Colossians

Colosse was a small town in the Lycus Valley approximately 100 miles from Ephesus. It is unclear if Paul ever actually went to this small town, but he certainly loved the people there. It was in the province of Asia Minor. This was another prison epistle. When he was in prison the 1st time. We are introduced to a man named Epaphras, who apparently met Paul in Ephesus; Paul helped him become a believer, trained him as a missionary and pastor, and he went back to his hometown of Colosse and started this little church. Approximately AD 53-56, which is the time when Paul was in Ephesus (Acts 19) Around AD 60-62, less than 10 years after Epaphras started the church, he went to visit Paul in Rome while he was on house arrest there. It seems that Epaphras was worried about some false teachings that were becoming a problem in his church in Colosse, and he wanted Paul’s help to fight against them, and that is why Paul wrote this incredible letter. It may be that Epaphras didn’t think he was spiritually mature enough or theologically equipped to address these issues, so that may be why he went to Paul. Either way, he was very worried about the church he loved and prayed for. He knew they were in trouble, and he wanted to stop it before it caused the people to leave the truth and follow the lie. There are similarities or parallels between Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and to this church in Colosse, which leads most scholars to believe they were written at about the same time. But this church, the Colossian church, had a unique problem or false teaching that they were dealing with; it is very prevalent today in the church. This heresy was challenging the deity and the sufficiency of Christ. In other words, it was saying Jesus was not God, and His work on the cross wasn’t enough. Sounds familiar, sounds like all the 1,000s of false religions today. So Paul will address this issue and some others. Good Ole legalism and works.