Colossians 1:29

The previous verse tells us Paul's vision and mission. Here we have Paul's attitude.

Paul was not some hesitant servant. He threw himself fully into the work of the ministry. He aimed to teach and instruct all people, not just to mark time, but with Christ (and not himself) as the endpoint.

For such a high goal, no sacrifice is too much, no labor, and not even shame, insult, persecution, energy exertion, or time spent is too much towards that end.

He would think, “I am not doing enough because I see what Jesus did for me. I did not deserve mercy, but God showed me mercy anyway (1 Timothy 1:15-16). The least I can do is to do all I can for His cause. I am not even worthy of being called a Christian, and I am being asked to be an apostle (1 Corinthians 15:9-10), to have the Son revealed in me (Galatians 1:13-16).”

Therefore, Paul would rather spend every moment of his time pursuing a vision and mission fixed on Christ.

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The recipients of Paul’s letter might wonder why he wrote them. What's in this for him? Why should we even listen to him? Is he trying to make a name for himself? Why do we seem to hear his name everywhere? He was not among the first people appointed by Jesus as apostles when Jesus was alive, so can we trust him? Is he trying to make money?

All those are fair questions, and Paul wanted to get ahead of those questions and told them, “I am not in this for myself. I understand what you see with me is unusual, laboring more than even the apostles that Jesus named (1 Corinthians 15), but it is not without an explanation. God is the one who is doing this work in me. His power is at work.”

The conclusion is that Paul is a man who is focused on the ministry with such a grand mission and vision that sucks up his life. And embracing the ministry of Paul means embracing the power of God that is powerfully at work in him.

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Paul recognizes that he is not doing things with my own energy.

Remember that he said he was teaching and instructing with all wisdom, meaning God has given him the ability to have a massive (you might say outsized) impact on the body of Christ. Remember that wisdom is defined by its results (Luke 7:35). Paul’s emergence was not based on gimmicks; wisdom and God's power were at work in him. 

God has a special operation in Paul. We may not easily remember the names of some of the first apostles because God did not make it fair. By the time the New Testament is finished, we have 13 letters from Paul, who literally shaped the church through his writing.

Even today, some people are jealous of Paul and want to downplay his authority, but they should read this focus verse and the previous verse again. He covered a massive landmark with the gospel for his time (Romans 15:19). He was a hard worker, all in the wisdom and power of God. Glory to God!

And the “power” means that he seems to have endless energy to persist. He has an above-human tenacity. The power also spills into everything you see him outputting. Letter after letter, the ability to move into new territory, and before you blink an eye, there is a church there, preaching for hours on end (Acts 20:7-12), every day for months on end (Acts 19:8-10), being beaten to death, and he rises up and immediately starts preaching (Acts 14:19), and going headfirst into dangerous territory. 

He said, “I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus” (1 Corinthians 15:32).

The power at work in him meant that he wrote volumes that were called Scriptures, equal to the words of Jesus himself. We have more words from Paul in the Bible than from Jesus. That is the power. 

He wrote letters to the churches, and those letters were preserved. That is wisdom, and the full implications (down the millennial) of that may not have been clear to him initially. The power is also revealed in the extraordinary character of the revelations he was given, so much so that he said that so that he would not be arrogant, he got a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to trouble him (2 Corinthians 12:7). 

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In the focus verse, he wrote he was struggling. In other places, he described his work as running, fighting, and warfare, as needing intense discipline (1 Corinthians 9:26-27, 2 Corinthians 10:4). And like the athlete and the farmer, there is an eye on the goal because there is a prize at the end (2Timothy 2:2-7). 

He said he set his eyes on the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14). And while his work and the power at work in him produced a phenomenal body of work, he said he wanted to know Christ and “to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:10-11). 

Yes, he does work, but he also longs for Christ beyond that work. Let that be a lesson.