Colossians, part 1

Colossians, part 1

Colossians was written by St. Paul to the Christians at Colosse. Paul had not visited Colosse, but he often prayed for the Christians there. In fact he says early on in his letter (1:9) that he had not stopped praying for them. This is a short book and you can easily read it straight through.

Paul reminded the Christians about the importance of Jesus. Jesus is God, and He created everything.  Jesus became a man so that He could die for us and because Jesus paid our “death debt”, God will accept us. He forgives us our sins and accepts us. If we invite Jesus into our lives, we will become friends of God (Colossians 1:15-23).

Then, Paul warned the Christians about some people (Colossians 2). These people wanted the Christians to obey the ancient rules of the Hebrew nation. And these people said that real Christians must obey all such rules. Paul did not agree.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

Christians ought to obey Christ, instead of tradition. Traditions might seem wise, but they cannot help us to live good lives .

Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.