COLOSSIANS (1) Overview of the Book of Colossians

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.” (Col 1:1-2)

​Intro
Last Sunday, we finished the sermon series about the image of God, and starting today, I want us to learn about the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the book of Colossians.
 
Today is our first day studying this book, so I want to address some context that will help deepen our understanding of it.
 
As you may know, the book of Colossians is one of the books that Paul wrote when he was under house arrest for two years in Rome. During this period, Paul wrote 4 letters—3 to the churches in Ephesus, Philippi, and Colossae, and 1 letter to a person named Philemon. Because they were written when Paul was under house arrest, they are called “the captivity epistles.”
 
The fact that he wrote to the church in Colossae is interesting because the church wasn’t directly built by Paul.
 
The New Testament consists of 27 books, and Paul wrote almost half of them. He wrote a total of 13 books, and 9 of them were letters sent to different churches. And most of these churches had close relationships with Paul.
 
However, among the 9 churches he wrote to, 2 of them were not directly built by Paul. They were the church in Rome and the church in Colossae.
 
Then we can guess that there must have been special reasons for Paul to write letters to those churches. We already talked about Paul’s purpose in writing a letter to the church in Rome. It was to ask them to assist him in going to Spain for his mission trip.
 
The reason Paul described the gospel of Jesus Christ systematically and in detail in the letter was to reconcile the divided groups in the Roman church so that they could be united in God’s will and support his future journey.
 
The Church in Colossae
Then, why did Paul write a letter to the church in Colossae? Before we talk about that, let’s first discuss how it was built.
 
During his third mission trip, Paul spent most of his time in Ephesus in Asia Minor. At first, he proclaimed the kingdom of God for three months in the synagogue there.  But not everyone welcomed Paul and his message. Some of them refused to believe what Paul preached and publicly maligned it.  So Paul left them.
 
Then Paul took some disciples and started to teach them God’s word every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. And as a result, Acts 19:10 says,
 
“This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.” (Ac 19:10)
 
And Acts 19:20 says,
“In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.” (Ac 19:20)
 
Paul’s teaching in Ephesus was so intense that the gospel of Jesus Christ spread widely throughout Asia within a short period of time.
 
But, I don’t think Paul was the only one spreading the gospel throughout Asia. Paul was a great man, but it would have been physically impossible for him to preach the gospel to everyone there within 2 years.
 
So, it seems more reasonable to assume that Paul’s disciples, who had learned about God’s word and the gospel of Jesus Christ in Ephesus, went to different regions in Asia and proclaimed what they had learned from Paul.
 
This means that Paul’s teachings at the lecture hall of Tyrannus wasn’t a two-year program. It must have been much shorter, because not only did Paul teach his disciples and send them to different regions during that two-year period, they also proclaimed the gospel to the point that all Jews and Gentiles heard it.
 
It’s amazing to me when I compare Paul’s pastor training program to that of modern seminary programs. Nowadays, it takes at least four years to earn a Master of Divinity.
 
Paul’s lecture course was much shorter, but still much more powerful. It was so intense that the gospel of Jesus Christ reached every corner of Asia, and His word spread widely.
 
It’s likely that the church in Colossae was built during this two-year period as a result of Paul’s teaching in Ephesus. After learning from him, Paul’s disciples immediately went out and preached what they had learned and built churches in Asia Minor. The church in Colossae was one of them.
 
So, even though Paul didn’t build the Colossian church directly, he could still exercise his spiritual influence on it.
 
It seems that the disciple who had learned from Paul in Ephesus and went to Colossae was named Epaphras. Paul said,
 
“You learned [the gospel] from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf” (Col 1:7)
 
It seems that Epaphras also built other churches in Asia near Colossae, such as the ones in Laodicea and Hierapolis. As Paul said,
 
“Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis.” (Col 4:12-13)
 
Even though the name Epaphras doesn’t appear many times in the New Testament, he played a very important role in spreading the gospel and building churches in Asia. As a result of his sincere ministry and prayer, many churches were firmly built.
 
And it seems that Epaphras visited Paul when he was under house arrest in Rome and told him about how churches had been built in Asia and how Christians there had heard the gospel and were bearing fruit by God’s grace.
 
