Colossians Portraying: Christ of the Church

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ

by the will of God, and Timothy

our brother. To the saints and faithful

brethren in Christ who are in Colosse.

Grace to you and peace from God

our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:1-2

     Paul traveled to Colosse on his third missionary journey and he went to the Churches in Phrygia, the cities of Colossae, Laodicea,, and Hierapolis and this letter was to be read in those Churches (Colossian 4:13-16). This letter can be divided into two parts: 1. Doctrinal 2. Practical. These cities were located close to one another in the province of Asia Minor and was under Roman rule. The city Laodicea was and important city in the region although in 61 or 65 A.D. it was destroyed by an earthquake and rebuilt with their own funds and not by the aid of the Romans (Tacitus: Ann. XIV.27; or, Eusebius: Chron., OI. 210,4). Laodicea is mentioned in Revelation (3:14-22) as being a rich and proud but lukewarm people. In the year 344 A.D. or after, they passed an act on the canon that forbid the reading in public anything but the canonical books of the New and Old Testament. Colossae was once famous as well especially at the time Paul visited this Church but in this present age has all but disappeared. What is found are ruins of temples, theaters, baths, aquaducts, gymnasiums, and sepulchers, all testifying to former wealth and prosperity of Laodicea and Hierapolis, Colossae being the least important of the Churches Paul visited and is rarely mentioned in post-apostolic times, but did give rise to heresy that shook this Churhc in the second century, and this epistles furnishes the best remedy against it.

     Phrygia (for musicians there is a scale known as the Phrygian scale, so music had importance there), and Antiochus the Great despotically transplanted two thousand Jewish families from Babylon and Mesopotamia to that regions. This area became known in their connection with the sensuous and mystic tendency of the Phrygian character, a nursery of religious syncretism and various forms of fanaticism. Before I move on in this blog I must define: syncretism: it is an attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles, practices, or parties. There are "Christian" denominations that are attempting this very thing which is unScriptural. Furthermore, there are "Christian" Churches involved in mysticism, or a sensuous form of worship and fanaticism, all non-Scriptural. Paul will address these heresies and give the remedy. 

     Paul passed through this region, Phrygia twice, his second and third missionary tours. Luke does not give any account that Paul planted Churches there and Paul does include the Colossians and Laodiceans among those who had seen his face (Acts 16:6). While Paul remained for a time in Ephesus, a city in that same region, that is, not far away, and lateer from his imprisonment exercised general supervision over all the Churches in Asia. By Epaphras, his pupil and Onesimus, a runaway slave, Paul learned about the condition of this Church. After Paul's death and the death of the Apostle John who lived in Ephesus this area, this Church became involved in gnosticism, Paschal, Chiliastic and Montanistic controversies. Paul sent a letter through Tychicus (Colossians 4:7), to be read by the Laodiceans (4:16), and the same time he sent through Onesimus a private letter of commendation to his master, Philemon, a member of the Church at Colossae. The Colossians were directed to procure and read the letter sent to Laodicea. 

     Heresy has entered into the Christian Church from almost its beginning and exists in some Churches today and unfortunately the Gospel has been watered down whereby many Church-going people are apathetic and do not desire to learn the truth or to come to know that they may be involved in heresy. 

     There were faithful saints in Colossae and Paul mentions this in the opening of his letter: "We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, or which your heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to u your love in the Spirit" (Colossians 1:3-8). 

     Examining our faith from the inside/out to ensure that we too are not becoming involved in heresy and that our lives are manifesting the image of Christ. In the next blog I will outline Colossian heresy and then see how and if they apply in our lives, our Church. Again another fantastic letter to delve in to aid us in our growth in sanctification. 

If I have walked with falsehood, 

    or if my foot has hastened to deceit,

let me be weighed on honest scales,

    that God may know my integrity.

                            Job 31: 5-6 

Pray, Read God's word, Apply it

Richard L. Crumb