Paul’s Letter To The Church In Colossae

by Chris Simmons

Colossae was a city in the Roman province of Asia in the Lycus river valley about 100 miles east of Ephesus. The city formed a triangle with Laodicea and Hierapolis, both of which are mentioned in New Testament scripture. Paul noted that this letter to the Colossians was also to be read to the church in Laodicea after they were finished.

Though exactly who first helped to establish the church in Colossae is not definitively known, we do know the church had been blessed by the teaching efforts of Epaphras (Colossians 1:17; 4:12) who was with Paul when this letter was penned. It is evident that Archippus also labored among the brethren in Colossae (4:17). During the two years in which Paul taught and preached in the city of Ephesus, it was said that “all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 19:10, 26) which could have included residents from Colossae such as Epaphras, Archippus, Philemon, and Apphia (among others). This would account for Paul’s personal knowledge of brethren such as them.

Paul claims to be the author of this letter both in the greeting (1:1) and in the salutation (4:18) along with Timothy. It is clear that he wrote this epistle while in prison from passages such as Colossians 1:24 (“I rejoice in my sufferings”); 4:10 (“Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner”) and 4:18 (“Remember my imprisonment”). Colossians is therefore one of the four prison epistles (the other three being Ephesians, Philippians and Philemon) written during Paul’s imprisonment in Rome (Acts 28:16ff). This would place the time of the writing around 62 or 63 A.D. Though Paul had not personally visited Colossae (Colossians 2:1; 1:4, 7-8), he had been “informed” by Epaphras of both commendable characteristics (1:3-7; 2:5-7) of the “faithful brethren in Christ” (1:2) within the congregation but also of some grave spiritual concerns that needed immediate attention. Having been penned by Paul, evidence is clear that the letters to the Colossians, Philemon, and Ephesians were all delivered to their intended audiences by Tychicus and Onesimus (Colossians 4:7-9; Philemon 10-12; Ephesians 6:21-22).

One of Paul’s purposes in writing this letter was to encourage them not to go back into the immorality associated with their pagan background. Paul was concerned that their everyday life and conduct be “worthy of the Lord” and that their foremost concern continued to be how they might “please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in knowledge of God” (1:10). In Colossians 1:21-23, Paul reminded them of: what they had been (“formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds”), what God had done for them (“He has reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you holy and blameless and beyond reproach”), and what their responsibility to God continued to be (“continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel”). They were urged to persist in their daily spiritual renewal by laying aside the mindset and conduct of the flesh and put on the spiritual mindset and behaviors that are consistent with the spiritual goals (3:1-15). In these texts we read of Paul’s fundamental concern that they would no longer continue their walk in Christ (2:6).

Paul’s second main purpose in writing was to help them overcome the false teaching and spiritual heresies that were being promoted amongst the brethren. Human tradition and secular philosophy had the potential to destroy the church in Colossae just as it poses a real of danger in the Lord’s church today. Paul wrote in Colossians 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” We must always be careful about allowing the “wisdom of the world” to be our focus in life (I Corinthians 1:18-21). There were those who sought to impose various aspects of Judaism and angel worship on the church in Colossae that Paul needed to warn the brethren about. He wrote in Colossians 2:16-18, “Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day – things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind.” There was also an element in Colossae that promoted asceticism (advocating harsh treatment of the body as a means of delivering one’s soul and bringing one closer to God) which Paul needed to warn them about (2:20-23). Whether human philosophy, Jewish tradition or angelic worship, Paul points out that all these take away from God’s solution to man’s sin – His Son, Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ who makes us “complete” (2:10), who “raised (us) up with Him” (2:12) and who “made (us) alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions” (2:13). It is the authority of Jesus Christ that is to govern “whatever you do in word or deed” (3:17), rather than any form of human philosophy or any component of the Old Law.

We are to be impressed by Paul’s concern for their continued spiritual well-being and his devotion to them in his prayers. Paul noted that he was “praying always for you” (1:3) and that “we have not ceased to pray for you” (1:9). Paul, in like manner, urged the saints in Colossae to “devote yourselves to prayer” for their own needs and to be “praying at the same time for us as well” (4:2-3) that God may bless Paul in his service to the Lord. How critical are our prayers for one another?