Bible Study Notes On Colossians Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Bible Text

Notes and Thoughts

1 ¶ Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, who are at Colossae: Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 ¶ We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which ye have for all the saints,
5 for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven, of which ye heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel,
6 which has come unto you, as it has in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you since the day ye heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth.
7 Ye also learned of it from Epapharas, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ,
8 who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
9 ¶ For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10 that ye might walk worthy of the Lord, in all pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
12 ¶ giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.
13 He hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son,
14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.
16 For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him.
17 And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.
18 And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell,
20 and having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself--by Him, I say, whether they be things on earth or things in heaven.
21 And you, who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, even now hath He reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and un reprovable in His sight,
23 if ye continue grounded and settled in the faith, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which ye have heard and which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, am made a minister.
24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for His body’s sake, which is the church,
25 of which I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you, to fulfill the Word of God--
26 even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints.
27 To them God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus,
29 for which I also labor, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily.

1:1-14 Opening greetings and prayer.
v1-2 Paul links Timothy and himself and greets them as if he knows them all, praying for them as friends and brothers in Christ, even though he had never met them.
v3-8 Paul is full of praise for their faith and love of Christ v3. Having learnt of this through Epapharas. He brought the ‘word of truth’ of salvation to them, does your life reflect the Word of Truth of Jesus into the world?
v4 They believed, many have heard the Gospel, yet do not believe. We cannot just ‘believe’ we have also to believe in something. Belief in what a church does and / or teaches cannot save you, only belief in Jesus can. Heb 6:19.
v7 They learnt more of the truth and so grew in faith. We must teach as well as convert Matt 11:29; Matt 28:19-20.
See also 1 Thess 1:3; Rom 5:1-4; Heb 6:9-12; Eph 1:13-15; 1 Peter 1:3-9; Rom 10:17; 2 Cor 5:7.
v8 Love for others, shows that the Holy Spirit was at work in them. The more we love someone the more we will trust them. See Col 1:8; Eph 3:17-19; Col 3:14
v9-11 Paul’s prayer. Praying without ceasing:
1) That they will learn all about God v9:
2) That this knowledge will become a walk of life worthy of the Lord: Eph 1:1. We should also be growing in Grace 2 Peter 3:18.
3) That this will produce good works. Eph 2:10;Walk worthy Eph 4:1; worthy of Gospel Phil 1:27; worthy of God 1 Thess 2:12; please God 1 Thess 4:1 increasing in knowledge.
4) That they may be given strength and patience in any problems or troubles,(2 Peter 3:9; Gal 5:22) taking these with great joy and thanks. Rom 5:3-4; 2 Cor 6:4-6; James 5:10-11; Rom 14:17; Eph 5:18-20 Nothing is impossible with God. Jer 32:27.
v12-23 A reminder of who we worship and why. Jesus is the Lord.
v12 Worship with thanksgiving Col 2:7; Col 3:15-17; Col 4:2.
v12 Inheritance Eph 1:11 , 18-23.
The main aim of any false teaching is to take the Lordship of Jesus away from Him. Paul in this passage give four arguments on the Lordship of Jesus.
1:v13-14.
1) He is our Saviour. We were set free from the penalty of our wrong life, our sins.
2) Moved us to another kingdom, released from the kingdom of darkness to his kingdom of light.
3) He paid the price with His blood.
4) Forgiveness, we did not deserve it, but His grace allows us to have fellowship with the Father
v15 Jesus is the image, exact likeness, a perfect copy of God. John 14:9; John 14:9.
v15-17 Jesus is the creator John 1:3, visible and invisible, before all things John 17:5, by his power all exists. Note the present creation is under sin of man but can still give God the glory Rom 8:22.
v18 The Head of the Church.
The Church is the Body of Christ, he is the "origin," the "source" as well as "leader," when we trust Jesus we are baptized into this body 1 Cor 12:23-13 Eph 4:4
Christ the first born claims victory over death, so that we can be resurrected as well. 1 Cor 15:20ff
v19-20 God worked through Christ His Son.
v19 everything of God dwells in Jesus and God is pleased to work through Him, so confirming that Jesus is God. Because of His love for men and women God made a way back to Him through the blood of Jesus, who paid God’s price for our wrong lives (sin). He made peace for us.2 Cor 5:19; Eph 1:9-10; Rom 5:11; 1 Peter 2:24.
v21-2:3 Paul’s Ministry and Work.
Paul had never visited the Colossian church, they were about to get this letter from a man in prison they had never met. The false teachers would do their best to discredit Paul, so he now tells them about himself.
Paul reminds them that they were once part of the lost v21, separated from God, Rom 1:18 onward; Rom 8:7 but now God had made them holy and unblamable v22; Eph 1:4; Rom 8:30. As long as they do not move from the faith they have heard, this proves they are in Him, v23.
They were part of the faith he preached.
Paul is happy to suffer so that they may know Christ. He did not know them personally but Paul felt that they were part of his ministry for Jesus as Epapharas had taken the message to them.
Paul was suffering for the cross, this wonderful mystery (spiritual secret of "all one in the Body of Christ," Rom 10:11-13) which he had been commissioned and used by God to spread to the Gentiles. He must preach Christ crucified v28, he would not give up this work to be freed from the suffering, v29.

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The Letter to the Colossians