Colossians was my mother’s favorite book of the Bible. I don’t know exactly why because I never asked her. But there was something about this book, this letter of Paul, that appealed deeply to my mother’s soul. And she was someone who read the Bible faithfully, every day, for most of her 91 years on planet earth. I suspect it was the supremacy of Christ in this little letter that appealed to my mother more than anything else. It might be said that in this letter, more than any other, Paul presents Christ Jesus as supreme.
Perhaps as we study this book together, Colossians will become your favorite book of the Bible. I don’t know. But I do believe that there is something for everyone in this letter. So, let’s dive in and see what God has for us in Paul’s letter to the church at Colossae. Listen for God’s word to you from Colossians 1:1-2…
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.
Paul
There is much to talk about, even in this deceptively simple opening to this letter. We begin with Paul. In a sense, in seven Greek words, eleven words in English, Paul tells us everything we need to know about him: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God”. Let’s break this down word by word and see what we can learn about Paul, the sender of this letter.
First, he is “an apostle”. As we have seen many times before, the word “apostle” simply means one who is sent. This word carries a note of authority with it. Why should the Colossians listen to what Paul has to say in this letter? After all, he didn’t start their church. The word “apostle” begins to indicate why they should listen. They should listen because Paul is not speaking on his own behalf. He is speaking as one sent.
Who sent Paul? The very next word in Greek tells us who. Paul is sent by none other than the Christ, the Messiah, whose personal name is Jesus. We will see more about this title “Christ” and this name “Jesus” in a few moments. But if we want to know more about when Christ Jesus sent Paul we must go back and read Paul’s conversion story in Acts 9. That is where we get the origin story behind Paul’s commissioning. It is a story we are all familiar with, how Paul met Jesus in a vision on the road to Damascus. Paul is a classic example of what Jesus says in John 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you…”
Paul adds that he was not only sent by Christ Jesus, but also “by the will of God”. In other words, Paul is saying that it is God’s desire that he act as an apostle, sharing the good news about Jesus with the world. Paul is laying claim to the highest sense of calling imaginable.
This phrase “the will of God” is an important one for Paul. There are three different senses of “God’s will”, and we see Paul using this term in two of these three different senses in this letter. Paul uses the term “God’s will” twice more in this brief letter. In Colossians 1:9 he says, “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives…”
This verse answers, at least in part, the question: “How do we discover God’s will for us?” Some people call this God’s secret will or his decretive or sovereign will. In a sense, “God’s will” is secret only until God reveals it. Paul tells us we can discover God’s will for our lives through a process of prayer as God fills us with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Holy Spirit gives. It is ultimately the Holy Spirit who reveals God’s will to us.
Then in Colossians 4:12 Paul says, “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.”
What is the will of God that Paul wants us to stand firm in? I think it is the moral will of God, that moral will that is revealed in Scripture and especially in the person of Jesus Christ.
And then there is a third sense of “God’s will” not mentioned in either of these verses. That is God’s permissive will. Everything that happens in the whole history of the world is part of God’s permissive will in that God permits, or allows, it to happen. But that does not mean that God is the author of evil, or that he likes evil. He doesn’t.
Why does God permit evil? Because if he did not permit evil then we would not have free will. And God seems to think the risk of free will is worth it. Why? Because free will is the only thing that makes love possible. If we had to love God, that would not really be love, would it? It is only our free will that makes love possible. We must be able to choose the opposite, otherwise love would be meaningless.
Timothy
The second person we learn about in this letter is Timothy, the co-sender of this letter along with Paul. Timothy is one of those people in the New Testament whom we know quite a lot about. This is due in part to the fact that Paul writes two whole letters to Timothy, his protégé and son in the faith. In addition, Timothy is mentioned six times in the book of Acts and once in the book of Hebrews. To top it all off, Paul mentions Timothy in seven of his other letters.
Here Paul calls Timothy simply “our brother”. There is no more characteristic designation for a Christian than this one: brother, or sister. The moment we put our faith in Jesus Christ we become part of Jesus’ family, the church, and we are no longer alone. We are called to live out our Christian life here on earth as part of a family. And Timothy is an excellent example of someone who did this.
Colossae
Paul writes this letter “To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ…” Notice, Paul calls the people to whom he is writing saints and faithful brothers in Christ.
As we have seen many times before, to be “saints” or “holy people” means that we are set apart to belong to Jesus Christ. We are called to be different.
Note, saints are not perfect people. None of us will be perfect until that day we stand before Jesus himself, and we are made perfect in his presence. What marks us as different in this life is not so much who or what we are, as it is, to whom we belong.
Paul also calls the Colossians “faithful brothers in Christ”. Not only are Christians to be people of faith, but we are also called to be faithful. The word conveys the idea of being “trustworthy” or “reliable”.
