Colossae

INTRODUCTION

This morning we begin our study in Paul’s epistle to the Colossians.

I know that telling you that before I read the Scripture might be considered a spoiler,

But in most Bibles the title of the book is The Letter of Paul to the Colossians - so not too much of a spoiler.

I will read verses 1-2 of the first chapter:

[READ COLOSSIANS 1:1-2]

This morning, I want to set the stage for our study of this letter.

First, I would like to review a little about Colossae.

Then, look specifically at the Colossian church and the sister churches in the area.

And then introduce the major themes of this letter and what we can expect as we study it.

We will do that in looking at the greeting of the letter.

ABOUT COLOSSAE

Probably the best thing we can say about Colossae is that everybody has to be from somewhere.

And Colossae was a place some people were from.

The location, only discovered archaeologically in the early 1800’s, is in what is not Central Turkey,

In the province known as Asia (or Asia Minor).

The region it was in was called Phrygia.

It had been destroyed by the Muslims around AD 1000 in their invasion of Asia and Europe.

It had been an important city on the trade routes through that region from Greece to Persia in the time of the prophets of Israel:

During the times of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezra, and past the end of the Old Testament.

The Persian king Xerxes (called Ahasuerus in the book of Esther) camped near Colossae when he tried to invade Greece.

And Alexander the Great passed through Colossae as he invaded Persia.

It was about that time it began to decline, so that by the time of Jesus, it was a much smaller town,

Eclipsed in importance by its neighbors Hierapolis and Laodicea.

By the time Paul writes to the church there, it is a small town with little influence in anything.

In fact, we know that Paul didn’t even GO to Colossae before writing the letter -

These were people he didn’t know in a church he didn’t start.

Colossians 2:1 “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face,”

Only the epistle to the Romans was written to another church he had no hand in beginning,

So this letter is rather unique.

This is also, out of all the epistles of Paul, the smallest, least important city he wrote to.

Ephesus, Philippi, Rome, Corinth - they were major trading centers,

Large cities and important Roman government locations.

But Colossae wasn’t.

It was a shepherding area, rural and agricultural.

The purple wool they dyed there was called “colossinus”.

And it was sold all over the empire, shipped out often through Ephesus.

It is a tribute to God’s concern even for the smallest of congregations in the remotest corners of the world.

Paul stresses the importance of their inclusion in the body of Christ in Colossians 1:24

“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,”

THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIAN CHURCH

So let’s look at the Colossian church.

As with many things related to Colossae, there are a lot of question marks and a lot of speculation.

We know for sure Paul didn’t begin this church directly,

But we aren’t sure exactly when it began.

We know there were people from this general area in Jerusalem in Acts 2 who heard the Pentecost miracle:

When the Holy Spirit was given to the church, and the church emerged from the upper room into the streets:

Acts 2:8–11 “And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.””

Like many of these other areas, there were certainly people who believed at Pentecost who carried the gospel home with them.

The next time we see them mentioned is the confusing Acts 16:6 “And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.”

This is in the time right after Timothy joined Paul and Silas on the Second Missionary Journey.

The Holy Spirit forbade them to preach the gospel in Asia, so they just passed through Phrygia (Colossae’s region).

So we still don’t know anything about a church in Colossae.

Most likely, the Colossian church began during Paul’s 2-year ministry in Ephesus, recorded in Acts 19.

Paul found believers there, but only those who, at this time, had been baptized in water in John’s baptism, not the baptism of Jesus Christ.

And they had not received the Holy Spirit.

This is, I also think, the last time in the Scripture we see tongues and prophecy accompanying the Holy Spirit in new converts -

The time of the need of these signs was passing away.

And in those two years of rich ministry from Ephesus, we are told in Acts 19:10 “This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.”

Ephesus is about 100 miles from Colossae - about the distance from here to Tuscaloosa or Atlanta, as the crow flies.

Some, no doubt, came from there to hear Paul’s daily teaching in the hall of Tyrannus,

But it also appears that Epaphras, mentioned extensively in this letter and the letter to Philemon, was likely the man responsible for planting and organizing this congregation.

Likely he was also found as one of the elders of that church.

After this letter to the church at Colossae, we don’t find much good from this region.

We can be hopeful that they just faded in relevance again,

But we do see Paul tell Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:15 “You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes.”

We don’t know if they are from Colossae or somewhere else in the Province of Asia.

We also see the seventh of the churches addressed by John, who was an elder of the church in Ephesus before being exiled to Patmos,

The seventh church is the church in Laodicea, and the news is not promising:

Revelation 3:14–22 ““And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. “ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,” not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ””

So now let’s look specifically at this epistle.

