Introduction to Colossians and Philemon

Colossae was a town inland in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), about 110 miles east of Ephesus and ten miles from Laodicea. Paul had never been there. It's not clear what happened to Colossae in the end. It may have been destroyed by an earthquake or perhaps just eclipsed by Laodicea. Tantalizingly, it remains identifiable by a "tell" (a mound) but has never been excavated. Archaeology is expensive.

Paul has high praise for Epaphras, a native of Colossae, who had brought the gospel to his people. A problem with a "hollow and deceptive philosophy" (2:8) was now leading them astray.

When we hear the word "philosophy," we may think of ivory-tower abstractions about human existence. But for Paul's readers, it referred to the rational thought one would expect from an educated person. It was closely related to ethics.

Epaphras' news drew this letter from Paul to people he had never met.

Paul was in prison when he wrote it, probably in Rome, though some think Ephesus. Epaphras was there visiting him and had brought him the good news of the Colossians' faith, along with the more disturbing information about the false teaching. Epaphras was the evangelist, but it was Paul who, with his firm grasp of the gospel and how completely Jesus has saved us, could write with the authority of an apostle, one who had seen and been commissioned by the risen Christ.

We can be grateful for the way these two men worked together. They have left us with a gem of a letter that builds up our faith two thousand years later.

Philemon is often paired with Colossians, as Philemon also lived in Colossae. His slave, Onesimus, had run away, but somehow became a Christian and found his way to Paul. The penalties for runaway slaves were severe. This personal letter pleads with Philemon to receive Onesimus back as a fellow Christian. We see how Paul's words in Colossians that "Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all" (Colossians 3:11) played out in real life. Onesimus himself would need to remember that slaves were to "obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord" and that whatever they did, they were to work at it with all their heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, knowing that they would receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It was the Lord Christ they were serving" (Colossians 3:22-23).

As are we.

Annabel Robinson

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® (NIV®).