July 20, 2025 • 30 mins
The ancient city of Colossae might have dwindled in significance by the first century, but Paul's letter to its believers packs a theological punch that resonates powerfully today. Written from a Roman prison cell around 60-62 AD, this epistle confronts a dangerous cocktail of philosophical influences threatening to undermine the young church.
What happens when early Gnosticism, Jewish mysticism, and legalistic thinking collide? A potent deception that promised spiritual fullness through rituals, dietary restrictions, and special knowledge instead of through Christ alone. Sound familiar? Our modern spiritual landscape is equally cluttered with philosophies that promise enlightenment through everything except the simple, complete gospel.
Paul's strategy is brilliant. Rather than merely condemning these false teachings, he presents a comprehensive vision of Christ's supremacy that renders them obsolete. Christ isn't just one spiritual being among many—He existed before creation, created all things, sustains all things, and reconciles all things. Everything was created by Him and for Him. The Colossian heresy positioned Jesus as one of many emanations from God; Paul counters by declaring that "in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."
The letter builds a compelling case that Christ isn't just superior—He's sufficient. The circumcision, dietary laws, and observance of special days were merely shadows pointing to the substance found in Christ. Those who have been buried and raised with Christ through faith don't need additional religious performances to achieve spiritual maturity. The record of debt that stood against us has been nailed to the cross!
This theological foundation leads naturally to practical transformation. Because Christ is supreme and sufficient, believers should "set their minds on things above" and clothe themselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and above all, love. Every relationship—whether between spouses, parents and children, or masters and servants—can reflect Christ's lordship.
What makes Colossians so powerful is that it doesn't just describe what we should believe, but how that belief changes everything. Paul invites us to stop chasing spiritual fulfillment through human traditions and philosophical speculations, and instead discover the complete spiritual reality we already have in Christ.
Ready to experience freedom from the exhausting cycle of religious obligation? Join us as we explore why, in Christ, we are already complete.
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Episode Transcript
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Dennis Faro (00:02):
All right, are we on?
I don't even know.
Okay, good evening everyone.
So I feel like I've beenentrusted with the task of
giving someone a tour of NewYork City and I have about two
hours to do it.
You know, we're going tosomehow have to go to the Empire
State Building, the Statue ofLiberty, museum of Natural
(00:24):
History, etc.
Etc.
But we have to squeeze it allinto two hours.
I don't know how that's goingto work.
So tonight we're just going tomove and try to get through the
book of Colossians as quicklyand as thoroughly as possible,
but hopefully honoring the Lordas we go.
So what I'd like to do is startout and just give us a
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background of the book and covera few things, and then we're
going to swiftly move through anoutline of the book with some
takeaways and then wrap up witha few additional takeaways.
All right, so just a littlebackground.
Of course you know it's theEpistle to the Colossians.
It's known as one of the prisonepistles, along with
Philippians, ephesians andPhilemon, and it was written
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while Paul was under housearrest in Rome, most likely
around 60 to 62 AD.
It was written by Paul, butalso with Timothy.
Some say he was a co-author?
We're not really sure, but hewas certainly with Timothy when
he wrote it A little bit aboutthe city of Colossae.
So I don't know if any of youhave been to Ephesus I've had
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the privilege of going there.
It's right along the Aegean Sea, but if you move inland from
Ephesus about 100 miles or soyou have the ancient region of
Phrygia.
Now it's known as Anatolia andit's in central west Turkey and
that's essentially whereColossae was.
There were three cities locatedin the same area and they were
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Hierapolis and Laodicea.
So by the time of Paul the cityof Colossae had actually
dwindled in size andsignificance, so it wasn't
nearly as important as it hadbeen.
There was a large Jewishcommunity there.
Paul had never visited Colossae, which is interesting in itself
and the key founder of thechurch was Epaphras who,
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although he was from Colossae,had heard the gospel when Paul
preached in Ephesus.
So the church was also the endresult and the outgrowth of
Paul's ministry in Ephesus.
Now one of the things that isbeing combated in this book is
the Gnostic philosophy, but it'snot the.
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It was a brand of Gnosticphilosophy that also had some
other elements in it which wewill get to.
Um, there was sort of a strainof jewish mysticism and legalism
that were, uh, infused into thephilosophy as well.
So the colossians were subjectto a combination of these
different philosophies.
Uh, it was a.
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It was a philosophy thatpromised the adherents a
spiritual fullness and unionwith God, and according to this
philosophy, the wisdom theyattained was by keeping
prescribed ceremonies, whichwould release them from earthly
concerns and connect them toheavenly concerns.
Of course, they saw that matterwas evil and that flesh was
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evil.
They believed in keeping theOld Testament laws and in
particular the dietary laws.
Of course, they saw that matterwas evil and that flesh was
evil.
They believed in keeping theOld Testament laws and in
particular the dietary laws that, according to them, would keep
the evil flesh away and wouldhelp someone attain spiritual
perfection.
Circumcision was also veryimportant as well.
They believed in angelic beingsbeing able to influence earthly
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affairs, and so, in their viewof things, jesus was seen as but
one of many emanations from God.
So Paul would hit some of theseviewpoints as we go through the
book.
I think I might need a littlewater.
Thanks, okay, I won't stop.
So we're going to begin with asurvey of chapter one.
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I would entitle chapter one thesupremacy of Christ in all
things.
So we begin with Paul'sgreeting and thanksgiving in
verses one through eight.
Oh, thank you.
All right, I think that's alittle better, thank you.
(04:37):
So Paul's greeting andthanksgiving is in verses 1
through 8.
Paul greets the Colossians withTimothy, as we also made
reference to.
He thanks them for their faithin Christ, their love for the
saints and for the hope that waslaid for them in heaven.
And so we see that three earlyon faith, hope and love.
