Letters from Paul : Colossians

We have been going through the Letters from Paul, these books of the new testament were written as letters to churches and Individuals for specififc reasons, often to help inform blossoming churches in what to do and how to believe.

Some of them were Paul trying to refute a practice in the church that was wrong

Like in the book of Galatians, when there was a movement to convert to Judaism before accepting Christ

And Paul argued that Christ died to fulfill the law, so now the focus shouldn’t be on doing everything right according to the Old testament law, but on doing what is Good by the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Some of them were to encourage churches after they heard Paul was put in prison.

Lik Ephesians, where Paul was encouraging the church he pastored for over two years

And he encouraged the church to Live according to the Calling God put on their life, giving them practical advice on how to treat each other,

or Philippians, which was actually a thank you note when the Philippians sent him a gift to help him while he was in prison,

And Paul explains how to live a life so trusting in God’s provision, that you are joyful and content in any circumstance, good or bad.

This week we are looking at Colossians.

Paul wrote this letter to the church in Colossae, a church he never visited, but heard good things about

Colossians 1:1–8 ESV

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

The Church in Colossae was planted by a man named Epaphras, who Paul has met, and told him about what is going on.

But why is Paul writing this letter? He is doing so to get ahead of some sort of Heresy that has been spreading through the church.

In Galatians Ephesians and Philippians the concern was largely those trying to get non-jewish Christians to convert to Judaism and follow all the laws of the Old Testament.

In Colossians there is a different issue, it is likely a form of Gnosticism - a series of heresies that said there was some greater secret to learn from Jesus, that was only revelaed to the super - spiritual.

This beliefe often said that flesh and things of the world, anything physical are inherently evil, and the spirit was inherently good

And since Jesus was all good, he either didn’t have a physical body, or when his physical body wasn’t actually resurrected, but only his spirit.

This belief has started spreading through Colossae.

So What does Paul do?

He focuses on Jesus.

Colossians 1:13–22 ESV

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

Notice what Paul is saying here:

Christ saved us from Sin - not from the flesh.

He is the visible (physical) image of God (Spirit)

All things (physical and spiritual) were created through him

He is the firstborn from the dead - first to be resurrected to new life

Which means he truely rose from the dead

Making peace by his blood (a physical thing) on the Cross

He has reconciled you by his flesh in death.

Then paul turns and talks about his ministry

Colossians 1:24–27 ESV

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Paul’s ministry is in his flesh for the spiritual body of Christ the church,

To make known the mystery which has been fully revealed.

That God is bringing salvation not just to the jews, but to everyone through Christ.

The “Greater mystery for the super spiritual” that the gnostics seek, has already been revealed in Jesus Christ.

There is no further mystery than that.

So Paul is refuting the gnostics claims

the physical is not inherently evil, rather musch of it is good, and it is through the physical that Christ was able to bring salvation.

But what about the spirtual realm

Paul adresses that as well

Colossians 2:8–15 ESV

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. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

he says the human traditions you are listening to are from evil spirits.

Spiritual does not = goodness

Just as Christ reconciled us in the physical so he did in the spiritual

Circumcising your hearts

Seeting you araprt for something greater

Representing your own death and ressurection with baptism

A physical representation of a spiritual truth

And through his death on the Cross he defeated the Spiritual forces - the rulers and authroities

So the physical is not inherently bad, but it was broken

Christ fixed it

The Spiritual is not inherently good, there were evil powers in control of it,

Christ defeated them

Colossians 2:18–23 ESV

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, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

Paul explains the falws in gnostic reasoning

they are puffed up by their own “spirituality” but are not united with God in Chirst

They worship spirits, whereas in Christ we died to power of the elemental spirits of the world

They insist on all these rules to try and make you more spiritual but they don’t accomplish their own goals.

Now that Paul has explained the problems with gnostic belief, he goes and explains how the Colossians should live.

Colossians 3:1–17 ESV

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Paul does say that it is goo to be focused an the things above, the “spiritual things”

But not because Spirit is automatically good, but because Christ is seated above in heaven, and if we are raised with Christ that should be are focus as well

Put to death the earthly things, not because the earth is inherently evil, but because it is fallen

earthly desires tend to be sinful

Put off the things of this world, and put on the things of Christ.

These look very familiar to the fruit of the Spirit in Galtians

He is calling the Colossians to live their physical lives in line with the Holy Spirit.

He closes the letter with personal greetings and directions among which is something very interesting.

Colossians 4:7–9 ESV

Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.

Tychicus is the messanger, but traveling with him is a man named Onesimus

Onesimus is the subject of another of Paul’s letters, the one to Philemon

It is the shortest of paul’s letters and it was written and sent at this same time.

Paul writes Philemon to an indivdual, a slave owner, begging him to recieve back with open arms Pau’s adopted son, Philemon’s former slave, Onesimus, who ran away from his master.

Philemon 10–18 ESV

I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.

Paul urges Philemon to accept Onesimus, forgive him of his debts, and for running away, and to treat him no longer as a slave, but as a brother in Christ.

and Paul will pay for any debt that has been owed.

Here Paul illustrates what it is to be like Christ, to pay the debts of others, and help unite people who have wronged each other.

Paying out of his own pocket to help others,

Paul IS IN PRISION AT THIS TIME

How can he afford to pay Onesismus’s debts to Phileomon,

I do not know but Paul promises to find a way.

But Paul urges Philemon and the Colossians to put on love and forgiveness, and to forgive each other.

and then he gives them the perfect opportunity to do so, by sending back Onesimus the runaway slave.

So Church, what do we learn from the Colossians?

The Physical world is not evil, it is broken, and we can help fix it

The Spiritual world is not inherently good.

It is full of false spirits that want to lead you away

THere is no Greater Mystery to be revealed that what Jesus did for us on the cross, conqueing death through death, that we might follow him in the Ressurection.

and as we try to follow him, by focusing on the things above, we live like him

learning to love and forgive even those who wronged us most.

What good is it to be super spiritual and super religious, to go to church once or twice a week and to read our bible every day if we cannot learn to love and forgive those who have hurt us?

If we never try to help those who are lost, or broken, or hurting?