Colossians Introduction
Spoken Gospel podcast with a photo of David and Seth

Colossians Introduction

About This Episode

Colossians tells us that Jesus is the center of reality. The church at Colossae kept believing that their truest self was found in certain religious, physical, or spiritual practices. If they just fasted, if they just experienced God in a particular way, or if they celebrated a particular festival, then they would be whole. Seth and David talk about how Jesus is enough. In Christ, the fullness of God, wholeness, and spiritual lives. Whatever we want in this reality, can be found in Jesus.

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Why Jesus Is the Center of Reality and Why That Changes Everything

Show Notes

David Bowden and Seth Stewart, hosts of the Spoken Gospel podcast, open this episode by diving into one of the most theologically rich letters in the New Testament: Paul's letter to the Colossians. What follows is a wide-ranging exploration of why Paul wrote this letter, what was threatening the church in Colossae, and why the claim that Jesus is the center of reality still matters today.

A Letter Born in Prison

Colossians is not a book written from the comfort of a desk—it is a letter sent from a Roman prison cell. Paul was under house arrest in Rome, likely around the same time he wrote Ephesians and Philippians. What makes this letter unique is that Paul had never actually visited Colossae. He knew the church through a man named Epaphras, who had planted the congregation there after coming to trust in Jesus during Paul's years of ministry in Ephesus. Epaphras also planted churches in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

Epaphras and Paul were imprisoned together, and the letter to the Colossians appears to have grown out of their shared pastoral concern. You can picture the two of them worrying about the believers back in Colossae—wondering who was teaching them, what pressures they were facing, and how they were holding up. Paul's solution was characteristically practical: write them a letter. This also explains why Colossians and Ephesians share so much in common. Paul didn't have a copy-and-paste feature, but he was clearly working through similar themes for churches in the same region. Some scholars even believe the "letter to the Laodiceans" mentioned at the end of Colossians may actually be the letter we know as Ephesians.

The Least Important City with the Most Beautiful Letter

Colossae itself was, by most accounts, an unremarkable place. One scholar described it as possibly the least important city Paul ever wrote a letter to. Historically, Colossae had been a significant stop along a major trade route, but a new road was built that bypassed the city entirely, redirecting traffic to Ephesus, Laodicea, and Hierapolis. It is a story not unlike the small towns bypassed by modern interstates—once thriving, now forgotten. An earthquake around A.D. 61 devastated the region, and Rome never sent funds to rebuild Colossae. To this day, the city remains unexcavated—just a mound of dirt in modern Turkey.

There is something deeply moving about this detail. One of the most exalted and beautiful letters in the New Testament was addressed to a small, struggling, overlooked group of believers in a dying city. Their church planter was in prison. Their government had abandoned them. And into that desperate situation came a letter declaring that the fullness of God dwells in Jesus, and that Jesus is enough.

The Colossian Heresy: Syncretism in Every Age

The central problem Paul addresses in Colossians is syncretism—the blending of trust in Jesus with other religious systems or philosophies. The exact nature of the false teaching in Colossae has been debated for centuries, partly because the letter itself is somewhat general and partly because the city remains unexcavated.

There are three major theories. The first is that a form of Gnosticism or mysticism was at work, emphasizing the spiritual realm over the physical body, encouraging asceticism and visions of angels as a path to spiritual fullness. The second theory, associated prominently with N.T. Wright, argues that the pressure was coming from Judaism—either Judaizers insisting that Gentile believers follow the law of Moses or Jewish community members dismissing Jesus altogether. Wright's provocative reading suggests Paul was actually using the language of pagan religion ("elemental spirits," "human traditions") to describe Judaism itself when practiced apart from Jesus. The third and perhaps most balanced view holds that the Colossians were facing a blend of influences—Jewish law, pagan philosophy, Platonic dualism, and mystical practices—all competing with their allegiance to Jesus.

Regardless of which specific heresy was dominant, the temptation was the same one people face today: the belief that Jesus is good, but not enough. Something else must be added—a political philosophy, a dietary regimen, a spiritual experience, a set of religious rules—to achieve true wholeness and significance. Paul's response is unequivocal: do not shift from the Gospel you heard. Jesus is enough (Colossians 1:23).

