Another Bible Commentary: Colossians

Did you enjoy Ephesians? I hope so, because this letter is a lot like Ephesians. Paul wrote to a church that was planted by Epaphras (who was converted in Ephesus). This letter was written while Paul was imprisoned in Rome. Christianity emerged in an environment of religious pluralism and syncretism, and I’m going to attempt to provide context. The letter to the Colossians stresses the primacy of Christ in our creation, redemption, and relationships. There are hints at docetists/proto-Gnostics (that said Jesus did not come to Earth in a real human body), Judaizers (who said that to become Christian, one had to first fully convert to Judaism), and angel worship (Pharisees already regarded angels highly, and Gnostics later said that angels/angel-like archons were intermediaries in the creation of the universe). Scholars object that Gnosticism developed later than this letter, but Plato’s notion of a “Realm of the Forms” had already been around for hundreds of years, and Platonism promoted enough messages like “spirit is good!”, “truth is only seen by a few initiates!”, and “matter is bad and fake!” to explain the proto-Gnostic tendencies seen among those Paul addressed. Gnostics believed that Jesus was aware of His Christ consciousness, but that all humans already had it, too, and that salvation came from secret knowledge regarding it. Their “gospels” like the alleged Gospel of Thomas (basically sayings quoted from Luke with a little Gnostic stuff added) said that being aware of your inner divinity was the key, as if one could have the New Covenant heart, spirit, etc., without belief in our crucified and risen Lord. There was enough within Hellenistic thought at the time, including the Middle Platonists, Neopythagorean ascetics, the belief in “daemons” as quasi-guardian angels/spirit familiars/Muses, etc., to explain the behavior in this letter and to posit the existence of a whole slew of “emanations” or intermediate divine beings to accompany the Gnostics’ Demiurge (creator of a flawed physical world) and Monad (Gnostic concept of God as above all of that). The Gnostics were descended from and related to groups with beliefs similar to those Paul addressed in this letter. The Elcesaites, per Hippolytus, were a Jewish sect that believed in the Law of Moses including circumcision as well as other teachings allegedly delivered by angels: they underwent many baptisms, believed in astrology, and believed in elemental spirits. Cerinthus, a proto-Gnostic that several forms of heresy can look back to as an inspiration (we’ll discuss his stuff in more detail when we get to 1 John), was an adoptionist docetist legalist allegedly inspired by angels (The 2 Timothy 2:8 note explains those heresies in more detail, if you’re interested). The Mandaeans believed that spirit was Light, matter was Dark and intrinsically bad, and that John the Baptist was the ultimate prophet. The Manichaens were also dualists with Gnostic leanings; Augustine of Hippo was a Manichaen before converting to Christianity. The Romans were already fans of a pantheon with Jupiter at the head, and they believed in animistic spirits in every river, rock, etc. Mithraism was another popular religion in Rome that believed in astrology and involved initiation into grades based on the planets, the sun, and the moon. Mithraism has several surface similarities to Christianity like saviors, supper rituals, and a fondness for December 25th. Again, you don’t have to learn much about the counterfeits; Jesus is the real thing. We who proclaim that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone are accused of being modern Gnostics, but I’m not offering secret knowledge; I’m pointing out the simple obvious truth on nearly every page of the best-selling book of all time: Jesus actually accomplished what He had set out to do. Other groups have to do lots of mental gymnastics to leave Jesus out.

1:1 This is one of few instances in which Timothy is referred to by Paul as a brother in the faith (true of every Christians) instead of as a son (protégée).

1:2 Again, we get grace and shalom on the front end without earning it.

1:3-4 “faith…love…” Here’s “Believe and Love” again.

1:5 It’s stored for us where we can’t mess it up (1 Peter 1:4).

1:6 The Gospel bears fruit and spreads when people truly understand God’s grace.

1:9 Paul, an ambassador for Christ, prays for things in line with Jesus’ will/mission and therefore in His Name. Since this congregation seems to have had to deal with proto-Gnostics, it is fitting that Paul asked God to give them “knowledge…wisdom…understanding…”.

