There is so much in chapter 1 that we can get lost as we dig into it. Therefore, we need to read the chapter so we have an overall "feel" for what Paul is trying to teach us.
(1) This letter is from Paul, *chosen by the will of God to be an **apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy.· Philippians 2:19-22: If the Lord Jesus is willing, I hope to send Timothy to you soon for a visit. Then he can cheer me up by telling me how you are getting along. I have no one else like Timothy, who genuinely cares about your welfare. All the others care only for themselves and not for what matters to Jesus Christ. But you know how Timothy has proved himself. Like a son with his father, he has served with me in preaching the Good News.
· *chosen: Galatians 1:15: But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him to reveal his Son to me so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles. When this happened, I did not rush out to consult with any human being.
· **apostle: Paul was an "apostle," which in the Greek language, referred to a "sent one." In secular usage an apostle was an ambassador sent by his king to represent him in another country.
(2) We are writing to God’s *holy people in the city of **Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. May God our Father give you grace and peace.· *holy people: In the Pauline epistles, Christians are called hoi hagioi, the saints. When Paul speaks of the “saints” or “holy ones,” he is not speaking of a special class of Christians who have achieved a certain level of holiness. The saints are not a special class established by some church body as in Roman Catholicism. Instead, this is a term used for all believers regardless of their spiritual condition. In ancient times, hagios was used of that which was taken out of secular use and put into some kind of religious service to be devoted to the gods. In Scripture, it came to mean “set apart from the secular world to God alone as His special people for His use or purposes.”
· **Colosse: The church in Colosse met in Philemon’s house. It was a Gentile city but there are estimates that in the three cities of Colossae Ephesus Laodicea
(3) We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.(4) For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people,
· *faith:
o Galatians 5:5-6: But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.
(5) which come from your confident *hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the **truth of the Good News.· *hope:
o Romans 5:2-5: Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
o 1 Corinthians 13:13: Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
- 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 5:8: As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ… But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation.
o Ephesians 4:4-5: For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
· **truth: As opposed to the false teaching that has prompted Paul to write this letter.
(6) This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by *changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.· *changing lives: The effect of hearing the Gospel and believing on Christ will lead to a changed life. If it does not, real faith did not occur. Unfortunately, many believe on Christ and then resist the changes that the Holy Spirit is trying to bring about in them.
(7) You learned about the Good News from *Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf.o *Epaphras: Colossians 4:12: Epaphras, a member of your own fellowship and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings. He always prays earnestly for you, asking God to make you strong and perfect, fully confident that you are following the whole will of God. What the Colossians had heard and learned from Epaphras was God’s truth; as the Lord had revealed it through the apostles.
(8) He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.(9) So we have not stopped *praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual **wisdom and ***understanding.
· In the Greek, this verse is the beginning of a 106 word sentence. It spans from here to verse 20.
· *praying:
◦ Essentially, Paul prayed for two things: (1) that his readers might have a full knowledge of the will of God and (2) that, as a result, they might live in manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in every respect. Both requests, though distinctive, are intimately related and bound up one with the other as cause and effect. Verse 9 without verse 10 is incomplete and falls short of the will of God, but verse 10 without verse 9 is impossible.
◦ In this prayer of Paul, the great object is to grow in the knowledge of God's will so that it leads to pleasing Him, not ourselves.
· **wisdom: Biblical wisdom is a knowledge that shows one how to live so that one’s life is meaningful and good, just and right, effective or fruitful regardless of what life might bring. How, then, can we define wisdom? Two definitions might be offered.
1. Biblical wisdom consists in choosing the best means to the best end. The effect of this wisdom "…is to make us more humble, more joyful, more godly, more quick sighted as to His will, more resolute in the doing of it and less troubled (not less sensitive, but less bewildered) than we were at the dark and painful things of which our life in this fallen world is full…".
2. Wisdom is the God-given ability to see life with rare objectivity and to handle life with rare stability.
· ***understanding: Understanding is what allows one to see clearly to discern the good from the bad and the best over the good. Whereas "wisdom" (sophia) looks at the theoretical, the theological, or the various truths of Scripture, "understanding" (sunesis) looks at the practical, the application of wisdom.
· As the next verse will stress, the knowledge of God in all spiritual wisdom and understanding enables us to walk in a worthy manner so we can please the Lord in every situation of life and bear fruit for Him.
(10) Then THE WAY YOU LIVE will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.· Ephesians 4:1: Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.
· Works are never the root; they are the fruit, not just of a saved condition, but the result of spiritual growth and fellowship.
· Ultimately, we must learn that it is not we who work for God; it is God who works in us (Philippians 2:12 -13). The work we do is to be the result of the life we live.
· According to this passage, what are we? We are clay vessels that God has designed to be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the person and work of Christ. But when this occurs in us, it will result in transformed lives, lives that manifest the power of God in Christ-like living. Thus, in Colossians 1:10-14, Paul points us to the kind of fruitful life that is the designed end of a being filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
· Without the knowledge of God’s will, it is impossible to walk worthily of the Lord. The intended result of God’s truth known and applied is changed conduct. If our Bible studies do not result in changed lives and conduct, we are completely wasting our time and kidding ourselves.
· Do you know what it means to walk worthy? It sounds impossible. How could I ever walk worthy of the Lord? How could I ever walk consistently with who I am in Him? What does it mean to walk worthy? It means to let your practice match your position.
o 1 Thessalonians 2:12: We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.
- When we marry someone, we are being CALLED to first please our spouse and only secondly to please ourselves. Most important of all, the purpose in your creation is to please the Lord “in all respects.” When you plant a fruit tree in your yard, the purpose is so it will bear fruit. You have been planted into this world to bear “fruit” for the Lord.