This message of truth hadproduced fruit in them from the
beginning, paul says, and wasalso produced in other parts of
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the world Most people think thatmeans the Roman world, since
obviously the gospel had notreached other parts of the
planet earth, and so essentiallywhat he was saying is that in
other parts of the world therewere also true believers as well
.
So that same message of truththat had produced fruit in them
had also produced fruit inothers throughout the world.
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Paul gives thanks for Epaphras,who was a faithful brother and
who had informed Paul of thelove with which these Colossians
believers had, although Paulhimself, again, had never met
them.
So apparently Epaphras was thepastor of Colossae.
He wasn't there at this timebecause he was in prison with
Rome, with Paul rather in Rome.
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So and we'll see later on howthat Paul sends greetings from
Epaphras back to his own church.
Then in chapters in chapter 1,verses 9 through 14, we have
Paul's prayer for the Colossians.
Again, these new believers werein danger of turning from the
truth of the gospel to falseteachers and philosophies, and
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this is Paul's concern.
So in his prayer he prays somespecific things.
First of all, that they mightbe filled, they might have a
knowledge of God's will.
Now what's interesting is thatPaul deliberately uses words
that had different meanings forthe Gnostics and infuses them
with Christian meanings.
So he used the words knowledgeand wisdom and spiritual
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understanding that were alreadya part of religious vocabulary
in Colossae, but gives them adifferent meaning, gives them a
Christian meaning.
And Paul says he continues inhis prayer he says that you
might walk and he gives severalexamples that you might walk and
bring fruit and increase in theknowledge of God, that you
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would have wisdom and knowledgethat will result in action.
And so his prayer was not justthat they would have knowledge
and wisdom, but that thisknowledge and wisdom and
spiritual understanding wouldresult in action.
Of course, that's a hugetakeaway for us today.
He also prayed that they mightbe strengthened, and he prayed
that the result of this strengthmight be the patience and
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joyfulness and not just puttingup with circumstances, but truly
addressing issues with joy andpatience that can only come from
Christ and that would result inthanksgiving to God, who is the
one who delivered them fromdarkness and translated or
transferred them into thekingdom of his dear son, and
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also an understanding that hehas redeemed them with his blood
and I realize I'm flyingthrough this.
In verses 1, I'm sorry, inverses 15 through 20,.
Paul then declares that Christis the preeminent one, and he
details four ways that Christhad a relationship to creation,
and some of these arefascinating.
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I wish we had more time tofocus on each one.
He notes that Jesus existedbefore creation.
Now let me just pause for amoment and say one of the issues
that comes up in Gnosticism isthe idea that Jesus was a
created being.
It's also a philosophy thatinfluences Jehovah Witnesses
today, because a lot of whatthey believe really stems from
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the Gnostic heresy.
However, paul not only statesthat Jesus existed before
creation, but also that hecreated all things.
Now here's a question If youcreate all things, then how can
you yourself be a created being?
You can't, unless you're anuncreated created being.
Which sort of is linguisticsuicide?
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So he created all things, andthen it says in verse 16 that
all things exist for him.
Now let me just stop again andthink about the fact that when
we look at creation, when weconsider nature, yes, we know
that God created all things, butdo we often think about the
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fact that they were created forhim?
So when you look up at the sky,when you think about the beauty
of nature, these are thingscreated for Christ.
It's an incredible thought,actually.
He also goes on to say that heholds all things together the
atoms, the molecules, whateverholds things together.
Christ is the one who does that.
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He's the one who holds allthings to, keeping them from
bursting apart.
And then he goes on to say thathe is the head of the church
and he reconciles all things tohimself.
Paul then moves on to talk aboutthree ministries that he's
clarifying for the Colossianbelievers, just so they know
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what his purpose is, in writingto them.
So he details these threeministries in verses 21 through
29.
First he talks about theministry of reconciliation, and
he mentions that, though theyhad been estranged, now, now, in
God's grace, he had reconciledthem, he had presented them holy
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, he had presented them withoutblemish and free from reproval,
free from any kind of accusation, and so this was one of Paul's
ministry, a ministry ofreconciliation, and he assures
them that they would continue.
This is the great if-thenclause, but he assures them that
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they would continue in thefaith, which would actually
prove that they were saved.
Now we could get into thiswhole.
There's a lot of if phrases inthe Bible and people use that to
say, well, if could be.
A is a conditional clause andno, no, no, it's not conditional
, it's actually a statement thatsays since, since you are in
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the faith, you will continue.
Besides the ministry ofreconciliation, there was a
ministry of suffering, and Paulrejoiced in that he could relate
to the sufferings of Christ.
He rejoiced in his sufferingsbecause it was for the Gentiles
these were the people that Godhad called him to and it was
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also for the suffering for thesake of the entire church.
Paul then moves on to theministry of preaching.
This involved warning andteaching, and it also involved
laboring, as Christ himself hadmightily worked through him.
And again, a moment to stop andthink about the fact that when
we work for the Lord, when welabor for him, that labor should
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be something that comes fromhim, as he works through us.
So we work as we labor for him,so he is giving us the energy,
he is giving us what we need towork for him.
So if chapter one is on thesupremacy of Christ, chapter two
is on the sufficiency of Christ.
Paul moves on and warns theColossians against false
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teachings that threaten thepurity and sufficiency of the
gospel.
We read about his pastoralconcern and encouragement in
verses 1 through 7.
So he prays that their heartswould be comforted.
He was concerned about thesebelievers.
He had not met them, but he wasconcerned about them and he was
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concerned that their heartswould be knit together, united
together in love.
And what an important thingthat is for a church that people
be united.
A lot of churches where there'sgood doctrine there's not
always a lot of churches wherepeople are united in love.
He also expressed concern thatthey be not led astray by
convincing or enticing words andthat they already having been
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rooted and built up in Christ,that they should now continue in
him that they should now abound.
