09/11/2022 – Day 196 – Colossians 1 – 2 / “In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare, ‘That is mine!’.” Abraham Kuyper (1837 – 1920) / See Colossians 1:16
Before I get into our reading, below is a biography of Abraham Kuyper that I encourage you to give a quick read. It is never about the messenger, But Abraham contributed so much to a late 19th century, early 20th century revival in the remnant, a transformative Christan worldview, that emphasized there is not direction we can turn that God does not speak to, so obey!
https://christianity.fandom.com/wiki/Abraham_Kuyper
I would like to share with you jus a few paragraphs from Henry H. Halley’s introduction to the book of Colossians. In general, I think it is a good idea generally to explain the context for the Book itself. Let’s get started:
“The Church as Colossae. Colossae was a city of Phyrgia, from which country some were present at Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:10), and through which country Paul had gone on both his second and third missionary journeys (Acts 16:6; 18:23). It my be that on one of these journey’s Paul had visited Colossae, though the language of 2:1 may, but not necessrily, imply that Paul had not been there. Another possibility is that the church may have been the result of Paul’s work in Ephesus (Acts 19:10), for Colossae was near the border of ‘Asia’, about 100 miles east of Ephesus. Epaphras (1:7; 4: 12-13, may have been its founder.
Occasion and Date of the Epistle. Paul was in prison in Rome, A.D. 61 – 63. He had written a previous Letter concerning Mark (4:10). Meantime Epaphras, one of the Colossians, had come to Rome with the word that a dangerous heresy was making headway in the church. He was imprisoned, it seems (Philemon 23). Then Paul wrote this Letter, and sent it by Tychicus and Onesimus (4: 7-9), who also bore the Letter to the Ephesians and the one to Philemon (Ephesians 6:21)
The Colossian Heresy. It seems to have been an admixture of Greek, Jewish, and Oriental religions, a sort of ‘higher thought’ cult., parading itself under the name of ‘philosopy.’ (2:8), calling for the worship of angels as intermediaries between God and man (2:18), and insisting on the strict observance of certain Jewih requirements almost to the point of ascetism (2: 16, 21), put forth in high-sounding phrases of an assumed superiority: all as a part of the Gospel of Christ.
Similarity to Ephesians. Colossians and Ephesians were written at the same time. They are both carefully wrought out statements of the great doctrines of the Gospel, to be read aloud in the churches, and are very similar in many of their passages. But their main thems are entirely different: Ephesians, the Unity and Grandeur of the Church; Colossians, the Deity and All-Sufficiency of Christ.
Soli Deo Gloria!