucifixion.” One elder consistently advised me to read the verse in a simpler Bible version like New Living Translation—and that’s not bad advice. I got a lot of different answers, and they all helped.
Challenge Accepted
I asked some men in my current church—among others—to give me their thoughts on Colossians 1:24:
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church… (ESV)
How can Christ’s afflictions be lacking? Were they insufficient? What is Paul talking about here? That’s exactly why I reached out to others for answers.
Trevor
I asked my friend, Trevor Wright, to give me his thoughts on this verse. He had previously taught a Bible study through the book of Colossians. Trevor said the following:
I think the first thing we need to do when we address this text is to give the apostle Paul the benefit of the doubt, and assume he isn’t contradicting the orthodox foundation—that he himself contributes to—concerning the completion of Christ’s atoning work. In fact when we look at the text we see internal evidence that this isn’t what he is claiming to supply.
He claims to be filling up what is lacking in Christ’s ‘afflictions,’ not Christ’s atonement… We read on and see this lack Paul is supplying is for the Church, the body of Christ, those already atoned for. So, what Paul claims to be doing is supplying a lack in the afflictions of Christ that are in no way tied to the atoning work done through those afflictions, and this on behalf of the body of Christ; the church… Whatever the lack is it’s being filled up in the suffering of Paul—in his flesh.
I think it’s most orthodox and explanatory to conclude that what’s lacking in the afflictions of Christ is a contemporary, personal embodiment of those afflictions… It may be helpful to see the sufferings of Paul as a message, one he received from Christ and is now imparting to the church, thus filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions would correlate to the fulfilling of Christ’s correspondence in the delivering of Christ’s message.
You can read Trevor’s full statement here.
Scott
Another friend from church, Pastor Scott Wilson (associate professor of Biblical Studies at Veritas International University, and regular contributor to Living Waters) said the following about the same verse:
…here is where we interpret Scripture through Scripture rather than building a doctrine on one verse taken out of context.
The New Testament is replete with the truth that Christ’s afflictions leading up to and on the cross were complete, efficacious, and final. Paul himself wrote an entire letter (Galatians) preaching against the idea that anything can be added to Christ’s saving work. We are saved by grace through faith period. There is nothing we can do to add to Christ’s redemptive work, as if it is deficient in any way. That said, God, through Paul, cannot now be contradicting himself here. So what in the world does this verse mean?
My understanding of this verse is that Paul’s sufferings fill up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions not by somehow adding to their worth or sufficiency, which is impossible, but by making Christ’s perfect, complete, atoning afflictions known to and loved by the world through Paul’s suffering. In other words, in some way, Paul’s own suffering ‘for the sake of the church’ images, reflects, and extends the sufferings of Christ to the world.
As Christ said to Paul on the Damascus road in Acts 9, when Paul was persecuting the church he was persecuting Christ. Christ is so linked to the church, His body, that when the church suffers the atoning suffering of Christ is extended to the world. We might say the cross is proclaimed through the suffering of the church. Thus, just as Christ approached the cross ‘as the joy set before Him,’ so too Paul rejoices in his sufferings because they are for the sake of saving the people of Christ by pointing to His ultimate, redemptive, holy, loving suffering.
As Peter said, admittedly some of Paul’s letters are difficult to understand at first blush. But if you dig deep there are unreal riches. What a perspective on suffering for the gospel this one verse is.
You can read Scott’s full statement here.
Nick
I went outside my church and theological sphere of influence to ask my friend, Nick Quient (associate pastor at First Baptist Church of Redlands, holder of an MA from Fuller Theological Seminary, and co-host of the Sinnergist podcast), what he thought. Here’s what Nick had to say:
First, we must note that Paul’s own sufferings are “for you” (huper humōn), the fledgling assembly in Colossae (1:2)…
What is clear is that this is clearly ecclesiological participation: the “body” of Christ is explicitly identified as the church (cf 1:18) and Christ’s suffering in a horrific death (1:19-20). The somatic imagery of “head” and “body” throughout 1:15ff suggests more than mere ecclesiology. Rather, it suggests that the church is an organic unity that can suffer, and will suffer, as Christ suffered…
…I do not believe Paul is asserting that Christ’s atoning death lacked something in terms of potential. Christ’s death accomplished reconciliation for all who persist in faithful allegiance to Jesus the King (1:21-23). Instead, I believe that Paul is asserting an argument that will climax later. Paul’s own suffering (“my flesh”) is a testament to what the church is called to be: a place where men and women participate in the life and death of Christ, who was himself impoverished (Phil 2:6; 2 Cor 8:9) so that we might participate in his glory.
Christ accomplished the overthrow of Satan and the Powers, but the church still has to participate in the victory of God by going out and making disciples (Matt 28:19-20). In that sense, one could say that Paul’s own suffering for the church was “filling up” what lacked in Christ’s death: a sacrificial life of proclamation to Christ’s lordship over Caesar and the entire cosmic order…
Hence, participationist ecclesiology may be summed up with Paul’s point that I alluded to earlier: “For you have died and your life has been hidden with Christ in God. Whenever Christ—who is your life—might be manifested, then you with him will be manifested in glory” (3:3-4). This is not a call to leap into circumstances of suffering, such as staying in an abusive relationship. Rather, it is a call to recognize that suffering is a form of participation in Christ’s own gracious example—as disciples in the local church, we are to go into the world as slaves of Christ Jesus to call people everywhere to participate in God’s kingdom so that we might present all people as perfect in Christ (1:28).
You can read Nick’s full statement here.
Conclusion on the passage
I asked three men their thoughts on a passage that seemed to be diminishing the efficacy of Jesus’ atoning death. The replies I got all emphasized something different about the passage, but they all agreed on the most important thing: this verse is not diminishing Christ’s atonement. The afflictions are the suffering of the Church, not Jesus on the cross. Trevor pointed out that Paul’s suffering was akin to a message declaring Jesus’ suffering. Scott compared Paul’s suffering to a reflection of Jesus’ afflictions, since the Church’s afflictions are Christ’s afflictions. Nick said it was Paul’s participation in the suffering of Christ’s body, the Church. Do you see how well those takes complement each other?
Complete the Challenge
Once you find a question in Scripture, and you’ve taken it to a few people you trust, weigh the opinions against Scripture to determine if they’re true.
Maybe you don’t have questions to ask people. In response to that, I would have to encourage you to read your Bible more. There’s no way any of us are consistently reading our Bibles and not having questions. Maybe you’re a seasoned Christian and it’s a little rarer for you to have a question, but you will have questions nonetheless.
Let’s say you’re the theology nerd. You’ve got the answer to everything, and if you don’t, you know where to find it. Still ask questions. Because there are doubtlessly people in your church who need the knowledge and resources you have. If you ask younger, or less informed people questions, they might start thinking, and they might start asking their own questions. You might spark in them a desire for answers just like (I hope) you have. Many people learn to ignore their own curiosities until they stop learning. I don’t want that for them or you. You might offset that curiosity-ignoring habit by making them think.
Some of my favorite times are talking about theology with Trevor over a cup of coffee, or with Scott on Sundays after church, or with Nick over a cigar in my backyard. God has gifted us with the ability to have these conversations, the people with which to have them, and best of all, the Scripture they’re based on; don’t waste them.
If you like what these guys had to say, here are some links to some of their work:
Scott Wilson’s articles available from Living Waters
Nick Quient’s man-centered podcast, Sinnergists
You can follow the guys on Twitter at the following handles:
@TrevorWright88
@PScottWilson
@NickQuient