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What do you need to do to be a Christian? What do you need to do if you want to live as a better Christian?

Some people might say that you need to be really religious and try to obey the 10 commandments more and more, then you can be a Christian. Others might say that, to be an effective Christian, you need to deepen your spiritual connection with God so you’re more aware of him in your life. Still others might say that being a better Christian is all about reading your Bible more. You’ve got to pray more and go to church more.

What do you think you need to do to live as a better Christian?

Did you notice what all those things had in common?

‘More’.

Be more religious, more spiritual, more connected with God. Do more, feel more, obey more.

What do you need to do to be a better Christian?

It’s not about doing more or being more.

The answer is found in Jesus – in hearing the Gospel, the good news of all that Jesus has done for us.

The message of Colossians

The New Testament letter to the Colossians was written by the Apostle Paul while he was in prison in Rome.

It was written in about 60 AD – 30 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. It was written to warn Christians about some dangerous false teaching that was threatening to harm the church in this small Roman city of Colossae.

Paul hadn’t visited this church before but that didn’t stop him caring deeply about them. He writes this letter to help them stay clear of false teaching and stay close to the true message of Jesus.

This sounds pretty bad… and it was! It was threatening to do lots of damage to this group of believers.

But what was this false teaching?

It was ‘something more’ than hearing and believing the gospel.

That is, the false teachers were saying that if you want to be the true people of God, you need something more than hearing and believing in Jesus.

This lie was around then, and it’s still around today.

“You don’t really just need Jesus… you need ‘something more’: more religion, more spiritual experiences, more obedience.”

But that’s so wrong! It’s a false gospel.

As we go through this letter, Paul will help us see that we don’t need Jesus and ‘something more’. In fact, the very thing that makes us a Christian is the exact same thing that we need to live as a Christian.

We just need Jesus and his good news.

This is an excerpt of the first video in the forthcoming Video Bible Talks series from the book of Colossians, available from 1st October 2018.

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