Colossians Overview

Background

• Paul didn’t start the church in Colossae, and had never been there.
• Epaphras, from Colossae, started the church.
• He had visited Paul in prison, updating on how well the Colossians were doing and some of the pressures they were facing.
• Paul wrote the letter to encourage the Colossians, address the pressures and challenge them to be more devoted to Jesus.

General Overview

• Theme: Paul wants Christians to strive maturity in Christ, so that they will continually be reminded of their Christ centred faith.
• Aim: Live lives changed by Christ in the present, as though he has already come.

Problem in Colossae, is that there are false teachers. Paul is assured that they know Christ but they are being tempted to believe that they need Jesus+. Maturity means that:

as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him (2:6)

This is the key theme of the book.

Paul also makes clear that the fact he is in prison is part of the service of the gospel and serves to advance it.

Subsections

• 1:1-2: Introduction
• 1:3-23: Thanksgiving
  • 3-8: Gives thanks for the believers
  • 9-14: Prays for them
  • 15-23: Hymn/poem is an detailed elaboration of who Christ is
• 1:24-4:6: Christians should strive for maturity
  • 1:24-2:5: Paul’s ministry in context of his desire for them to become spiritually mature
  • 2:6-23: Paul addresses the cultural pressures the Colossians face
  • 3:1-4:6: Living a life changed by Christ
    • 3:1-17: Live as in the new creation
    • 3:18-4:1: Jesus in the Christian household
    • 4:2-6: Living as a witness to Christ
• 4:7-18: A real life example in Philemon and Onesimus

False Teaching

Speculation whether it is from pagans or Jews (or even both). Rooting ourselves in the text we find:

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (2:8)

Clearly, whatever the false teaching is, it is not of Christ.

Verses 2:16-23 is where Paul’s main explanation of the false teaching comes. This is perhaps the most difficult part of the book. Paul makes use of Old Testament references.

• 2:16-23

In v16, teachers are saying the Christians need to abide by the dietary laws of the OT, continued in v21.

Therefore let no one pass judgement on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. (2:16) “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (2:21)

The purpose of these laws in the OT was to be clean for temple worship. The phrase “festival, new moon or a Sabbath” is centred in the temple in the OT. These false teachers are focusing on temple worship, insisting the laws are still applicable; however Paul insists they’re not: they were shadows of what was to come, Christ is the substance of what should be worshipped.

These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. (2:17)

Paul continues in verse 18. The asceticism he writes of is when people in early Judaism thought that more detachment from the world would make you more spiritually sensitive. They are talking about an experience in a heavenly temple, not a physical one, from the mention of worshipping angels (Christ+ angels).

Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels (2:18a)

The heart of the false teaching lies in the second half of verse 18:

Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind (2:18)

They thought that if you’re really mature and a spiritual Christian (because they equated those), then you’re going to be really involved in the spiritual world; and if you’re not, then you’re second class. The false teachers are saying that you need special spiritual experiences and visions to make your faith better, however, Paul refutes this. He makes clear that Christ is all the temple experience you need, and Paul makes sure to emphasise Christ-centredness going into chapter 3.

The false teachers were saying they were 2nd class citizens because they didn’t have this experience. Today we could see this in:

• Speaking in tongues makes you more spiritual
• Going to church however many times in a week/Sunday
• Not drinking alcohol or smoking

Paul says to make Christ the centre of your faith and press on towards spiritual maturity, not letting there be any additions.

What we should do is identify what the false teaching is by the teaching Paul presents against it, rather than extra-biblical sources.

Union with Christ

• 3:1-17

Immediately after writing about the false Jesus+ teachings, he begins chapter 3 with emphasising unity with Christ, who is exulted in Heaven. This should influence our thinking and so we get verse 2:

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things than are on earth. (3:2)

Note that in verse 4, Chris is our life now, not after we die.

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (3:4)

When we believe, we are represented by Jesus and come into union with him spiritually, taking on what he has taken on. Examples:

• Christ is the image of God; we are being conformed to the image of God.
• Christ was sanctified (1 Cor 1:30-31); we are being sanctified through the spirit.

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor 1:30-31)

• 1 Tim 3:16 says Jesus was justified, meaning that after he was judged to be guilty and crucified, his resurrection vindicates his righteousness; we are represented by his life, which was declared to be righteous.

…He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated [or justified] by the Spirit…(1 Tim 3:16)

• Christ was declared to be the son of God (Rom 1:3-4); in Romans 8 and Galatians 4, we are adopted sons of God.

concerning [God’s] Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 1:3-4) For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Romans 8:14) …God set forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)

In the Household

• 3:18-4:1

How does this fit into the rest of the letter? Paul has written about Christ’s role in the first and second creations in chapter 1, so why now is he focusing on the home? Because Christ has come, and the first household is overturned, now Jesus puts it back together. Because of the fall, there are obstructions and fractures, and Jesus comes to restore these relationships. The home is reshaped with Jesus at the centre.

Witness to the World

• 4:2-6

This is related to the previous paragraph, in that Paul writes that the believers should “walk in wisdom toward outsiders”, and the way you behave in your home is a part of a witness to others.