Paul has heard that the Colossians love people and because of that, there are dangers. They need prayer. They need focus. At first, it sounds like he is commending them but later he says their love is 'in the Spirit' which means it is genuinely from God and not sentimental in nature. We don't get the credit for God's love.
Here is the passage... it is long but I just couldn't bring myself to quote portions of it. It is all needed. We need to see Jesus in fullness...
"We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing - as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister." - Colossians 1:3-23 ESV
Paul is saying, 'I love people also and I have learned that Jesus must be my focus.'
Jesus will stabilize our love. Because of the world we live in love can be a curse. If we love we are guaranteed to get hurt. The Gospel will enable us to be stable in our love. We can be refreshed in our love. We can be radical. We can be vulnerable.
Jesus is the head of the body. If we go rogue we will wind up wounded.
If men and women act like married people but are not married one or both of them are bound to get hurt. It's that simple. The demons that plague other people can eat us for breakfast if we come out from under our covering.
I understand that some groups take this concept too far and lock people down in a way not prescribed by the scriptures. Then there are other people that are so loose that they are are like love's lone rangers. They lack any kind of covering at all.
Love that heals is mostly found in a group.
"Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 ESV
Every joint supplies.
When I see people loving other people I pray for them... not because they are better than the ones that don't love to that degree... I pray because they are in danger. They need focus. They need support.
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