Colossians 1

This is the first chapter of Colossians, which is counted among the Prison Epistles, the letters Paul wrote while imprisoned. After the greeting, thanksgiving, and prayer, the chapter sets forth in hymnic form who Christ is and then describes Paul's own ministry. This material lays the foundation for the warning against false teaching in Colossians 2.

Outline

• Verses 1–2: Paul and his brother Timothy greet the saints at Colossae.
• Verses 3–8: Paul gives thanks for the Colossians' faith and love and for the hope laid up for them in heaven. They had learned the gospel from Epaphras.
• Verses 9–14: Paul prays that they may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all wisdom. He then declares that God has delivered them from the power of darkness and translated them into the kingdom of his Son, in whom they have the forgiveness of sins.
• Verses 15–20: Christ is the image of the invisible God, and all things were created by him. As the head of the church, he reconciles all things through the blood of his cross.
• Verses 21–23: The Colossians, once enemies, have also been reconciled, and Paul urges them not to be moved away from the hope of the gospel.
• Verses 24–29: Paul says that he rejoices in the sufferings he endures for the church. He also declares that he proclaims the mystery hidden from ages past, namely "Christ in you."

Key Verses

• Colossians 1:15 "Who is the image of the invisible God": a principal text for Christology (the doctrine of Christ).
• Colossians 1:20 "having made peace through the blood of his cross": states that reconciliation extends to all things, in heaven and on earth.
• Colossians 1:27 "which is Christ in you, the hope of glory": summarizes the mystery of the gospel, now opened to the Gentiles as well.

People and Places

• Paul: the sender of the letter, who calls himself a minister of the gospel and of the church.
• Timothy: named as co-sender.
• Epaphras: "a faithful minister of Christ" who taught the gospel to the Colossians.
• Colossae: a city in the region of Phrygia in Asia Minor, near Laodicea and Hierapolis.

Points for Reflection

• Because verses 15–20 have a rhythmic structure, many scholars regard them as a quotation or adaptation of an early Christian hymn. The passage is read alongside the Logos of John 1 and Hebrews 1:1–3 as texts that speak of Christ's work in creation.
• Ancient Arianism read "the firstborn" in verse 15 to mean that Christ was the first created being. Churches that follow the Nicene Creed interpret it not as a birth in time but as Christ's preeminence and sovereignty over all creation. Jehovah's Witnesses understand Christ to be God's first creation.
• Traditions differ in how they read "If ye continue in the faith … and be not moved away" in verse 23. The Calvinist tradition reads it as a mark of the perseverance of the saints, by which true believers endure to the end. The Arminian and Wesleyan traditions tend to read it as a genuine warning that one can fall away from the faith.
• Verse 24, "fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ," is likewise interpreted in different ways. The Catholic tradition has used it as a basis for the teaching that believers may unite their own sufferings with the sufferings of Christ and offer them for the church. Protestant interpreters, typically assuming that the atonement accomplished on the cross is already complete, understand these afflictions as the sufferings the church endures as it proclaims the gospel.
• Whether Paul personally wrote this letter is debated among scholars. Church tradition has received it as a Pauline epistle.