Maintaining a Heavenly Focus - Colossians 2:20a; 3:1-10, 12-14, 17

BIBLICAL SETTING OF COLOSSIANS
Edited by John R. Wible

Introduction and Summary – We begin a several week’s study of Paul’s Colossians. To aid the study, see below some backgrounds. I claim no authorship of this work and have sourced where possible. See: THE COLLEGE PRESS NIV COMMENTARY: PHILIPPIANS, COLOSSIANS, & PHILEMON by Anthony L. Ash, Ph.D.; New Testament Series Co-Editors: Jack Cottrell, Ph.D., Cincinnati Bible Seminar; Tony Ash, Ph.D., Abilene Christian University; COLLEGE PRESS PUBLISHING COMPANY, Joplin, Missouri. Clinton E. Arnold, “Colossae,” The Anchor Bible Dictionary, David Noel Freedman, ed., vol. 1 (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 1089. James D. G. Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, The New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 21. Oian Petru Culianu and Cicerone Poghirc, “Sabazios,” The Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade, ed, vol. 12 (New York: Macmillan), 500. Biblical Illustrator; LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention; Nashville, TN 37234; Fall 2003.

My general summary of the Book is that Paul expounds on what I believe is the heart of Jesus’ teaching which is the exhortation to “seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven,” and all this other stuff will be added unto you. Matt. 6:33; Lk. 12:31 (Revised Wible edition.) The theory being that since he who seeks will find (Lk. 11:9) if you but seek (keep on seeking) the kingdom of Heaven, you will find it and everything else in life that is important will flow from that.

Colossians is one of Paul’s four Prison Letters (along with Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon). These letters were written, [arguably,] during Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome (See Col. 4:18; Acts 28:30-31). Paul did not found the church at Colossae, a small town in western Asia Minor. However, he wrote to the Christians at Colossae and urged them to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. He urged them to set their minds on the revelation of God’s Word and will. The transformation of these early Christians into the image of Christ not only changed them but also the people and the world around them.

The City - Colosse had been a thriving and important city several centuries before Christ, but by the time this letter was written its importance had diminished considerably, and it was overshadowed by its neighbors Hierapolis and Laodicea, both short distances to the west. Colosse was approximately 100 miles east of Ephesus, located in the Lycus valley in Asia Minor (modern Turkey). It was located on a major trade route moving inland from the coast.
A severe earthquake had shaken Laodicea either in 60 or 64 AD, and it is supposed Colosse, being near, would also have suffered. This may have been one cause of a decline in population.

The primary economic significance was in textiles, and a highly prized wool came from the area. The site of the city was rediscovered in 1835, but it has not been excavated. The city is mentioned in the New Testament only in Paul’s letter.

The Church - Paul would have been in the general vicinity of Colosse during his Ephesian ministry (Acts 19) but there is no reference in Acts to a visit there, though Ephesus did become a mission center (Acts 19:10). In Colossians 1:4 Paul states that he had heard of the faith of the Colossians, and in 2:1 he speaks of those who had not met him personally. These notes, and the references to Epaphras in 1:7f and 4:12f have led to the conclusion that Paul had not personally visited the city (though he anticipated doing so—Phlm 22), and that Epaphras was the evangelist who founded the church (1:7f). Epaphras may also have founded the congregations in Hierapolis and Laodicea (Col 4:13, 16). Several Christians from Colosse are named by Paul, including Nympha, Archippus (Col 4:15, 17), Philemon, Apphia (Phlm 1f), and, of course, Epaphras. Epaphras had gone to visit Paul, and is designated in Philemon 23 as Paul’s “fellow prisoner.” The text of Colossians indicates the membership was primarily Gentiles, though the “heresy” which Paul opposed contains Jewish elements.

The Occasion - Personal information is generally shared in letters like Colossians. This would be especially important because there would be concern over Paul’s condition as a prisoner. The most likely theory is that Epaphras traveled to see Paul, primarily because of concern over certain teachings that were troubling the church and seemed to seriously diminish the significance of Christ. For some reason (imprisonment—Phlm 23?) Epaphras was unable to carry Paul’s letter back to Colosse, so that task was entrusted to Tychicus, who also carried a letter to Philemon, and who was accompanied by Onesimus, a runaway slave (Col 4:7-9; Phlm 12, 17).

