More details about Colossians

Why did Paul write the letter?

• Colossians focused on the head of the church—which is Christ. Paul needed to focus on Christ because the Christians in Colossae were confronted with heresies about Christ. But, since Paul had not visited Colossae, how did he hear about the situation in Colossae? He probably had friends there.
• At this point in his life, Paul was a very well-known Christian leader. And like any very popular person or leader, he was surrounded by many people. Even though he was under house arrest, many of friends still visited him and perhaps even lived with him. He mentioned some in this letter:
• Timothy
• Tychicus
• Onesimus: He is the topic of the letter of Philemon.
• Aristarchus
• Mark: Most likely the author of the Gospel of Mark
• Jesus, who is also called Justus
• Epaphras
• Luke: The author of the Gospel of Luke and Acts.
• Demas

List of heretical ideas mentioned in Colossians

• First, a definition of heresy: basically it is a false teaching that attacks an idea about the Trinity or God. A heresy is different and "deeper" than having a error or opinion. For example:
  • A belief that states "Jesus was not God" is a heresy because it attacks an idea about the Trinity.
  • An error is when one Christian believes that another Christian has misunderstood Scripture but the misunderstanding is not enough to rise to the level of heresy. Therefore, both Christians would say that the other one is truly a Christian, just that the other person misunderstands a "secondary" issue from Scripture.
  • A difference of opinion is when different Christians agree on Scripture but disagree on how to act out or carry out that Scripture.
  • The difference between error and opinion is more difficult to determine. For example: One church has a bishop whereas a different church does not use bishops. You would not say that one of the groups teaches a heresy, but someone from a church that doesn't use bishops might say that using a bishop is an error because it misunderstands Scripture, and vice versa.
  • An example of a difference of opinion would be the question of what type of music to play during a worship service.
• In Colossians Paul warns Christians about heresies: 2:8: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”
• Heresies or errors described or listed in Colossians:
• Jesus wasn’t really physical (more about this below; it is called Docetism).
• Males needed to be circumcised before become Christian.
• Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead.
• People needed to follow the Law of Moses.
• The Law of Moses including ideas such as what to eat or drink, which religious festivals to celebrate, and the need to only worship on the Sabbath (which was Saturday).
• This last idea does bring up a good point: why do Christians worship on Sunday when the 10 Commandments say to worship on Saturday? To find out about the change in worship days, go here.
• Worship of angels.
• Therefore, the Colossian Christians were not dealing with one error, such as the Galatians were with the Judaizers, but with a variety of heresies and errors. One error and one heresy that do stand out are the Judiazers and Gnosticism/Docetism.
• We discussed the ideas of the Judaizers in the book of Galatians and so will not cover it again here. The idea of Gnosticism and Docetism is a bit more complicated. To read a summary of the two, please go here. You will need to read this for the quiz (if you are taking the class) since Docetism was a major heresy in the first and second centuries and is even mentioned in the New Testament.

How to live as a Christian

• 3:2: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
• 3:8: “But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.”
• 4:2: “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”
• 4:6: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

Outline

• 1:1-14: Greetings and thankfulness for the Colossian Christians.
• 1:15-23: Description of Jesus.
• 1:24-2:5: Paul worked to teach Christians correct ideas.
• 2:6-23: Paul warned against heresies and describes false teachings.
• 3:1-4:6: How to live as a Christian.
• 4:7-18: Final remarks.