1:10-11 Again, maturity and living the life you were saved to live happen on the back end and are powered by your new identity in Christ.

1:12 Thanks to Jesus, you are already qualified.

1:13 This being taken from darkness into light is reminiscent of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”. In the story, prisoners are chained inside a cave. They are facing a wall where shadows are cast by objects passing in front of a fire behind them. The prisoners, having never seen anything else, perceive these shadows as reality and are hostile to anyone who tells them that they’re only seeing illusions.

1:14 We already have redemption and we already have forgiveness for all sins (Hebrews 10:14).

1:15 See John 14:9.

1:16 See John 1 and Proverbs 8:22-36 (and Sirach 24:9 for bonus points). In Him all things, spirits, minds, etc., were created; the Gnostics posited different creators for the physical and nonphysical. Thrones, powers, rulers, and authorities are meant by Paul to cover any type of angel the Colossians might have been tempted to worship.

1:17 He is, in other words, the Logos as we discussed in John 1.

1:20 “All things” includes you. He loves Jesus (Matthew 3:17), and He loves you enough to sacrifice Jesus. It’s not like Jesus snuck out of His Father’s house to come here; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were always on the same page about us.

1:22 Thanks to Jesus’ finished work, we are reconciled and we are blameless. Notice that Paul emphasized the physical dimension of Jesus’ existence.

1:23 The faith and the hope are in Jesus, who did it all. All you need is Christ. Keep on that. Paul said that the Great Commission had been accomplished and that at the time every creature under Heaven had heard of the Word. Some of the early evangelists had abilities like speaking in foreign languages (Acts 2:8) and teleportation (Acts 8:39-40). God is super-merciful to allow humanity even more time to convert to faith in Christ.

1:24 Paul completed his special assignment to suffer (Acts 9:16).

1:27 Rather than layers of secrecy guarding layers of meaningless insights, the big surprise of Christianity is that God takes up residence within us at salvation.

1:28 “we” specifically Paul and Timothy, the co-authors of the letter to the Colossians. As in Ephesians 4:13-14, “mature” means being unshakeable in your faith.

2:1 “I want you to know how hard I am contending for you…” Be careful around whom you search for Colossians 2 online, as the first nine words of that sentence are the title of the link at the time of this writing.

2:2 Paul wanted basically the same thing for the Ephesians.

2:3 Therefore, they could ignore the proto-Gnostics.

2:4-5 Paul indulged in a bit of humor in referencing his Platonist/docetist/etc. opponents with the concept of being absent from the body but present in spirit. When we leave these bodies, we are also present with Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:8); we’ll receive new bodies when the General Resurrection comes as we discussed back in 1 Corinthians 15.

2:6 How did you receive Him? By faith, not by earning. Continue to live by faith. Salvation involves learning that you can’t save yourself and that only He can. Christian discipleship, such as it is, is about knowing that we can’t live the Christian life by ourselves and trusting that He will live it for us within us. A disciple follows in the footsteps of a teacher; there is only trying and failing. The Bride reaps the benefit from her Husband without work or worry. Compare a neurosurgeon’s intern with the neurosurgeon’s wife that has access to her husband’s great resources without operating on anyone herself.

2:7 in contrast to the Colossians 2:19 people. See 1 Thessalonians 5:18 and Hebrews 13:15.

2:8 Is it any wonder, based on how quickly the Golden Calf happened when Moses stepped out momentarily, how fast the Church ran to Platonism, Stoicism, etc.? Think of how much typing I have done on just the issue of Platonic/Aristotelian ideas about the telos of sex acquired via Augustine and Aquinas. Outside philosophies, outside ascetic practices adopted by monks in the desert, advertisement copy for the sale of indulgences, etc., influenced everything downstream, including the translators of the 1611 KJV. There were a lot of changes to the meaning of various sins, etc., by the time we even got Bibles in English.

2:9 Again, Christ’s physicality is emphasized.

2:10 “fullness” There are no levels of initiation like in a mystery cult. See Ephesians 1:3.

