Colossians - An Expositional Study
INTRODUCTION
The city of Colossae was in the proconsular province of Asia, but in southwestern Phrygia on the river Lycus. Five hundred years before Paul's time it was an important city, but its neighboring city Laodicea had taken from it some of its greatness.
In this epistle Paul mentions that they had never seen him, hence this church was not founded by the apostle. While Colossae was on the main road from Ephesus and lay close to the course of his first and second journeys, he had been prevented from visiting this and the other cities in the valley of the Lycus.
Epaphras, a citizen of Colossae, the fellow-servant of Paul, was probably the one who brought these people to the knowledge and acceptance of the Gospel. He had received his Christian training from the apostle, and under these conditions, in writing this letter Paul was not violating his principle not to build on another man’s foundation. It was from Epaphras that he learned of the dangers that threatened the spiritual life of this church. Another gospel had been brought to them by misguided teachers. That the latter were Jews appears from the fact that they taught that the Mosaic ordinances should be observed. They also taught that angels had a part in the work of creation and redemption and should be worshiped. The question of leading interest before the mind of this church was how to attain sanctification, and the solution proposed by these teachers was the use of ascetic practices and the disregard of the body.
The design of this letter was to correct these false teachings, and to point out to this church the supreme Headship of Christ who was above all principalities and powers. This is one of the four "Prison Epistles," the other three being Ephesians, Philippians and Philemon (62-63 a.d.).
Outline of Colossians
Christ in the World and the Church (Chapter 1)
(The introduction – Paul expresses his gratitude for the Christian virtues of this church reported by Epaphras. He then sets forth the preeminence of Christ)
A. He is the First-born of all creation.
B. He is the Head of angelic creatures.
C. He is the supreme Head of the Church which is His body.
Sanctification Through Christ Alone (Chapter 2)
A. The futility of their fallacious methods of attaining greater spiritual insight.
B. By their "vain philosophy" and philosophical speculations they will fail to obtain what they are seeking.
C. It is through Christ who is the revelation of God and the Head of the spiritual order their spiritual yearnings will be satisfied.
The Fruits of Union with the Risen Christ (Chapters 3 & 4)
A. Characteristics that are the expression of this union – purity, truth, love.
B. Christ alone can bring us to a sanctified state.
C. It is exhibited in true domestic relations.
D. Closing exhortations to prayerfulness and the seeking of wisdom.
Outstanding Fact
Gnosticism and Christianity
The word Gnostic is formed from the Greek word for knowledge. Gnosticism claimed to give a particular knowledge of the mysteries of the unseen world. Greek philosophy merged into Oriental mysticism. In its early years the great danger to which Christianity was exposed arose from the Gnostic Heresy by which Christian doctrines were corrupted.
The very soul of Gnosticism was mystery. Its end and object was to purify its followers from the corruptions of matter and to raise them to a higher scale of being, suited only to those who were to become perfect by knowledge. We have a key to many parts of their system when we know that they held matter to be intrinsically evil, of which, consequently, God could not be the author. Some believed that angels were employed in creating the world.
At the beginning of Christianity when the Gospel was first preached, the Western world was overrun with Eastern magicians and soothsayers. They claimed for their peculiar knowledge the ability to communicate with a higher world. They advanced the theory that between Go and man were various grades or emanations by which we might rise to the highest knowledge.
Instead of opposing Christianity this Gnosticism took possession of it, invested it, and by this blending of the two the pure truths of the Gospel were perverted. Its peculiar attraction lay in that it flattered the pride of man by tracing the origin of evil, not to the perverted will of the creature, but to creation, saying it was the necessary consequence of the union of matter and spirit. Then again its utter impracticability made it attractive; teaching as it did that human perfection was not attained by the following of a lowly Savior in a narrow way, but by embracing barren speculations concerning the nature of unseen mysteries.
Thus in this Epistle to the Colossians opposed to the intellectual exclusiveness of the Gnostic is the Gospel for every creature, a Gospel which declares that "every man" may become perfect, not only the few initiated (1:23, 28). Again, Paul opposes the sole mediation of Christ in creation and redemption to the Gnostic speculation of intermediate beings that stand between God and the world saving Him from the pollution of contact with matter. And in accounting for creation, God was not "distributed among subordinate beings, each of whom possessed and represented some one of His attributes, but in Christ dwelt the fullness or totality of the Godhead."
The Worship of Angels
"Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind" (Col. 2:18). What has been said above relative to Gnosticism will assist us in the understanding of this rather difficult passage. The Syriac Version renders this passage "that ye subject yourselves to the worship of angels." But does this mean worship offered to angels or worship like that which the angels offer to God?
Assuming a false humility and under the influence of their erroneous notion the Colossians worshiped angels instead of making Christ – Creator of angels and Head of the Church – the only and supreme object of their worship. "Let no man beguile [defraud] you of your reward [prize] persuading you to self-humiliation and worship of angels." The expression "in a voluntary humility" signifies delighting in humility, exhibited in their worship of angels. In other words, an affectation of reverence for God in their reluctances to attempt approaching God directly, who should be approached through successive grades of intermediate beings. Thus we see the force of Paul's rebuke in their failure to recognize the supreme Headship of Christ and the only mediator between God and man.
The R.V. rendering of the passage, "intruding into those things which he hath not seen," is much better: "dwelling in the things which he hath seen," which correctly omits the word “not.” The sense is this: the things which he claims he has seen or imagines or declares he has seen in a vision. There is a touch of irony in Paul's words. If in relating alleged visions of heavenly things, as we may easily imagine, these pretenders were accustomed to say with an imposing and mysterious air, "I have seen, ah! I have seen," the Colossians would understand the reference well enough. And as Paul adds: in this claim they would be "vainly puffed up."
