So I recently had to do a bible study for work. So, I thought I would share a version of it here. It is on the first chapter of Colossians, and I give a little bit of an overview of the letter as well to make it a little more understandable. The first chapter of Colossians is particularly interesting because at the heart of it there is a picture of Christ’s work as the healing of the whole world.

This is what I would like to make the focus of today. What does Colossians seem to say about this reconciliation? What should this lead us to think? In looking at this, there are a few things in the chapter worth pointing out as well.

  • Salvation linked to remaining steadfast
  • What is lacking in Christ’s suffering
  • The knowledge of God

We will look at these things partly because they are in the passage, but also I think we can argue they can be seen as at least somewhat related to this idea of Christ’s reconciling of all things.

Circumstances of the letter

Before much more though, I need to explain some of the context of the letter. The letter is likely to mostly a Gentile group (with some Jewish influences). These people came to believe because of the work of an evangelist named Epaphras, and Paul is a least partly writing to them because of some issues that have appeared in the community. One guess as to what these are is that the church was adopting some of the influences a Jewish sub-group that was very interested in ascetic/dietary practices and the worship of angels. Another quirk that seems to exist broadly in the churches in Asia Minor is an emphasis on mystery. This is possibly an influence from Greek mystery religions. The possibility influence of Greek thought is interesting to consider as we think of the cosmic presentation of Christ’s work. There are some parallels with the Greek notion of “logos”. Paul might be intentionally highlighting these correspondences for this purpose.

Christ, Reconcile

Now with that in mind, let’s look at this idea of Christ’s reconciliation. Christ is presented as several things in this passage, but what I would like to focus on his is his role in relation to creation.

In 1:16, we have a John 1 type interpretation of Genesis. Christ is the means of Creation. The Father created through him. And it seems that the reason given for Creation itself is for Christ to be the receiver of it. This reception is some of what is meant by “firstborn” in 1:15. It is not as if Christ is the first thing that was created. Instead, he is the firstborn inheritor of all that has been created.

You can imagine this a few different ways. You can think of the world as the result of a father building a home for his son with his son as the main carpenter.

This image captures some of it, but it is limited of course because in this passage we also see that everything is somehow sustained in Christ. In him everything holds together. We can see this a couple of ways too. We can imagine it as Christ is the reason or the principle of organization for everything that exists. Without him nothing has a purpose because everything is for him. Or we can see it as if in some meaningful way under-girding all existence itself is the Word of the father giving reality both its shape and continued existence.

Everything is subordinate to him and is part of his reality.

There is something partial about this rule though, and it is up to the reader of the text to try to understand why. Where did the enmity come from that is referred to in 1:20? I guess there are two easy options. The first is that creation somehow broke perhaps through the fall. The second is that creation is ongoing. There is probably something true about both. But Paul seems to talk of the fall as having an effect on the created world elsewhere in his writings so I think that we should lean in that direction.

With the fall, the world is out of alignment with God’s original design. In fact, this might be something we can know experientially. Kalistos Ware in his book on Eastern Orthodox beliefs talks about three markers in the created world that point us to God. These markers are the world around us, our inner lives, and the importance of others. Ware claims that these things are not proofs but pointers to God’s existence. When we look at the world, we are struck with such beauty that we are tempted to assume that it has intention and purpose behind it – a Maker. Also when we look inward at ourselves, we want to believe that we matter that there is someone or something of ultimate importance that gives meaning to all of our experiences. And finally when we look at each other we encounter a profound sense that this person has an eternal significance that they are made to last forever.

The hard thing is that in each of these cases we experience a counter-argument. Nature is destructive as well as beautiful. The natural world can at times seem cruel and desperate. In ourselves we feel a deep sense of our own futility and often work to undo some of our best intentions. This makes our meaning a fearful and scary thing. When it comes to others, we see loved ones die and our sense of their eternity is taken from us.

