If you discovered the key to some great mystery—a cure for cancer, a treatment for Alzheimer’s, a technology that would end global warming—would you not want to spread the news? Well, according to the epistle lesson from today’s Daily Office, you have been entrusted with a secret like that. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul says:
I have become (the church’s) servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:25-27)
“Christ. In. You.” It seems so simple to say. And for those of us who’ve been saying it for a while, it can become so familiar that we lose sight of what a radical and life-changing mystery it is. But let’s not forget that just a few verses earlier, Paul has explained that Christ is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation…He is before all things, and in him all things hold together…God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:15-20)
This same Christ—this same Jesus—now resides in you. And not only in you as an individual, but in us as body; as we grow toward maturity and look forward to the glory that will one day be revealed in us.
There’s no telling what any of us will face today. But whatever comes our way, we have the fullness of God dwelling within us. May that promise be our “hope of glory” today. And may we be eager to “reveal the mystery” that God has so graciously made known to us.