2:11 See Deuteronomy 10:16, Deuteronomy 30:6, and Ezekiel 36:26. While Sin still has access to our minds through our pre-resurrection bodies (Romans 7), the reins are cut. Believers are not controlled by Sin anymore, even though we can still be tricked into listening to it.

2:12 All of this is a done deal. He rules, so we rule. We were baptized with the Spirit upon belief in Christ (Galatians 3:2, Galatians 3:5, John 17:20-23).

2:13-14 He chose us before we could choose Him. How many of your sins were in the future in the early thirties AD? He made us alive, forgave all our sins (even your next one), and destroyed the ledger. He’s not remembering our sins anymore (Hebrews 8:12). See Isaiah 43:25. He doesn’t consider us in debt to Him, and there’s no way we’d be able to repay Him anyway. Follow the logic from Deuteronomy 27:26 (we were hopelessly indebted) to Hebrews 10:9-10 (He came to succeed where we only fail, He set the Old Covenant aside, and He made us holy) to Hebrews 9:22-28. Covenants go into effect with blood, so the New Covenant started at the Cross. He died once, so we were forgiven once-for-all. He’s not up there dying over and over, so you’re not being forgiven over and over on an ongoing basis by asking for it. In Christ, you are always one hundred percent forgiven. When He comes back for us, our sins are not on His agenda.

2:15 The Cross was the decisive battle in the war on sin, death, the devil, etc. The Accuser has nothing. There is a refreshing lack of hoops to jump through. Man-made religion ain’t happy unless you ain’t happy.

2:16-17 Were you perhaps thinking of fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, or during Lent, or ever? Feel free to put the Didache down and read these verses. Are you doing or not doing things based on what day it is? Read these verses. Then again, I can’t tell you what to do about those things, because I also read these verses. Paul’s confrontation of Peter in Galatians 2:11-14 over refraining from eating with the Gentiles sits in tension with this, but the greater issues of our freedom from the Law and church unity were at stake. The 1 Corinthians 8 concerns for the consciences of other people are in a group setting; Colossians 2:16-17 says that you’re free in Christ to eat your fill, even of grocery store idolatry meat (See 1 Corinthians 10:25, Acts 10, Deuteronomy 12:20, Mark 7:18-19), while catching up on housework on the Sabbath (John 5:17 is true for us, too) or during Lent as you see fit. See Hebrews 10:1, Romans 10:4, and John 4:21-24. Every day is Easter for us.

2:18 Pharisees were into angelic visions (Acts 23:9). Paul, who himself was commissioned as an apostle through miraculous means (Acts 9) and received messages (Galatians 2:2), humble-bragged about a trip to Heaven in 2 Corinthians 12:1-7 to counter the sort of claims in Colossians 2:18 that the “superapostles” were making. See Revelation 22:8-9. Also, the Greek word translated here as “worship” is translated as “religion” in James 1:26-27 and Acts 26:5; this could be a dig at those still trying to keep the Old Covenant (Acts 7:53, Galatians 3:19).

2:19 “lost connection” See John 8:56. The whole point of the Bible has been Jesus. At worst, some of the Jews had jumped off of Abe’s train by rejecting the promised Messiah. At best, Jesus didn’t tell believers (attached to Christ, but not necessarily listening to Christ) to do any of this angel worship stuff, etc. For “causes it to grow” see John 15:5.