The Christ Hymn: Jesus as the Center of Reality

The theological heart of Colossians is found in chapter 1, verses 15 through 20, a passage sometimes called the "Christ Hymn." Paul declares that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, the one through whom and for whom all things were created, the one who holds all things together, the head of the church, the firstborn from the dead, and the one in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

If this passage can be summarized in one sentence, it is this: Jesus is the center of reality. That claim displaces every other candidate for the center—whether it is the self, science, political ideology, or any human system of meaning. The word "firstborn" here does not simply mean "first chronologically." In the ancient world, "firstborn" was a title of supremacy and rule. When God declared David His firstborn (Psalm 89:27), He was not saying David was the first person ever born. He was declaring David supreme. In the same way, Jesus holds the title of supreme ruler over all creation.

Paul also insists that all things were created "for" Jesus—meaning history itself has a destination, and that destination is him. Every vision of progress, every hope for the future, every sense that things are headed somewhere finds its ultimate fulfillment not in political structures or technological advancement but in Jesus. He is both the origin and the goal of all things. And as the firstborn from the dead, Jesus proves that Death itself does not have the last word. His resurrection is the firstfruit of a coming harvest—the guarantee that all who trust in him will also be raised.

The hymn culminates with the declaration that through Jesus, God is reconciling all things to himself, "making peace by the blood of his cross" (Colossians 1:20). This is the resolution of the entire biblical story. In Genesis, Heaven and Earth were united—God walked with humanity in the garden. After the Fall, that unity shattered. Relationships between God and humanity, between humans, and between humanity and the created order were all ruptured. In Jesus, Heaven and Earth are being joined back together. The cross is not an abstraction; it is an event rooted in flesh, blood, and Roman execution wood. And through it, the fractured reality we all experience is being made whole.

Christ in You: The Fullness You Don't Have to Earn

The practical thrust of Colossians flows from this cosmic theology. If Jesus is the center of reality, then the fullness of God that every human heart longs for is not something to be achieved through ascetic practice, mystical experience, or religious rule-keeping. Paul states it plainly: "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). And again: "In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him" (Colossians 2:9–10).

This is the letter's central thesis. The fullness people were chasing through philosophy, Jewish law, or bodily punishment has already come to dwell in every person who trusts in Jesus. Paul illustrates this with the metaphor of circumcision. The Colossians were trying to change themselves through external practices, but Paul says they have already been circumcised "with a circumcision made without hands" (Colossians 2:11). Their old self has been buried with Jesus in death and raised with him to new life. What they were trying to accomplish through their own effort has already been accomplished by faith in what Jesus did on the cross.

Paul also addresses the rulers and authorities—both spiritual forces of evil that accuse and condemn, and possibly human religious leaders who heap guilt on believers for not following the right festivals, food laws, or Sabbath regulations. On the cross, Jesus canceled the record of debt that stood against humanity, disarmed these accusers, and put them to open shame (Colossians 2:14–15). The Old Testament regulations that once condemned were only shadows pointing to the reality found in Jesus (Colossians 2:17). Those who have the reality no longer need to be judged by the shadow.

Living as New Humans: Ethics Rooted in Thanksgiving

The second half of Colossians moves from theology to ethics, from what is true about Jesus to how that truth reshapes daily life. But the order matters enormously. Paul does not say, "Behave so that you can belong." He says, "You belong, so now become what you already are." This is one of the most distinctive claims of the Gospel: belonging precedes behavior. Christians do not earn their new identity through moral effort. They live out the new identity they have already received in Jesus.

Paul grounds the ethical life not in willpower or religious performance but in thanksgiving. "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Colossians 3:17). Gratitude for what Jesus has already accomplished is the engine of transformation. When you understand that the center of reality has died and risen for you, and that his fullness now dwells in you, thanksgiving becomes the natural response—and that thanksgiving fuels a changed life.

This transformation extends into the most fundamental human relationships. Paul addresses husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and slaves—the basic building blocks of Roman society. In the first century, the Roman household was structured around male dominance from top to bottom, with Caesar at the peak. But if the center of reality is no longer Caesar but a crucified and risen Savior who gave his life for the undeserving, then every relationship built on domination and subjugation must be reformed from the ground up. The implications are not limited to ancient Rome. The same crucified and risen Jesus challenges the assumptions of every culture and era, including the present one. In this new humanity, "there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all, and in all" (Colossians 3:11). Ethnic, cultural, and social distinctions do not disappear, but they are no longer the most fundamental thing about a person. Jesus is. Like a Copernican Revolution that reoriented humanity's understanding of the cosmos, Colossians calls for a reorientation of every dimension of life around the one who holds all things together.

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Introduction to Colossians

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View our devotional on Colossians 1:1-2:5

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