by Edwin Crozier<\/p>\n
Paul introduced his letter to the Colossians with a prayer for the disciples and a praise of their King. Then in Colossians 1:21-23, he outlines the plan for the rest of his letter, describing the relationship between the disciples and their king. However, he does so in reverse order, setting up an inverted parallelism or chiasm.<\/p>\n
In Colossians 1:21-23, Paul lays out three talking points.<\/p>\n
Paul will, in reverse order, walk through these very points for the rest of the body of this letter. He will end with closing valedictions and farewells in Colossians 4:7-18.<\/p>\n
Notice, in Colossians 1:24-2:5, Paul described his work as a minister and proclaimer of the gospel. He did so in a way that encouraged-in the cultural context of the day, it even obligated-the Colossians to remain faithful to the gospel he proclaimed.<\/p>\n
Then in Colossians 2:6-3:4, he exhorted the Colossians to maintain faithfulness despite the arguments and attacks others would bring against them. Whether they were confronted by pagan philosophers or Judaizing “Christians,” they were to maintain faithfulness to Christ and His gospel. They were not even to mix and match their favorite points from each philosophy, but were to stay wholly and purely devoted to Christ.<\/p>\n
Finally, in Colossians 3:5-4:6, Paul described the transformation from hostility to holiness. As he did in the letter to the Ephesians, he described the process of putting off the old, hostile, alienated person and putting on the new, reconciled person.<\/p>\n
Paul sets the stage for a great letter.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Edwin Crozier Paul introduced his letter to the Colossians with a prayer for the disciples and a praise of their King. Then in Colossians 1:21-23, he outlines the plan for the rest of his letter, describing the relationship between the disciples and their king. However, he does so in reverse order, setting up an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[131],"class_list":["post-95485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-colossians"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12940,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-prison-letters\/","url_meta":{"origin":95485,"position":0},"title":"The Prison Letters","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Colossians 4:7-18 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Near the end of Paul\u2019s third journey, he visited churches to gather funds to relieve the famine stricken brethren in Judea. - I Corinthians 16:1-9 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Several of the churches sent representatives to travel with Paul - II Corinthians 8:16-24 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Several of these men are named in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":659,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-happened-to-the-letter-to-laodicea-mentioned-in-colossians-416\/","url_meta":{"origin":95485,"position":1},"title":"What happened to the letter to Laodicea mentioned in Colossians 4:16?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 29, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What happened to the letter to Laodicea mentioned in\u00a0Colossians 4:16? Answer: Near the end of Paul's third journey, Paul visited churches and gathered funds for the relief of brethren in Judea suffering from a famine (I Corinthians 16:1-9). Several of the churches sent representatives to travel with Paul, not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2003\/10\/Asia-Minor-300x290.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2956,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-the-colossians-being-told-not-to-worry-about-being-condemned-for-keeping-the-sabbath\/","url_meta":{"origin":95485,"position":2},"title":"Were the Colossians being told not to worry about being condemned for keeping the Sabbath?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 19, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Colossians 2:16\u00a0is a famous verse that people use to justify eating unclean meats and not keeping the holy days and the Sabbath. What most do not think about is: the people of Colosse were\u00a0new Gentile converts\u00a0and they were concerned about those around them judging them for doing these things.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26240,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-colossian-29-mean-that-jesus-is-the-father-son-and-holy-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":95485,"position":3},"title":"Does Colossian 2:9 mean that Jesus is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does Colossian 2:9 mean that Jesus is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Answer: \"For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form\" (Colossians 2:9). \"Fullness\" (from the Greek word\u00a0pleroma) means a complete or full expression. Thus, in Galatians 4:4 the fullness of time doesn't mean\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6914,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-paul-say-he-left-titus-in-crete\/","url_meta":{"origin":95485,"position":4},"title":"Why did Paul say he left Titus in Crete?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I just discovered your website after searching the Internet for \u201cPaul\u2019s letter to the Laodiceans\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Your explanation\u00a0is very interesting and has merit.\u00a0 Thank you for providing answers to so many questions that arise from time to time. Now that I think about it, I have a question:\u00a0 How do you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48001,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-our-faith-known\/","url_meta":{"origin":95485,"position":5},"title":"Is Our Faith Known?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dennis Stackhouse As the apostle Paul was beginning his letter to the Christians at Colossae, he made this statement in Colossians 1:3-4:\u00a0\"We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}