2:20-22 See Isaiah 29:13. Whether the Colossians were into novel, pagan, or Jewish customs, Christians are dead to all that. Paul just briefly covered food and the calendar. The Old Covenant had rules about contact with various sources of ritual uncleanliness, but “handle” and “touch” can sound redundant given Paul’s brevity here. Jesus’ actions toward lepers, the bleeding woman, Samaritans, etc., demonstrate that even under the Old Covenant “sin” was distinct from “unclean”. The Temple curtain was torn open when Jesus died and ritual cleanliness (and ritual itself) ceased to be needed; Jesus did it all for us. So, what was Paul trying to convey to these recently former pagans who were trying to deal with the flesh with a rule book? I’m going to pick some seemingly odd issues to examine here that will allow us to understand the implications of verse 23, which will then allow you to apply general principles to many situations. Before anyone gets offended, remember that the letter to the Colossians shares a binding with Ezekiel 16, Song of Songs/Solomon, etc. Even back in Leviticus 15:16, no offering was required for “usual” discharge like the normal emission of semen in any context including nocturnal emissions and masturbation: “handling” or “touching” “things that perish with use” (Colossians 2:21-22) cannot be any more tactful concerning erections. Couples weren’t mentioned until Leviticus 15:18. Since marital sex is a wash-and-wait, and Paul encouraged that (1 Corinthians 7) then other wash-and-waits are not a problem for the Temple of the Holy Spirit, either. That’s a smaller leap than Paul made in insisting the Galatians remain uncircumcised to fulfill prophecy while the Judaizers clung to Ezekiel 44:7-9. Since God was picky about open defecation (Deuteronomy 23:12-14) and keeping clothes washed for ritual reasons, why would natural seminal incontinence (nocturnal emission) be His plan? The high priest wasn’t even permitted to sweat on duty. Paul told them not to fall for don't touch/handle/taste as it does nothing about evil desires. No one disapproving of seed waste would have told the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13). Also, with nothing said about all the relations with postmenopausal or infertile women like Sarah, Hannah, and Elizabeth (and John the Baptist was a real stickler for the rules), seed waste aka non-procreative acts including heterosexual relations alluded to in Song of Songs/Solomon (“mouth stuff” and “hand stuff”) are not a problem. Popular Christian opinions about these issues have been influenced by Aristotle’s telos argument (despite Paul’s warnings against philosophy) that the highest purpose of an organ is its only purpose (God disproved that by making us urinate through our members of procreation), Rabbinic prohibitions inherited from Christ-denying Pharisees, and hundreds of years of celibate Church fathers’ writings (also unbiblical) that were already baked into our understanding by the time we got English Bibles. Bragging about never masturbating is from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Greek philosophers (see Colossians 2:8) said that a “real man” could control his passions and solely be a penetrator, so masturbation was considered only suitable for slaves, women, the immature, etc. The Romans followed suit (and they also said that Christianity was only suitable for the same groups I just listed.) Consider the logical implications of 1 Corinthians 10:13 and 1 Corinthians 12:18. Please continue to the note for verse 23.

2:23 “restraining sensual indulgence” is how modern English Bibles say “indulgence of the flesh”. Remember that “the flesh” is not the body. Your foot doesn’t get angry, jealous, etc. Your old thought patterns like that linger until the mind’s renewal, but the body itself is not bad. See the Romans 7:18 note for a refresher on this concept if you want. The only thing of value in restraining sin is trusting Jesus living in you. Don’t be confused about what sin is. Legalism increases the amount of sinning (Romans 7:5); since forbidden fruit is the sweetest, knowing something isn’t “naughty” diminishes the desire for it. Believe in Jesus Christ, love one another, and avoid the very specific material the apostles told us about in Acts 15:20. Resuming the discussion of the test cases we were looking at in verses 21-22, the Bible is consistent. For example, the standards of sexual morality for Christians are the same ones that all humanity were given. Remember that the Canaanites who never had the Law of Moses were eliminated for things spelled out in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20. When Jesus spoke of the “eagerness for lustful pleasure” in Mark 7, that would mean going for it without regard to your partner’s gender, marital status, species, etc. See the Matthew 5:28 note if mere lust still seems taboo. Remember my prescription for David regarding Bathsheba; wanting to masturbate alone without bothering anyone is a desire to not want another man’s wife and is the opposite of covetous intent. 1 Corinthians 10:6 further clarifies that desire of evil things is the problem, not mere desire itself. 1 Thessalonians 4:5 says not to lust in the manner that the pagans do, and verse 6 clarifies this as not to take a fellow Christian’s wife (Leviticus 18:20,27-28). Celibate priests that try to hold their natural urges down with fasting, exercise, physical pain, etc., instead of masturbating (Colossians 2:21-22, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 1 Corinthians 12:18) are like Pharisees obeying extra rules, and the fact that some of them eventually succumb to the lure of altar boys (Leviticus 18:22,27-28) is one example of what is in view in Colossians 2:23. Romans 13:14 says not to think about how to gratify the flesh, which involves creativity and planning, like how to orchestrate a liaison. Taking care of things single-handedly doesn’t require you to think about how to accomplish anything. Hunger can tempt a thief to steal a sandwich, but the hunger itself and the sandwich itself are not evil apart from the thief’s involvement. Priests, teachers, scoutmasters, anyone: If semen poisoning is making you want to sin, get it out on your own and cast it away. I don’t want to see any of y’all in the headlines anymore.

