“And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and irreproachable in His sight – if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.” Colossians 1:21-23.

While we are only concerned with verse 23 in this post, all of Colossians 1:21-23 has been included above to maintain context.

The beginning of verse 23 states, “…if indeed you continue in the faith” making it sound a great deal like you can lose your salvation and go to hell if you do not remain a good Christian.

That is not what it says in this phrase. It does not say, “…if indeed you continue in faith”, if it did then it would rightly mean that if lost your faith in Christ you would lose your salvation.

But, look again at the verse, it says, “…if indeed you continue in the faith”; that little word “the” makes all the difference in the world.

To be in faith is between you and God. Did you really accept Christ as your Savior in your heart, or did you just mouth the words in front of your friends to get them to leave you alone?

This is something that no one other than you can know for sure, but God does. And sometimes even the individual themselves do not know for sure whether they are in Christ. This is why we are to examine ourselves in matters like this.

“Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Prove [test] yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified.” 2 Corinthians 13:5.

To examine yourselves means to examine yourself, your own life, not someone else. “…unless indeed you are disqualified” means that if someone fails the self-examination they have never accepted Christ as their Savior and are not true Christians.

It is possible that we all come to a place in our lives when we become unsure of the reality of our belief; it did to me. Here is the solution to my question.

“…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.” Romans 10:9-10.

When I considered this verse I remembered that I had on numerous occasions confessed to others that Jesus was my Lord. The second part of this verse, “…believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead” brought an even more positive answer.

I had found that the atheist’s hateful Jesus and God jokes which they find so amusing only angered me, whereas, years earlier, they had not bothered me, though I have never found them amusing.

But, for me, the most powerful proof of salvation came when I read an interview with the mayor of Jerusalem in a travel magazine; while the interview was being conducted, a worker rushed in and told the mayor that they had found the body of a man who had been crucified.

Thinking that it might possibly be Jesus, the mayor began to worry about the impact such a find would have on tourism.

The thought revolted me, almost to the point of retching. So, yes, I felt that this was proof of my belief that God had indeed raised Christ from the dead.

My revulsion though did not come from a fear that they had found the Lord’s body, what sickened me was the idea that anyone could suggest that Jesus had not risen from the dead and that there was no empty tomb where they had put Him.

The cynic or atheist might suggest that this was just my spineless response to mental conditioning, brainwashing, as they are fond of calling it.

But I assure you it was a much more visceral response such as one might have if a person were to accuse their father of being a serial killer who tortured young girls and boys. I do not think this would be a response brought on by brainwashing.

If this is not satisfactory, there is another method of testing yourself, and it is what verse 23 “…if indeed you continue in the faith” actually means.

Those who continue in the faith show outwardly the condition of their heart. This is a principle that is important to understand when dealing with yourself or others.

If after months or years of being a “Christian” an individual still tells filthy jokes, or laughs at the Jesus and God jokes, if they still go to drunken parties, or hang out with the drug crowd, or continue to commit adultery, or abuse their family, it is likely that they are not a Christian.

Understand this though. Christians quite often do not become completely free immediately of some fairly bad stuff like drunkenness, envy, jealousy, hatred, or adulterous thoughts, to name a few vices.

When someone accepts Christ as their Savior a great deal changes immediately.

Heroin addicts have been known to quit when they are saved, liars begin to quit lying, the angry begin to love, and the bitter become sweet. Some things fall away immediately other tougher things can take time.

“I say then: Walk in the Spirit [God’s Holy Spirit in you], and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh [your sinful desires]. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” Galatians 5:16-17.

Do not despair, do not stop reading your Bible, and do not give up, never give up, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. He will not give up on you!

“…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ…” Philippians 1:6.

It is necessary to observe the actions of oneself or others in order to ascertain whether they are a true Christian or not. This is not to judge them; it is to know how to interact with them.

If you automatically assume that a person is a Christian, you will treat them like one. Often with disastrous results, unsaved men have gained positions of authority within the church.

Whether it was a large denomination or a small house church does not matter, they can still pervert church doctrine or destroy the faith of those who attend there. Even as Sunday school teachers unsaved people can wreak horrendous damage.

This is where actions speak louder than words, if a person is not.

“…grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard…” Colossians 1:23b.

There is a very good possibility that they are not a Christian or need someone to come along side and teach them the basic principles of Christ and the unchanging nature of the gospel of Christ which is described by Paul as follows.

“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures…” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.

The gospel (good news) is, as stated above, Christ died for our sins, was buried, and that He rose again on the third day. Yes, it is that simple.

“For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” Romans 10:11-13.

On your part you must understand that you have sinned, rebelled, against God and repent, turn away, from your sins and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ really did die for all of them.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is immutable; completely unchanging for all eternity and through it alone the guarantee of eternal life is gained.

If anyone waffles on any point, or tries to add something to it, it is almost certain that they are not a Christian.

Such persons are not to be given authority in the church, nor are they to be given any responsibility such as teaching, no matter how charismatic they are, how rich they are, or how great an orator, or singer, administrator, politician, or movie star they are.

As for the Colossian Christians the apostle is telling them that they are to remain.

“…grounded and steadfast and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister” Colossians 1:23c.

Paul then reaffirms his authority as a minister of the only gospel. He says these things to keep men from adding to the gospel such heresies as, the worship of angels and Gnostic perversions of the gospel.

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” 1 John 4:1-3.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” Matthew 7:15-20.

Colossians, 1:23 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 12-18-13, updated on 3-4-20.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.