Evidences of Maturity

This past Sunday, Aaron spoke on Colossians 1:3-8, rightly emphasizing Paul's previously mentioned trio of godly attributes to be found in mature and maturing believers—faith, hope, and love. Because the apostle's language can often times be "run on" and wordy (this passage is actually one sentence in the Greek), I thought it worthwhile to diagram the sentence for some benefit.

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

A.	when we pray for you,
B.	since we heard
	1.	of your faith in Christ Jesus and
	2.	of the love that you have
		a.	for all the saints,
		b.	because of the hope laid up for you in heaven
C.	[which] you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you,
	1.	as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—
	2.	as it also does among you,
		a.	since the day you heard it and
		b.	understood the grace of God in truth,
		c.	just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant
			1)	[who] is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf
			2)	and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

It should come as no surprise that Paul was thanking God first above and before all else though not without reason. Here was a group of believers that had heard the gospel by Epaphras and were now being built up in the most holy faith once delivered to the saints.  The faith, hope, and love among this group was no mere passion or act of obligation but was the overflow of the Holy Spirit working through them to one another.

Real trust (faith) produces concrete actions (love) looking to sure promises (hope).