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Site tot bemoediging, lering en bevestiging in de waarheid, die in Christus Jezus is.
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The epistle to the Colossians.
Paul wrote this epistle together with Timothy from Rome, where he was a prisoner, probably about 62 A.D.
Some passages in the epistle give evidence that the apostle was uneasy about wrong influences in the church. In 1:23 he wrote:
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.
In 2:4 we have the following words:
And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words;
2:8 says:
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ.
In 2:16 we read:
Let no man therefore judge you in regard to meat or drink, or in respect to a holy day or the new moon or the sabbath days,
And 2:20-22:
Therefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to its
Ordinances
21 ("Touch not, taste not, handle not,"
22 which all are to perish with the using), according to the commandments and doctrines of men?
Chapter two of this epistle convinces me that the uneasiness of Paul in this case too had its origin in the activities of Jewish zealots for the law, who tried to mix the work of Paul with their ideas about the law, a harmful thing which brings believers down from their elevated position in and through Jesus Christ to the lesser position of a Jew.
Then it was necessary as well to send Onesimus back with an epistle to his master in Colosse, in order he would be received as a beloved brother. Onesimus therefore carried an epistle for Philemon with him. He moreover had the commission, together with Tychikus, to deliver this epistle to the church in Colosse.
- Menu Colossians
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