It was time to move forwardwith what they already knew.
He talks about abounding withthanksgiving, and this word
connotes a river that overflowsits banks, so it's sort of like
an overflowing with thanksgiving, and overflowing with gratitude
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is the idea.
Yet he says they were not to begrounded in ritual or
philosophy, but in the personand work of Christ.
So he moves on to the warningsection.
First he warns against thisphilosophy.
Now, the philosophies they hadbeen exposed to were just a
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tradition of men, and today wecould look at a lot of churches,
a lot of religions, where whatthey believe, what they hold to,
what they consider theirfoundational principles, are
just traditions of men, justmade up doctrines that have no
basis as coming from God at all.
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We could talk a lot about that.
But he says but the fullness ofthe Godhead dwells in Christ.
This word fullness, pleroma,was a very important word that
was used in this philosophy, andhe contrasted it to what the
Gnostics taught, namely that Godwas simply not just the source
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of all the emanations theybelieved in, but he was the head
.
He was the head of creation.
They had this idea of ademiurge, and see if I can
explain it.
It was the idea that Godcreated a creature and that
creature created anothercreature and from that another
creature stemmed, another one,and these are all seen as a
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demiurge and eventually theuniverse was created and all
these creatures were consideredquote-unquote emanations.
Well, paul confronted thatphilosophy and taught against it
.
He then warns, in verses 11through 15, against Jewish
legalism.
He said it was unnecessary.
Why?
Because you don't needcircumcision with hands.
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You already have beencircumcised in the heart, a
circumcision without hands.
So there's no need to go backto what you knew about before.
You've already been buried andraised and made alive through
Christ.
He goes on in verse 14 to talkabout how the list of decrees or
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the record of their debt thatwas against them had already
been nailed to the cross andJesus had already disarmed the
rulers and the authorities andtriumphed over them.
Then he moves on to a sectionwhere he talks about freedom
from these two philosophies,from both Gnostic philosophy and
Jewish legalism.
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He combats the idea that oneneeds to be bound by
restrictions against drink andagainst meat and celebrating of
Sabbath and special days.
Why?
Because these things were theshadow, but Jesus was the
substance.
Now let me tell you.
I would like to just take asmall break and say that I've
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been exposed to a lot of Judaism, judaistic teaching, and this
is exactly what is taught intheir circles.
The idea is always focusing onthe outer, the external, the
feast day, keeping this fast,keeping that fast, refraining
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from this meat, keeping thisdiet.
And it's so similar to whatPaul was talking about here,
what was threatening theirfreedom?
Here in Colossae, he goes on tosay that those who would have
you worship angels and seekmystical approaches are not
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connected to the source of life,who is Christ.
And he says if you are dead inChrist, you should not be
subjecting yourselves to theserules like don't touch, don't
handle, don't taste, insteadobserving these things.
When people observed thesethings, it was really more of an
example of how they lackedhumility.
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They might have exhibited theillusion of piety, but really,
underneath all this piety was asense of arrogance, was a sense
of a lack of humility, a senseof religious superiority.
Moving on to Colossians, chapter3, we now have the practical
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section.
This is something Paul does alot, where the first chapters
are doctrinal and then the lastchapters are practical, and so
the same happens here.
So we're going to call thisliving.
The new chapters are practical,and so the same happens here.
So we're going to call thisliving the new life in Christ.
So he begins to say thatbelievers should set their
affection because of all thesethings that we've talked about.
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Believers should set theiraffection on the heavenly and
not on the earthly.
Why?
Because their old life was dead.
Now their new life is hidden.
They are now separated untoChrist and they will be
glorified at his appearing.
And also because of that hemoves on to the next section.
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Because of these things,believers should put off their
old man, or the old self, if youwill.
In verses 5 through 11.
The analogy is made of puttingoff grave clothes.
So take off these old graveclothes.
You don't want these graveclothes on you.
And what does that look like?
Well, first of all, putting todeath sexual sins, he says.
Mortify or kill off sexual sins, including desires, promiscuity
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, impurity, covetousness.
Put off also the social sins,which would include anger, wrath
, malice, blasphemy and lying.
Instead, the believers who havenow been granted duties and
privileges by God were not to bedivided by nation.
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They were not to be divided byreligious distinction or class
distinction.
Why?
Because Christ was all and inall.
He then goes on to say that,whereas some of these things are
to be put off, there's alsothings that are to be put on,
and he covers that in verses 12through 17.
The believer should put on thenew self.
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What does the new self looklike?
Well, by contrast to the oldwith its sinful deeds, it should
be characterized by kindness,compassion, humility, gentleness
, patience, forgiveness and,above all, love, and that is
emphasized above all love.
He then says let believers havethe peace of god rule in their
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hearts, and he covers this inthe next few verses.
Believers should let the wordof christ dwell in them richly,
with their singing, with theirthanksgiving and with
instruction and warning beingthe evidence.
And we just sang a few minutesago to the Lord and I believe
this is something that ishonoring to God when we sing to
him and we're filled richly withthe words of song.
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They were to do all thesethings that he has previously
named, whether word or deed, inthe name of Christ.
Then he moves on to anothersection that's also practical.
Believers should fosterChrist-centered relationships.
He covers this in verses 18 ofchapter 3 through verse 1 of
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chapter 4.
Wives, submit to your husbandsas is fitting to the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives andbe not harsh or bitter against
them.
Children obey your parents.
Fathers, don't provoke yourchildren to wrath.
Slaves or servants should workwholeheartedly, not with eye
service as man pleasers, butrather in a way that shows that
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they are pleasing the Lord, whothey fear.
Masters are also to treat theirslaves or their servants justly
and should be reminded of thefact that they too have a master
in heaven.
So this takes us to chapter 4.
