Hidden with Christ in God (eBook)

Prologue

Hope in Difficult Circumstances

Remember my chains.

Colossians 4:18

Sometimes difficult earthly circumstances bring clarity to the heavenly hope of the gospel. Paul’s letters to the Colossians and to Philemon were written in the midst of difficult circumstances: Paul was in prison, the church was in danger of false teaching, and Philemon was estranged from his slave Onesimus. But in these letters we find some of the Bible’s most profound teaching about Christ and the practical difference he makes in our lives and relationships. Let us briefly, then, “remember [Paul’s] chains” (Col. 4:18) by considering the difficult circumstances that led to the hopeful teaching of Colossians and Philemon.

Paul in Prison

The ministry of the gospel has never been easy. This was perhaps truest for the apostle Paul, of whom Jesus said, “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:16). Paul describes his own work as “toil” and “struggle” (Col. 1:29; 2:1), similar to how he describes the work of Epaphras, who planted the church at Colossae (4:12–13). And he uses labels for his colleagues in ministry that communicate the arduous and dangerous nature of the task: “fellow worker” (Col. 4:11; Philem. 1, 24), “fellow soldier” (Philem. 2), “fellow slave” (Col. 1:7 CSB; cf. 4:12), and “fellow prisoner” (4:10). In fact, Paul wrote these two letters from prison, most likely his two-year house arrest at Rome (c. AD 60–62; see Acts 28:16–31).1

Paul did not view his imprisonment as a hiatus in ministry but as a part of his ministry. We see this in Colossians 1:24–2:5, where he explains his purpose for writing. He tells the Colossians that he is suffering “for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (1:24). Paul does not mean that the death of Christ was insufficient to fully save. Rather, he means that the risen and ascended Christ is currently using ministers suffering “in the flesh,” like Paul and Epaphras, to bring the church to full maturity (1:28; 4:12; cf. 1:22).

So the apostle continued to work in the midst of his imprisonment. He was instrumental in the conversion of Onesimus (Philem. 10). And he wrote his letter to the Colossians, which arguably contains his most profound theological reflection on the doctrine of Christ. For some scholars, the theological teaching of this letter goes so far beyond what Paul writes in his other letters that they question whether Paul could have written it.2 I raise the issue of authorship because it affects how we think about the theology of Colossians. Is the teaching of this letter really from an apostle? In my view, it seems historically likely that the apostle Paul wrote and sent Colossians at the same time as Philemon because it overlaps on so many points with Philemon.3 The profundity of its theological reflection is not a contradiction with the theology of Paul’s other letters but rather an extension of his theology, sharpened by his confrontation with a false teaching that was threatening the saints in Colossae.

Colossae and the Philosophy

Colossae was a remote inland town, located in the Roman province of Asia in what is now modern-day Turkey. Paul had probably never been to Colossae when he wrote these two letters.4 But during his third missionary journey, he spent an extended time of ministry in the large coastal city of Ephesus (c. AD 52–55; see Acts 19:1–20:1). Luke tells us that during this time “all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 19:10). The Colossians, along with their neighbors in Laodicea and Hierapolis, had heard the word from Epaphras (Col. 1:7; 4:13). So Epaphras was probably one of Paul’s converts in Ephesus, which was about a week’s journey on foot from Colossae. One can imagine Epaphras hearing the gospel and then traveling home up the eastern road that led along the Maeander River until it turned slightly south into the Lycus River Valley and eventually to Colossae. Once there, he told his friends and family the gospel, and they received Christ Jesus as their Lord (2:6).5

But soon after, the Colossian believers were confronted with a false teaching. Paul apparently caught wind of this through Epaphras, who was with Paul in his imprisonment (Philem. 23). So he decided to write to these believers “in order that no one may delude [them] with plausible arguments” (Col. 2:4). He warns, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit” (2:8). More literally, Paul writes in this verse of “the philosophy [tēs philosophias],” likely referring to a specific teaching. Perhaps the false teachers labeled their teaching as “philosophy” in order to gain credibility, just as someone today might label their view “scientific.” But what was the philosophy? It is most clearly explained in the polemical section of Colossians 2:16–23, where we see that it required law-keeping and angelic visions to reach the fullness of salvation.

The false teachers were ready to “pass judgment” on the Colossian saints unless they followed certain food restrictions and kept certain holidays (2:16; cf. 2:21). Most likely they were teaching that believers must keep the food and calendar requirements of the Mosaic law in order to be saved. The law prohibits eating unclean animals and touching their carcasses (Lev. 11), drinking from unclean vessels (Lev. 11:34), and drinking wine for priests in the tent of meeting and for those under a Nazirite vow (Lev. 10:9; Num. 6:3). After the exile to Babylon, some Jews living in pagan cultures would refrain from all meat and wine in order to avoid defilement (Dan. 1:8–16). And we know that after the exile, there was a Jewish presence in Colossae because Josephus tells us that two thousand Jewish families had been moved from Babylon to Phrygia, the ancient name for the region of Colossae.6 Regarding the holiday requirements, the law regulated Israel’s yearly, monthly, and weekly calendar (Lev. 25). And Paul’s threefold description, “festival,” “new moon,” and “Sabbath” (Col. 2:16), is found several times in the Old Testament with reference to the calendar regulations of the law (e.g., 2 Chron. 2:4). Finally, Paul says that the calendar and food regulations “are a shadow of the things to come” (Col. 2:17), using typological reasoning like the author of Hebrews, who wrote, “The law has but a shadow of the good things to come” (Heb. 10:1). The philosophy, therefore, probably taught that believers must keep the Mosaic calendar and food laws in order to be saved. Perhaps it also taught that Gentile believers must be circumcised according to the law (cf. Col. 2:11).

For this reason, a few scholars have argued that Colossians confronts the same issue Paul confronted in Galatians, where Jewish-Christian teachers were compelling Gentile Christians to be circumcised and keep the Jewish law.7 But most have rightly observed that the issue in Colossae was different and more complex. The false teachers were apparently promoting law-keeping as an ascetic practice that would lead to heavenly, angelic visions: “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind” (Col. 2:18; cf. 2:23). So the false teachers were ready to “disqualify” from salvation anyone who did not share in these ascetic practices and angelic visions. But what were these visions? This aspect of the philosophy is very difficult to understand because Paul does not give much explanation and because Colossians 2:18, the main piece of evidence, is difficult to translate.

Today there are two basic views. Some scholars suggest that the philosophy was a kind of Jewish mysticism. In this view the “worship of angels” in Colossians 2:18 refers to the angelic worship of God, like we see in Revelation 4–5 and other Jewish apocalypses. “Going on in detail” is more literally translated “entering,” and perhaps it refers to someone’s entrance into heaven to see and join with the angels in their worship.8 Other scholars think that the philosophy was syncretistic, drawing on aspects of Judaism but also aspects of paganism. In this view, “worship of angels” in Colossians 2:18 refers to the human worship or veneration of angels. Arnold has documented how common it was in local folk religion for people to call upon angels for help, even Jewish people.9 A fourth-century Christian council in the nearby city of Laodicea had to forbid Christians from worshiping angels and clergy from becoming magicians or astrologers.10 If the philosophy was syncretistic, then perhaps “entering” refers to initiation into the visionary experiences of one of the pagan mystery religions, as it does in inscriptions at a...