COLOSSIANS – Part One

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

www.godsbreathpublications.com

 

Colossians was written by the Apostle Paul while he was under house arrest in Rome. Epaphras, the pastor of the church in Colossae, came to Paul to share how well the Christians were growing in faith, but also to ask for help to address the issue of false teaching that was threatening the church. Paul responded by writing this letter of encouragement that is packed full of basic doctrine concerning Christ and the Gospel. It is unclear what the exact heresy was that was attempting to creep into the church at Colossae, but it had elements of Jewish observances of the Law as well as paganism and Gnostic beliefs. It is very relevant for us today, for we are surrounded by pagan beliefs and ascetic religious concepts, while at the same time dealing with a new resurgence of Gnostic conceptual influences.

 

Paul Begins in verses 1 and 2 with his qualifications and greeting.

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.”

Paul had never been to Colossae so he gives his credentials. He states he is an apostle, not appointed by any man, but by the will of God Himself. Paul was completely qualified for the position of apostle. The qualifications of an apostle included the following:

 

1. They should have seen the Lord, and been able to testify of him and of his resurrection from personal knowledge (John 15:27; Acts 1:21-22; 1 Cor. 9:1; Acts 22:14-15).

2. They must have been immediately called to that office by Christ (Luke 6:13; Gal. 1:1).

3. It was essential that they should be infallibly inspired, and thus protected against error and mistake in their public teaching, whether by word or by writing (John 14:26; 16:13; 1 Thess. 2:13).

4. Another qualification was the power of working miracles (Mark 16:20; Acts 2:43; 1 Cor. 12:8-11).

 

The apostles therefore could have had no successors. They are the only authoritative teachers of the Christian doctrines upon which the Christian faith is established. The office of an apostle ceased with its first holders.

 

Paul mentions his faithful companion and brother in Christ, Timothy, who is present with him in Rome. Paul addresses the letter to the holy and faithful Christians at Colossae. Apparently Epaphras has communicated to Paul that they were a stable and faithful church in conduct and ministry. Paul compliments them on their dedication to the Lord and sends them God’s grace and peace which is a common benediction in his letters to Christians. In verses 3 through 8 Paul shares the prayer of thanks he prays for the Christians in Colossae.

 

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth. You learned it from 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.”

 

Paul commends the followers of Christ at Colossae for their faith in God and their love for one another. Faith is defined for us in Hebrews 11:1 where it states, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Faith is more than intellectual assent; it involves a lifestyle of obedience in what you believe. Our Christian faith is absolutely stable and true because of the object of our faith, Jesus Christ. Love is a primary lifestyle practice of any Christian. Because God loved us, we are to love each other with the same type of love. This godly love is what differentiates Christians from non-Christians. The apostle John wrote of this in his epistle of 1 John as well (1 John 2:9-11, 4:7-8, 19-21). Paul also shares that their faith and love originate from their hope that is firmly established in Heaven. This hope they have heard of in the Gospel of Christ Jesus (1 Peter 1:3-5). This triad of faith, hope and love are tied together in numerous other passages of scripture.

1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

 

1 Thessalonians 1:3 “We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

1 Thessalonians 5:8-9 “But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.”

 

Paul shares not only that their source of faith, love and hope comes from the Gospel of Christ, but also that the Gospel is spreading all over the world and producing fruit in their lives and the lives of everyone who accepts the Gospel message. This Gospel is summarized in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 where it says,

 

“Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.”

Paul also covers seven principles of the Gospel in the verses 4 through 8. These are:

 

1. The Gospel is received by faith (verse 4)

2. It results in love (verse 4)

3. It rests in hope (verse 5)

4. It reaches the world (verse 6)

5. It produces spiritual fruit (verse 6)

6. It is rooted in grace (verse 6)

7. It is reported to men and women (verse 7-8).

 

So we learn that you must have faith to receive the Gospel. Without faith you do not accept the veracity of the Gospel. Without faith you won’t believe in Jesus Christ and what He accomplished on the cross, that He died for your sins and offers you salvation if you believe in Him as your Lord and Savior. This faith comes from hearing the truth contained in the Gospel. Romans 10:17 verifies this when it says, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”

 

The Gospel is thick with verses on love, because it is a prime attribute of God’s character. It was out of God’s love that Christ came to die for our sins. Here are just a few verses that speak of this love that is contained in the Gospel.

 

John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

 

John 14:21 “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

 

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

 

1 Timothy 1:5 “The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

 

1 Peter 4:8 “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”

 

The Christian Gospel rests on hope in God. We have many verifications of this hope in scripture.

 

Romans 5:1-5 “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

 

Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

 

2 Corinthians 1:10 “On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,”

 

1 Peter 1:21 “Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”

 

It is amazing that the Gospel is rejected because it is so full of love and hope. But some people refuse to have faith and therefore choose a life without God, love and hope. But regardless of the fact that many people fail to accept the Gospel, others accept it through faith, because the Gospel is reaching the whole world and is amazingly fruitful. In 1900 Korea had no Protestant church. Today, there are over 7,000 churches in just the city of Seoul, South Korea. At the end of the 19th century, the southern portion of Africa was only 3 percent Christian. Today, 63 percent of the population is Christian, while membership in the churches in Africa is increasing by 34,000 people per day. More people in the Islamic world have come to Christ in the last 25 years than in the entire history of Christian missions. In Islamic Indonesia, the percentage of Christians is now so high (around 15 percent) that the Muslim government will no longer print statistics. In China, it is estimated that there are now more self-avowed disciples of Jesus than members of the Communist party. Even the most conservative estimates suggest that China will soon have more Christians than any country. Across the planet, followers of Jesus are increasing by more than eighty thousand per day. 510 new churches form every day. Because this Gospel is rooted in God’s loving grace it is spreading all over the world.

 

John 1:16-17 “From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

 

Romans 3:22-24 “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

 

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

 

Paul, in his short letter written from prison, wanted to encourage the Christians in Colossae to continue to live according to this Gospel of faith, love and hope that is rooted in grace. He wanted them to remain steadfast in their commitment to Christ and ignore the false teachers that were attempting to not only influence them in their daily lives, but also to infiltrate the church to tear it apart. In the next part of this series we will see Paul’s prayer for the Christians in Colossae and he begins to share some basic foundational doctrine for Christians to base their lives on!