And in chapter 4, we'll callthis communicating the new life
in Christ.
Paul moves on to say that theColossians were to devote
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themselves to prayer and bewatchful.
They were to pray for him.
He's saying don't forget me,I'm here in prison.
Pray for opportunities that Ihave to proclaim Christ in the
current state I'm in.
And he said pray also that Iwould proclaim the gospel
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clearly.
And then he admonishes them towalk wisely and to speak
graciously.
He says be careful how you acttoward outsiders, in other words
those outside the faith,non-believers and speak to
others with grace, but alsograce that is seasoned with salt
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.
Now some people interpret thisto mean only speak to those with
salt.
No, there's supposed to begrace and seasoned it with salt.
Salt isn't supposed to be thewhole thing, and what does salt
really mean?
It means impactful speech,purifying speech.
Finally, they were to honor andpartner with fellow servants in
Christ, and here he gives alist of those.
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First, he gives a list of thosewho are sending greetings.
So he mentions Tychicus, alsoknown as Tychicus to some, and
Onesimus, who were sent todeliver this epistle.
And we don't know much aboutthese guys, but Tychicus
apparently is a trusted courierof Paul's that was sent to bring
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this Colossian letter, alongwith Onesimus, to the Colossian
believers.
Onesimus, of course, ismentioned as being a slave that
had belonged to Philemon, butwho Paul now counted as a
brother in Christ.
Then there's greetings fromAristarchus, john Mark and Jesus
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Justice.
These three were Jews.
Aristarchus was a fellowprisoner.
We know that because heidentifies that way.
John Mark, of course, was usedgreatly by God initially, and
then there was a falling awayperiod and then he came back to
work with Paul.
Jesus' justice, we don't know alot about, but he's mentioned
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here.
And then Paul also extendsgreetings from Epaphras and from
Luke and from Demas, who wereGentiles.
So three Jews, three Gentiles.
And of course we know thatEpaphras had a great burden.
It says, not only for theColossians but also for those in
the two nearby cities ofHierapolis and Laodicea.
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And then greetings to otherswere extended by Paul.
He says greet Nymphus, someversions say Nympha, so
depending on how you read, thathe be a man, she or she could be
a woman, um, but essentially,whether it's nympha or nymphus,
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it was a house in nymphus's.
Uh, there was a church innymphus house.
It's not the same as the churchof of the colossians, it was a
separate church.
Some believe that it was inlaodicea.
And and finally, he saysadmonish Archippus to take heed
to the ministry that he received.
Now, tradition says that he wasthe pastor of the church in
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Laodicea.
We don't know.
He was also mentioned in thebook of Philemon.
And then this Paul's salutation.
So now the question is, now thatyou've gotten the introduction,
computation.
So now the question is, nowthat you've gotten the
introduction, what are thetakeaways?
Well, there's, there's many,many takeaways, and far too many
to to cover.
But what I did is I I thoughtof four takeaways that we could,
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uh, that we could grab one fromeach chapter to begin with,
each chapter To begin with.
Let's think about the fact thatPaul said that when you pray,
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you will please God in every way.
If you continue to pray andthis is something that is
practical for us Pray that, youwill please God in every way.
That's a prayer for us today.
You know, don't slip into amindset that says that God can't
do anything.
You know, it's very easy tobelieve that God cannot answer
prayer, and I know that soundsalmost heretical, but this is
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pretty much where we're at ashuman beings.
I am a big believer that thelittlest things can be prayed
about, even something that mightsound insignificant, and I've
seen in my own life, thankfully,how God has answered small
prayers which others might noteven think to say anything about
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.
So that's one of the takeawaysthat we can grab tonight.
A second takeaway would be tonot reduce the Christian life to
something that is obligatory orsomething that just stems from
religiosity.
I believe that religiosity isreally just an expression of the
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flesh, really just anexpression of the flesh.
And the more one displays alife where they're just carrying
out rituals and going throughthe motions, that's not a symbol
of the sign of the spirit, it'sa sign that you're being
controlled by the flesh, becausethere's no life in that.
It's just routine, it's justobligatory practice.
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This is what it was like beforewe were saved, what it was like
before we knew Christ, justgoing through the motions of
obligatory behaviors andreligiosity.
But another takeaway that we cangrab from chapter 3 is that,
with Christ's help, we can putoff the old sinful deeds of the
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flesh and clothe ourselvesinstead with the virtues of the
new man, especially love.
You show me a christian that'sreally walking with god.
I'll show you someone that maynot know a ton of doctrine
hopefully he knows some gooddoctrine.
May not be, may have a lot offlaws, but is someone who is
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characterized by love, someonewho is characterized by faith,
someone who is characterized bya simple belief in Christ.
And what he says, that's thekind of Christians I like, being
around Christ and what he says,that's the kind of Christians I
like being around, and I'm sureyou do too.
And finally, from chapter 4,paul admonishes the Colossians
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to be thankful, not only devotethemselves to prayer, but be
thankful, and we can'toveremphasize the fact that the
Lord wants us to be thankful forthe things that he brings into
our life.
Thanksgiving is such animportant part of Christianity.
I pray many times that forforgiveness, that I'm not
thankful for the things, thatI've even asked prayers for.
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How often do we pray, godanswers us and we don't even
come back and thank him.
We don't even remember to sayLord, here's a prayer that I
prayed.
You answered it and thank youso much for what you've done for
me.
Thank you for all that you'vedone in every way, things that I
never could have even imagined.
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Well, let's close in a word ofprayer.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, father, we have a hard time really
encapsulating this epistle.
We think of the Colossians andhow they were steadfast and how,
even though they wereinfluenced by false teaching,
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bad philosophy, very similar towhat we experience today, yet
they remained steadfast, theywere encouraged, and it was a
church that was used mightily.
We thank you for Paul and howhe loved these people.
