Colossians 1:1-2<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
We are going to spend weeks, perhaps several months studying the book of Colossians.<\/p>\n
Before we get into interpreting the Scripture, we need some background understanding.<\/p>\n
We need to ask several questions:<\/p>\n
Who is writing?<\/p>\n
Who is the recipient of the letter?<\/p>\n
What is the history of the church Paul was writing to?<\/p>\n
What is the situation in the city where the church is located?<\/p>\n
What is the occasion for the letter?<\/p>\n
The church at Colossae began during Paul\u2019s 3-year ministry at Ephesus (Acts 19). Its founder was not Paul, who had never been there according to Colossians 2:1. \u201cI want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally.\u201d (NIV)<\/p>\n
The church of Colossae, most likely, was started by Epaphras, who lived in Colossae,<\/p>\n
Colossians 4:12 \u201cEpaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
He apparently was saved during a visit to Ephesus, then likely started the church in Colossae when he returned home. Paul hints that Epaphras was the chief disciple maker in the church.<\/p>\n
Colossians 1:6-7 \u201c…since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you<\/p>\n
learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n
He apparently had either established or helped to establish churches in the two larger cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis. Paul, speaking of Epaphras says, in Colossians 4:13,\u00a0 \u201cFor I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4338"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4341,"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4338\/revisions\/4341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}