Bible Version: New International Version (NIV)
Application Notes: Life Application Study Bible (NIV)
COLOSSIANS 1
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
The Supremacy of the Son of God
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
Paul’s Labor for the Church
24 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. 25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
28 He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. 29 To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
Application Notes
1:1 Colossians, along with Philippians, Ephesians, and Philemon, is called a Prison letter because Paul wrote it from prison in Rome. This prison was actually a house where Paul was kept under close guard at all times (probably chained to a soldier) but given certain freedoms not offered to most prisoners. He was allowed to write letters and to see any visitors he wanted.
1:1 Paul was an apostle "by the will of God." Paul would often establish his credentials as chosen and sent by God because he had not been one of the original 12 disciples. Apostle means "chosen and sent out as a missionary or ambassador"; Paul was sent out by God to preach the gospel. By the will of God means that he had been appointed; his missiQn and ministry were not just a matter of his own personal aspirations.
1:1 Paul mentions Timothy in other New Testament letters as well: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Philippians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and Philemon. Paul, also wrote two letters to Timothy (1 and 2 Timothy). (For more information on these men, two of the greatest missionaries of the early church, see Paul's profile on page 1899 and Timothy's profile on page 2103.)
1:2-3 Letters in Paul's day would frequently begin by identifying the writer and the readers and then offering a greeting of peace. Paul would usually add Christian elements to his greetings, reminding his readers of his call by God to spread the gospel, emphasising that the authority for his words came from God, and giving thanks for God's blessings.
1:2 The city of Colossae was 100 miles east of Ephesus on the Lycus River. It was not as influential as the nearby city of Laodicea, but as a trading centre it was a crossroads for ideas and religions. Colossae had a large Jewish population-many Jews had fled there when they were forced out of Jerusalem under the persecutions of Antiochus III and IV, almost 200 years before Christ. The church in Colossae had been founded by Epaphras (1:7), one of Paul's converts. Paul had not yet visited this church nor met these people. His purpose in writing was to refute heretical teachings about Christ that had been causing confusion among the Christians there and to show how new life in Christ should affect people living in the Roman Empire.
1:4-5 Throughout this letter, Paul combats a heresy similar to Gnosticism (see the first note on 1:9-14 and the notes on 1:15-23 and 2:4-23). Gnostics believed that it took special knowledge to be accepted by God; for them, even for those who claimed to be Christians, Christ alone was not the way of salvation (1:20). In his introductory comments, therefore, Paul commends the Colossians for their faith, love, and hope as they looked forward to heaven (see 1 Corinthians 13:13). He deliberately omits the word knowledge because of the ·special knowledge· aspect of the prevailing heresy. It is not what they know that brings salvation, but whom we know. Knowing Christ is knowing God.
1:5 When Paul speaks of hope, he means more than having an optimistic attitude about the future. He is referring to the confident trust in the reality of heaven. We can hope in what God has for us in heaven because we know that our future destination and salvation are sure (1 Peter 1:3-4). We are free to live for Christ and love others. When you find--yourself doubting or wavering in your faith or love, remember your destination-heaven.
1:6 Wherever Paul went, he preached the gospel-to Gentile audiences, to hostile Jewish leaders, and even to his Roman guards. Whenever people believed in the message that Paul spoke, they were changed. God's Word is not just for our information; it is for our transformation! Becoming a Christian means beginning a whole new relationship with God, not just turning over a new leaf or determining to do right. New believers have a changed purpose, direction, attitude, and behaviour. They no longer seek to serve themselves, but they bear fruit for God. What new fruit have you seen in your life lately?
1:7 Epaphras had founded the church in Colossae while Paul was living in Ephesus (Acts 19:10). Epaphras may have been converted in Ephesus and then returned to Colossae, his hometown. For some reason, he visited Rome and, while there, told Paul about the problems the Colossians were having with heresy and the false beliefs that the church was tempted to adopt. This prompted Paul to write this letter. Paul also mentions Epaphras in Philemon 1:23 (the Colossian church met in Philemon's house).
1:8 Because of their love for one another, Christians can have an impact that goes far beyond their neighbourhoods and communities. Christian love comes from the Holy Spirit (see Galatians 5:22). The Bible speaks of it as an action and attitude, not just an emotion. Love for others flows from our hearts as a by-product of our new lives in Christ (see Romans 5:5; 1 Corinthians 13). Christians have no excuse for not loving, because Christian love is a decision to act in the best interests of others. Is love for others lacking in your life? Ask the Holy Spirit to take away your cold heart and give you a new, loving one.
