Colossians 1:1-2
\nPaul, 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.
\nBefore we get into interpreting the Scripture, we need some background understanding.
\nWe need to ask several questions:<\/p>\n
Who is writing?
\nWho is the recipient of the letter?
\nWhat is the history of the church Paul was writing to?
\nWhat is the situation in the city where the church is located?
\nWhat is the occasion for the letter?<\/p>\n
Picking up from yesterday\u2026
\nWhen Paul was imprisoned in Rome, he wrote the letters of Colossians along with Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon. These letters are therefore referred to as the Prison Epistles.<\/p>\n
Paul dispatches Tychicus to deliver three of these letters, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon.<\/p>\n
Ephesians 6:21-22 \u201cSo that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything. 22 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colossians 4: 7-9 \u201cTychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. 8 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, 9 and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Someone else traveled with Tychicus to Colossae. His name was Onesimus. Onesimus (which means \u201cuseful\u201d) was a slave of a believer named Philemon in Colossae. Apparently, Onesimus had stolen from Philemon and fled. At some time while Paul was under arrest, Onesimus met him and became a Christian. Paul apparently wrote this letter at the same time as Colossians and gave it to Tychicus and Onesimus to carry back to Philemon. Paul appealed to Philemon to accept Onesimus back into his household, but as a brother in the Lord rather than a slave. In Paul\u2019s estimation, Onesimus was far more \u201cuseful\u201d (v. 11) now that he was a Christian. Paul even promised to pay whatever debt Onesimus might owe Philemon.<\/p>\n
Philemon 10
\n\u201cI appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. 11 (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) 12 I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.<\/p>\n
Picture the excitement among the believers in Colossae when these two brothers arrived with the Letters from Paul! Doubtless they sat up late in the evening, asking questions about conditions in Rome and hearing of Paul\u2019s courage in the service of his Savior.<\/p>\n
Epaphras returns to carry on ministry in the three cities.<\/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\/4355"}],"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=4355"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4357,"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4355\/revisions\/4357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}