Book of Colossians
The supremacy of Christ over all things.
About the Book of Colossians
Colossians is another of Paul's prison epistles, addressed to a church he had not personally founded, in the city of Colossae in Asia Minor. False teaching had apparently entered the community — a blend of Jewish ritual, philosophical speculation, and possibly early Gnostic ideas. Paul's response is to exalt Christ above every competing claim to spiritual reality.
The Colossian "hymn to Christ" in chapter 1 is among the highest Christological texts in the New Testament: Christ is "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation," in whom "all things were created... and in whom all things hold together." He is the head of the body, the church, and in Him "all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." Against whatever spiritual forces or philosophical systems might claim a share of our ultimate allegiance, Paul insists: "In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form."
The practical section (chapters 3-4) includes the famous domestic code and the instruction to "set your minds on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God." The command to "let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts" and "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" as you teach and sing has shaped Christian worship and community life across centuries. Colossians is a book for any age when the uniqueness of Christ is being relativized or diluted.