The Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Colossians

Remain Steadfast in Christ and the Faith

The Apostle Paul wrote the Book of Colossians while in a Roman prison; his first imprisonment in Rome in which he spent over two years under house arrest. Paul wrote this letter in 60 A.D., also writing Ephesians and Philemon the same year, while under the same incarceration; arrested in Jerusalem, he was turned over to Roman authorities to be transported to the Roman prison.

Several hundred years before Paul’s time, Colosse was a leading city in Asia Minor[Present day Turkey]. Located on the Lycus River and the respected east-west trade route beginning at Ephesius on the Aegean Sea to the Euphrates River. By the first century A.D., Colosse had fallen behind in business matters. The town was sadly reduced to a second rate commerce-city.

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Colossians 1:21-23- Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22- But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—23- if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven and which I, Paul, have become a servant.

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Out of Christian concern, Paul attempts to remind the Colossians just how badly they, as a church, had,  in the past, drifted from God. Their heinous behavior caused a separation between themselves and the Lord. Then they, as a congregation, repented, and became right with God.

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2:1- I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. 2- My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, 3- in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4- I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. 5- For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.

vs 6- So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7- rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

vs 8- See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

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Paul pleads with the Colossians, not to let themselves be led astray by false teachings of the world. Do not become ritualistic in your worship. Remain steadfast in Christ and the faith.

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vs 11- In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ 12- having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

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Paul reminds them that not only have they been crucified and buried with Christ, they have also received a deeper spiritual covenant with God, the circumcision of their hearts by Christ.

Deuteronomy 30:6- The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.

Jeremiah 4:4- Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done—burn with no one to quench it.

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vs 13- When you were dead in your sins, and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins.

3:1-2- Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2- Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.

vs 5- Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, which is idolatry. 6- Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.

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Your behavior should reflect the fruits of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 – But the fruits of the Spirits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Some of these behaviors are easier to achieve than others. Many take work and training. We are called as Christians to master them.

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3:17- And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving to God the Father through him.

4:2- Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3- And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.

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Paul is wearing leg and arm irons, in prison, while writing this letter to the Colossians. He writes due to hearing reports that the people of the church of Colosse are expressing and possibly teaching and/or practicing heresy.
The church of Colosse had a history of both; apostasy and returning to biblical doctrine and faith in Christ.

It is easy to fall into the apostasy that Paul is describing. In today’s world it has never been easier to drift from the doctrine of the church and Jesus Christ, and away from God entirely—for many people.

For Christians, the bible warns of a great danger in doing that very thing.

Matthew 10:33- Jesus said, “But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.”

It is very dangerous for a Christian to drift into apostasy. We are out of the will of God. God cannot use us. We are on a road to disaster. God might have mercy on us, and be patient with us, but eventually he will call us to repentance—If we are his child. If not, that is also a road to disaster—hell with Satan.

Do you need to re-dedicate your life to Christ?  Have you ever accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior? To receive Jesus into your heart or re-dedicate your life to Christ, I invite you to pray this Believer’s Prayer to God.

Lord Jesus, I need you. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I am sorry for all my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be. Thank you Lord Jesus. A-men.

If you prayed this prayer for the first time, you are now a child of God. Through the Holy Spirit, you have a personal relationship with the creator of the universe and Jesus Christ.
If you were already a Christian, only in a state of apostasy of sorts, now you are back in fellowship with the living God, our creator.

Either way, we are called to walk in the Faith, daily. That means to pray continually, study the Word of God[Bible], and attend church regularly with other believers in Christ.  By doing these things, we will be able to stand firm against Satan and his schemes—thus avoiding apostasy.

May we all stand firm in Christ and stand against Satan and his schemes,

Gary The Tested

A Public Faith – Book Review

To My Christian Readers,

I read another interesting book today; A Public Faith by author and Yale professor, Miroslav Volf. In the introduction he writes, debates are raging today about the role of religions in public life, and it is not difficult to see why. Religions of all faiths are on the rise. In a provocative statement he writes, religious people fear impositions—different faiths fear each other.

He argues; Unlike those who think religion should stay out of politics, religious people ought to be free to bring their visions to the good life into the public sphere – into politics as well as other aspects of public life. It would be oppressive to prohibit them from doing so.  The author adds, some refer to this as religious totalitarianism; the ghosts that haunts discussions of the role of public religion today. He cites Sayyid Qutb’s Milestones, to sketch his point.

Miroslav designates a religious political pluralism, emerged within Christianity, but it is not the Christian position.

He explores three questions. One; In what ways does the Christian Faith malfunction into the contemporary world, and how should we counter these malfunctions. Two; What should be the main concern of Christ’s Followers when it comes to living in the world today. Third; How should Christ’s followers go about realizing their visions of living well in today’s world in a relationship to other faiths and together with people with whom they live under the roof of a single state.

In chapter two; Idleness, he states his three reasons for idle faith. One; the character of believers—shallow faith. Two; very little effort put into their faith. Three; their faith has very little meaning to them—irrelevant faith. He also states, many Christians turn from faith due to materialism.

He believes God is not a demander; God is a giver. He further believes, the more we reduce faith to vague religiosity that serves primarily to energize, heal, and give meaning to the business of life whose course is shaped by factors other than faith, the worse off we will be.

He writes, Christians have used and continue to use their faith to legitimize violence they deem necessary, and they have done so on a massive scale. Misconceptions of the Christian Faith mirror the wide spread misbehavior of Christians.

I Sharing Wisdom, he writes, we live in an age of great conflicts and petty hopes. Petty hopes generate self-subverting melancholy experiences.

Although Miroslav Volf’s book, A Public Faith, was interesting, I detected  almost from the beginning a lack of passion or personal understanding for his topic; rather, a tremendous amount of research rewritten.  I felt he used the words Christian and Christianity far too loosely. I detected a lack of personal understanding of the topics.  He somewhat validated my suspicions in his conclusion, With these eight points I trust I have sufficiently attended to the problem of faith’s coerciveness – at the level of theory, of course, not at the level of practice.

I will admit to disconnecting emotionally from this book in the second chapter when he stated his reasons why Christians turn from their faith—shallow faith, no effort, and irrelevant faith. From my experiences, many people turn away from faith and churches as an act of emotional survival of the moment. When a heart has been broken by betrayal, hypocrisy, or an act of evil by a church or church associate, the only viable option is to run; then try to understand why—later. I have seen this wreck a person’s faith far more than this author’s reasons. That is why I suggest this author is lacking person experience in his topic.

Having said that, the book, A Public Faith, was interesting to read. I only recommend that someone reads it from the point of view of a very successful college professor who is well studied in his trade but probably has never experienced the heartache that church members can cause.

In Christ’s Service,

Shepard Cross

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