3:1-2 You have been raised with Him (Ephesians 2:6) to the Father’s right hand (Psalm 110:1). Remember that (Philippians 4:8). This is like Jude 21’s advice to stay focused on being loved by God. This is not a behavior test to fail, because He’s not doing that (John 6:37, Romans 14:4); He’s supporting you. The real reason follows in the next verse…

3:3 Christians died already (Galatians 2:20), and we’re done dying (Hebrews 9:27, Luke 20:36). Recontextualize life on Earth within the greater setting of our eternal life in the new Heaven and the new Earth we’re waiting for. This life as you now know it is only part of a sentence in the ever-expanding doorstopper of an epic that is your real life in Christ. Look at how big God is and how long eternity is and your problems just get smaller.

3:4 Christ is your life. This is the core truth. Christ is your life and He cannot die. The opponents of “Once Saved Always Saved” miss that somehow.

3:5 Are you trying to follow Colossians 3:5? Look to Jesus, in Heaven, where you are with Him (Philippians 4:8, Colossians 3:2). Let’s briefly consider the common understanding of this verse: saying to get rid of sexual immorality and then following that by saying to get rid of desire for sex at all would be dumb; if celibacy were the goal, just saying that would have sufficed.

Remember the context of nearby Roman paganism for words like sexual immorality (porneia) as defined in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20, impurity (akatharsia, or dirty, demonic, depraved, foul like a festering wound, like adulterers in 1 Thessalonians 4), epithymian (derived from epithumeo, in context together with pathos adds up to inordinate out-of-bounds lust and desire for evil things), and greed (pleonexia, coveting more and more without regard to the rights of others). The “whatever belongs to your earthly nature” is not taken to refer to normal bodily functions by sane people. “Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the hunger of the belly, nor the urge to defecate?” No. Walking by the Spirit does not diminish desire for food, or for permissible sex, or for restroom visits, so walking by the flesh as opposed to the Spirit in these areas would be about committing specific sins enumerated in Scripture and really wanting to do unloving, wrong, shameful, greedy things to people rather than mere normal desire. “The Flesh” is your old role, the old patterns and ways to get by in life without God. You are not still somehow the old self too, as that died at the Cross. Jesus fixed our hearts, but we now renew our minds by learning the new way to live from the new heart.

3:6 The wrath is not for believers (Romans 5:9). The “sons of disobedience” in some translations is in reference to unbelievers (John 6:28-29, John 16:9).

3:7 Again, we already died (verse 3).

3:8 Paul is hitting many of the same points in Colossians 3 as Jesus in Mark 7:20-23. Colossians 3:5-8 is basically the list from 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 or from Revelation 21:8 with rage added. The same word in Greek for slander also covers blasphemy. The expression “filthy language” pertains to abuse and insults in writings from that cultural background. Paul used the equivalent of “the s-word” in Philippians 3:8, so using alleged “curse words” isn’t always wrong, but cursing someone out might be another matter, especially calling down curses upon them aka trying to harm them with words. Paul and Jesus calling their opponents dogs and vipers would have been very insulting, but it was born from love of us.

3:9-10 The phrasing here is clearer than in Ephesians 4:20-24. You have put off the old self and you have put on the new self (Galatians 3:27). You are being renewed in knowledge in His Image (Romans 12:2). Some see an allusion to baptism in the putting off of garments, etc. I think Paul had Zechariah 3:4 and Isaiah 61:10 in mind.

