Colossians 1:23

‘If so be that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which you heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven, whereof I Paul was made a minister.'

Final perseverance is the test of the genuineness of faith and the resultant salvation. If Christ is at work in them then He will enable them to the end. Thus their assurance rests on two things. It rests on their faith in the reliability of the Saviour, and on the evidence of their continuation in ‘the faith', the truth as revealed in Jesus, firmly grounded, and faithful and steadfast. Those who move away from ‘the hope' of the Gospel, the expectation of their final presentation in unreproachable perfection, and cease to live lives approved unto God, only prove thereby that they had never truly believed. ‘They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us they would have continued with us' (1 John 2:19).

‘The faith.' As revealed in ‘the word of God' (Mark 7:13), the Old Testament, and in ‘the testimony of Jesus', which became the Gospels, and as found in the proclamation of the word by the Spirit guided Apostles, which became the rest of the New Testament.

‘Moved away.' There are always those who would seek to move us away from the true Gospel. And their teaching is often subtly like the Gospel, possibly just with an overemphasis on one particular aspect. But if that aspect takes our eyes off Christ, or out of fellowship with His people, we must beware, for Christ  is  the Gospel, and love for  all  His people is mandatory.

‘Grounded.' Based and built on a firm foundation (see 1 Corinthians 3:10). ‘Steadfast.' Because firmly grounded, continuing firm, and immovable. Such people are like the man who built his house on a rock, and when storm, tempest, hurricane and flood came it stood firm because it was firmly grounded (Matthew 7:24).

‘The hope of the Gospel.' The ‘hope of the Gospel' is faith looking into the future. Looking to that final day when Christ Himself will come and transform the righteous, presenting them without fault or blemish before His Father.

‘Which was preached in all creation under heaven.' Jesus Christ had Himself promised that the Gospel would be preached to all nations (Mark 13:10). Paul saw this as well under way. But as always in Scripture such all embracing statements refer to their known world, not to the vague world far beyond of which they knew little or nothing (compare 1 Kings 10:24).

‘Whereof I Paul was made a minister (diakonos).' A reminder to them of his special calling which was the basis of his authoritative teaching.