Introduction to Colossians

Trying to find another passage to teach from is like opening up a box of jewels and trying to decide which one is most valuable.

It’s kind of hard to do

One of these jewels is the book of Colossians

This is a book that is rich in theology and teaching about who Jesus is

His nature

It is a book that I have loved, and as I’ve been reading through this letter, I am getting more excited about exploring it with you

Because as we get to know Christ and understand more of who He is,

It should increase our love for Him.

Old saying (and some songs written) To know you is to love you

Probably have to hold that statement a bit loosely. There are certainly some people who, the more you know them, the less you want to be around them

But I would say that this saying must be true when it comes to Jesus.

The more you know HIm, how can you help but love Him?

And the more that we love Him, the more that we are drawn to worship Him

As we are going to see in this book, there is plenty to draw us into worshiping Jesus

The more we know Him, the more we love Him, and the more that we worship Him, the more we want to be like Him

I call this discipleship

Learning to be like Jesus—desiring for our lives to be such that when people look at us, they say, “Hey, that’s something Jesus would do. That’s how Jesus would act

That’s how Jesus would respond to this situation

That’s the same way that Jesus would treat people

His heart is the same heart that Jesus would have

So, let’s get ready to have a look at Colossians and see

First of all, I’d like to spend some time with the context of this book

What kind of literature is this book?

It’s a letter

Why is that important?

Well, it’s important because it should affect how we read it

sometimes we might have the attitude of, “Well, this Bible is written directly to me.”

All the promises of the book are mine, every chapter every verse every line

Other kids song—It’s a love letter from God to me

So, there’s a little bit of truth there. I do believe that God has preserved these Scriptures down through the ages for our benefit

But, remember, this is a letter written

by a real person

To real people

With real lives

And for a specific reason

And so it’s helpful for us to at least try a little bit to understand who these people are, and why this letter was written

What was going on in their lives

What was the situation that caused this letter to be written in the first place

Who is the author

Well, as most of us probably know, it is the Apostle Paul

Now, it seems like there are always people who doubt the authorship of these books, but we are going to be approaching this book as if it really was Paul who wrote it

Where was Paul when he wrote this letter?

Rome

It is believed that it was written sometime between 60-62 A.D. while Paul was a prisoner in Rome

Who is the letter written to?

The Believers in the city of Colossae

Where is Colossae?

In a region known as the Lycus Valley, because the Lycus River flows through it

You can see that Colossae is only a few miles away from another famous city/church—Laodicea

And it’s in the same region as other famous churches, that we know from the book of Revelation

It’s highly likely that the Believers in Colossae knew the Believers from Laodicea and that maybe they even dealt with some of the same challenges that the Laodicea believers did

But we will get into some of that a bit later on

What do we know about Colossae?

From my research, it appears that not a lot is known about the city of Colossae

Before the time of Paul, it had been a significant city in the region, but its significance had dwindled a bit by the time this letter was written

The people of the city? Like most urban, there is evidence that there were many different races and religions represented there, Jews, Gentiles, Romans, pagans

So, I’m sure that this was reflected in the church as well

Had Paul ever visited Colossae

Here is the interesting situation

It appears that Paul had never actually met the Colossians.

He had never been to their city

He was not the one who had brought the Gospel to them, and he was not the one who had established their church there

One of the clues that Paul may have never visited these Believers is found in Colossians 1:3–4 “3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,”

He says, “I’ve heard of your faith, but I haven’t seen it or witnessed it myself”

So, if Paul had never been to Colossae, how did they receive the Gospel?

Well, here is how it might have happened

If you were to turn to Acts 19, you would read that Paul, while on his third missionary trip, spent an extended time in the city of Ephesus

And while he was there, he spent considerable time speaking, “boldly” and “reasoning and persuading” them about the Kingdom of God

And it says that this continued for two years and that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

All Asia heard the word of the LORD, and that included a man from Colossae named Epaphras

We read his name a couple of times in this book and also in the letter to Philemon

There is strong evidence that Epaphras was the one who heard the Gospel from Paul, most likely in Ephesus, became a Believer, then went back to his home area and preached the Gospel there

And maybe also in Laodicea

In fact in 1:7, Paul says “You learned it (the Gospel) from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant”

So, while we don’t know a lot about this man, there is a lot to be impressed with, because he is one of the early missionaries and church planters

Who heard the Gospel and apparently did what the only logical thing was…go back home and share the message with others

What is the situation that caused this letter to be written

Well, at the time of writing, apparently Epaphras has come to Rome to visit Paul

And he has reported to Paul all about this young church, and has told Paul that these Believers are people to make a note of

Paul says, He has told me about your love in the Spirit

This was a church that was doing a lot of things right. The Holy Spirit was clearly at work among them

However Epaphras was also concerned about something that he wanted Paul to address

That is, there was false teaching creeping into the church

No surprise there!

That is the work of the enemy right there. He does not want Believers walking in the truth. It is his aim to insert error into the truth

Now, what exactly this error that Colossians is addressing is, no one is exactly sure.

But it appears that it was a mixture of things that was drawing their attention away from who Christ truly is and what He has done

There was some Jewishness mixed in, stressing the need for observing OT laws and ceremonies

There was some Greek philosophy mixed in which emphasized the need for deeper knowledge that only a special few could have

There was some paganism mixed in there

The Gentiles, like the Romans were pagans—they had many gods

They would worship things in nature

They didn’t have a belief or a sense of one True God

A God who had created all things

Who was involved with his creation

Yet who was not part of His creation

Instead, they worshipped creation as god

And one of the aspects to the paganism in this area seems to have been the worship of angels, we’ll see that in chapter 2

And whatever this false teaching was, it did not leave Christ out. They did talk about Christ, but apparently not the truth of who Christ really was

And that is what made it so danger. They did not deny the existence of Christ, but apparently they did deny the deity of Christ

And it was from this heresy that Paul springs forth with one of the greatest statements in the whole bible about the nature of Christ and who Christ is. 1:15-16 and also 2:9

And so Paul writes to them to encourage them

the tone of this letter is quite different from the tone of some of his other letters

For example, the letter to Galatians is one of strong rebuke

“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?”

You won’t read that kind of language here

He addresses heresy that they might be tempted to believe, but He does it by simply pointing them toward Jesus and telling them, “Look at Jesus!

He is enough! He is sufficient!

What are some themes of this book?