But the troublesome teaching is the chief burden of the letter. Paul describes this heresy in 2:8, 16-23, and in the rest of the book he attacks it, either frontally or in more subtle ways. The nature of the heresy has been a continuing puzzlement to scholars, and many theoretical explanations have been offered. It seems to have involved Jewish elements (2:16f), angelic worship (2:18), and extreme asceticism (2:20-23). But attempts at more precise definition have had to recognize ambiguities in the text, problems with seeing a coherent relation of the elements of the false teaching, the incompleteness of Paul’s description (remembering he had to rely on the reports of others), and finding any known teaching from the period that embodied all these elements.

The effect of this teaching was to lessen the significance of Christ’s saving work. If the tenets of the heresy provided the path to salvation, then Christ’s sacrifice was not as important. The heresy seems to have imported another form of works salvation, much as the circumcision party in the church attempted to do. Paul attacks the error by a powerful affirmation of Christ’s identity (1:15-20) and his role in salvation. His thesis was that an understanding of Christ and life in Him would completely refute the heresy. In addition to the magnificent texts in 1:15-20 and 2:9-15 he constantly makes references to benefits which the heretics sought after, but which only Christ truly gave. These included such things as wisdom, knowledge, and fullness (cf. 1:8). Note also the references to the mystery (1:25; 2:2). Even the ethical appeals from 3:1-4:6 powerfully emphasize the relation of the ethical life to Christ.

Paul’s Locale - Commonly accepted tradition holds that Paul wrote Colossians and Philemon from Roman imprisonment. Acts 28. He doesn’t name the city, but numerous factors support Rome. Luke (Col 4:14) and Aristarchus (Col 4:10) were with him there, and were in Rome. Acts 27:2 (the “we” implies Luke). Acts indicates Paul’s Roman imprisonment was not unduly restrictive (Acts 28:30f) and this fits the relatively unfettered activities described in Col. 4:7-15. Onesimus was with Paul (Col 4:9; cf. Phlm) and it is quite possible he had migrated to Rome to lose himself in the urban populace. If we accept this hypothesis, Colossians would be dated in the early 60s. [Other scholarly theories of the place of origin exist, but I accept the Roman prison theory.][ SOURCE: THE COLLEGE PRESS NIV COMMENTARY: PHILIPPIANS, COLOSSIANS, & PHILEMON by Anthony L. Ash, Ph.D.; New Testament Series Co-Editors: Jack Cottrell, Ph.D., Cincinnati Bible Seminar; Tony Ash, Ph.D., Abilene Christian University; COLLEGE PRESS PUBLISHING COMPANY, Joplin, Missouri

The Problem Addressed – An analysis of Paul’s language in Colossians 3:5 reveals that the problem in the Colossian church concerned much more than simply false doctrine within the church. Paul was also concerned about Christians blurring boundaries between pagan and Christian cultures. For Paul, blurring constituted idolatry.

Understanding these boundaries would be easier if excavating the site of ancient
Colossae would be easier if excavating the site remains largely untouched by modern archaeologists. Study of the surrounding region, however, has given evidence of a diverse religious life in the Colossae of Paul’s day. Evidence from the coinage of Colossae at this period indicates the worship of a number of pagan deities, including the Ephesian Artemis (see Acts 19:23-28), Demeter, Athena, and the Egyptian gods Isis and Sarapis. Scholars also acknowledge that the Lycus Valley region in which Colossae was located had a sizable Jewish population in the century prior to Paul’s writing Colossians. Evidence supports that some Jews in Asia Minor worshiped the Asian deity of Sabazios under the name Sabaoth (Hebrew, “hosts”), an obvious reference to one of Yahweh’s divine names in the Hebrew Bible (Isa. 47:4; 48:2, 51:15; Jer. 10:16).

Such evidence clearly indicates that religious syncretism (a mixing of different religious traditions) was a problem for Jews in the area around Colossae. The theological controversy reflected in the Book of Colossians also bears these syncretistic marks. The Colossian Christians faced a monumental challenge in seeking to maintain a relevant yet authentically Christian witness in the midst of a culture in the habit of freely mixing religious traditions from a variety of sources. Paul’s unequivocal confession in Colossians is the Jesus Christ alone gives an individual secure access to God. See: Clinton E. Arnold, “Colossae,” The Anchor Bible Dictionary, David Noel Freedman, ed., vol. 1 (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 1089; James D. G. Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, The New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 21; Oian Petru Culianu and Cicerone Poghirc, “Sabazios,” The Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade, ed, vol. 12 (New York: Macmillan), 500; Biblical Illustrator; LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention; Nashville, TN 37234; Fall 2003.