It is one of the “prison epistles”, written by Paul from one of his imprisonments.

He calls Aristarchus “my fellow prisoner” in 4:10.

And in the personal letter to Philemon that was sent at the same time as Colossians, he mentions his imprisonment in verse 13,

And he calls Epaphras his fellow prisoner in v. 21.

It’s likely that there were four letters that were sent from Paul during his Roman imprisonment at the same time,

Carried by Tychicus:

Ephesians

Colossians

Philemon (although likely delivered by the escaped slave Onesimus)

And a fourth letter to Laodicea that the Holy Spirit has not preserved for us.

Colossians 4:16 “And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.”

One letter seems to have been sent by Paul after these: 2 Timothy.

And it seems to have happened at about the same time.

2 Timothy 4:12 “Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.”

Certainly Tychicus could have made more than one trip, but the round-trip journey to and from Rome could take a year or two.

It is likelier that these happened all about the same time.

Which brings us to the question: why didn’t he just write one big letter, like Romans, and combine all these little ones?

To answer would be pure speculation, so I will simply be grateful the Spirit chose to do it this way.

I am grateful because the message for each church or recipient of these letters is unique to them.

Paul isn’t writing some generic philosophy or theology work;

He is writing to address real problems with real people.

One of the really lame arguments some modern scholars have brought up as their “evidence” that Paul may not have written this epistle

Is that there are 37 words in this epistle that appear nowhere else in the New Testament.

Does that sound like a lot?

When you consider that Galatians has 35 unique words,

And Ephesians has 43 unique words,

And 1 Timothy has 82 unique words,

What we find out is that the number of unique words doesn’t help us at all to determine authorship.

What it does show us is that Paul wrote like he probably preached - choosing his words specifically for the audience he is speaking to.

I love it that he doesn’t use the same entire vocabulary with the urban and philosophical Ephesians and Corinthians

As he does with the agricultural Colossians.

And we get the benefit of it all.

Deep theology and explanatory simplicity - and much of it from the same author.

The common denominator in every epistle Paul wrote to every church is that there was a problem he needed to address in that church.

And Colossians is no different.

We don’t know the specifics of what the false teaching was in Colossae,

There are literally hundreds of theories.

And THAT also is one of the beautiful things about this letter.

To address these problems the church was having,

He didn’t spend his time and ink refuting them point by point.

That’s how we like to argue often, isn’t it?

Take each statement and show how that one is wrong, and then move to the next.

Like videos or podcasts that play someone else, and stop to refute them after every sentence.

There may be a place for that - I’m not sure.

But it’s a short-term solution.

The long-term solution of Scripture is to take us back to the basics,

Remind us of the foundational truths over and over again.

Giving us different metaphors, different pictures, different examples

That the Holy Spirit can use to teach us and implant the word in our hearts.

For example, verses 15-20 in chapter 1 are an early catechism,

What some call a baptismal confession.

Paul may well have written it, but he may have written it and taught it in Ephesus when he was teaching there.

Colossians 1:15–20 “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.”

This was likely something the members of this church had memorized;

And Paul was just reminding them of these truths.

We will never get ahead of false or errant teachings;

There will always be men or women who want to twist Scripture for their own benefit.

Our enemy, the devil, is happy to help us move our aim even slightly, taking us out of the solid truth into increasing error.

Hurting not just ourselves, but those we teach.

That’s why it’s important for each one of you to check everything that’s taught, formally or informally, against Scripture.

And that’s why after his greeting to the church, he goes straight to who Jesus Christ is.

As we go through these verses in the coming months, we will be looking at opportunities to DO what is being taught here.

But we always have to begin with a solid foundation of teaching.

So, quickly, let’s look at the flow of the letter.

After the reminder of who Jesus is, he moves into the idea of our struggle in this life.

There may have been people who were making good-sounding arguments from the Law

To the effect that if we are faithful, God will always bless us and make our paths smooth.

So from verse 21 in chapter 1 through 2:5, he deals with the struggles a believer will encounter for Christ.

In 2:6-15, he talks about the glory of our present life in Christ.

It is the freedom we have received as a gift from Christ -

A freedom FROM sin.

New life we have already received.

The rest of chapter 2 warns about things that make you appear more spiritual.

All the things we may try to do to BE more spiritual, even holding to elements of the Law beyond the clear moral teaching of the Law,

Those are of no use in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

Chapter 3, then, is a beautiful description of what DOES cause us to grow in Christ, to be Spiritual.

Obedience to God’s moral Law is there,

But the key is Colossians 3:2 “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

And then he tells us the things we must put off, and the things we must put on,

All flowing from our love and life in Jesus Christ.

It is followed by obedient relationships and a few outward practices we can begin.