Notice: the Christians to whom Paul writes are Christians in Colossae. As Christians we always live, in this life, in a certain geography. So, let’s talk for a few moments about the geography and background of this city of Colossae…
Colossae was an ancient city of Phrygia in Asia Minor and one of the most celebrated cities of southern Anatolia. It was a significant city from the fifth century BC onwards. Colossae was also a wealthy city due to its trade in wool and the chalky soil that enabled the people of Colossae to develop a special dye for their wool. There was a large Jewish population in Colossae in the time of Paul, perhaps as many as 50,000 Jewish people lived there.
However, overall, Colossae had dwindled in importance as a city by the time of Paul. William Barclay once wrote that: “It remains a strange and a wonderful fact that Paul wrote the letter which contains the highest reach of his thought to so unimportant a town as Colosse then was.”
Colossae was part of a Roman and later Byzantine province before being destroyed in 1192. The remaining ruins are minimal. Excavations in the area, until recently, have focused on the more famous locations nearby—Laodicea and Hierapolis. But now some attention is being given to Colossae.
Paul never visited the city of Colossae before writing to the church there. He only heard of their faith (Colossians 1:4,9). Paul says that the Colossians learned of the Gospel through Epaphras “our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.” (Colossians 1:7)
Christ
The next two words that Paul writes are among the most important words in all of Paul’s letters. They are the words: in Christ. We talked about the importance of being in Christwhen we looked at Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. When we put our trust in Christ, we literally have Christ living in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. We become “Christ in” people and we have what C. S. Lewis calls “the Christ life” in us.
In this letter we see that the recipients of this letter are both in Christ and in Colossae. This is a reminder that Christians belong to two worlds. We are citizens of this world, and we are citizens of heaven, as Paul talks about in his letter to the Philippians.
The title “Christ”, which is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew “Messiah”, appears some thirty times in this brief letter. “Messiah” means “anointed one”. We see three different types of people being anointed in the Old Testament: prophets, priests, and kings. Jesus fulfills all three of these offices.
And then there is the name “Jesus” which appears seven times in this letter. By comparison, God is mentioned only twenty-five times in Colossians. So, Christ Jesus figures even more prominently in Colossians than God. Of course, Paul believed and taught the divinity of Christ. So, I am not suggesting a division in Paul’s thought between Christ and God. It is just striking to me that the second person of the Godhead figures more prominently in this letter than the first person, or even than the Holy Spirit who is mentioned only three times in this letter. Indeed, Christ reigns supreme in Colossians.
God our Father
Nonetheless, Paul greets the Colossians with “Grace and peace to you from God our Father”. As we have seen throughout our study of Paul’s letters, “grace and peace” is his characteristic greeting. Grace does not figure as largely in Colossians as it does in Galatians or Ephesians, but it is present. And peace is only mentioned three times. But by joining these two words in his greeting, Paul is bringing together the great word of the New Testament (grace) with the great word of the Old Testament (peace or shalom). We need both… all the time.
Conclusion
Still, it seems to me that the key word of Colossians is one that is not even mentioned in these opening two verses. It is the word “fullness”. The key verses for this entire letter are in Colossians 2:9-10…
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.
Someone once summed up the theme for this entire letter by saying that Paul’s message is… JESUS + NOTHING = EVERYTHING!
That message sounds nice, until you really are down to nothing in terms of this world’s goods. Then you find out what your faith is really in.
I have told you before about my father who came to faith in Christ through Billy Graham out of a life in organized crime. When my father committed his life to follow Christ, he immediately set about repaying everyone he had ever cheated or stolen from. When my father had finished with restitution, he had liquidated all his assets and basically had nothing left. But the Lord provided for him and for my mother and their two children every step of the way. When they needed a car to get around, God sent them someone who provided a car. When they needed a house, someone offered them a house, free of charge.
I grew up hearing many stories of how the Lord had provided for my parents, but by the time I came along, my parents were well off. I never imagined I would find myself in the same situation they had been in. But in 2004, I needed an extended break from ministry. We went through a similar process of liquidating assets. We had the opportunity to go to Ireland and work with the stepson of C. S. Lewis in his ministry, so off we went with what we could carry with us on the plane. At the time we thought we were really stripped down to nothing, and in a way, we were. We had to trust the Lord for his provision day by day. We flew to Ireland on one-way tickets because when we left, we were not sure when we would return.
We learned a lot of lessons about trusting the Lord through our time in Ireland. And we needed those lessons because when we returned to the United States, our assets were greatly reduced. But once again, the Lord provided for our needs. When we needed a place to live, the Lord provided the perfect house, a block away from our children’s school, for $535 per month. When we needed a car, we were able to purchase a vehicle from my mother. When we were down to $7 in our bank account, the Lord sent along the first royalty check on my first book for $3000.
Through experiences like that, praying every day, “Give us this day our daily bread,” took on a whole new meaning. We learned that when we are down to nothing, God is up to something. We learned the truth behind the theme of Colossians, truly, Jesus plus nothing equals everything.
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