Didn't even know them, hadn'teven seen them, and yet he
exhibited a tenderness, aheartfelt concern for them.
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We thank you, lord, for hisexample.
We pray that we would be likehim and we pray that we would
also realize that in Christ weare complete.
We are full in you, lord, andwe don't need all these other
philosophies, religious concepts, rituals, traditions that so
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bogged down believers and havedone so for several thousand
years.
We thank you for the examplethat is set forth for us and
help us to understand theseprinciples, and we pray all this
in Jesus' name, amen.
All right, are we on?
I don't even know.
Okay, good evening everyone.
So I feel like I've beenentrusted with the task of
giving someone a tour of NewYork City and I have about two
hours to do it.
You know, we're going tosomehow have to go to the Empire
State Building, the Statue ofLiberty, museum of Natural
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History, etc.
Etc.
But we have to squeeze it allinto two hours.
I don't know how that's goingto work.
So tonight we're just going tomove and try to get through the
book of Colossians as quicklyand as thoroughly as possible,
but hopefully honoring the Lordas we go.
So what I'd like to do is startout and just give us a
(00:46):
background of the book and covera few things, and then we're
going to swiftly move through anoutline of the book with some
takeaways and then wrap up witha few additional takeaways.
All right, so just a littlebackground.
Of course you know it's theEpistle to the Colossians.
It's known as one of the prisonepistles, along with
Philippians, ephesians andPhilemon, and it was written
(01:10):
while Paul was under housearrest in Rome, most likely
around 60 to 62 AD.
It was written by Paul, butalso with Timothy.
Some say he was a co-author?
We're not really sure, but hewas certainly with Timothy when
he wrote it A little bit aboutthe city of Colossae.
So I don't know if any of youhave been to Ephesus I've had
(01:30):
the privilege of going there.
It's right along the Aegean Sea, but if you move inland from
Ephesus about 100 miles or soyou have the ancient region of
Phrygia.
Now it's known as Anatolia andit's in central west Turkey and
that's essentially whereColossae was.
There were three cities locatedin the same area and they were
(01:53):
Hierapolis and Laodicea.
So by the time of Paul the cityof Colossae had actually
dwindled in size andsignificance, so it wasn't
nearly as important as it hadbeen.
There was a large Jewishcommunity there.
Paul had never visited Colossae, which is interesting in itself
and the key founder of thechurch was Epaphras who,
(02:17):
although he was from Colossae,had heard the gospel when Paul
preached in Ephesus.
So the church was also the endresult and the outgrowth of
Paul's ministry in Ephesus.
Now one of the things that isbeing combated in this book is
the Gnostic philosophy, but it'snot the.
(02:38):
It was a brand of Gnosticphilosophy that also had some
other elements in it which wewill get to.
Um, there was sort of a strainof jewish mysticism and legalism
that were, uh, infused into thephilosophy as well.
So the colossians were subjectto a combination of these
different philosophies.
Uh, it was a.
(02:59):
It was a philosophy thatpromised the adherents a
spiritual fullness and unionwith God, and according to this
philosophy, the wisdom theyattained was by keeping
prescribed ceremonies, whichwould release them from earthly
concerns and connect them toheavenly concerns.
Of course, they saw that matterwas evil and that flesh was
(03:24):
evil.
They believed in keeping theOld Testament laws and in
particular the dietary laws.
Of course, they saw that matterwas evil and that flesh was
evil.
They believed in keeping theOld Testament laws and in
particular the dietary laws that, according to them, would keep
the evil flesh away and wouldhelp someone attain spiritual
perfection.
Circumcision was also veryimportant as well.
They believed in angelic beingsbeing able to influence earthly
(03:51):
affairs, and so, in their viewof things, jesus was seen as but
one of many emanations from God.
So Paul would hit some of theseviewpoints as we go through the
book.
I think I might need a littlewater.
Thanks, okay, I won't stop.
So we're going to begin with asurvey of chapter one.
(04:13):
I would entitle chapter one thesupremacy of Christ in all
things.
So we begin with Paul'sgreeting and thanksgiving in
verses one through eight.
Oh, thank you.
All right, I think that's alittle better, thank you.
(04:37):
So Paul's greeting andthanksgiving is in verses 1
through 8.
Paul greets the Colossians withTimothy, as we also made
reference to.
He thanks them for their faithin Christ, their love for the
saints and for the hope that waslaid for them in heaven.
And so we see that three earlyon faith, hope and love.
This message of truth hadproduced fruit in them from the
beginning, paul says, and wasalso produced in other parts of
(04:59):
the world Most people think thatmeans the Roman world, since
obviously the gospel had notreached other parts of the
planet earth, and so essentiallywhat he was saying is that in
other parts of the world therewere also true believers as well
.
So that same message of truththat had produced fruit in them
had also produced fruit inothers throughout the world.
(05:21):
Paul gives thanks for Epaphras,who was a faithful brother and
who had informed Paul of thelove with which these Colossians
believers had, although Paulhimself, again, had never met
them.
So apparently Epaphras was thepastor of Colossae.
He wasn't there at this timebecause he was in prison with
Rome, with Paul rather in Rome.
(05:42):
So and we'll see later on howthat Paul sends greetings from
Epaphras back to his own church.
Then in chapters in chapter 1,verses 9 through 14, we have
Paul's prayer for the Colossians.
Again, these new believers werein danger of turning from the
truth of the gospel to falseteachers and philosophies, and
(06:04):
this is Paul's concern.
So in his prayer he prays somespecific things.
First of all, that they mightbe filled, they might have a
knowledge of God's will.
Now what's interesting is thatPaul deliberately uses words
that had different meanings forthe Gnostics and infuses them
with Christian meanings.
So he used the words knowledgeand wisdom and spiritual
(06:30):
understanding that were alreadya part of religious vocabulary
in Colossae, but gives them adifferent meaning, gives them a
Christian meaning.
