Episode 2682 - Lesson 9 - Tuesday Feb. 24 - God's eternal plan

God's Eternal PlanRead Colossians 1:24-25. What does Paul say about his suffering for Christ's sake?Though Paul wrote Colossians while under house arrest in Rome, perhaps his greatest suffering came from not being able to labor intensively from place to place and house to house, as he had done previously (Acts 20:20). These afflictions (or tribulations), which Christ forewarned of (Matt. 24:9, John 16:33), "are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18). This is the bigger picture. As Paul had written to the Christians in Philippi, so now to the Colossians he rejoices over his sufferings, which are for their benefit (Col. 1:24).Paul may be in prison, but "the word of God is not bound" (2 Tim. 2:9). While Paul was in this confinement, Philippians, Ephesians, and Philemon were also written. After his release, God inspired him to write the important counsels found in 1 Timothy and Titus. Then, during his final imprisonment in a Roman jail, he wrote 2 Timothy. In short, these final years provided Paul the opportunity to write a significant portion of the New Testament, which probably included Hebrews.God's eternal plan envisioned all of this and more. The Greek word Paul uses in Colossians 1:25, generally translated "stewardship," is oikonomia. Used in a limited sense (as, for example, in 1 Tim. 1:4), it refers to "God's way of ordering things."--Luke Timothy Johnson, The First and Second Letters to Timothy (New York: Doubleday, 2001), p. 164. That would include Paul's apostleship. But in a broader sense, it includes all the provisions God has made in the plan of salvation. The ministry of Paul, the other apostles, and even the prophets of the Old Testament (Eph. 2:20, Eph. 3:5), including Moses, were designed "to fulfill the word of God" (Col. 1:25), all in connection with this divine plan.Although we will look more closely at this topic in tomorrow's study, it is helpful at this point to notice that Paul recognized his ministry as just one small part of a much larger, long-range divine plan that began being implemented "from the foundation of the world" (Matt. 13:35, Eph. 1:4).Think about your own life. How might the decisions you make (big and small) fit within God's larger plan? Can we really know whether a decision is actually "small"? How might it have larger ramifications that will become apparent only later?