Christ's supremacy threatened

In this introduction to a series on Paul's letter to the Colossian church, we consider first of all the writer, and some of his particular circumstances. We then observe the recipients, and some of their characteristics. Finally, we turn to the reason for the letter. Epaphras has brought Paul a report of a church into which the spirit of the age and the flavour of the culture are seeping. Paul responds with a letter of stabilization, instruction, and - predominantly - inoculation, stirring up a defensive reaction to the errors being peddled. He wants to infuse the Lord Christ into this church so that there is no room for anything else.

In the light of dangers facing the church of Christ today, Colossians remains a relevant book. As Robert Hawker says, Paul 'well knew, that the most effectual way, under God the Spirit's teaching, to establish the church in the faith once delivered unto the saints, must be, in holding up to their view, the Person and glories of Jesus. And, it must be confessed, that he hath done it in this Epistle, most blessedly.'