(12) always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in *the light.
· *the light (Greek – phos):
o The light is the Shekinah glory!
o John 1:4-5,8:12 : The Word gave life to everything that was created and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it…. Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
o 1 John 1:5: This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.
(13) For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,(14) who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
(15) Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation
· Or He is the firstborn of all creation. Firstborn (the ancient Greek word prototokos) can describe either priority in time, or supremacy in rank. As Paul uses it here, it probably has both ideas in mind, with Jesus being before all created things, and Jesus being of a supremely different order than all created things.
· Hebrews 1:3: The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.
· 2 Corinthians 4:4: Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.
· An image is an exact expression. He is declaring here that in the man Jesus we have the exact expression of all that God is. And furthermore, he is, the first-born of all creation.
· The Greek word here for image is eikon. If Paul meant that Jesus was merely similar to the Father, he would have used the Greek word homoioma, which speaks of similar appearance. The ancient Jewish philosopher Philo equated the eikon of God with the Logos.
· Adam was made in the image of God: Christ is the image of God, the full representation visibly of the One whom no eye has seen or can see. To be this, Christ can be no less than personally God. Adam was created to represent God in a certain measure; Christ is the representation of God -- an infinite difference.
· It is impossible that can see Him who is invisible - Christ is that one image of the invisible God.
· Here, Paul moves into the main focus of this epistle—the exaltation and preeminence of Christ in His person and work. Part of the reason was the false teaching confronting the Colossians, but another reason is because nothing is more vital for experiencing the power of Christ and fruitfulness than an accurate understanding of both the person and work of Jesus Christ. Without truly understanding who Jesus really is and what He alone could and did accomplish through the cross, people become sitting ducks for cultic systems or false religious beliefs that seek to come to God other than exclusively through the Lord Jesus Christ. All false belief systems either reject what the Bible teaches about the person of Christ (deny His deity or true humanity), or they seek to add something to the work of Christ (add some system of religious or ascetic works), or they will do both—subtract from His person and add to His work. In other words, what Christ accomplished on the cross is not sufficient, so some system of works is added as a means of true spirituality and access to God. This is precisely what the false teachers at Colosse were doing and what the Roman church does, as well as many Protestant churches. These false teachers apparently represented an early system of Gnosticism that would eventually take two forms, one ascetic (some type of religious self-denial) and the other licentious (lacking moral restraint). This philosophy included a Greek form of dualism that believed all matter was evil and that only pure spirit was good. The ascetics taught that the way to overcome the body, which is evil, was by self-abasement and severe treatment of the body.
(16) for THROUGH HIM God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as *thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.· Isaiah 44:24: This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer and Creator: “I am the Lord, who made all things. I alone stretched out the heavens. Who was with me when I made the earth?
· John 1:3: God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.
· John 8:57-58: The people said, “You aren’t even fifty years old. How can you say you have seen Abraham? Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I Am!
- 1 Corinthians 8:6: But we know that there is only one God, the Father, who created everything, and we live for him. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom God made everything and through whom we have been given life.
- Hebrews 1:10, 3:4: He also says to the Son, “In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens with your hands. … For every house has a builder, but the one who built everything is God.
- *Thrones or kingdoms or rulers or authorities in the unseen world: "The Colossian Heresy" probably was a corruption of Christianity with elements of mystical, legalistic Judaism and early Gnosticism - an elaborate angelology, which effectively placed angels as mediators between God and man. Paul emphasizes that whatever ranks of spirit beings there may be, Jesus created them all and they all ultimately answer to Him.
- A better translation of these words is actually, “IN Him all things were created,” and “everything” is a way of saying, “this physical universe.” The interstellar vastness of outer space; all of it, the galaxies, nebulae and likely more than any of us are aware of; “EVERYTHING was created in Him.” And note that much of “all things” is “invisible” to us.
· Verses 17-20 were most likely an early poem or part of an early hymn.
(18) Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the *beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.· *beginning, supreme: Or the firstborn from the dead.
- Ephesians 1:22-23: God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.
- Just as the Shekinah glory filled Solomon’s temple and will fill the Millennial temple: Ezekiel: 44:4: Then the man brought me through the north gateway to the front of the
- Colossians 2:9: For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.
· Isaiah 9:6: For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
(21) This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.· Ephesians 2:12: In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel
(22) YET NOW he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.(23) BUT you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.
************** Stopped 5/3/11 ********
(24) I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church.(25) God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you.
(26) This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, BUT NOW it has been revealed to God’s people.
- Ephesians 3:5: God did not reveal it to previous generations, BUT NOW by his Spirit he has revealed it to his holy apostles and prophets.
· Christ living in you. Because Christ lives in us, our bodies are a holy temple and we are holy. What would you think of someone who desecrated a church by drawing porn on the walls or writing curse words on the wall or broke things in the church or screamed in hatred at someone there or had sex with the secretary in a pew, etc. – yet, that’s what we do when we similarly sin with our bodies, our tongues, our minds, our thoughts, our eyes. Forgive me, Lord, for the times I have desecrated your temple! He died for us, so that he might live in us. This is the full glory of the Christian Gospel.
(28) So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, *perfect in their relationship to Christ. · *perfect: Or mature. So, the goal of preaching, writing, Bible teaching must be to bring others to a mature relationship with Christ – but what is a “mature relationship with Christ?”
- Colossians 2:10: So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
- Ephesians 4:13: This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
http://colossians-study.blogspot.com/2011/01/colossians-references.html
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