Key Thought: The cross becomes an active reality with God’s love transforming people as they hear the gospel and receive Christ, the hope of glory.
February 28, 2026

1. Have a volunteer read Colossians 1:21-23.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. Why does Paul say we were alienated from God and were His enemies? What is the expected result of Christ’s death?
3. Personal Application: Could an angel or exalted created being die for the sins of the whole world? Why not? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “When you look at yourself, your character, and your innermost being, what does this tell you about your need of the cross?” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Colossians 1:24,25.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What does Paul say about his suffering for Christ’s sake?
3. Personal Application: How might the decisions you make fit in with God’s larger plan? How do we know if a decision we make is large or small in God’s estimate? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “How would you do in the face of suffering for your faith? Is it easier to suffer in a small situation that you can’t explain, or in a greater situation that you know why you are suffering?.” How would you respond to your relative?

3. Have a volunteer read Colossians 1:26,27; Ephesians 1:7-10; Ephesians 3:3-6.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. Paul talks about the mystery twice. What is the mystery?
3. Personal Application: How do you understand being perfect in Christ? What does that mean to you? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “Why is the plan of salvation spoken of as a mystery? Doesn’t this plan go all the way back to Genesis when Adam and Eve sinned? Is it because most people didn’t understand it until Christ came and revealed it to the apostles?” How would you respond to your friend?

4. Have a volunteer read Colossians 1:28,29.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. Why do we believe that once saved, always saved is a false doctrine? Why is it dangerous to believe that way?
3. Personal Application: Why is it dangerous to become content with our Christian experience and becoming confident in our situation? Is it true that God will save us when we accept Jesus no matter what we do afterward? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

(Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared. ”Ministry of Healing, p. 148).

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/9-reconciliation-and-hope-teaching-outline/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=9-reconciliation-and-hope-teaching-outline

Daily Lesson for Tuesday 24th of February 2026

Though Paul wrote Colossians while under house arrest in Rome, perhaps his greatest suffering came from not being able to labor intensively from place to place and house to house, as he had done previously (Acts 20:20). These afflictions (or tribulations), which Christ forewarned of (Matthew 24:9, John 16:33), “are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). This is the bigger picture. As Paul had written to the Christians in Philippi, so now to the Colossians he rejoices over his sufferings, which are for their benefit (Colossians 1:24).

Image © Jim Howard at Goodsalt.com

Paul may be in prison, but “the word of God is not bound” (2 Timothy 2:9). While Paul was in this confinement, Philippians, Ephesians, and Philemon were also written. After his release, God inspired him to write the important counsels found in 1 Timothy and Titus. Then, during his final imprisonment in a Roman jail, he wrote 2 Timothy. In short, these final years provided Paul the opportunity to write a significant portion of the New Testament, which probably included Hebrews.

God’s eternal plan envisioned all of this and more. The Greek word Paul uses in Colossians 1:25, generally translated “stewardship,” is oikonomia. Used in a limited sense (as, for example, in 1 Timothy 1:4), it refers to “God’s way of ordering things.”—Luke Timothy Johnson, The First and Second Letters to Timothy (New York: Doubleday, 2001), p. 164. That would include Paul’s apostleship. But in a broader sense, it includes all the provisions God has made in the plan of salvation. The ministry of Paul, the other apostles, and even the prophets of the Old Testament (Ephesians 2:20, Ephesians 3:5), including Moses, were designed “to fulfill the word of God” (Colossians 1:25), all in connection with this divine plan.

Although we will look more closely at this topic in tomorrow’s study, it is helpful at this point to notice that Paul recognized his ministry as just one small part of a much larger, long-range divine plan that began being implemented “from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 13:35, Ephesians 1:4).

<–Monday Wednesday–>

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/26a-09-gods-eternal-plan/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=26a-09-gods-eternal-plan