Colossians 1:1-2
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

We are going to spend weeks, perhaps several months studying the book of Colossians.
Before we get into interpreting the Scripture, we need some background understanding.
We need to ask several questions:

Who is writing?
Who is the recipient of the letter?
What is the history of the church Paul was writing to?
What is the situation in the city where the church is located?
What is the occasion for the letter?

Paul’s final visit to Jerusalem was in A.D. 58. Here, Paul is arrested, goes through trials and is taken to Caesarea. In A.D. 60-61, Paul is taken to Rome as a prisoner. Paul is imprisoned in Rome from A.D. 61-63.

Epaphras visits Paul in Rome. Several years after the Colossian church was founded, a dangerous heresy arose to threaten it—one not identified with any particular historical system. It contained elements of what later became known as Gnosticism, which teaches that God is good but matter is evil, that Jesus Christ was merely one of a series of emanations descending from God and being less than God (a belief that led them to deny His true humanity), and that a secret, higher knowledge above Scripture was necessary for enlightenment and salvation.

The Colossian heresy also embraced aspects of Jewish legalism, such as the necessity of circumcision for salvation, observance of the ceremonial rituals of the Old Testament law (dietary laws, festivals, Sabbaths), and rigid asceticism expressing itself in severe self-denial and avoidance of all self-indulgences. It also called for the worship of angels and mystical experience.

Epaphras was so concerned about this heresy that he made the long journey from Colossae to Rome (4:12, 13), where Paul was a prisoner.

And that was the occasion for why Paul wrote this letter: to correct theology and heresy.

Apparently, Epaphras was with Paul when he wrote this letter. Colossians 4:12, “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you.”

It was during this time that Paul wrote the letters of Colossians along with Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon. These letter are therefore referred to as the Prison Epistles.