Although the book of Colossians is short, it contains many things which are mysterious. The thought in this Epistle is deep. For this reason chapters one and two are difficult to memorize and recite.
As we read chapter one, we must pay close attention to Paul’s terminology. In verse 12 he says that the Father has qualified us “for a share of the portion of the saints in the light.” In what way has the Father qualified us for this? According to 1:13, He did this by delivering us out of the authority of darkness and transferring us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
In 1:15 Paul goes on to say that Christ is the image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation. According to verses 16 and 17, all things were created in Him, through Him, and unto Him, and all things subsist together in Him. Furthermore, as the firstborn from among the dead, He is the Head of the Body, the church (v. 18). In verse 19 Paul tells us that all the fullness was pleased to dwell in Him. The word “fullness” here denotes a living person, not a thing, for an impersonal substance or thing cannot be pleased about something. This fullness was pleased to dwell in Christ, in the all-inclusive One who has reconciled all things to Him (v. 20).
Beginning with verse 24, Paul goes on to speak of God’s economy. What is God’s economy? We may have been Christians for years without knowing what God’s economy is, or without even asking Him to reveal His economy to us. God’s economy is related to the dispensing of Himself into us; however, it involves even more. The Greek word for economy, oikonomia, implies the thought of arrangement or administration. Hence, God’s economy is an administrative arrangement. In some places, as in 1:25, the Greek word is best rendered “stewardship.” God’s economy is His administrative arrangement, His stewardship, to dispense His riches into us. Just as wealthy families have an arrangement to distribute the wealth of the family to its members, so God has an arrangement in His economy to dispense His wealth into His children. Praise the Lord that we are members of God’s household! God’s economy is to dispense the unsearchable riches of Christ into all those chosen by God that they might become His children and members of the universal, divine family. As children of God, we are under His administrative arrangement by which He works Himself into our being.
The goal of God’s dispensation of Himself into us is the one new man. The ultimate consummation of the new man will be the New Jerusalem. Today the new man is a miniature of the eternal New Jerusalem. The difference is not in nature or essence, but only in size or degree. Today we enjoy the new man as the issue, the result, of God’s economy. But in eternity we shall enjoy the New Jerusalem as the ultimate issue of God’s dispensing of Himself into us. It is necessary for all of us in the Lord’s recovery to know God’s economy in this way.
My burden in this message is to point out that the fulfillment of God’s economy does not depend on our effort. Rather, it depends on the growth of life. The focal point of God’s economy is not our doing; it is life growing. Hence, it is crucial for us to see what it means to grow and how to grow. God does not need our doing. Anything that we do in ourselves means nothing. However, God wants us to grow.
In order for something to grow, it must, of course, have life. A table cannot grow, because it does not have life. However, a plant will grow because it is full of life. For example, my wife planted a tomato plant in our backyard. I am amazed how much this plant has grown and how many tomatoes it has produced. Because that tomato plant grew so much, there was the need of stakes to support it and to direct its growth. There was the need for an economy to manage this tomato plant.
I would remind you that after God created man, He put him into a garden, a place of growth. God did not put man into a school, where he could be educated, or into a factory, where he could manufacture things, but into a garden, a place where life could grow. Our need today in the church is for growth, and in order to grow we must have life.