Colossians: Christ the Head of the Church
By Steve Ray
Pick your god. They are all worshiped here. Choose your favorite from the pantheon.
Greek gods, Roman gods, Hittite and Eastern gods and even the Jewish God. Temples
abound. Enter and worship the Ephesian Artemis, the Egyptian Isis or Serapis. Bow down
to Zeus, Athena, or a fertility goddesses. Purchase an idol to enshrine in your home. Even
enter a synagogue, after getting circumcised of course, and worship JHWH with the Jews.
Theres surely a god for your liking-isnt it grand!
Your robes are dusty and your sandals are worn. You have entered an ancient city in the
land of the Hittites, governed by Rome and with a mixed population of Greeks, Romans,
Jews, and a smattering of othersAsia Minor (known today as Turkey). You have
traveled about 100 miles inland from the great city of Ephesus and the gates open as you
walk into the 5000-year-old city of Colossae.
In the agora, or town square, a man is shouting from the speakers platform (bema), and
everyone is shouting back. He is preaching about a god youve never heard of before. It
appears the Colossians arent pleased to hear about this god. The speakers name is
Epaphras and hes a native of Colossae (Col 4:12). He is preaching about a man as
though he were God and a God as though he were a man. It is very confusing-especially
with all the shouting.
So you linger as the crowd wanders off. A group gathers around Epaphras and you are
invited to his home to clean up and share a meal. You readily agree. You are hungry
hungry from your travel, hungry also to learn. By the end of the evening you believe in
this mans God and Jesus, this Gods son. You are baptized in water, and welcomed into
the group-a group they called an ekklesia (church). Epaphras has learned this good news
from a Jewish scholar named Paul who is living in Ephesus. Through Paul all of Asia is
hearing about Jesus (Acts 19:1011) and many are astounded by his words and the
miracles he performs in the name of this Jesus. Paul had never visited Colossae and never
would (2:1), but his influence in Asia Minor, and in Colossae, was profound.
Over time you learn and mature in this new faith called Christianity, and youre
eventually ordained a presbyter or priest in the church. But life is not easy and struggles
ensue, especially with other religions and philosophies-foreign to Christianity-trying to
infiltrate and pollute the true teaching. Epaphras decides upon a journey to consult with
Paul, now a prisoner in Rome. After months away Epaphras returns clutching a letter
carefully rolled and already worn from repeated readings. And clutch it carefully he
should, for the treasure in his hand is the Letter of St. Paul to the Colossians!
Paul was wise; he had studied, seen, and experienced much. He understood the worlds
religions, and no one understood Judaism better. The Colossian Heresy raising its ugly
head had two faces: one a Jewish and the other a Gnostic. We have already investigated
the Judaizers and their legalistic approach to salvation, but Gnostic? What is Gnosticism?
Put on your thinking caps. The Gnostics (from the Greek gnosis, meaning knowledge)
claimed that matter was evil and spirit was goodand, one had to receive a special
knowledge (gnosis) to be saved. A good God (spirit) could not create matter (earthly,
physical stuff) so obviously, the Jewish and Christian God could never fit the Gnostic
philosophy. The Jewish and Christian God was a spirit, yet he created matterthe
heavens and earth (1:16; cp. Gen 1:12).
Paul gets right to the point. These Gnostics preached a special gnosis or knowledge, but
Paul confirmed what the Colossians already knewChristians had the epignosis, the full
knowledge of God. And, this full knowledge resided in Jesus. Paul speaks of our being
renewed in knowledge (epignosis) after the image of its creator. . . . Christ is all, and in
all. In Christ we dont have only a gnosis preached by the pagans, says Paul, but the
epignosis, the full knowledge of God. What a slap in the face!
Understanding the culture into which this epistle was written, gives us insight into Pauls
message and the words he uses. The mystery religions and Gnosticism claimed to search
the mysteries and possess the fullness (pleroma). But again, Paul uses their own
technical terms to confound the heretics and demonstrate to the Christians that what they
have is vastly superior to the pagans. Pleroma referred to the totality of the various
spiritual levels and the beings or entities presumed to live there. Nonsense, says Paul, the
fulness, the pleroma, resides in Christ for in him all the fulness (pleroma) of God was
pleased to dwell (Col 1:19) and this whole fulness of deity dwells bodily in Christ, not
far off in some Gnostic myth. To top that, the Christians have come to fulness of life in
him, who is the head of all rule and authority (Col 2:9 10).
