Colossians 2:2

When Jesus was about to be crucified, he prayed that Christians would be one (John 17:21-23), and here Paul is saying that is his goal: oneness, being knit together in love, the realization that we are one in Christ, we are the body of Christ.

Though we have different hues, languages, backgrounds, and experiences, we are meant to be one in Christ. We are not one in natural riches, jobs, locations, or preferences; our oneness is derived from Christ.

Paul's goal is to reach people's hearts, not their pockets. He echoes Jesus's sentiment, “For what benefit is it for a person to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his life?” (Mark 8:36). Basically, the heart is more important than the money.

In another place, he said, “…even if our physical body is wearing away, our inner person is being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16)

Paul does not just want the hearts of the people to be knit together in love he also wants them to be encouraged.

• Paul's desire is that the hearts be knit in love, though it is not the default that people of different social statuses and ethnicities be one, meaning some things do not make it seem the natural route.

• Similarly, when your hope is in heaven and in an unseen Christ, encouragement is needed that you are on the right path.

So Paul has three goals: love, encouragement, and assurance. The love leads to the encouragement, and the last two feed off one another. He wants them to be assured of what they have not seen, building up their faith through understanding the mystery of God — Christ.

There is an encouragement that comes from being among the community of believers where the emphasis is Christ, and there is a constant explanation and hammering on knowing Christ, where Christ is unapologetically emphasized, not as a means of getting ahead in life, not as a secret voodoo knowledge of manipulating the elements and getting life success. Not as a bunch of people who gather together to complain about how things are terrible because they are Christians, but rather with the eyes constantly directed at Christ.

Jesus said that just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, he would be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life (John 3:14-15). When Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, the people had to look to be saved.

We all understand that we need to look at Jesus to be saved, but we need to be told that we need to constantly look to him even after that. We need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), and continue to look to him daily.

Paul said that assurance brings riches. He definitely defines riches not in terms of human currencies but in terms of the flourishing of the soul (something we cannot quantify) that is set on Christ. In another place, Paul said we should keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:2-3).

He called Christ the mystery of God. He wants to feed the people with the knowledge of that mystery, and that is what the letter is about: communicating what we have in our shared inheritance in Christ.

Since we are all one in Christ, there is no distinction between believers. The Christian church's social order does not have a worldly hierarchy; it consists of people who serve others with the knowledge of the truth. “Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave,” Jesus said (Matthew 20:27).

There is actually a warning not to lord it over those entrusted to them (1 Peter 5:3). The mystery of Christ is about the inversion of what we have in the natural world. When contrasting his kingdom with the kingdom of this world, Jesus said that the first would be the slave.

And the church is the herald for the kingdom and of the king, where we focus on love for one another and the knowledge of Christ.

Paul is not saying that only a few people need to understand, but all believers need to understand because without the right understanding, we are liable to fall into lies, and that is what Paul wants to prevent with his work, teaching the truth as vigorously as he did.

Paul feels he is in a race against time to help the believers stand firm in Christ by standing firm in full assurance as they are fully immersed in the truth of the gospel.

In another place, Paul said “I am afraid that just as the serpent deceived Eve by his treachery, your minds may be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3).

This is a serious thing for him. He can't have the church running after another husband, rather than the one who died for her to purchase her for God.