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    The Letter of Paul To Colossians

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    David Jiménez

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    The Letter of Paul To Colossians

    Uploaded by

    David Jiménez
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    Original Title

    COLOSSIANS

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    The Letter of Paul To Colossians

    Uploaded by

    David Jiménez

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 4

    The letter of Paul to

    COLOSSIANS
    Billy Bland

    Introduction to the letter

    I. The city

    - Located in Phrygia. Modern day Turkey.


    - Located about 100 miles to the east of Ephesus.
    - 12 miles from Laodicea and Hierapolis.
    - Lipscomb points out that this city was an important place for theosophy, Gnosticism
    and Mysticism.
    - Once a great city but now of no importance.
    - We do not know who established the church.

    II. The occasion of the epistle:

    - The danger of the influences of the area as Gnosticism.


    - Some of the new converts may have brought some of these beliefs with them.
    - To refute the Colossian Heresy: you are not complete in Christ. Insights can be
    obtained through asceticism.
    - Early developments of “Docetism” and “Gnosticism”. The emanations of God and
    angels.
    - Paul wrote to assure them that they are complete in Christ. Col. 1:16; 2:11; The
    warning is about vain philosophy.

    III. Date

    - 61-63 AD.
    - One of the prisons epistles.

    IV. Similarity to Ephesians

    C. S. Lewis: out of the 155 verses in Col. 78 are found in Eph. in one way or another. Cf.
    Eph. 5:18-19; Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:3-5; Eph. 3:5.
    Eph. 6:21; Col. 4:7 – probably the carrier of the letter. It is more probable that Onesimus is
    one of the companions.

    V. Gnosticism

    - Not fully developed but already present.


    - The denial of the flesh: the root of evil and seed of sin.
    - They thought that emanations from God are lesser deities.
    - The Essenes (these were in Palestine, probably Qumran).

    VI. Mysticism

    - Knowledge of God comes through immediate intuition: an existential unmediated


    encounter with God.
    - A different knowledge from the mere logic or sensorial.
    - This is beyond the realm of religion, it is the primary mode of reality encountered in
    pure thought.

    VII. Theosophy

    - Philosophical speculation on the nature of God and his action in the world.
    - Basically what Paul is doing.

    VIII. Teachings:

    - The gospel is declared sufficient to obtain heaven.


    - Christ is exalted as the Son of God who deliver us from sin
    - The uniqueness of Christ as a person.
    - All Christians are perfect in Christ: no need for speculation.
    - Physical circumcision is of no avail.
    - The law of Moses is done away.
    - Asceticism and Mysticism shown to be of no avail.

    Colossians 1
    v. 1-2: Very similar to Eph. with the addition of Timothy. He is qualified 1 Cor. 9:1. He has
    the signs of the apostles. His apostleship was willed by God. His message also was rom
    God. Gal. 1:11-12; 2 Cor. 5:18-20.

    Saints and faithful brethren – Col. 1:13: the ones called out of darkness, set apart: saints.

    Grace-peace.

    v. 3: Prayer was essential in the life and ministry of Paul.

    God the Father – Jesus Christ the Lord: In the same place as the father. Highly exalted
    position and relationship to the Father.

    v. 4: In order to hear someone else’s faith, this has to be demonstrated. Not just internal but
    active. Rom. 1:8; Rom. 16:26.

    Christ-Jesus: perfect union in one person. Hail Chalcedon, I guess…

    v. 5: Rom. 8:24; Heb. 6:19 – the hope is what presses them to show their faith and love. In
    heaven does not mean the place where they will go, but what its nature is. 1 Pet. 1:3-4. This
    hope came by hearing of the gospel.

    v. 6: Probably echoes of Isaiah 55:11.

    v. 7-8: Phil. 23; Probably the same. Same character of a servant. Paul rejoiced in the labor
    that others did on behalf of the church. This work shows the love of the Colossians.

    v. 9: Epignosis – a complete understanding. They had to be filled with the right knowledge
    of the gospel. The “anti-pre-Gnostic” undertones are exaggerated.

    v. 10-11: This knowledge gives you the might so that you can live the lives that you ought,
    pleasing to God.

    v. 13: deliverance and translation – from one place to another. A complete reconstruction of
    their lives. John 3:3-5. The kingdom already present. Heb. 12:28.

    v. 14: In Christ the redemption has been made by the forgiveness of sins. Mat. 26:28; Rom.
    6:3-4. The importance of his death in the economy of salvation.

    The dogmatic part (hymn?)


    v. 15: Image – Eikon: the exact impression of God’s deity. First born: Ps. 89:27 – It is hard
    to see in this complete orthodoxy, but there is a path to it. Even if it means “a preeminent”,
    Jesus is put under the realm of the creatures.

    v. 16: This is perhaps the path to orthodoxy – but is not as easy. “In” or “by” him carries a
    strange theological idea that is hard to grasp.

    v. 17: “Before”: it does not imply that He was not created. The consistency of the world,
    sounds very stoic.

    v. 18: The head of the body of Christ and the firstborn of the dead – the one in whom
    resurrection can happen.

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