Week 4 – Held by Hope: “Mystery + Maturity”
Throughout the main text for this message, Paul weaves three ideas together: his joy at what he’s suffering for the sake of his readers, the revelation of God’s mystery — Christ in them, and his earnest contending for their maturity as followers of Jesus.
Those three concepts still resonate today. Jesus’ followers suffer for the Gospel’s sake, much or little. We are given the Holy Spirit, Christ in us, and the Spirit encourages us to pursue all God has for us to mature and establish our faith.