The false teachers interposed a barrier between God and God’s people. They thought of elemental spirits that stood in the way and permitted access to God only by the path of asceticism. In the face of all such claims, Paul stresses the supremacy of Christ, who is “the image of the invisible God,” the one who brought creation about and holds it together, supreme over creation, preeminent in everything. And together with all this, he is “the head of the body, the church,” the one who made peace by the blood he shed on the cross (1:15-20). This combination of the greatness of Christ and of his saving work for believing runs through the epistle. It makes nonsense of any claim that other powers are involved in bringing people to God or that meritorious practices like asceticism pave the way.
Christ reconciled believers (1:22); he is in them, “the hope of glory” (1:27). There is an unusual way of looking at the atonement when Paul says that God forgave us our sins, “having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross” (2:14) – yet even here the thought is not far removed from Paul’s treatment of the law in Galatians 3. Again, in Christ are “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3); “all the fullness of the Deity lives” in him “in bodily form” (2:9) and believers “have been brought to fullness” in Christ (2:10). When they were dead in sins, God made them alive with Christ (2:13). They died with Christ “elemental spiritual forces of this world” (2:20), and they have been raised with him (3:1). Christ “is all, and is in all” (3:11), and they are “God’s chosen people” (3:12). They give thanks to God the Father through Christ (3:17). The great themes of Christ’s outstanding excellence and the completeness of the salvation that he brought about in dying for his people on the cross run through this letter. They are not put in quite this way elsewhere, and Colossians accordingly has something to say that is distinctive.
Paul insists on the supremacy of Christ over all the supernatural force the Colossians were treating with such respects. Some of us may miss part of the relevance of what he is saying because we do not believe in those forces in the way mocked; and in any case, it has often been pointed out that in modern times there is a widespread belief that we are the creatures of our heredity and our environment and that in the grip of such powers we can never be really free. It is part of the message of Colossians that in Christ we can overcome anything. The cross means a disarming of all the powers opposed to God’s purposes (2:15), and this remains an important part of the Christian way.
Because Paul had never been to Colosse and had not met members of the church there (2:1), the love and the tender concern for them that comes through in every line of the letter are all the more significant. This letter brings out, as does perhaps no other NT writing, the truth that all believers form one church. Paul is emphatic that in the church there is “ne Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (3:11). We who are members of the body of Christ belong together, and we cannot be indifferent to the concerns and the interests of other members. The letter makes clear for all of us the importance of concern for the whole church and not only for that little segment in which we live.
But along with that emphasis on the oneness of the church, we should heed the teaching of the letter that there are differences that distinguish believers. Paul gives directions to wives and husbands, children and fathers, slaves and masters (3:18-4:1). All are servants of Christ and must live as such, but that does not obliterate relationships in society. Our positions differs, and while a common obligation to live out the faith rests on all of us, the precise form that takes differs according to our circumstances.
In every generation Christians are tempted to go along with the philosophy of times. It is never a comfortable ting to be out of step with what our community hold to be the best thinking of the day. But that thinking may be out of step with God, who made us all. Paul’s warning about “hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world” (2:8) is never out of season. At the same time, we should listen to the warnings about distracting religious practices, the observance of religious festivals that detract from what is central (2:16), and habit of making rules the essence of religion (2:20-21). Such practices generate a false humility and really promote unspirituality (2:18). Nothing can make up for losing connection with the head (2:19)