While under house arrest in Rome, the apostle Paul had a visit from a man named Epaphras. Epaphras started the church in Colossae, a city in Asia Minor (modern Turkey), about 1,300 miles from Rome, and he sought Paul's council on a problem with his congregation.

The church was doing reasonably well, but the members were under tremendous strain. Many of them were raised in a society that worshiped the many Greek and Roman deities. Although they believed in Jesus, they viewed him as just another god. In addition, the Jewish converts in the church insisted that commitment to Jesus could not be complete until they began to follow the Torah and to observe Jewish customs such as circumcision, a special diet, and observance of Jewish holy days.

So Paul wrote a letter to the Colossian church. The letter opens with a prayer that first thanks God for the church and its people and then asks God for wisdom and understanding for the church.

Immediately after those prayers, we find today's scripture. This poetic passage expresses two essential points: First, Jesus is supreme over everything. Nothing created in nature or by man, invisible or visible, is superior to Jesus, including the gods they grew up worshiping. Second, Jesus is enough. No adherence to the Jewish law and no deeds or actions need to be added to God's gift of salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

After that declaration, the rest of the book serves as a treatise on the life of a follower of Christ. The entire book is about Jesus's superiority and sufficiency and how that empowers his followers to live.

While we might not worship other gods, and we don't follow the Jewish law, if you're like me, you feel the strain of many things vying for your attention and maybe even your worship. It is easy to make Jesus just another thing that demands our time and devotion.

It is also easy to rationalize our work in the name of Jesus as being the completion or fulfillment of our Christian life or that somehow, we need to show God that we deserve our salvation.

When we feel the strain of this world, we should take a page from Paul's playbook. The very first thing he did for the church at Colossae was pray. The next thing he did was emphasize the truth that Jesus is above all else. He is superior to anything we can see or imagine. And he is sufficient. He is all we need, now and forever, in everything.

After we internalize that, we can live the life that God intended for us.

That's a solid strategy.

Father, thank you for the gift of Jesus. Constantly make us aware that his death and resurrection are complete, superior, and sufficient. May we rest in that and live the life you purchased for us with his blood. Amen.

This devotional was written and read by Cliff McCartney.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

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