In The Beginning   

COLOSSIANS

Updated: July 3, 2007

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[C]2000-07 by Richard L Zorek

    Paul was imprisoned in Rome chained to a Roman soldier when he wrote this. Paul was undaunted by his circumstances because his joy was always based on his perpendicular relationship with Christ.

    • Col 1:2: To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Colosse was a minor city about one hundred miles east of Ephesus in the region of the seven Asian churhces of revelation.

    • Col 1:16-18: For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 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. . The reality of the universe is that all things do fit together in perfect harmony and are integrated because the Creator and Sustainer of the universe is perfectly harmonized and integrated. The reason we should expect to see cohesivenness in reality is that we see cohesiveness in the One who defines reality. The reason we can connect physics to history is that they both came from the same divine source.

    • Col 1:21: Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. A person's own evil mind will often make God their enemy.
    • Col 1:26: Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and generations, but is now made manifest to his saints.

      "Even the mystery which hath been hidden from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints"

      The subject of the ministry is "the mystery which hath been hidden from ages and from generations." The word "ages" means "times" and "generations" means "people." So, the mystery has been hidden from times and people, but is now manifested to the saints. What is the message, then? The mystery. We are to teach people the mystery.

      God has some secrets that He never reveals      -- Deuteronomy 29:29 says, "The secret things belong unto the LORD...." This is where our intelligence ends and God's begins.

      b. God has some secrets that He reveals only to special people--Psalm 25:14 tells who these special people are. It says this: "The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him...." Proverbs 3:32 adds, "...His secret is with the righteous." There are some things that only God knows, and some things that He only reveals to the righteous--those who believe in God, those who are committed to Him, those in whom the Holy Spirit dwells in this age, the children of God.

      c. God has some secrets which He hid in the past but has revealed to all the saints in the New Testament--These are the mysteries. So when you see the word mystery in the Bible, it refers to something that was never revealed in the Old Testament to anybody, but is now revealed in the New Testament to everybody who is a Christian.

      Now, with all that in mind, verse 26 looks something like this: "Even the things hidden from the Old Testament saints, which have been hidden from times and generations, but are now made manifest to the New Testament saints." You say, "What is this mystery which is now revealed?" Well, first let's look at some of the mysteries of the New Testament:

      2. THE NEW TESTAMENT MYSTERIES DELINEATED

      a. The Mystery of the Incarnate God (Col. 2:2-3, 9)

      b. The Mystery of Iniquity (2 Thess. 2:7)

      c. The Mystery of the Rapture (1 Cor. 15:51-52)

      d. The Mystery of Babylon (Rev. 17:5, 7)

      e. The Mystery of the Church (Eph. 1:9-10; 3:3-6, 9a; 6:19)

      f. The Mystery of the Bride (Eph. 5:23-32)

      g. The Mystery of Israel's Unbelief (Rom. 11:25)

      What, then, is the subject of our ministry? It is the fullness of New Testament revelation. You say, "Aren't we to teach the Old Testament, too?" Of course we are! But the fullness of our message is contained in the mysteries of the New Testament. These make the Old Testament meaningful.

      So, when Paul uses the word mystery, he doesn't use it in the sense of some secret teaching, rite, or ceremony hidden from the masses and revealed to an exclusive group of people. He doesn't use it in the mystical sense that the Babylonian mystery religions used it. A mystery is merely something that was hidden in the past which is now revealed in the New Testament.

    • Col 2:3: In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Not just wisdom and knowledge, but the benefits of it.

    • Col 2:5: "For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ." Paul was imprisoned in Rome chained to a Roman soldier when he wrote this. Paul was undaunted by his circumstances because his joy was always based on his relationship with Christ.

    • 2:8: See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ."Hollow" and "deceptive" seem to go hand in hand in this commentary, and there is a great truth about philosophies that have a grip on the world today: they come from tradition. They come from repitition. They come from imaginations. Some do not even know why they believe some things, they just have learned it that way.

    • Col 2: 10: and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. Emphasis on "every" power and authority...not just "some" power and authority.

    • Col 2:18: Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. It is interesting that even they dealt with the worship of angels in their time. History repeats itself.
    • Col 2:23: Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Just stopping and not doing something hasn't fixed anything internally.

    • Col 3:15: And let the peace of God rule in your hearts Sin brings turmoil to the heart. Hidden, unrepented sin will rob a believer of his peace.

    • Col 3:18: "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord." Believing wives submit to the God given authority of their husbands, recognizing that they are honoring God by their obedience to His Word.

    • Col 3:17: And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Thank the Lord for everything you do. After all, you can do it because he has given you life and given you the freedom to do it.
    • Col 3:21: Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. A look at the nature of God. If something is going on in your life which embitters you....it is probably not God who is to blame. He wants to encourage you...not discourage you.
    • Col 3:23-24: "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord, you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ." Our service to God is primarily one of conforming to Him and His Son Jesus Christ. "Heartily" measn to do it with all your heart.
    • Col 4:12: always laboured ferevntly for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God Epaphras knew God had a perfect will for everyone in the congregation. And he knew that if they would enter into the alords will, they would find joy, ecstasy and their every need met.

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      This page was started onDecember 29, 2002.