During one of Paul’s many imprisonments for announcing Jesus as the risen Lord, he wrote to a group of people that he had never met, who made up a church community that he did not start. The church in Colossae was started by a co-worker of Paul’s, named Epaphras, who was actually from that city. Epaphras had recently visited Paul in prison and he updated him on how well the Colossians were doing overall, but he also mentioned some of the cultural pressure tempting them to turn away from Jesus. So Paul wrote to encourage the Colossians to address the issues that Epaphras had raised, and then to challenge them to a greater devotion to Jesus.
Paul thanks God that he learned from Epaphras, that the Colossians have been totally faithful to Jesus, showing love for God and their neighbors, all because of the hope they have in the new creation that Jesus has in store. Paul prays, that they would grow in their wisdom and understanding about Jesus, the crucified and exalted King. Jesus is the true image of God, in him the full character and purpose of God is embodied in a human. Jesus is the firstborn, an Old Testament phrase about Jesus’ royal status over all creation, he shares in the very identity of the one true creator God, by him all reality, all powers and authorities, spiritual and human, have been created. It is in Jesus the King, that we discover the very author and King of creation. We discover Jesus is also the one bringing about a new creation, he is the head of a new body, which refers to Jesus’ people, who are the new humanity of which his own resurrection existence is a prototype, in him, God’s glorious temple presence dwells. So, it is through Jesus’s death and resurrection that God has reconciled himself to humanity, to all spiritual powers, to all of creation.
Paul is being punished for announcing to the Greek and Roman world that Jesus is the resurrected Lord and King of all, so his suffering is not a sign of defeat, it’s actually his way of participating in Jesus’ own suffering done as an act of love, so his hardships are actually a cause for joy, he is imprisoned for the surprising news that Israel’s resurrected King is creating a new multi-ethnic family and more, just as the divine glory dwelt in Jesus, so Jesus dwells in and among his international family. Or, as Paul says, the King is in us all, the hope of glory. Paul addresses the cultural pressures that are tempting the Colossians to turn away from Jesus, they were confronted by a combination of mystical polytheism along with a pressure to observe the laws of the Torah, so all these new Christians had grown up worshipping the various Greek and Roman gods, who govern different areas of human life, many simply included Jesus as one more deity that they could worship.
There was also a great pressure from the Jewish Christian community for these non-Jews to complete their commitment to the King, by following all of the laws found in the Torah. Specifically, Paul mentions eating a kosher diet, observing sacred days and circumcision. For Paul, to give in to either of these temptations, is compromised, it is a failure to grasp who Jesus really is and what he did on their behalf. The Colossians used to live in fear of spiritual powers and elemental spirits, but Jesus triumphed over these through his death and resurrection, he freed the Colossians from any obligation to them. In the same way, Jesus fulfilled on our behalf, all of the laws of the Torah, which never had the power to transform the selfish human heart anyway. So, what Jesus did in his life and death and resurrection lacks nothing, it doesn’t need to be supplemented by following the laws, he is the reality to which all of the laws of the Torah were pointing anyway. Instead of the laws, followers of Jesus have the power of his resurrection to change them, which is what Paul goes on to explore. Following Jesus means, joining his new humanity, because their lives have now been joined to the risen Jesus’ life.
This is why Paul challenges the Colossians to set their minds on things above, where the King is seated, or rules at God’s right hand. Now, Paul does not mean here, think about how you will one day leave earth and go to heaven, rather, the heavens are the transcendent place from which Jesus rules now, over all of creation, from there Jesus will one day return to the earth to transform all things. When the King, who is our life is revealed, we too will be revealed with him in glory. So, Paul challenges them to live in the present as the kinds of new humans they will one day become, he uses the image of their old humanity, characterized by distorted sexuality and destructive speech. For Christians, that humanity died with Jesus and has been replaced by his own new humanity, which is characterized by mercy and generosity by forgiveness and love. This humanity transcends the ethnic and social boundary lines of our world, to create a people where there is no one Greek or Jewish, circumcised or uncircumcised, slave or free, but the King is all and is in all people.
Paul gets really practical, he shows the Colossians what this new humanity might look like in a first century Roman household, which was a highly authoritarian institution. Where the male patriarch held the power of life and death over his wife, children and slaves, not so in a Christian household, the risen Jesus is the true Lord. So, in the Lord, the wife allows her husband to become responsible for her and the husband is subject to Jesus by loving his wife and placing her well-being above his own. In a home where Jesus is Lord, children are not objects, but are called to maturity and to respect, parents are to raise their children with patience and understanding. Christians, who are slaves, are to honor their human masters, because they are not the real master, Jesus is. Christians who have slaves are to understand that this slave is not their property, but rather, a fellow member of Jesus’ body to be honored and embraced in love.
Paul is walking a very fine line, he is reshaping the most basic Roman institution around Jesus, who rules by his self-giving love, so while he does not abolish the household structure outright, the exalted King demands that it be transformed almost beyond the point of recognition for any Roman living in Colossae. Paul is inviting us to see that no part of human existence remains untouched by the loving and liberating rule of the risen Jesus, our suffering, our temptation to compromise, our moral character, the power dynamics in our homes, all of it must be re-examined and transformed, we are invited to live in the present as if the new creation really arrived, when Jesus rose from the dead.