1:9-14 Paul was exposing a heresy in the Colossian church that was similar to Gnosticism (for more on this, see the note on 1:4-5). Gnostics valued the accumulation of knowledge, but Paul points out that knowledge in itself leads to a dead end. To be worth anything, it must lead to a changed life and godly living. His prayer for the Colossians has two dimensions: (1) that they might be filled with the knowledge of God's will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding, and (2) that they would bear fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. Knowledge is not merely to be accumulated; it should give us direction for living. Paul wanted the Colossians to be wise, but he also wanted them to use their knowledge. God does not keep himself hidden so that only a few can discover him; he makes himself available to everyone. Use what you learn about him to bring light to the dark places in your world.
1:9-14 Sometimes we wonder how to pray for missionaries and other leaders we have never met. Paul had never met the Cotossians, but he faithfully prayed for them. His prayers teach us how to pray for others, whether we know them or not. We can request that they (1) understand God's will, (2) gain spiritual wisdom. (3) honour and please God, (4) bear Good fruit, (5) grow in the knowledge of God, (6) be strengthened with god glorious power, (7) have great endurance and patience, (8) be filled with joy, and (9) give thanks always. All believers have these same basic needs. When you don't know how to pray for someone, use Paul's prayer for the Colossians as a pattern.
1:12-14 Paul lists five benefits God gives all believers through Christ: (1) He has qualified us to share in his inheritance (also see 2 Corinthians 5:21); (2) he has rescued us from Satan's dominion of darkness and made us his children (also see Colossians 2:15); (3} he has brought us into his eternal kingdom (also see Ephesians 1:5-6); (4) he has redeemed us, buying our freedom from sin and judgment with his blood (also see Hebrews 9:12); and (5) he has forgiven all our sins (also see Ephesians 1:7). Thank God for what you have received in Christ.
1:13 Darkness stands for evil, the dominion of Satan. and all those who reject God. Jesus commissioned Paul to go to the Gentiles and show them the light (Acts 26:17-18). The Colossians feared the unseen forces of darkness, but Paul says that true believers have been transferred from darkness to light. from slavery to freedom, from guilt to forgiveness. and from the power of Satan to the power of God. We have been rescued from a rebel kingdom to serve the rightful King. With our new allegiance, we can live freely in God's light. not in the dark. When you are afraid, ask God to fill all your darkness with his light.
1:15-23 Some people in the Colossian church held several misconceptions about Christ that Paul directly refuted: (1) They said that God would not have come to earth as Jesus. a true human being in bodily form. because they believed that only what is spiritual is good and all matter. including the body, is evil. But Paul stated that Christ is the image--the exact likeness--of God and is himself God, and yet he died on the cross as a human being. (2) They believed that God did not create the world because he would not have created evil. Paul proclaimed that Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh. is the creator of both heaven and earth. (3) They said that Christ was not the unique Son of God but rather one of many intermediaries between God and people. Paul explained that Christ existed before anything else and is the firstborn of those resurrected. (4) They refused to see Christ as the source of salvation, insisting that people could find God only through Special and secret knowledge. In contrast. Paul openly proclaimed the way of salvation to be through Christ alone. Paul continued to bring the argument back to Christ. When we share the gospel, we, too, must keep the focus on the person and work of Christ.
1:15-16 This is one of the strongest statements about the divine nature of Christ found anywhere in the Bible. Jesus is not only equal with God (Philippians 2:6), he is God (John 10:30, 38; 12:45; 14:1-11); as the visible image of the invisible God, he is the exact representation of God. He not only reflects God, but he reveals God to us (John 1:18; 14:9); as the firstborn over all creation, he has all the priority and authority of the firstborn prince in a king's household. He came from heaven, not from the dust of the earth like Adam (1 Corinthians 15:47). and he rules as Lord of all (Romans 9:5; 10:11-13; Revelation 1:5; 17:14). He is completely holy (Hebrews 7:26-28; 1 Peter 1:19; 2:22; 1 John 3:5), and he has authority to judge the world (Romans 2:16; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 2 Timothy 4:1). Because Christ created all and rules all creation, including the spirit world, we must believe in the deity of Jesus Christ (that Jesus is God). Without this core belief, our Christian faith becomes hollow, misdirected, and meaningless. We must oppose the belief that Jesus was merely a prophet, a good teacher, or one of many ways to a relationship with God.
1:16 Because the false teachers believed that the physical world was evil, they thought that God himself could not have created it. If Christ were God, they reasoned, he would be in charge only of the spiritual world. But Paul explained that all the thrones, powers, rulers, and authorities of both the spiritual and physical worlds were created by and are under the authority of Christ himself. This includes not only the government but also the spiritual world that the heretics were so concerned about. Christ has no equal and no rival. He is the Lord of all.
1:17 God not only created the world but also sustains it. In him, everything is held together, protected, and prevented from disintegrating into chaos. Do you ever feel as though your world is falling apart? Because God, through Christ, sustains all life, none of us are beyond the reach of his love and care. Seek his binding power in your family and church and in your thoughts and emotions.
