Letters #8
The city of Colossae was 80 miles east of Ephesus, in the Lycus River valley. There were Christians there as a result of Paul’s 2 year ministry in Ephesus where (Acts 19:10) the whole province of Asia heard the “Word of the Gospel.”
And there were 2 tremendous Christian leaders of that young church: Epaphras (Col.4:12) and Philemon (Phi 1:1-2,19). Colossae itself was a “great melting pot” of religions and philosophical chatter. A strong Jewish community urged following Moses and His Law. Greek philosophers/teachers urged worshipping the sun, the moon, the stars as gods.
Others promised that you could have “divine fullness” by worshipping a variety of angels and spiritual powers, or by withdrawing from the world. Even back then, this crazy mix of Jewish legalism and Greek cultic practices evidently did not deny Christ outright.
But the pressure if you lived in Colossae was all the more dangerous because while not denying Christ, it dethroned Him.
It said, “Take the spotlight off of Jesus. So...enter Paul, prompted by God the Holy Spirit, writes to a new bunch of young Christians who were being urged to stand up and applaud everybody. Any religious approach. Any object of
worship. Any angel. Any power. Any star. It doesn’t matter...it’s all GOOD!
What would you say to these young Christians? Or, if you lived in Colossae—
and had become a Christian—what would you need to hear from your coach?
A central truth: THERE’S NO ONE, THERE’S NOTHING LIKE JESUS CHRIST the LORD. He is not one among many; He’s the only One.