Intro to Colossians
Acts 19:1-12, Galatians 3
The letter to the Colossians was written to a church that Paul didn’t start. It was planted by a many name Epaphras who became a believer in Ephesus, but moved back to his hometown of Colossae to share the gospel and started a church there. Epaphras visited Paul in prison inspiring this letter to the Colossian church.
As we dive into Colossians over the next few days, we want to encourage you that though this letter is short and sweet, it is also incredibly impactful. Paul writes to point not only to the people of Colossae, but to us that we are invited by God to see that he is redeeming all creation - the household, friendships, ethnic boundaries, social boundaries and everything in between. Not only is redeeming things now and will fully restore all things under his reign, but he invites us to live into that new creation because Jesus has risen.
Don’t we feel this tension especially when we read social boundaries? Don’t we feel the constant divide? Even here in Moscow, ID we have the war of the coffee shops, where you know their political views from the signs and flags hung in the window. Yet, Jesus doesn’t look at our family background, social status, relationship status, color of our skin or gender to claim us as children of God. We are united by Christ - the King of Kings who Lord over both visible and invisible realms. Paul’s letter is an encouragement and a challenge to the people of Colossae - to live in the present as the new creation you are and will become.
What this means is we are to put away the grave clothes, it means we pursue the redemption process and reject the death the world tries to entice with daily. We live for the kingdom that is here now and is coming. Church, let us be united under the one King who unites every person for, “there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). There is a time coming where this will fade away, and the new heaven, the new earth and the new Jerusalem will be here and we will dwell as one church with our God. Let us seek that kingdom today, reminding one another we’ve been made new because our Redeemer lives.
