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Sowing Seeds of Good News in a War-plagued WorldThe Watchtower—1973 | November 15
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13. According to Paul, what was the effect of the spreading of the Kingdom hope, as illustrated in the case of Colossae?
13 The spiritual effect of this spreading of the Kingdom hope now should be the same as that in the days of the apostles of Jesus Christ during the first century C.E. Accordingly let us consider what the apostle Paul says of its effect with reference to the congregation there in Colossae, Asia Minor. He says that to the Colossians there had been a “telling of the truth of that good news which has presented itself to you, even as it is bearing fruit and increasing in all the world just as it is doing also among you.” (Col. 1:5, 6) So the “telling” of the spoken word “of the truth of that good news” was “bearing fruit” world wide, including Colossae.
14, 15. (a) To what did Paul thus liken the good news as truthfully told? (b) The picture here drawn corresponds with what parabolic illustration given by Jesus?
14 The apostle Paul here likens the “good news” that was truthfully told to them to seed planted in the ground. The ground or soil is good and fine, and seed takes root and sprouts and produces fruit, a fruit of its own kind. This picture corresponds with the parabolic illustration that Jesus Christ gave about the productive abilities of four types of soil.
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Sowing Seeds of Good News in a War-plagued WorldThe Watchtower—1973 | November 15
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11. (a) That worldwide preaching was meant is shown how in Colossians 1:23? (b) In what sense was this true of the preaching by then?
11 At the time of writing this letter Paul, as an informed, widely traveled missionary, testified to the worldwide preaching of the good news by what he says in the above introduction of his letter. He writes of the “telling of the truth of that good news which has presented itself to you, even as it is bearing fruit and increasing in all the world.” (Col. 1:5, 6) That he means a worldwide preaching Paul confirms some sentences later, when he speaks of their “not being shifted away from the hope of that good news which you heard, and which was preached in all creation that is under heaven. Of this good news I Paul became a minister.” (Col. 1:23) This, of course, did not mean that every individual on earth under heaven was being personally reached. It meant that the preaching of the good news was being pushed to all quarters of the inhabited earth under heaven and that all human creatures, without regard for language, color, race or nationality, were being given the opportunity to hear the Kingdom message.
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