Colossians;- What God has done for us in Christ

In Paul’s time, Colossae was a small town in Asia Minor, rather less important than Ephesus. Paul’s letter to the Colossians shares many themes with his letter to the Ephesians. The two letters would have been written under similar circumstances (the later stage of his life, when he was out of the region) and for similar reasons. So this description of what God has done for us (beginning at ch1 v12) will certainly overlap with the statements made in Ephesians.

He has qualified us to share in “the inheritance of the saints”, which is “in the light”. We are the saints, so the “inheritance” is what we have been promised. Previously we were in the dominion of darkness (the state of sin), but “being in the light” means that we are now in the kingdom of his Son. All this is another way of saying that we have received forgiveness of sin.

The following discourse on the status of the Son (vv15-20) is an important set-piece passage which I will reserve for another occasion.

How has this transfer been achieved? When we were in the dominion of darkness, we were “estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds” (v21). Now that we are in the light, the Son is in a position to present us as “holy and blameless and irreproachable” before his Father. This is because he has reconciled us to God through the death of his own fleshly body (v22).

There is one condition, which is that the Colossians “continue in the faith”, taking their stand on the promise contained in the gospel which they have been taught (v23). This leads Paul on to talk about his own ministry of presenting this gospel to the world. It was a responsibility given him by God, to make know the “mystery” hidden from ages. That is, the secret of salvation through the death of Christ on the Cross, and also the availability of salvation to the Gentiles. The mystery can be summed up as “Christ IN YOU, the hope of glory” (v27). Paul’s work is the double task of warning and teaching, in order to be able to “present every man mature in Christ”.

At the beginning of this discussion of his ministry, Paul makes a an obscure statement about his sufferings; “I rejoice in my afflictions for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church” (v24). Those who don’t want to understand Paul make very heavy weather of this verse.

I think it comes down to the community of suffering between Christ and his followers. Jesus forewarned them in the gospels that he would suffer death at the hands of his enemies. He also forewarned them that the same hostility would work against themselves; “If anyone serves me he must follow me” (John ch12 v20), and more explicitly “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you” (John ch15 v20). So the church shares in the sufferings of Christ. Conversely, Christ shares in the sufferings of the church; “Why do you persecute me?” (Acts ch9 v4). So ALL the sufferings of the church are included in the wider definition of “the sufferings of Christ”.

As one of the servants of Christ suffering persecution, Paul is part of that overall total of “sufferings of the church” and therefore part of the overall total of “sufferings of Christ”. If one person in a city goes missing, the population of that city will be incomplete. Similarly, if the sufferings of Paul were not happening, the overall suffering of the church, and therefore the wider suffering of Christ would be “less complete” to that extent. I suggest that this is what Paul means when he says that he “completes what is lacking”. He is a necessary and integral part of the total, and accepts his fate on those terms.

He is certainly not suggesting that the suffering on the Cross would have failed to achieve our salvation without Paul’s additional contribution.

The final chapter in the story of Jesus is a bad one. Would of helped spread his story when going out like that in the prime of his life. As for what god gave us, see it more in the life and direction of Jesus. Hope, forgiveness, compassion and looking after our neighbors helped shape the civil world we do have today.

A Jew called Saul? An apostle called Paul? Or just plain invention? From religious policeman to grandee of the church, from beast fighter in Ephesus to beheading in Rome, Paul's story has more holes than a swiss cheese.

Curiously, the trail-blazing Christian missionary and apostle appears nowhere in the secular histories of his age. Ironically, though supposedly in Jerusalem at the right time, he can give no witness to a historical Jesus. But was Paul himself a genuine historical figure? The Pauline journeys, including the supposed transportation of the apostle to Rome, are characterized by incongruities, contradiction, and the absurd.