#084 Welcome to Episode #084 of Way of the Bible podcast. This is our fourth of eight episodes in our eleventh mini-series entitled, Mystery of Christ | Galatians to 2 Thessalonians. On this episode, Jesus Beyond Dimensionality, we’re going to overview the book of Colossians which many have noted as the most Christ-centered book in the Bible. In this overview we’re going to see the Supremacy of Christ, our Submission to Christ, and discover more insight into the Mystery of Christ.
Colossians is one of Paul’s four prison epistles written while he was under house arrest in Rome. The other three being Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon. It was likely written between 60-61 AD.
Colossae was a minor city about a hundred miles east of Ephesus and about a mile from Laodicea. What makes that significant is Laodicea is the last of the seven churches in the area Jesus dictated his own epistles to in Revelation 1-3. It is not thought that Colossae exerted any significant influence on early church history, so why the letter?
Many scholars believe Paul was arguing against the teaching of Gnosticism, a Christian heresy that didn’t really become widely recognized until the second and third centuries. Others see Paul arguing against influences by several streams of thought including Hellenistic Greek speculation, Jewish legalism, and Oriental mysticism. But to tell you the truth, you get no sense of either of these scholarly arguments being mentioned by Paul in the text for the occasion of the letter.
Paul hammers home in this letter to the church at Colossae the preeminence and sufficiency of Christ in all things, and the implications of a believer’s union with Christ. Jesus Christ is the creator and Lord of the cosmos and we have been hidden in him until he returns. THIS IS HUGE!!!!
I can’t describe to you how much I’ve grown in grace preparing for and recording these podcast episodes. When I finished prepping and recording the Ephesians and Philippians episodes my mind reached it’s limit as I tried to comprehend all that we have in Christ. I can honestly say while studying out Colossians I discovered how to go beyond the limits of my own mind. It was something Paul mentioned back in 1 Corinthians 2:16 – But we have the mind of Christ. Our own minds simply could not contain it all but the Holy Spirit within is our hardwire to the mind of Christ. To God be the glory through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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ShowNotes: https://www.wayofthebible.com/resources
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