An Overview of the Book of Colossians :: Religion, Paul

A letter from a prison for the Christian dethawdomPaul writes a letter from a prison in Rome to the Christians of Colossae admonishing and encouraging them that Christ and his gospel will free them from the heretical human regulations being imposed on them. (Colossians 26-23) He assures them that Christ has freed them from debts of sins by canceling the record of all sins through death on the cross. (Colossians 214)The background of the garner to the ColossiansColossae was a part of the roman type nation of Asia Minor, which is now Turkey. When Paul was in a Roman prison, Epaphras, leader of the church service building in Colossae, came to Paul in Rome with news about the church of Colossae. Epaphras informed Paul that the Colossians were troubled by a new teaching method that was contrary to the gospel which he had been preaching to them. Paul was sorry to discover about the new teaching that claimed a profound acquaintance unconnected from Christ (Colossians 28), an emphasis on following prescribed rituals (Colossians 216) and the worship of angels (Colossians 218). Colossians caught in the wind of fine discoursesThe Christians of Colossae were in a crisis of corporate trust. Their faith was swaying in the wind of gnostic theories that were spreading in the Roman Empire at that time. According to these theories, all come from a cosmic soup that had been boiling for ages with impressive celestial families of angels or eons, male and female, who experience each other, fuse into each other and finally imprison sparks of note in material bodies. In this way people are construct who put on a series of successive existences. These kinds of theories affected the faith of the Colossians and went away from Christ. Pauls teachings to the Colossians1) Supremacy of Christ Through his Letter Paul establishes the absolute supremacy of Christ. He points out how they can be led astray by the false preachers. He shows that angels or hidden powers are nothing compa red with Christ. He is neither agent nor intermediary of a creative adventure without a true creator. He states that Christ is the type of God and in him all things were created. (Colossians 115-16) 2) Christ is the fullness of knowledgePaul maintains that in Christ one can find the veritable knowledge, fullness, and completeness. Paul asserts that Christians drop no need for human philosophy and comprehension to be complete since they are complete in Christ, in whom they have the divine wisdom of his gospel and the perfect, complete salvation.