As humans, we are so often looking to move on to the next thing – to progress to the next milestone, to achieve the next level, to graduate on to the higher tier. Whether it’s in sport, our careers, our relationships, our fashion – progress in these things seems often like an inevitable pursuit. And our connected world means there are always more options to consider, more changes to make, and more progress to make. “New” can often be equated with “better”!

In a world where finding the next best thing is our norm, the book of Colossians encourages Christians to remain exactly where they are in Christ. The Colossian church was a church full of faithful saints who trusted in the Lord Jesus and put their hope in him. Yet we see in the letter that they were at risk of moving on from their sure hope in Christ. People among them were encouraging them to pursue other spiritual practices or elements of the Jewish law in order to experience spiritual fullness, to graduate to the next level of religious experience.

But Paul is clear in this letter – spiritual fullness is only found by remaining in Christ. He is our only hope of heaven. And the Christian who trusts in him now actually resides with him in heaven at this moment as he reigns over all – you cannot achieve a spiritual reality higher than this! And so, in Colossians we get the opportunity to see afresh the majesty and supremacy of Jesus, his sufficiency for us in all things, and what it looks like to live out our risen reality in him even in the most mundane of our everyday life.