Colossians overview

Purpose & Theme

Colossians is Paul’s magnificent exaltation of the supremacy and all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Written to a church he had not personally founded, it answers a dangerous false teaching creeping into Colossae — a mixture of Jewish legalism, ascetic self-denial, angel worship, and speculative “philosophy” that promised a deeper spirituality through rules, rituals, and secret knowledge added to Christ. Paul’s response is not to argue point by point but to lift up Christ so high that every rival is exposed as empty. If believers grasp who Jesus truly is — the image of the invisible God, the Creator and sustainer of all things, the head of the church, the one “in whom the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” — then they will see that they need nothing added to Him, for “you have been filled in him” (2:9-10). The theme of the letter is Christ over all and Christ enough.

Around the towering “Christ hymn” of chapter 1, which sets forth Jesus as supreme over both creation and the new creation, Paul builds his argument: because Christ is supreme, He is sufficient; and because He is sufficient, believers must reject every hollow substitute and hold fast to Him alone. In Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3), and in Him God has “cancelled the record of debt” and “disarmed the rulers and authorities” at the cross (2:14-15). Having established the sufficiency of Christ, Paul turns to the new life that flows from union with Him: since believers have died and been raised with Christ, they are to “seek the things that are above,” put off the sins of the old self and put on the graces of the new, and let the word of Christ and the peace of Christ rule in their hearts, homes, work, and speech. Closely paralleling Ephesians, Colossians is a bracing reminder that Christ is enough — that in Him “you have been filled” and “Christ is all, and in all” (3:11).

Historical Context

Colossians is one of Paul’s four “Prison Epistles,” written during his imprisonment, most likely in Rome around AD 62, at the same time as Ephesians and Philemon, and carried by the same messenger, Tychicus, along with Onesimus (4:7-9). Colossae was a small city in the Lycus River valley of the Roman province of Asia (western Turkey), not far from Laodicea and Hierapolis. Paul had not founded the church there; it had been planted by Epaphras, one of his coworkers, who had brought Paul news of the Colossians’ faith and love — and of the troubling teaching now threatening them (1:7-8; 4:12-13).

The false teaching at Colossae, often called “the Colossian heresy,” seems to have been a syncretistic blend: elements of Jewish law (circumcision, food laws, festivals, and Sabbaths), asceticism (“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”), the worship of angels and “elemental spirits,” and a claim to superior wisdom or knowledge available only to an elite. Its common thread was the notion that Christ was not enough — that fullness required something more. Paul writes to demolish that notion by exalting Christ as supreme and sufficient, and to encourage the believers to grow in the knowledge of God and to live out their union with the risen Christ. The result is one of the New Testament’s richest portraits of the person and work of Jesus.

Structure & Outline

Colossians moves from the supremacy of Christ to the sufficiency of Christ to the new life in Christ:

• The Supremacy of Christ (Chapter 1) — Christ, the image of God, supreme over creation and the church.
• The Sufficiency of Christ (Chapter 2) — the fullness of Christ against empty philosophy, legalism, and asceticism.
• The New Life in Christ (Chapters 3-4) — seeking things above, putting off and putting on, and living it out.

How This Book Points to Jesus

Few passages in all of Scripture exalt Christ as gloriously as Colossians 1:15-20. Jesus is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” — not a created being but the eternal Son, supreme over creation — “for by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible... all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” He is also “the head of the body, the church” and “the firstborn from the dead,” supreme in the new creation as in the old, “that in everything he might be preeminent.” In Him “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,” and through His blood on the cross God reconciles all things to Himself. Colossians thus proclaims the full deity, cosmic supremacy, and saving work of Jesus in the highest terms.

From this towering vision Paul draws the letter’s practical center: because Christ is supreme, He is sufficient, and believers are “complete” in Him. “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority” (2:9-10). In Christ believers have every treasure of wisdom, a “circumcision made without hands,” forgiveness through the cancelling of their debt, and victory over every hostile power, which Christ “disarmed” and led in triumph. He is “our life,” now “hidden with Christ in God,” and when He appears, His people “also will appear with him in glory” (3:3-4). The whole of the new life — dying to sin, rising to holiness, loving one another, ordering the home and workplace — flows from union with this supreme and sufficient Christ, “who is all, and in all.” Colossians is a summons to be satisfied with Jesus, because Jesus is everything.