The Theological Virtues

The Epistle to the Colossians was written in around 63 A.D. Paul was approaching the end of his life and the end of his writing career. His theology was more mature at this stage.
The church of Colossae was not established or overseen by Paul. It was the efforts of Epaphras whom Paul described as a faithful minister of Christ on their behalf.
as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf
and has made known to us your love in the Spirit (Colossians 1:7-8).
We will learn more about the problems confronting the church of Colossians later. Today, we focus on the opening section of the letter.

Paul wrote epistles to churches and individuals. Sometimes, he wrote in his name alone. In other epistles, he wrote them in the name of a team of people. For example, in the two epistles to the Thessalonians, besides the name of Paul, Silvanus (Silas?) and Timothy were mentioned. In the latter epistles, Timothy was mentioned in the opening of four more occasions: Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. Sosthenes, the synagogue ruler, was mentioned in the opening of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. Therefore, other names were mentioned in these letters when they were co-workers of Paul in that particular church.

Faith, hope and love, the three theological virtues were mentioned since he began writing these epistles. Paul usually praised the recipients for their performance in these three virtues. For example,
We give thanks to God always for you all, constantly mentioning you in our prayers,
remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3).
Near the end of his writing career, he continued doing the same thing.
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have for all the saints,
because of the hope laid up for you in heaven (Colossians 1:3-5a).
Therefore, these three virtues are essential in defining Christianity. We are more familiar with the virtues of faith and love. The virtue of hope has not received the respect that due her. To have hope is to have confidence of the future, in the end of the world. In the early church, the virtue of hope had supported martyrs and the persecuted Christians. Nowadays, our lack of hope is in fact an indicator that the church is not suffering physical tortures or Christians have lost sight of the end of the world, of heaven. Therefore, our lack of hope is an indicator of our spiritual illness.

Dear Lord, we are losing sight of our future. We are losing our hope in paradise. Lord, besides granting us Your strength to go through modern challenges, ignite Lord, our hope in You. Amen.