In his let­ter to the Co­los­si­ans Paul war­ned of the dan­gers of sin and wan­ted to cla­ri­fy the Co­los­si­ans’ faith in Je­sus Christ so they would re­cei­ve the po­wer to live a life in ac­cor­dan­ce with God’s will.

A li­ving cong­re­ga­ti­on of Christ had been born in the city of Co­los­sus. Paul’s work­ma­te, Epaph­ras, had gone to the city, where he had pre­ac­hed the word of truth—the gos­pel about Christ Je­sus—to the Co­los­si­ans (Col. 1:5). Many had re­cei­ved the gos­pel by faith. This is the way the group of be­lie­vers in Co­los­sus was born.

Alt­hough Paul had not been to Co­los­sus, he had he­ard much about the life of the new cong­re­ga­ti­on. Na­me­ly, in his let­ter Paul men­ti­ons that he had he­ard about the birth of the cong­re­ga­ti­on and the re­la­ted re­a­sons for joy. He had al­so pra­yed to­get­her with ot­her Chris­ti­ans that the Co­los­si­ans would be strengt­he­ned in faith and would re­cei­ve the po­wer to live ac­cor­ding to the will of God (1:8–10).

As in his ot­her let­ters, Paul abo­ve all wan­ted to strengt­hen the faith of the re­ci­pients of his let­ter. At the same time he war­ned of doct­ri­nal fal­la­cies and the dan­gers of sin which the Co­los­si­an be­lie­vers had en­coun­te­red.

The doct­ri­ne of Christ was thre­a­te­ned

Co­los­sus was a rat­her small city in to­day’s Tur­key. It had on­ce been si­tu­a­ted at the cros­s­ro­ads of im­por­tant rou­tes. Life in the city was co­lo­red by many na­ti­o­na­li­ties and re­li­gi­ons.

The prob­lem in Co­los­sus was that the lo­cal pe­op­le felt pres­su­re to al­so as­si­mi­la­te ide­as from ot­her re­li­gi­ons and phi­lo­sop­hies on an equ­al ba­sis along­si­de the gos­pel of Christ. The con­cern that Paul exp­res­sed in his let­ter about te­ac­hing that mi­xed re­li­gi­ons—sync­re­tism—is cur­rent even to­day. The idea that each in­di­vi­du­al can build his or her own re­li­gi­on and adapt the word of God to it ac­cor­ding his or her own pre­fe­ren­ces is spre­a­ding ever wi­der.

Paul men­ti­ons these ty­pes of wrong ide­as in his let­ter. He points to the fact that some Jews would have wan­ted the be­lie­vers to con­ti­nue ob­ser­ving tra­di­ti­o­nal ru­les of cle­an­li­ness and holy days (2:16).The idea of an as­ce­tic way of life pro­bab­ly ori­gi­na­ted from Greek phi­lo­sop­hy (2:18–23), which ac­cor­ding to Paul on­ly sa­tis­fied a per­son’s pride.

A new life in Christ Je­sus

Thus the new cong­re­ga­ti­on in Co­los­sus li­ved in the midst of va­ri­ous fal­se doct­ri­nes. At the same time the be­lie­vers had be­co­me fa­mi­li­ar with many en­ti­ce­ments and inf­lu­en­ces of sin. For this re­a­son Paul had to re­ve­al to them simp­le be­lief in the mys­te­ry of God, and in Je­sus Christ, in whom all the tre­a­su­res of wis­dom and know­led­ge are hid­den (2:2–3).

In the int­ro­duc­ti­on Paul desc­ri­bes the chan­ge which ta­kes place in a per­son who has re­cei­ved the grace of re­pen­tan­ce. Re­pen­tan­ce is abo­ve all a chan­ge of mind where a per­son’s life does not chan­ge di­rec­ti­on just a lit­t­le; it is built upon a comp­le­te­ly new foun­da­ti­on and ta­kes a di­rec­ti­on to­ward a comp­le­te­ly new goal. The foun­da­ti­on of faith is Je­sus Christ and His ato­ne­ment. The goal is eter­nal life in He­a­ven.

Paul uses as an examp­le of this chan­ge a fa­mi­li­ar act: dres­sing. He ex­horts the Co­los­si­ans first to und­ress: “be­cau­se you have ta­ken off yo­ur old self with its prac­ti­ces” (3:9). This me­ans re­jec­ting a life that is against the will of God—un­be­lief and sin. Paul men­ti­ons examp­les of things that should be re­jec­ted: se­xu­al im­mo­ra­li­ty, im­pu­ri­ty, lust, evil de­si­res, greed, an­ger, rage, ma­li­ce, slan­der, filt­hy lan­gu­a­ge, and lying (3:5–9).

Af­ter this Paul ex­horts them to put on the new self (3:10). This is a qu­es­ti­on of the gar­ment of righ­te­ous­ness of faith—a gift—with which God dres­sed the first hu­man pair, Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:21). From the first pa­ges of the Bib­le on we are re­min­ded that God has pre­pa­red the gift of righ­te­ous­ness—the for­gi­ve­ness of sins—for each and eve­ry per­son. Paul re­ve­als this simp­le mes­sa­ge of the gos­pel about Je­sus Christ in his let­ters, al­so in his let­ter to the Co­los­si­ans.

God does not tire in His love

The Holy Spi­rit brings forth fruits of faith in the new per­son, the fol­lo­wer of Je­sus (1:8–10; Gal. 5:22). Paul lists these fruits: com­pas­si­on, kind­ness, hu­mi­li­ty, gent­le­ness, and pa­tien­ce. He ex­horts the Co­los­si­ans to bear with each ot­her and to for­gi­ve one anot­her as Christ had for­gi­ven them (3:12–13).

God ne­ver ce­a­ses to love a sin­ful per­son even though He ha­tes sin. That is why the “new per­son,” the fol­lo­wer of Christ, yet to­day in the midst of his or her fai­lings can trust in the for­gi­ving and re­ne­wing po­wer of the gos­pel. In his great love God un­ti­ring­ly still se­arc­hes for and cal­ls un­be­lie­ving pe­op­le in­to his king­dom.

Text: Ant­ti Sa­ve­la

Pub­lis­hed: Sii­o­nin Lä­he­tys­leh­ti 5/2013

Trans­la­ti­on: Keith Ko­so­la

Teks­tis­sä kä­si­tel­lään seu­raa­via raa­ma­tun­koh­tia: Col. 3:1–17

Jul­kais­tu eng­lan­nin­kie­li­ses­sä kie­li­lii­tees­sä 4/2014