Keeping your eye on the ball and holding the line in the ministry can be a difficult thing. Staying faithful to the task to which the Lord has called you can be difficult because people tend to celebrate different things to those things which the Lord calls his people to celebrate. When the yardstick used to measure Christian faithfulness is not the Lord's yardstick, it can be difficult to stay the course. Paul wrote Colossians to a church that was struggling to keep its eye on the most essential thing, and so he reminded them quite clearly of what that was: the gospel of Jesus Christ.