Daily Bible Reading 16th June 2025 // Colossians 1:24-29
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, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
Paul, however, seems to be saying more than simply that dedicated servants of the Gospel reflect the sufferings of Christ. He appears to be very daring and bold when he claims that in some way his sufferings fill up what is lacking in regard to the afflictions of Christ. What can Paul mean? Well, the apostle has just affirmed that Christ's birth, life and death on the Cross have accomplished and completed, once and for all, a full and sufficient at-one-ment. Nothing can be added or needs be added to it. Paul cannot, therefore, mean that his sufferings can add anything to somehow complete the unfinished saving work of Christ. This leads us to interpret the phrase 'the afflictions of Christ' in a way that does not refer primarily to the Cross. Paul's reference here is best understood as referring rather to the end-time afflictions of the Body of Christ. (Acts 9:4, for example, implies that the exalted Christ continues to suffer in the members of His Body (cf Matthew 24 and Mark 13). Paul's teaching here, then, is that by his suffering, he helps to fill up what is lacking in these eschatological sufferings of Christ in His body, the Church, and, by implication, that we fill up the measure of this end-time suffering and so bring the end, the advent of Christ and the dawning of future glory that much closer. Does this not put our suffering into a quite different context? The significance of all and every distress which the servant of the Gospel endures is this big. By so suffering we are led ever deeper into union with Christ; we bring the end (the Parousia) that much closer; we serve the Body of Christ and we reflect and communicate the Gospel message to the watching world. No wonder the apostle, while not denying the inward groaning and distress, can rejoice in his suffering (v 24), and, speaking of the end, can say (Romans 8:18): I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.