Page History

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We know of the founding of the Colossian or Laodicean church only what can be learned from Colossians itself. But we do know that Asia Minor in the first century after Christ was a veritable playground for the most different kinds of religious movements -- including the indigenous cults, partially transformed by mystery religions; the ever-growing world-denying movement of Gnosticism; a strong Judaism (Paul himself presumably stemmed from Asia Minor); and the traditional Greek religions, transformed by the religiosity of the Near East and Asia Minor. In such a climate, the congregations in Colossae and Laodicea presumably developed. Is it any wonder that currents soon became powerful that were judged to be highly dangerous by those who came out of the missionary work of Paul or stood close to its tradition.?

2. The teaching of the opponents attacked in Colossians

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The author calls upon the Colossian Christians not to not allow themselves to be forced onto the way of religious accomplishments. He admonishes them, each in his or her place (cf. the Haustafeln), to accept the reality of Christ in faith and to act in life accordingly. By so stressing the present reality of salvation, he is in danger of losing sight of the future. But it would be a mistake to portray the author as a "religious enthusiast" because of this genuine and by no means wholly safe surrender of the "eschatological reservation." His emphasis on the present reality of salvation is grounded in the intention of making the Christ-occurrence the definitive standard for life. The letter to the Colossians is polemical writing, not a balanced, fully developed systematic theology. He stresses certain things while neglecting others, such as, in particular, eschatology. In any event, one ought not to overlook that the apostle who is represented as the author of the letter is not some "hero" who has already put earthly things behind him and is even now leading a "heavenly existence," but one who is imprisoned in chains and who speaks of the liberating lordship of Christ from this vantage point. The letter does indeed lack the dialectic of "already now" (of justification) and "not yet" (of eschatological salvation) (Rom 5:1; Rom 1:1-6).  But it is only the concept that is lacking, finally, not the thing itself. For the parenesis paraenesis of the letter (3:5-4:6) binds the already "risen" Christians to the reality of the world (3:1-4). And the picture of Paul in the letter shows that Christian life does not consist in fleeing from the world but in holding out within it -- even though it is indeed true that this world, as represented by angels and powers, is already conquered by Christ (2:15) and therefore can no longer touch the Christian.

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