Lesson 62 – Letters to the Colossians

Colossians is one of the Pauline letters that engages ongoing scholarly investigation. There are debates about authorship and the nature of the letter and we do not have a clear picture of the doctrines of the false teachers that Paul is arguing against.  What we do know is that the overall theological message of the letter stands out clearly enough, with its striking presentation of Jesus as the cosmic Christ and what it means for us as Christians to be free to serve him alone.

The teaching of the letter to the Colossians addresses the “Colossian heresy” which held that Jesus was another deity among their pantheon of deities. Paul, although he never had been in their community, his apostleship was known to them and so Paul took the opportunity to write to them about the unique and perfect work of redemption and reconciliation which Jesus accomplished by his death on the cross. Paul stresses that this is the source of the spiritual liberty enjoyed by all who by faith were united to him.

It has been said that Paul in this letter is doing two things at once: he is acting as the apologist for Christianity to the intellectual world of paganism at the same time as he is defending gospel truth within the church. As apologist to the Gentiles, he may have been the first to meet his pagan opponents on their own ground and use their language in a Christian sense, in order to show that the problems to which they unsuccessfully sought an answer elsewhere found their solution in the gospel