Colossians 1 Study Notes

1:1 Paul followed the customary format for epistolary greetings by introducing himself as the author and by identifying himself as an apostle belonging to Christ Jesus by God’s will.

1:2 Faithful should probably be understood as “believing.” They are believers.

1:3-8 Paul offered a prayer of thanksgiving for the Colossian believers. In the original Greek, the prayer consists of a single sentence modifying the phrase, “we always thank God” (v. 3).

1:3 Paul’s use of we probably included Timothy (v. 1) and possibly others (4:7-14). Paul expressed the frequency of his thanksgiving with the adverb always.

1:4 The reason for Paul’s thanksgiving is rooted in reports he had heard about the Colossians’ faith in Christ Jesus and love . . . for all the saints, which are the hallmarks of genuine Christianity.

1:5-6 The basis of the Colossian believers’ faith and love is that they had a hope reserved for them in heaven. The triad of faith, love, and hope is a familiar Pauline formula (Rm 5:1-5; Gl 5:5-6; Eph 1:15; 4:2-5; 1Th 1:3; 2Th 1:3; Phm 5). This hope was the result of having heard and received the word of truth or more specifically, the gospel. Paul emphasized the power and effectiveness of the gospel by tracking its expansion, twice mentioning how the Colossians accepted the truth of the gospel.

1:7-8 Paul did not start the church at Colossae and had not yet visited there, so it was through Epaphras that he had learned of their condition. He endorsed Epaphras as a beloved fellow servant and a faithful minister (cp. 2:1; 4:12-13; Phm 23).

1:9 The opening phrase for this reason harks back to Epaphras’s good report about the Colossian believers’ faith in Christ. The word filled (the passive verb indicates God as causal agent) typically conveys the sense of “completeness” in Colossians (vv. 9,19,25; 2:9-10; 4:17). Paul asked that they receive full knowledge of his will. The phrase in all wisdom and spiritual understanding expresses the means through which this knowledge comes. This wisdom (v. 28; 2:3,23; 3:16; 4:5) and understanding are spiritual in nature.

1:10-12 The purpose of Paul’s prayer was that the believers at Colossae might walk worthy of the Lord so that all their conduct would please him. Christian behavior that pleases the Lord involves the performance of good deeds; continuous spiritual growth; dependence on his power resulting in endurance, patience, and joy; and expressing gratitude for all things because God enables believers to share in the saints’ inheritance.

1:13-14 The reference to being rescued and transferred evokes OT imagery of God delivering his people from the grip of hostile oppressors (Ex 6:6; 14:30; Jdg 6:9; 8:34; Ps 18:19; 79:9; 86:14). Believers have been rescued from the realm of Satan’s oppression (domain of darkness) by having been transferred to the realm of Christ, which is a kingdom “in the light” (v. 12). Redemption is the incalculable price paid for this deliverance and transfer. That price is nothing less than the blood of Christ shed on the cross. The result is forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, and peace (1:20).

1:15-23 Some scholars think these verses are possibly a poem or an early hymn expressing Christ’s supremacy as Creator and Redeemer. Paul’s high Christology countered the false teaching that had infiltrated the Colossian church.

1:15 The word image refers to an exact visible representation of something or someone. Thus, Jesus the Son represented the invisible God of the OT (Jn 1:18, see word study at 2Co 4:4, p. 1843). Jesus also represented sinless humanity (Gn 1:26-27). The title firstborn does not mean that Jesus was created (v. 16), but indicates his priority of rank as supreme over all the created order.

1:16 Christ is supreme over creation because he is the Creator. Paul’s mention of thrones . . . dominions . . . rulers, and authorities may refer to four classes of angelic beings (possibly directing human affairs). This may be a corrective against the false teaching promoting the worship of angels (2:18). Thus Paul asserted the supremacy of Christ over all creation because all things were created through him and for him.

1:17 All things refers to everything created (v. 16). The preposition before most likely is a temporal reference to the preexistence of Christ before creation. The phrase by him all things hold together presents Christ as the one who sustains all creation.

1:18 Paul used the word head in both a literal and metaphorical sense (2:10,19). Literally “head” implies authority, rule, and supreme rank. Metaphorically, it plays on the imagery of Christ’s relationship to the church as head of the body (1Co 12:12-27; Eph 1:22; 4:15; 5:23). He is the head because he is the beginning and the firstborn from the dead. The parallel language to the creation (v. 15) identifies the church as part of the new creation that was inaugurated with the resurrection of Christ. His resurrection resulted in the fulfillment of God’s purpose for Christ that he might come to have first place in everything.

1:19-20 God was pleased that his fullness, the entirety of God’s being, would dwell in the Son. Thus Jesus was fully divine as well as fully human. God took pleasure in this because, through Christ, God would reconcile (reestablish a right relationship) all things to himself on the cross (cp. Rm 5:11; 2Co 5:19).

1:21 Paul explained the need for reconciliation to God by appealing to the Colossian believers’ spiritual condition before their salvation. Before they heard the gospel they were alienated from God. Corrupt thinking results in immoral behavior, which in turn produces more wrong thinking and further estrangement from God.

1:22 Paul contrasted the Colossian believers’ former life with their current salvation. The reference to Jesus’s physical body highlights his humanity, whereas v. 19 expresses his divinity. The purpose of this reconciliation is so that believers may be presented holy, faultless, and blameless before him instead of being “hostile in your minds” and practicing “evil actions” (v. 21).

1:23 The only way believers will be presented holy, faultless, and blameless is if they do not abandon their faith in Christ as presented in the gospel. Faith refers to the content of the gospel with Jesus as the object (vv. 4,23; 2:5,7,12). Paul warned the believers at Colossae about their adoption of syncretistic beliefs that perverted the true message of the gospel, subsequently abolishing their hope (v. 5).

1:24 Paul rejoiced in his sufferings (Rm 8:18; 2Co 1:5; Gl 5:24; Php 3:10) because they benefited the church. By suffering Paul was completing in his flesh what was lacking in Christ’s afflictions. This enigmatic phrase cannot mean that something was lacking in Christ’s atoning work (v. 20). Rather, Paul’s sufferings benefited the church by promoting the spread of the gospel.

1:25 God’s commission (Eph 1:10; 3:2,9) pertains to God’s plan for Gentiles to receive salvation and to share in the inheritance of God’s people. Paul’s role was to make this message fully known (see note at v. 9).

1:26 The term mystery (cp. v. 27; 2:2; 4:3; Rm 11:25; Eph 1:9; 3:3-9) refers to something that was previously hidden in God’s plan but has now been revealed. Here it relates to the inclusion of the Gentiles into the people of God.

1:27 The words glorious and wealth jointly connote the wonder and blessings associated with this mystery. In you could mean “among you,” or, more likely, refer to Christ’s indwelling of believers (Rm 8:10; 2Co 13:5; Gl 2:20; Eph 3:17).

1:28 The words warning and teaching express the manner of their proclamation, which is further characterized as being in keeping with all wisdom. The purpose of this ongoing ministry was to present everyone mature in Christ in correspondence with Christ’s purpose in reconciliation (v. 22).

1:29 Paul viewed his work along the same lines as Christ’s work of purifying and maturing the church. This was not something that Paul accomplished in his own strength but in conjunction with the work of Christ operating in him.