Colossians 4:17 And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.
Keep it Simple
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It’s been my observation that institutions tend to lose their founding passion because over time they become absorbed by overhead. They become more organized and have more employees and systems. None of this is intrinsically bad, and can really help in the service of the Lord Jesus. But over time, they become so absorbed with building an infrastructure that they forget why all these things have been put into place.
In Colossians 4 Paul is signing off to this church at Colosse. In Verse 17 he says, “And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it.” I want you to notice that Archippus was to focus on fulfilling his ministry, not on merely building it. You see, ministry is primarily service we give and not something we build. So keep it focused and keep it simple.
What struck me about this entire chapter was the sheer simplicity and focus of the early church. For instance, in verses 2-3, Paul prays for an open door. Paul at this time was in prison, but he wasn’t praying for an open prison door. He was praying that God would give him an opportunity to give the gospel. The problems this church faced were so much greater than many of the problems churches face now, yet Paul was focused primarily on giving the gospel. God honors that kind of focus.
I noticed the chief community of these believers in Colosse. In verses 5-6 Paul commanded that these people were to have a testimony to “them that are without.” In the minds of Paul and these people, there were those in the family of God and those that were without. These believers saw other disciples as their defining community, and they sought to reach those who were without. Their focus was very simple and razor sharp.
I also wonder what their expenses must have been at this early church in Colosse. In verse 15, Paul salutes a man who had the church “in his house.” These people [probably did not have a full time janitor for their building. They had no building! But most of us need people who can clean our church building because we have a church building that needs to be cleaned. It makes sense that as things grow, organization and systems need to grow as well. However, these systems need to be the servant and not the master. We need to remember the reason we have these systems and remain focused on our purpose.
Notice what influenced their thinking. In verse 16 Paul tells them that they were to read the epistle they had and likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. We have so much more of the Bible than these people had, and yet their main focus was the limited Scriptures they had. Today, we have so many books, audios, podcasts, and things like First Light, none of which are wrong, that should help us focus on the main thing which is to know Him and to make Him known to the world.
This church’s focus was on Christ and the ministry He had entrusted to them. If you’ll focus on fulfilling your ministry, you can trust God to build His work.