Paul undercuts the heresies by proclaiming the true mysteriesmysteries that have been
revealed in Christ. The mystery religions have nothing on the Christians. Paul uses the
word mystery four times in Colossians. The Gnostics claimed an exclusive, private
revelation only for the initiated, but Paul writes, I became a minister according to the
divine office which was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the
mystery hidden for ages and generations but now made manifest to his saints. To them
God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of
this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col 1:25 27).
A true Christology is the final answer to every heresy that ever has been, or ever will be.
Knowing Christ truly is the answer because ours is the true religion. It has all the riches
of assured understanding and the knowledge (epignosis) of Gods mystery, of Christ, in
whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (gnosis) (2:2 3). Rest assured,
dear Colossians, that we have the full knowledge, an epignosis superior to the gnosis of
the Gnostics. Rest assured in the fulness of the Catholic faith! Paul destroyed the Jewish
and Gnostic heresies before they were even mentioned in the epistle-true Christology will
do that!
Many sects today reject the Trinity and the Divinity of Christ. Jehovahs Witnesses have
resurrected old heresies reducing Jesus Christ to a creature. They show their biblical
ignorance by using Pauls reference to Jesus as the first-born of all creation (Col 1:15)
to claim he was the first creature to be created. However, this is referring to the Jewish
practice of a son inheriting supremacy and authority over the estate. This son was often
not the first in order of birth (e.g., Isaac, Jacob). Firstborn referred not to birth, but to an
office. Jesus is not created, but having himself created everything, he holds the office, the
position of supremacy over all creation.
Colossians contains some of Scriptures strongest claims for the divinity of Christ. He is
the image of the invisible God. . . . in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell
(Col 1:15, 19), and in Christ the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily (Col 2:9). Paul
uses different words to reveal the same mystery as John does in his gospel: the Word
was God. . . . and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:1, 14). Jesus is
divine, uncreatedGod in the flesh. Again, understanding Christ correctly is the remedy
for the evils of heresy.
Would you like to discover and sing an ancient Christian hymnone sung by the
Christians in the first century? You can! Paul exhorts the Colossian believers to teach
and admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs
with thankfulness in your hearts to God (Col 3:16). As in Philippians, we can detect an
ancient hymn Paul inserted into the letter to the Colossians. In the time of Paul, hymns
were bulging with rich theology and were used to teach the faithful. The kids sang , and
thus memorized important doctrine! You can uncover such a hymn by reading Colosians
1:1520. Did Paul write this ancient hymn or did he insert an existing hymn? We dont
know. But we know that he rejoiced in prison . . .
. . . and Colossians was written from prison. While incarcerated Paul wrote Colossians
between AD 6163 in Rome, along with Philippians, Philemon, and Ephesians. Ephesians
and Colossians are like twin sisters: they look very much alike but are also uniquely
different. Seventy-eight verses out of a combined 155 verses contain the same phrases.
Colossians emphasizes Christ the head-Christ in all; Ephesians emphasizes Christ the
bodyall in Christ. Both start with theology and end with practical advice. They both
show Paul at his most brilliant.
Epaphras saw the face of Paul on behalf of his beloved Colossians, and the surrounding
cities. He was the first to bring the gospel to this region of Asia Minor (Col 1:7) and he
remained the faithful stalwart of the church. He knew suffering and as Paul had written,
he was suffering on their behalf complete what is lacking in Christs afflictions (Col
1:24). He was struggling on behalf of the church to keep it pure and fully assured. On the
ship and over land, Epaphras clutched the letter which contained a promise and a warning
for the Colossians assaulted with encroaching heresy: He has now reconciled [you] in
his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and
irreproachable before him, provided that [if] you continue in the faith, stable and
steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard (Col 1:2223). The
little word if is a very big word. As he had brought the good news to Colossae many
years earlier, Epaphras now brings confirmation of gospel back from Rome (Col
4:1213) and you, now a long-time Colossian believer, are confirmed and stabilized in
the faith.