Paul thanks God that he learned from Epaphras, that the Colossians have been totally faithful to Jesus, showing love for God and their neighbors, all because of the hope they have in the new creation that Jesus has in store. Paul prays, that they would grow in their wisdom and understanding about Jesus, the crucified and exalted King. Jesus is the true image of God, in him the full character and purpose of God is embodied in a human. Jesus is the firstborn, an Old Testament phrase about Jesus’ royal status over all creation, he shares in the very identity of the one true creator God, by him all reality, all powers and authorities, spiritual and human, have been created. It is in Jesus the King, that we discover the very author and King of creation. We discover Jesus is also the one bringing about a new creation, he is the head of a new body, which refers to Jesus’ people, who are the new humanity of which his own resurrection existence is a prototype, in him, God’s glorious temple presence dwells. So, it is through Jesus’s death and resurrection that God has reconciled himself to humanity, to all spiritual powers, to all of creation.
Paul is being punished for announcing to the Greek and Roman world that Jesus is the resurrected Lord and King of all, so his suffering is not a sign of defeat, it’s actually his way of participating in Jesus’ own suffering done as an act of love, so his hardships are actually a cause for joy, he is imprisoned for the surprising news that Israel’s resurrected King is creating a new multi-ethnic family and more, just as the divine glory dwelt in Jesus, so Jesus dwells in and among his international family. Or, as Paul says, the King is in us all, the hope of glory. Paul addresses the cultural pressures that are tempting the Colossians to turn away from Jesus, they were confronted by a combination of mystical polytheism along with a pressure to observe the laws of the Torah, so all these new Christians had grown up worshipping the various Greek and Roman gods, who govern different areas of human life, many simply included Jesus as one more deity that they could worship.
There was also a great pressure from the Jewish Christian community for these non-Jews to complete their commitment to the King, by following all of the laws found in the Torah. Specifically, Paul mentions eating a kosher diet, observing sacred days and circumcision. For Paul, to give in to either of these temptations, is compromised, it is a failure to grasp who Jesus really is and what he did on their behalf. The Colossians used to live in fear of spiritual powers and elemental spirits, but Jesus triumphed over these through his death and resurrection, he freed the Colossians from any obligation to them. In the same way, Jesus fulfilled on our behalf, all of the laws of the Torah, which never had the power to transform the selfish human heart anyway. So, what Jesus did in his life and death and resurrection lacks nothing, it doesn’t need to be supplemented by following the laws, he is the reality to which all of the laws of the Torah were pointing anyway. Instead of the laws, followers of Jesus have the power of his resurrection to change them, which is what Paul goes on to explore. Following Jesus means, joining his new humanity, because their lives have now been joined to the risen Jesus’ life.
This is why Paul challenges the Colossians to set their minds on things above, where the King is seated, or rules at God’s right hand. Now, Paul does not mean here, think about how you will one day leave earth and go to heaven, rather, the heavens are the transcendent place from which Jesus rules now, over all of creation, from there Jesus will one day return to the earth to transform all things. When the King, who is our life is revealed, we too will be revealed with him in glory. So, Paul challenges them to live in the present as the kinds of new humans they will one day become, he uses the image of their old humanity, characterized by distorted sexuality and destructive speech. For Christians, that humanity died with Jesus and has been replaced by his own new humanity, which is characterized by mercy and generosity by forgiveness and love. This humanity transcends the ethnic and social boundary lines of our world, to create a people where there is no one Greek or Jewish, circumcised or uncircumcised, slave or free, but the King is all and is in all people.
Paul gets really practical, he shows the Colossians what this new humanity might look like in a first century Roman household, which was a highly authoritarian institution. Where the male patriarch held the power of life and death over his wife, children and slaves, not so in a Christian household, the risen Jesus is the true Lord. So, in the Lord, the wife allows her husband to become responsible for her and the husband is subject to Jesus by loving his wife and placing her well-being above his own. In a home where Jesus is Lord, children are not objects, but are called to maturity and to respect, parents are to raise their children with patience and understanding. Christians, who are slaves, are to honor their human masters, because they are not the real master, Jesus is. Christians who have slaves are to understand that this slave is not their property, but rather, a fellow member of Jesus’ body to be honored and embraced in love.
Paul is walking a very fine line, he is reshaping the most basic Roman institution around Jesus, who rules by his self-giving love, so while he does not abolish the household structure outright, the exalted King demands that it be transformed almost beyond the point of recognition for any Roman living in Colossae. Paul is inviting us to see that no part of human existence remains untouched by the loving and liberating rule of the risen Jesus, our suffering, our temptation to compromise, our moral character, the power dynamics in our homes, all of it must be re-examined and transformed, we are invited to live in the present as if the new creation really arrived, when Jesus rose from the dead.