And Paul says he continues inhis prayer he says that you
might walk and he gives severalexamples that you might walk and
bring fruit and increase in theknowledge of God, that you
(06:50):
would have wisdom and knowledgethat will result in action.
And so his prayer was not justthat they would have knowledge
and wisdom, but that thisknowledge and wisdom and
spiritual understanding wouldresult in action.
Of course, that's a hugetakeaway for us today.
He also prayed that they mightbe strengthened, and he prayed
that the result of this strengthmight be the patience and
(07:13):
joyfulness and not just puttingup with circumstances, but truly
addressing issues with joy andpatience that can only come from
Christ and that would result inthanksgiving to God, who is the
one who delivered them fromdarkness and translated or
transferred them into thekingdom of his dear son, and
(07:35):
also an understanding that hehas redeemed them with his blood
and I realize I'm flyingthrough this.
In verses 1, I'm sorry, inverses 15 through 20,.
Paul then declares that Christis the preeminent one, and he
details four ways that Christhad a relationship to creation,
and some of these arefascinating.
(07:56):
I wish we had more time tofocus on each one.
He notes that Jesus existedbefore creation.
Now let me just pause for amoment and say one of the issues
that comes up in Gnosticism isthe idea that Jesus was a
created being.
It's also a philosophy thatinfluences Jehovah Witnesses
today, because a lot of whatthey believe really stems from
(08:20):
the Gnostic heresy.
However, paul not only statesthat Jesus existed before
creation, but also that hecreated all things.
Now here's a question If youcreate all things, then how can
you yourself be a created being?
You can't, unless you're anuncreated created being.
Which sort of is linguisticsuicide?
(08:42):
So he created all things, andthen it says in verse 16 that
all things exist for him.
Now let me just stop again andthink about the fact that when
we look at creation, when weconsider nature, yes, we know
that God created all things, butdo we often think about the
(09:03):
fact that they were created forhim?
So when you look up at the sky,when you think about the beauty
of nature, these are thingscreated for Christ.
It's an incredible thought,actually.
He also goes on to say that heholds all things together the
atoms, the molecules, whateverholds things together.
Christ is the one who does that.
(09:25):
He's the one who holds allthings to, keeping them from
bursting apart.
And then he goes on to say thathe is the head of the church
and he reconciles all things tohimself.
Paul then moves on to talk aboutthree ministries that he's
clarifying for the Colossianbelievers, just so they know
(09:48):
what his purpose is, in writingto them.
So he details these threeministries in verses 21 through
29.
First he talks about theministry of reconciliation, and
he mentions that, though theyhad been estranged, now, now, in
God's grace, he had reconciledthem, he had presented them holy
(10:09):
, he had presented them withoutblemish and free from reproval,
free from any kind of accusation, and so this was one of Paul's
ministry, a ministry ofreconciliation, and he assures
them that they would continue.
This is the great if-thenclause, but he assures them that
(10:29):
they would continue in thefaith, which would actually
prove that they were saved.
Now we could get into thiswhole.
There's a lot of if phrases inthe Bible and people use that to
say, well, if could be.
A is a conditional clause andno, no, no, it's not conditional
, it's actually a statement thatsays since, since you are in
(10:50):
the faith, you will continue.
Besides the ministry ofreconciliation, there was a
ministry of suffering, and Paulrejoiced in that he could relate
to the sufferings of Christ.
He rejoiced in his sufferingsbecause it was for the Gentiles
these were the people that Godhad called him to and it was
(11:11):
also for the suffering for thesake of the entire church.
Paul then moves on to theministry of preaching.
This involved warning andteaching, and it also involved
laboring, as Christ himself hadmightily worked through him.
And again, a moment to stop andthink about the fact that when
we work for the Lord, when welabor for him, that labor should
(11:36):
be something that comes fromhim, as he works through us.
So we work as we labor for him,so he is giving us the energy,
he is giving us what we need towork for him.
So if chapter one is on thesupremacy of Christ, chapter two
is on the sufficiency of Christ.
Paul moves on and warns theColossians against false
(11:59):
teachings that threaten thepurity and sufficiency of the
gospel.
We read about his pastoralconcern and encouragement in
verses 1 through 7.
So he prays that their heartswould be comforted.
He was concerned about thesebelievers.
He had not met them, but he wasconcerned about them and he was
(12:23):
concerned that their heartswould be knit together, united
together in love.
And what an important thingthat is for a church that people
be united.
A lot of churches where there'sgood doctrine there's not
always a lot of churches wherepeople are united in love.
He also expressed concern thatthey be not led astray by
convincing or enticing words andthat they already having been
(12:47):
rooted and built up in Christ,that they should now continue in
him that they should now abound.
It was time to move forwardwith what they already knew.
He talks about abounding withthanksgiving, and this word
connotes a river that overflowsits banks, so it's sort of like
an overflowing with thanksgiving, and overflowing with gratitude
(13:09):
is the idea.
Yet he says they were not to begrounded in ritual or
philosophy, but in the personand work of Christ.
So he moves on to the warningsection.
First he warns against thisphilosophy.
Now, the philosophies they hadbeen exposed to were just a
(13:29):
tradition of men, and today wecould look at a lot of churches,
a lot of religions, where whatthey believe, what they hold to,
what they consider theirfoundational principles, are
just traditions of men, justmade up doctrines that have no
basis as coming from God at all.
(13:50):
We could talk a lot about that.
But he says but the fullness ofthe Godhead dwells in Christ.
This word fullness, pleroma,was a very important word that
was used in this philosophy, andhe contrasted it to what the
Gnostics taught, namely that Godwas simply not just the source
(14:11):
of all the emanations theybelieved in, but he was the head
.
He was the head of creation.
