After years of silence, the ruins of Jerusalem’s temple mount now echo with the sound of tools and the voices of workmen. To the dismay of the locals, a crew of Jews has arrived to rebuild what the king had once destroyed. As the walls rise, so does the tension. Nehemiah has permission from the king to rebuild the LORD’s house, but he must protect his construction site with guards and arm his workers. With their tools in one hand and weapons in the other, their service to the LORD is both exhilharating and terrifying.
The church in Colossi knows this difficulty. Even though they have returned from the exile of unbelief, false teachers have encircled them with dangerous teachings. The Colossians, too, must defend the house of the Lord while laboring to build it.
But the foundation is Christ, and it is Christ who empowers his people in the struggle. “Him we proclaim,” St. Paul says. “For this I toil, struggling with all his working that is at work within me.”
God is at work within us, too. In baptism, we have been sealed as his own. In his Word, we are comforted, encouraged, and strengthened. But our service to God often seems anything but certain. In this life, the world is less than pleased with the work of the church, and as long as we labor for the Lord, the threats, taunts, and accusations continue.
So we follow Paul’s admonitions. We strive to walk in Christ, and not in the world. We pray, constantly and sincerely, for our own preservation, for our spiritual leaders, and for each other. We labor on and build together. We do this in full anticipation of the glorious new temple, the one Jesus is preparing for us, the one that will never be rebuilt, where the jeers and taunts are gone forever, and the sound of perfect praise in the LORD’s presence endures.
