Colossians

What This Book Is

A short letter answering a teaching that offered something extra beyond Christ, with one of the highest descriptions of him in Scripture.

Overview

Paul had never visited Colossae. The church there had been founded by Epaphras, and a teaching had taken hold that Paul regarded as dangerous precisely because it was not a straightforward denial of the faith. It offered something more: rules about food and festivals, severe treatment of the body, veneration of angels, and access to a deeper knowledge.

His response is not primarily to argue against each element. It is to describe Christ so fully that the additions become obviously unnecessary.

Chapter 1 contains the result, another passage widely thought to be an early hymn. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. All things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God reconciled all things, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Against that, Paul says the rules are a shadow while the substance belongs to Christ, and asks why they submit to regulations that have an appearance of wisdom but no value in restraining self indulgence.

The practical section follows the same logic. Since you have been raised with Christ, seek what is above. Put off anger, slander, and lying. Put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and above all love. Let the peace of Christ rule, and whatever you do, in word or deed, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Structure

• Chapter 1: Who Christ isThanksgiving, and a hymn describing Christ over all things.
• Chapter 2: What is not neededRules, asceticism, and special knowledge answered.
• Chapter 3: New clothesOld habits taken off, and compassion and love put on.
• Chapter 4: GreetingsInstructions, and an unusually long list of named friends.

Themes

Why It Matters

Colossians is the answer to every spirituality that treats Christ as a starting point to be supplemented by technique, secret knowledge, or extra severity. Its hymn in chapter 1 is one of the highest statements about Christ in the New Testament, and the letter's practical half shows that a high view of Christ is meant to produce ordinary kindness rather than exotic experience.

How to Read It

• Read 1:15-20 aloud. It rewards being heard.
• Notice that Paul answers a false teaching mostly by describing Christ rather than by refutation.
• Read 2:16-23 and ask what modern rules get treated as marks of seriousness.
• Read 3:12-17 as the practical shape of a high view of Christ.

Key Verse

Did You Know?

• The passage in 1:15-20 is often called the Colossian hymn and may predate the letter.
• Colossians and Philemon were probably carried by the same messenger and mention several of the same people.
• The city of Colossae was struck by an earthquake in the 60s AD and never fully recovered.

Where to Start Reading