They had this idea of ademiurge, and see if I can
explain it.
It was the idea that Godcreated a creature and that
creature created anothercreature and from that another
creature stemmed, another one,and these are all seen as a
(14:33):
demiurge and eventually theuniverse was created and all
these creatures were consideredquote-unquote emanations.
Well, paul confronted thatphilosophy and taught against it
.
He then warns, in verses 11through 15, against Jewish
legalism.
He said it was unnecessary.
Why?
Because you don't needcircumcision with hands.
(14:55):
You already have beencircumcised in the heart, a
circumcision without hands.
So there's no need to go backto what you knew about before.
You've already been buried andraised and made alive through
Christ.
He goes on in verse 14 to talkabout how the list of decrees or
(15:16):
the record of their debt thatwas against them had already
been nailed to the cross andJesus had already disarmed the
rulers and the authorities andtriumphed over them.
Then he moves on to a sectionwhere he talks about freedom
from these two philosophies,from both Gnostic philosophy and
Jewish legalism.
(15:37):
He combats the idea that oneneeds to be bound by
restrictions against drink andagainst meat and celebrating of
Sabbath and special days.
Why?
Because these things were theshadow, but Jesus was the
substance.
Now let me tell you.
I would like to just take asmall break and say that I've
(16:00):
been exposed to a lot of Judaism, judaistic teaching, and this
is exactly what is taught intheir circles.
The idea is always focusing onthe outer, the external, the
feast day, keeping this fast,keeping that fast, refraining
(16:22):
from this meat, keeping thisdiet.
And it's so similar to whatPaul was talking about here,
what was threatening theirfreedom?
Here in Colossae, he goes on tosay that those who would have
you worship angels and seekmystical approaches are not
(16:46):
connected to the source of life,who is Christ.
And he says if you are dead inChrist, you should not be
subjecting yourselves to theserules like don't touch, don't
handle, don't taste, insteadobserving these things.
When people observed thesethings, it was really more of an
example of how they lackedhumility.
(17:08):
They might have exhibited theillusion of piety, but really,
underneath all this piety was asense of arrogance, was a sense
of a lack of humility, a senseof religious superiority.
Moving on to Colossians, chapter3, we now have the practical
(17:33):
section.
This is something Paul does alot, where the first chapters
are doctrinal and then the lastchapters are practical, and so
the same happens here.
So we're going to call thisliving.
The new chapters are practical,and so the same happens here.
So we're going to call thisliving the new life in Christ.
So he begins to say thatbelievers should set their
affection because of all thesethings that we've talked about.
(17:56):
Believers should set theiraffection on the heavenly and
not on the earthly.
Why?
Because their old life was dead.
Now their new life is hidden.
They are now separated untoChrist and they will be
glorified at his appearing.
And also because of that hemoves on to the next section.
(18:17):
Because of these things,believers should put off their
old man, or the old self, if youwill.
In verses 5 through 11.
The analogy is made of puttingoff grave clothes.
So take off these old graveclothes.
You don't want these graveclothes on you.
And what does that look like?
Well, first of all, putting todeath sexual sins, he says.
Mortify or kill off sexual sins, including desires, promiscuity
(18:42):
, impurity, covetousness.
Put off also the social sins,which would include anger, wrath
, malice, blasphemy and lying.
Instead, the believers who havenow been granted duties and
privileges by God were not to bedivided by nation.
(19:03):
They were not to be divided byreligious distinction or class
distinction.
Why?
Because Christ was all and inall.
He then goes on to say that,whereas some of these things are
to be put off, there's alsothings that are to be put on,
and he covers that in verses 12through 17.
The believer should put on thenew self.
(19:25):
What does the new self looklike?
Well, by contrast to the oldwith its sinful deeds, it should
be characterized by kindness,compassion, humility, gentleness
, patience, forgiveness and,above all, love, and that is
emphasized above all love.
He then says let believers havethe peace of god rule in their
(19:52):
hearts, and he covers this inthe next few verses.
Believers should let the wordof christ dwell in them richly,
with their singing, with theirthanksgiving and with
instruction and warning beingthe evidence.
And we just sang a few minutesago to the Lord and I believe
this is something that ishonoring to God when we sing to
him and we're filled richly withthe words of song.
(20:16):
They were to do all thesethings that he has previously
named, whether word or deed, inthe name of Christ.
Then he moves on to anothersection that's also practical.
Believers should fosterChrist-centered relationships.
He covers this in verses 18 ofchapter 3 through verse 1 of
(20:39):
chapter 4.
Wives, submit to your husbandsas is fitting to the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives andbe not harsh or bitter against
them.
Children obey your parents.
Fathers, don't provoke yourchildren to wrath.
Slaves or servants should workwholeheartedly, not with eye
service as man pleasers, butrather in a way that shows that
(21:03):
they are pleasing the Lord, whothey fear.
Masters are also to treat theirslaves or their servants justly
and should be reminded of thefact that they too have a master
in heaven.
So this takes us to chapter 4.
And in chapter 4, we'll callthis communicating the new life
in Christ.
Paul moves on to say that theColossians were to devote
(21:28):
themselves to prayer and bewatchful.
They were to pray for him.
He's saying don't forget me,I'm here in prison.
Pray for opportunities that Ihave to proclaim Christ in the
current state I'm in.
And he said pray also that Iwould proclaim the gospel
(21:49):
clearly.
And then he admonishes them towalk wisely and to speak
graciously.
He says be careful how you acttoward outsiders, in other words
those outside the faith,non-believers and speak to
others with grace, but alsograce that is seasoned with salt
(22:10):
.
Now some people interpret thisto mean only speak to those with
salt.
No, there's supposed to begrace and seasoned it with salt.
Salt isn't supposed to be thewhole thing, and what does salt
really mean?
It means impactful speech,purifying speech.
