Colossians 1:2, commentary and pictures

Paul as an apostle by the will of God together with Timothy wrote to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colosse while he was a prisoner in Rome, and he rejoiced over their steadfastness in the faith as reported to him by Epaphras. The address is to set-apart and loyal ones joined to Christ at Colosse, and upon them is declared divine favor and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It opens a letter marked by thankfulness and praise rather than complaint.

The truth is here presented with deep earnestness and great power in its simplicity, beginning a testimony to faith in Christ, love to all the saints, and hope laid up in heaven. That testimony brings joy and comfort to ministers whose labor has converted souls, because all who accept the truth and receive faith in the gospel which works by love and purifies the soul become living letters known and read by all. The greeting is a decided address given by the Holy Spirit not only to Colosse but to every believer and to those who would afterward compose the church. It expresses what churches everywhere and in every part of the world should be and sets out truths believers need to understand and live by.

The message was shaped by what God showed Paul, including many visions and things not permitted to be uttered because believers would have misapplied them and could not have comprehended them, yet all that was shown molded the messages given him to bear to the churches. To be saints and faithful brethren in Christ means to live in vital union with Christ, a union to be constantly striven for. Religion consisting only of profession is pretense, and those whose connection with Christ ends with having their names written on the church roll are not channels of light.

God requires pure and undefiled religion, values human beings, and calls every believer to strive for unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace and to be sanctified through faith which works by love and purifies the soul. The Holy Spirit gives the receiver the mind of Christ and makes him a faithful worker who does not indulge his own ideas or strengthen his natural tendencies but takes self in hand, brings self into subjection, represses evil inclination, refuses to excuse faults, and in faith and much prayer cuts away evil so he is not left to struggle alone for mastery. The instruction is of the highest value, showing that the religion of Christ makes all who possess it truly benevolent, allows no littleness and no mean transactions, gives true Christians a nobility that permits none of the cheap covetous actions that disgrace the doer, and calls men in responsible positions to make straight paths for their feet lest the lame be turned out of the way.

The greeting is a message to be borne to persons assembled in council, defining the work to be done for saving perishing souls by giving truth, present truth, to those in the darkness of error. With the next chapter it calls unprepared churches to keep their feet in the straight and narrow path that leads to eternal life and to make no missteps now.