The Book of Colossians focuses on the role of Jesus as the Head of the Church. It also exposes some of the false teachings of the time, and has relevance to the same in the modern era, comparing the truth in scripture with the attempts at corrupting the truth by what it refers to as ‘vain philosophies.’
Colossians speaks of the deity of Christ and of His majesty, especially to the Church as her Head. It gives much teaching on the relationship between Christ and the Church, His Body, as well as warnings about false teaching that was being peddled amongst the newly birthed Christian community.
A town that would have been situated in what is modern Turkey, Colossae, physically, was an important centre from around 5BC which was said to be on the wane when Paul visited and evangelised the region. Now it is in ruins, but its history lives on in the teachings in the Book of Colossians.
This brief look at what the book tells us today will focus on our relationship with Christ and what it means to us as modern day believers.
This will be a live, ongoing project and report, with additions made when the opportunity arises.
Chapter One
The Apostle Paul opens with a greeting, and with his credentials.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
Colossians 1:1-3
To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul declare himself the Colossians Church as an apostle. Although he wasn’t with Christ during His time walking the earth, Paul was appointed by Jesus in an appearance after He had been raised. This tells us that there are more than the Twelve Apostles, men who had been with Jesus during His earthly ministry.
Jesus appointed the Twelve, and, of course, one of them, Judas Iscariot, betrayed Him and subsequently ended his own life. That led to the need for the appointment of a replacement Apostle, being someone who had been with Jesus during this time of ministry to Israel. Matthias was given the position following the drawing of lots, just before Jesus sent the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
From destroyer to follower
Paul, however, had been persecuting the Church as a Pharisee and as a zealot. He was so determined and fanatical about ending the influence of the Church that he was dispatched by the council to attempt to stop the spread of the new faith.
He was also present at the stoning of the martyr Stephen, and complicit as he held the coats of those who stoned Stephen. Paul’s conversion, then, was a dramatic change in many ways.
It was on the road to Damascus that, rather than intervening with the Church’s progress, he was apprehended by Jesus Himself, the resurrected Jesus as it happens, who subsequently appointed Paul to minister the gospel to the Gentiles.
So when Paul declares himself an apostle by the will of God he is conscious of the dramatic way in which his conversion to Christ took place. Not everyone has such a dynamic conversion, although each conversion is in itself a momentous occasion for the person being saved, and for all of heaven that rejoices over the salvation of a single soul.
For Paul, though, there is the reality that he was apprehended and converted out of the blue, as it were. He wasn’t seeking God. He was seeking the end of the Christian influence on the world. Yet Jesus intervened and brought him into relationship with the Father.
Paul, for his part, had thought he was doing the will of God, so it must have come as some shock to discover how far astray he was in his zeal.
Paul was with Timothy, who would ultimately be given the pastoral oversight of the Church at Ephesus, in the same region of what was then called Asia Minor.