Paul said to the Colossians,
“We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people… [Epaphras] told us of your love in the Spirit.” (Col 1:4, 8)
 
However, Epaphras didn’t only report good aspects of the church in Colossae, but also serious problems that were happening in the church, which made Paul decide to write a letter to them. 
 
The problem was about false teachings that were prevalent in many early churches and in today’s churches as well.
 
Paul reveals his purpose in writing this letter in chapter 2:1-7. Let’s read it together.
 
“I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments... So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” (Col 2:1-7)
 
From the first verse, we can infer that this letter was sent not only to the church in Colossae, but also to nearby churches in Asia such as Laodicea. This kind of letter is called ‘a circular letter’ because it was designed to be read in different churches. We know this from the last passage of the letter. Paul said,
 
“After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.” (Col 4:16)
 
False Teachings
The fact that the book of Colossians was a circular letter and that its main focus was on how to resist false teachings shows that the problem of false teachings didn’t only affect the church in Colossae.
 
As I said a little earlier, many early churches had to fight against false teachings to defend the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the true meanings of genuine faith and salvation. What was worse, the heretical teachings were coming from some church leaders, which made it difficult for believers to discern what was right.
 
It seems that the false teachers tried to combine the wisdom of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, which would ultimately diminish the genuineness of the gospel. Paul said in 2:8,
 
“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” (Col 2:8)
 
It’s likely that the knowledge of this world started to replace the position of the gospel in the church. Preachers started to preach a gospel that was combined with worldly wisdom. The gospel of Jesus was in danger of losing its genuineness.
 
So, Paul must have felt the strong need to defend the truth of Jesus Christ and His gospel that brings about true faith and salvation. So, in the letter, Paul focuses intensely on who Jesus really is, the real good news that brings true salvation, and what it means to have faith in Him. These are what we should discover while learning about the book together.
 
In this letter, we can find 7 characteristics of the new heretical teachings. We’ll learn about them while studying this letter together, but we don’t need to know what the false teachings are. What we must focus on is what the gospel of Jesus Christ truly tells us—who He is, what wonderful salvation He brought to us, and how to receive it by faith. If we have genuine faith that’s based on the truth of Jesus Christ revealed in the Bible, we won’t be swayed by false, combined, or modified versions of the gospel.
 
Today, a lot of people say that they believe in Jesus. But sometimes, I really wonder whether the Jesus they believe in is the same Jesus revealed in the Bible. It’s hard for me not to feel that a lot of Christians nowadays believe in the Jesus they shape based on what’s convenient to them.
 
I think the most dangerous thing to do is to delude ourselves into thinking that we have faith in Jesus when we really don’t. Once we admit that we don’t really believe in Jesus, we might have a chance to repent and return to Him. But if we think that there’s no problem in our faith in Jesus when there is, it becomes a much more serious issue because we wouldn’t feel the need to return to Christ.
 
So, we really need to know what the Bible says about Jesus. We need to know who He is, what He did, and what He does now. We need to know what it means to be saved and to have faith in Jesus. We should be able to test our faith on the basis of biblical truth, not the culture or tradition of the church.
 
So, we should always return to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel must be the only standard through which we check our faith.
 
That’s what I really want us to do when we study this book together. I hope and pray that all of us can come to know more about Jesus and His gospel and be firmly rooted in the truth through the Holy Spirit so that we won’t be shaken by false, modified versions of the gospel, but stand strong and be victorious in the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel.
 
Let’s pray.
 
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for revealing to us who You are, who Your Son is, and how You save us through Him through Your word.
 
There are many voices in the world that make it hard for us to focus only on the gospel. There are false customs, traditions, and cultures in the church that fade and hide the authenticity of the gospel.
 
We say we believe in You, but let us consider whether the God we claim to believe in is truly You. And if our faith is not based on Your word, but on a reduced or modified version of the gospel that’s combined with worldly values and cultures, please help us realize that we’re on the wrong path so that we can return to You.
 
Please allow us to have a complete understanding of the gospel and of who Jesus Christ is so that our faith in Him can be firm and steady and so that we won’t be deceived by any false, fine-sounding arguments.
 
We thank You Lord. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
 
Sharing Questions
Today we started to learn about the book of Colossians. Here are the questions I want us to think about today.
 
1) What do you see as a ‘combined’ or ‘modified’ version of the gospel in today’s churches?
2) What do you think are the core characteristics of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we must not modify or neglect? How can we preserve them?