1:18 Christ is the "firstborn from among the dead.· Jesus was raised from death, and his resurrection proves his lordship over the material world. All who trust in Christ will also defeat death and rise again to live eternally with him (1 Corinthians 15:20; 1 Thessalonians 4:14). Because of Christ's death on the cross, he has been exalted and elevated to the status that is rightfully his (see Philippians 2:5-11). Because Christ is spiritually supreme in the universe, surely we should give him first place in all our thoughts and activities. (See the second note on Luke 24:6-7 for more on the significance of Christ's resurrection.)
1:19 By this statement, Paul was refuting the Greek idea that Jesus could not be human and divine at the same time. Christ is fully human; he is also fully divine. Christ has always been God and always will be God. When we have Christ, we have all of God in human form. Don't diminish any aspect of Christ--either his humanity or his divinity.
1:20 Christ's death provided a way for all people to come to God. It cleared away the sin that keeps us from having a right relationship with our creator. This does not mean that everyone has been saved but that the way has been cleared for anyone who will trust Christ to be saved. We can have peace with God and be reconciled to him by accepting Christ, who died in our place. Do you still feel a distance between you and the Creator? Be reconciled to God. Come to him through Christ.
1:21-22 No one can be good enough to save himself or herself. If we want to live eternally with Christ, we must depend totally on God's grace. We all must come to him, whether we have been murderers or honest and hardworking citizens. We have all sinned repeatedly, and any sin is enough to require us to come to Jesus Christ for salvation and eternal life. Apart from Christ, we have no way for our sin to be forgiven and removed.
1:21 Before we believed, we were alienated from God, strangers to his way of thinking and "enemies in [our] minds." Sin twisted our way of thinking about God. Sinful thinking leads to alienation from God, which further darkens and destroys our thoughts about him. When we were out of harmony with God, our natural condition was to be hostile to his standards. (For more on how unbelievers have perverted the truth about God, see Romans 1:21-32.)
1:22-23 The way to be free from sin is to trust Jesus Christ to take it away. We must remain "established and firm" in the truth of the gospel and never let go of our confidence in Jesus to forgive our sins, to make us right with God, and to empower us to live the way he desires. When a judge in a court of law declares a defendant not guilty, that person is acquitted of all the charges and accusations. The law treats the person as though he or she was never accused. When God forgives your sins, he wipes your record clean. He looks at you as though you have never sinned. No matter what you have done or what you have been like, God offers forgiveness to you.
1:22 In order to answer the accusation that Jesus was only a spirit and not a true human being, Paul explains that Jesus' physical body actually died. Jesus suffered death fully as a human, so we can be assured that he died in our place. Jesus faced death as God, so we can have complete confidence that his sacrifice was complete and that he truly removed our sin.
1:24 Paul's statement "I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions" may mean that suffering is unavoidable in bringing the Good News of Christ to the world. When we suffer, Christ feels our pain with us. But this suffering can be endured joyfully because it changes lives and brings people into God's kingdom (see 1 Peter 4:1-2, 12-19). (For more about how Paul could rejoice despite his suffering, see the note on Philippians 1:29.)
1:26-27 The false teachers in the Colossian church believed that spiritual perfection was a secret and hidden plan that only a few privileged people could discover. This secret plan was meant to be exclusive for an elite group. Paul said that he was proclaiming the entire message of God, not just a part of the plan. He also called God's plan a "mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations," not in the sense that only a few would understand it, but because it had been hidden until Christ came. Through Christ it was made open to all. God's secret plan is "Christ in you, the hope of glory"; God planned to have his Son, Jesus Christ, live in the hearts of all who believe in him--even Gentiles like the Colossians. Do you know Christ? He is not hidden if you will come to him. Have you experienced his liberating love? Don't keep it a secret--share it with others.
1:28-29 Paul wanted to see each believer mature spiritually. Like Paul, we must work at our spiritual growth diligently and persistently like an athlete, but we should not strive to become mature on our own. Spiritual maturity does not come apart from God's Spirit. We must tap into the wisdom and power of God's Spirit working in us. Then we can learn and grow daily, motivated by love and not by fear or pride, knowing that Christ is the source who gives us the energy to become all he intends for us to be. (For more on this, see the notes on Philippians 3:12-14.)
1:28-29 Christ's message is for everyone, so everywhere Paul and Timothy went they brought the gospel to all who would listen. An effective presentation of the gospel includes admonishing (warning) and teaching. We warn people that without Christ they are headed for eternal separation from God. We teach them that they can find salvation through faith in Christ. As Christ works in you, tell others about him, warning and teaching them in love. Who in your circle of relationships needs to hear this message?
Taken from Life Application Study Bible - Third Edition - (NIV)