3:11 Christ is the life of all believers (verse 4).

3:12 “You’re saints; act like it” as stated with the continuing clothing metaphor. These attributes are what Christ is making in you (Galatians 5:22-23, 1 Corinthians 13), so it just makes sense for your outer behavior to match your new inner goodness. Being nice is a logical accessory to wear with Christ (Galatians 3:27).

3:13 Treat fellow Christians as God’s kids for His sake. Notice that God already forgave you (past tense), and you’re not on probation. See the Ephesians 4:31 note for more information.

3:15-16 “message of Christ” The Gospel of John became the most popular among the Ephesians and Colossians. Regarding “thankful”, see 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 and Hebrews 13:15.

3:17 Everything you do except sinning can be done as an ambassador for Christ. See Titus 2:10.

3:18-19 Since the Romans thought Christianity was detrimental to society by disrupting marriages and encouraging slave revolts, many Epistles contained advice to elevate the faith’s reputation (Titus 2:10). See Ephesians 5:22-30 for more detail about husbands and wives. Our ideas of “harsh” as post-Iron Age readers are different now given Jeremiah 13:26-27 and Ezekiel 16:8,37-41. Some translations warn husbands against becoming embittered against wives. That’s an easy thing to do if you’re keeping score, thinking transactionally, etc., as if she were a prostitute that you were likely overpaying. Instead, think in terms of your identity: you are a saint, doing nice things comes naturally to you, and marriage is an illustration of the relationship between Christ and believers. The boundless love within you can be better comprehended in trying circumstances (like when she lost her expensive hearing aid in a room stacked chest-high with collectibles that she bought instead of letting you retire to actually spend time with her).

3:20-21 This is in the same book as Jeremiah 6:2 (most translations feature God destroying “daughter” Zion) and Deuteronomy 21:18-21. We are dealing with the same God, but we are under a new covenant.

3:22-4:1 Christian employees should work (See Ecclesiastes 9:10) really hard (to make the Gospel look good because saving people is awesome – Titus 2:10), because the inheritance we definitely have coming is way better than we could earn with our works (which He is powering anyway – Philippians 2:13). Christian bosses should refrain from making the Gospel look bad by acting especially high-and-mighty (this was even in the Old Covenant in Leviticus 25:43), because we’re all people who need grace. You don’t earn an inheritance. You get an inheritance because Someone died, and the one we have coming will more than make up for any good deeds you’re thinking of itemizing or any loss suffered. The “no favoritism” bit is from Deuteronomy 10:17. The “anyone who does wrong” would be with regard to unbelieving earthly masters who mistreat Christians (Deuteronomy 32:35) and to earthly consequences for mistakes. Your life can still be ruined by drug addiction, for example, even as a believer – but your sins have already been taken away. God trains us for the future; He does not punish us for our past because Jesus already paid our debt, and it would be wrong to double-charge. God freed slaves from Egypt in Exodus, but Paul did not say to use that as precedent for universal emancipation as the Israelites just went from being Pharaoh’s slaves to God’s (Galatians 3:24-25).

4:2 “watchful and thankful” Be on the lookout for anything to be thankful for in response to your request.

4:5 “wisely…redeeming the time” for evangelism.

4:6 “salt” is a preservative. This is another way of saying Ephesians 4:29; let what you say help and not hurt the chances of your hearers finding Jesus so that they may be saved, preserved, edified, etc.

4:7 “Tychicus” from Acts 20:4.

4:9 “Onesimus” from Philemon.

4:10 “Aristarchus” from Acts 19:29. It’s nice to see that Paul, Barnabas, and Mark reconciled after Acts 15:37-39.

4:12 “mature and fully assured” is the unshakeable faith for which Epaphras is “always wrestling” in prayer. As you recall, Jacob’s new name/identity Israel came from a wrestling match in Genesis 32.

4:14 “Luke” who recorded Luke and Acts; “Demas” returns in 2 Timothy 4:10.

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