“I don’t have to be afraid…”

These words left me silent for a moment.

I was teaching a class on the letter of Paul to 46 students in Tanzania’s Mara region. As we studied the letter to the Colossians, I taught about the world behind it—the beliefs and fears that shaped the lives of the people who first heard Paul’s words.

After the lesson, one of my students, a pastor, said quietly,

“I don’t have to be afraid. I didn’t know that before.”

Sometimes you teach something because it’s on the syllabus. And sometimes you realize that what feels like simple background information to you can be freedom for the person sitting across from you.

Colossians is a short book. Four chapters. You can read the whole thing before finishing your morning coffee.

But behind those four chapters lies a world crowded with diverse beliefs. The people of Colossae held a variety of views on angels and spirits, rituals and religious practices, and ways to protect themselves from powers they couldn’t see and forces they couldn’t control.

And into this world, Paul writes about Jesus.

Not merely as another spiritual power. Not as one among many. But as the One through whom and for whom all things were created.

“He [Jesus] disarmed the rulers and authorities… he triumphed over them in him.” (Colossians 2:15)

Two thousand years later, in a classroom in Tanzania, those words still ring true.

Witchcraft is not an ancient idea here. In the Mara region especially, beliefs about witchcraft and spiritual powers continue to shape everyday life. People live with a very real fear of curses, spirits, and witch doctors. Becoming a Christian does not erase those fears overnight.

So when the pastor looked my way and said, “I don’t have to be afraid,” something major had shifted.

He was beginning to see that if what Paul said about Jesus is true, then the powers he had spent his life fearing were no match for Jesus.

Christ is above them.
Christ created them.
Christ defeated them.
Christ reigns over them.

In Christ, our spiritual safety is not solely our responsibility—we can look to Jesus.

“I didn’t know that before.”

These are the moments I love most about teaching. We’re not just studying books to understand them. We’re seeing the truth of Scripture meet real fear, affect real lives, and then leave the classroom in the hands of men and women who will carry that truth back to their churches.

Every student sitting in front of me represents many others: a family, a friend, a congregation.

This pastor wasn’t simply discovering something for himself. He was realizing he could go home and tell his church: You don’t have to be afraid!

Not because witchcraft isn’t real. Not because spiritual evil isn’t powerful.

But because none of those things are more powerful than Christ. Our confidence isn’t found in pretending the battle doesn’t exist, or in learning to fight the battles ourselves.

Our confidence is knowing who is seated above it all.

I’ve been thinking about that pastor’s words ever since.

“I didn’t know that before.”

His fears may look different from mine, but are we really all that different?

When we read Colossians, most of us probably aren’t wondering whether someone has put a curse on us. Instead, we fear diagnoses, bank balances, losing control, relationships we can’t fix, and decisions we might get wrong.

We lie awake at night trying to solve tomorrow before it arrives. Somewhere along the way, we choose to live as if everything depends entirely on us.

Different fears, same temptation– we fixate on what frightens us until it looms larger in our minds. Paul’s answer to fear isn’t “try harder to be brave.” Instead, he tells us to look up!

“Seek the things above, where Christ is seated… set your mind on things above…” (Colossians 3:1-2)

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible… He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17)

All things held together… not because I am holding them;

Because He is.

“I don’t have to be afraid”