Finally, they were to honor andpartner with fellow servants in
Christ, and here he gives alist of those.
(22:33):
First, he gives a list of thosewho are sending greetings.
So he mentions Tychicus, alsoknown as Tychicus to some, and
Onesimus, who were sent todeliver this epistle.
And we don't know much aboutthese guys, but Tychicus
apparently is a trusted courierof Paul's that was sent to bring
(22:54):
this Colossian letter, alongwith Onesimus, to the Colossian
believers.
Onesimus, of course, ismentioned as being a slave that
had belonged to Philemon, butwho Paul now counted as a
brother in Christ.
Then there's greetings fromAristarchus, john Mark and Jesus
(23:15):
Justice.
These three were Jews.
Aristarchus was a fellowprisoner.
We know that because heidentifies that way.
John Mark, of course, was usedgreatly by God initially, and
then there was a falling awayperiod and then he came back to
work with Paul.
Jesus' justice, we don't know alot about, but he's mentioned
(23:36):
here.
And then Paul also extendsgreetings from Epaphras and from
Luke and from Demas, who wereGentiles.
So three Jews, three Gentiles.
And of course we know thatEpaphras had a great burden.
It says, not only for theColossians but also for those in
the two nearby cities ofHierapolis and Laodicea.
(23:57):
And then greetings to otherswere extended by Paul.
He says greet Nymphus, someversions say Nympha, so
depending on how you read, thathe be a man, she or she could be
a woman, um, but essentially,whether it's nympha or nymphus,
(24:18):
it was a house in nymphus's.
Uh, there was a church innymphus house.
It's not the same as the churchof of the colossians, it was a
separate church.
Some believe that it was inlaodicea.
And and finally, he saysadmonish Archippus to take heed
to the ministry that he received.
Now, tradition says that he wasthe pastor of the church in
(24:41):
Laodicea.
We don't know.
He was also mentioned in thebook of Philemon.
And then this Paul's salutation.
So now the question is, now thatyou've gotten the introduction,
computation.
So now the question is, nowthat you've gotten the
introduction, what are thetakeaways?
Well, there's, there's many,many takeaways, and far too many
to to cover.
But what I did is I I thoughtof four takeaways that we could,
(25:03):
uh, that we could grab one fromeach chapter to begin with,
each chapter To begin with.
Let's think about the fact thatPaul said that when you pray,
(25:25):
you will please God in every way.
If you continue to pray andthis is something that is
practical for us Pray that, youwill please God in every way.
That's a prayer for us today.
You know, don't slip into amindset that says that God can't
do anything.
You know, it's very easy tobelieve that God cannot answer
prayer, and I know that soundsalmost heretical, but this is
(25:46):
pretty much where we're at ashuman beings.
I am a big believer that thelittlest things can be prayed
about, even something that mightsound insignificant, and I've
seen in my own life, thankfully,how God has answered small
prayers which others might noteven think to say anything about
(26:07):
.
So that's one of the takeawaysthat we can grab tonight.
A second takeaway would be tonot reduce the Christian life to
something that is obligatory orsomething that just stems from
religiosity.
I believe that religiosity isreally just an expression of the
(26:29):
flesh, really just anexpression of the flesh.
And the more one displays alife where they're just carrying
out rituals and going throughthe motions, that's not a symbol
of the sign of the spirit, it'sa sign that you're being
controlled by the flesh, becausethere's no life in that.
It's just routine, it's justobligatory practice.
(26:52):
This is what it was like beforewe were saved, what it was like
before we knew Christ, justgoing through the motions of
obligatory behaviors andreligiosity.
But another takeaway that we cangrab from chapter 3 is that,
with Christ's help, we can putoff the old sinful deeds of the
(27:16):
flesh and clothe ourselvesinstead with the virtues of the
new man, especially love.
You show me a christian that'sreally walking with god.
I'll show you someone that maynot know a ton of doctrine
hopefully he knows some gooddoctrine.
May not be, may have a lot offlaws, but is someone who is
(27:38):
characterized by love, someonewho is characterized by faith,
someone who is characterized bya simple belief in Christ.
And what he says, that's thekind of Christians I like, being
around Christ and what he says,that's the kind of Christians I
like being around, and I'm sureyou do too.
And finally, from chapter 4,paul admonishes the Colossians
(28:01):
to be thankful, not only devotethemselves to prayer, but be
thankful, and we can'toveremphasize the fact that the
Lord wants us to be thankful forthe things that he brings into
our life.
Thanksgiving is such animportant part of Christianity.
I pray many times that forforgiveness, that I'm not
thankful for the things, thatI've even asked prayers for.
(28:23):
How often do we pray, godanswers us and we don't even
come back and thank him.
We don't even remember to sayLord, here's a prayer that I
prayed.
You answered it and thank youso much for what you've done for
me.
Thank you for all that you'vedone in every way, things that I
never could have even imagined.
(28:44):
Well, let's close in a word ofprayer.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, father, we have a hard time really
encapsulating this epistle.
We think of the Colossians andhow they were steadfast and how,
even though they wereinfluenced by false teaching,
(29:09):
bad philosophy, very similar towhat we experience today, yet
they remained steadfast, theywere encouraged, and it was a
church that was used mightily.
We thank you for Paul and howhe loved these people.
Didn't even know them, hadn'teven seen them, and yet he
exhibited a tenderness, aheartfelt concern for them.
(29:32):
We thank you, lord, for hisexample.
We pray that we would be likehim and we pray that we would
also realize that in Christ weare complete.
We are full in you, lord, andwe don't need all these other
philosophies, religious concepts, rituals, traditions that so
(29:55):
bogged down believers and havedone so for several thousand
years.
We thank you for the examplethat is set forth for us and
help us to understand theseprinciples, and we pray all this
in Jesus' name, amen.
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