Do you like a good mystery novel? The kind that keeps you up late, flipping pages to uncover the twist? Or maybe you’ve been entrusted with a secret — something precious and deeply personal.
That’s the kind of mystery Paul reveals in Colossians 1:26-27. But this one isn’t fiction. It’s real. And it’s finally out in the open.
Why Paul Uses the Word “Mystery” on Purpose
Paul wrote Colossians from prison, to a church in a small town he had never visited. He did not plant it. A man named Epaphras did, and Epaphras had come to Paul worried.
The problem at Colossae was not obvious sin. It was something more flattering and more dangerous: teachers telling these believers that Jesus was a fine start, but that real spiritual maturity required more. Special knowledge. Extra observances. Access to things the ordinary believer did not have.
That is why Paul reaches for the word mystery. It was their word. It was the vocabulary of the mystery religions of the day, where a secret was revealed only to initiates who had earned their way in, and where the whole appeal was being on the inside.
Paul takes the word and detonates it. Yes, he says, there is a mystery. It has been hidden for generations. And it is now announced publicly to absolutely everyone, with no entrance requirements at all. The secret is not a technique you climb toward. The secret is a Person who has already come to live in you.
He is not offering a better initiation. He is ending the whole idea of initiation.
Here It Is: Christ in You
This mystery was once hidden, misunderstood, kept in the dark for generations. But not anymore.
Now, it’s for everyone. Not just the religious. Not just the rule-followers. Not just the polished and the put-together.
It’s a mystery that’s simple, rich, and full of glory. Not a code. Not a formula. Not a checklist.
Jesus in you. That’s the secret. And without Him, there’s no true hope. He gives you a new identity, a new relationship, and a new future.
The Two Words We Skip
“Christ in you” gets quoted constantly. The rest of the sentence gets dropped: the hope of glory.
Paul is making a claim about the future, not just the present. Christ in you now is the deposit, the evidence, the down payment on something not yet finished. It is why he can write this from a prison cell without it sounding hollow.
Whatever is unfinished in you is not the end of the story. The One living in you is the guarantee of how it ends.
What This Looks Like on a Tuesday
It mostly looks like refusing the upgrade. Every season has a new version of the Colossian offer — the conference, the method, the teacher who has the thing you are missing. Some of it is good. None of it is the secret.
You already have what you were looking for. Go deeper into that rather than sideways into something else.
Watch This Week’s Devotional
A Prayer for This Week
Jesus, thank You that there is no secret handshake and no waiting list. You are already here. Keep me from chasing a deeper thing than You. Be the hope I am counting on when I cannot see how this ends. Amen.
The Passage
“This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory.”
Read the passage in full on Bible.com.
Taking It Into Your Week
- If you’ve never embraced Christ, we invite you to.
- If you’ve known Him but haven’t explored the depths of His grace, do it — make it a priority.
- And if you know the truth of this mystery, live it, love it, and pass it on.
More Farm Sunday Devotionals
Pass on the Good News. Now that’s BombDiggity.
Written by
Lane and Jules Morris
Authors and University of Tennessee faculty writing from our farm in East Tennessee about gardening, the farm kitchen, faith and designing a flourishing life at any age. More about us
