Monday 19 August 2024

Psalm 147

Background
The site of the city of Colossae is in Asia Minor, at or near the small town of Honaz in modern-day Turkey. It was 106 miles east of Ephesus, which was the major city of Asia Minor in the first century AD when this letter was written.

Colossae lay in the valley of the Maeander River. The river enabled commercial and social interactions between the communities which lay along its extent, resulting in a broadly integrated society with similar social, political and religious systems. Such interactions would have led to Colossae being socially and religiously fairly plural; and syncretism (the practice of borrowing and adapting elements from a variety of religious traditions) would have been commonplace. There were two other Christian communities in the immediate area: in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

Epaphras, apparently a Colossian himself (Colossians 4:12), is said to be the person who brought the gospel to Colossae, rather than the Apostle Paul. (v. 7) And while the letter describes Paul as its author, differences in style, theology and vocabulary have led some scholars to think it may have been written by Timothy (v. 1) under Paul’s guidance, or in Paul’s name by someone else in his circle.

The letter opening, which we read today, employs a standard convention of the time, which appears in the Pauline Epistles (letters) of the New Testament: ‘name of sender to name of recipient, greetings’. (vs 1-2) However, this formulaic pattern is transformed by Paul to reflect profound underlying theological convictions about the transformation of the writer and the recipients through their common relationship to Christ.

The language of kinship (v. 2) (calling the Colossian Christians 'brothers and sisters') points to the new relationship the writer and the Colossian Christians share through being drawn into a relationship with Jesus, despite never having met (vs 4; 7). To be ‘in Christ’, for the writer, means being made holy: an affirmation with the potential to shape how Christians see not just themselves, but one another.

To Ponder:

• Does being a Christian involve being, or being made, holy? What does holiness mean, for you, and what might it look like in Christian life and Christian communities?
• How helpful is kinship language for describing the bonds between Christians? And how helpful is it to talk about believers as sons/daughters and God as father/mother? Have you come across alternatives, and what do you think of them?

Bible notes author: The Revd Dr Carole Irwin
Carole is a presbyter and has served in circuits in Kent and Bradford, and on the staff of Wesley House. She is currently stationed in the Cambridge Circuit and is leading a research project for a Christian community of people with and without intellectual disabilities, of which she is also a member.