The Book of Colossians

The occasion for this letter was to challenge and completely put down the false teaching that threatened the spiritual future of the Colossian church. Paul never describes in specific words the exact nature of the Colossian heresy because the original readers were already well aware of it. Whatever it was, it seemed to have been undermining some of the people's dependence on Christ as the central focus of their faith and life. From Paul's statements opposing the false teaching, it seems to have been a strange mixture of Christian teaching, Jewish traditions, and humanistic philosophy. This is similar to the belief  mixture of many cults and misguided religious philosophies today.

Paul wrote to fight against the dangerous false teaching at Colosse because it was displacing their faith and focus on Christ as the supreme power and authority over all creation, true revelation, spiritual salvation and the church; and to stress the true nature, characteristics an necessary standards of new life with Christ.

Paul focuses on two key issues: correct doctrine and practical challenges and instruction.

As a foundation for the rest of what he will say, Paul looks at the spiritual principle of the true character and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. "He is the image of the invisible God", the fullness of God in bodily form, the Creator of all things, the head of the church, and the complete source of salvation and renewed relationship with God. While Christ is completely adequate, the Colossian heresy is totally inadequate. It is hollow, deceitful, humanistic and worldly, spiritually shallow and arrogant and powerless against the sinful, rebellious desires of the body.

Paul challenges the  Colossians to live out true holiness in every aspect of life. He stresses that this is only possible through total dependence on Christ.

Three major features characterize this letter. More than any other New Testament book, Colossians focuses on the two-part truth of Christ's power and authority over everything and His complete adequacy to fulfill every need and purpose in people's lives. It strongly affirms that Christ is fully God and contains one of the most clearly worded passages in the New Testament about His glory and superiority over all. It is sometimes recognized as the "twin letter" to Ephesians because the two have certain similarities in content and were written about the same time.