Christ controls the cosmos.
As the apostle Paul penned his urgent letter to the Christians in Colosse, he overflowed with prayer, imploring God to fill his readers with spiritual understanding so they could live “worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him” (Col. 1:10). Then he offered his readers exactly what they needed to enter into this new and better life: he introduced them to a Christ immense beyond imagination.
The Colossian Christians had been mixing and matching what they knew of Jesus with ideas and practices adopted from surrounding cultures—with disastrous results. Some fell into extreme legalism, obsessing over rules and doctrines while ignoring the overall spirit of the Christian message. Others abused their forgiveness and freedom in Christ and succumbed to flagrant immorality. Their mingling of the truth with ideas and practices borrowed from other religions compromised the gospel. Their faith became difficult to distinguish from other belief systems.
In modern times, when many subscribe to the ideas that “what’s true for you isn’t true for me” and “all religions are the same,” Colossians couldn’t speak more pointedly. The Book of Colossians refuses to minimize Christ, demoting Him to one god among many. Instead, it exalts Him as preeminent Lord of the universe, Creator of all things, the one true God worthy of honor, worship, obedience, and love. And it offers practical insights into following Jesus as Lord over all of life.
Paul hadn’t visited Colosse (2:1), so he didn’t know the Colossians personally. But for more than two years he lived one hundred miles to the west of Colosse, in Ephesus, where he established a thriving church that had likely carried the gospel to Colosse (Acts 19:10), probably through the ministry of a disciple named Epaphras (Col. 1:7). Paul wrote this letter while in prison (4:3, 10, 18), perhaps from Rome around A.D. 61.
Key Verses in Colossians
• “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.… All things were created through Him and for Him” (Col. 1:15, 16).
• “Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:11).
• “Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you” (Col. 3:12, 13).
• “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:17).
• “Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men” (Col. 3:23).
• “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving” (Col. 4:2).