Christ the uniting Hope of His people.
I. The Epistle to the Colossians is remarkably full of this delightful fact, the world-wide family love of the Gospel. In this epistle Paul rejoices that the Gospel had begun to come to all the world, that its blessed truth was preached "to all the creation under heaven," and that "the riches of the glory" and this secret, this mystery was made known among the heathen. He lets them know that it is the most precious possible news to him that they have faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ, and love to all the saints, because of the hope laid up for them in heaven. It is the truth that wears well and bears perpetual using, and gets brighter with use, this truth that the Gospel, with its one Lord and its one hope, tends directly to bind believing hearts in one. Many influences blind our sight to the reality and glory of the fact.
II. Now what was the hope, this hope laid up for them in heaven? It was the hope of their being presented hereafter holy, unblamable, unreprovable, before the Lord. It was in their hearts no mere perchance, no venture in the unknown, no wavering "it may be so." True, the full-blown flower was yet to come, but the plant was already rooted and growing. Christ their Hope was already their Life. He was theirs now, as well as to be theirs then; so they had the hold of a deep and lawful assurance on their coming glory.
III. Then again, it was a social hope; not solitary, but social. It was for them not only one by one, but for the happy band all together. They looked forward together.Their longing eyes met upon that radiant point. They were drawn together by that glowing prospect, their final and eternal bliss, ushered in by the return of Jesus from the heavens, and bound up with Him for evermore.
H. C. G. Moule, Christ is All,p. 69.
References: Colossians 1:5. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 305; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 276; Ibid. Sermons,vol. xxiv., No. 1438. Colossians 1:5; Colossians 1:6. J. Edmunds, Sixty Sermons,p. 438; J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. vii., p. 145.Colossians 1:5-7. Homiletic Magazine,vol. xv.,