These three pointers are the kinds of things that we should have in mind when we think of Christ’s reconciliation of all things. These three aspects of creation that are askew are being put right in and through him. Creation will be brought back into resemblance with the one who made it. We will never lose sight of our own meaning and place of love in Creation. Christ will give eternal life.

Perhaps some of what faith in Christ is is to believe in his presence in these places. To see the hope of the resurrection and what it has to say not just to our losses but to the apparent suffering of reality itself.

From Cosmos to Colossae

Having looked at this reconciliation on the grand scale, let’s look a little at the Cols role in this and their need to remain steadfast. All of this cosmic view of Christ somehow gets linked to the Colossians and by extension to us as humans. We go from a grand almost galactic seeming scale down to something small like us. We get hints of this direction in 1:18 because the mention of the church (body) as one of the things that Christ holds first place in.

This mention gives a hint of the importance of humanity in this grand act of reconciliation. Here the reconciliation that in some way has already taken place now must also take place in the minds of people. We were hostile and alienated from God and through Christ peace has been made. And this is a interesting sort of thing as well. In the our reconciliation with Christ, Paul claims that we are in him and he in us. So we are brought in not just be reconciled with Christ, but also in some sort of way inheritors with him. (We see this idea elsewhere in Paul’s writings as well eg Romans 8:17).

This world that is being reconciled to Christ includes our perceptual worlds as well. It’s almost as if each of us are like a drop of water that reflects the world around it. We contain the world inside ourselves and the reconciliation of the world is to be mirrored in us. This mirroring is in the removing of the alienation and hostility present in us.

The Reconciliation of the Will

What is interesting as we move on in this passage is the way that it speaks about human effort. We need to remain steadfast for the sake of salvation. Now what counts as remaining steadfast is a deep question and one for another time. Right now though it is enough to struggle with the idea of having to be steadfast at all.

That we still need to apply effort to hold onto the hope that Christ has one for us is a little counter intuitive. I come from a Calvinist background with a strong emphasis on the “once saved always saved idea”. I think there is great truth in this, and you can see it supported elsewhere in Scripture.

But there is a mistake made when we take the idea that God will not loose any of those given to him and assume that means we are passive in the process. This is important to remember because if we assume that we are passive and that our actions don’t play a certain kind of role, then we are subject to a nagging anxiety. This is the anxiety of the reality of our salvation. If there is no room for our effort then the only evidence we might have of salvation is a remembrance of a certain prayer, our baptism, or whatever evidence we might have of Christ-likeness that has come about somehow without effort. These can be cold-comfort when we don’t see much of this passive evidence or wonder about the sincerity of our prayers or even role of baptism in salvation.

If our effort is part of trusting though we don’t have to feel shame at our own actions to hold on to Christ. Also, if we see ourselves as becoming like him, part of bearing his image in ourselves is to also bear the effort he bore in his life on earth and is perhaps bearing now. This linking of effort to the our reconciliation can be seen as where reconciliation meets the will. All of ourselves must be turned to God. There is no exception for the will.

Paul’s suffering, union in death as well as in Resurrection

Perhaps union with Christ is some of what Paul has in mind with his discussion of filling up what is lacking in Christ’s suffering. We might see a similar logic in Paul’s understanding of his own actions and sufferings.

Look at vs 1:24. This is a strange statement, but I think there is something valuable to consider here. We should see this as part of the believer’s union with Christ. Just as the reconciliation has taken place, but we still have to endure. It is Christ enduring in us. We are unified with Christ not just in his resurrection but also in his sufferings. Though his sufferings were complete to save and reconcile, they are not yet completed in the reality of our lives. We should understand our own sufferings as in some sort of what connected to his. Paul seems to do this. Here, he puts his sufferings in a similar category to Christ’s. What is interesting is that they are not presented as only for him but for others.

To be reconciled to Christ is in part to be linked to him and his life as it was played out and plays out in relation to a broken world. Our sufferings complete his by virtue of their being part of the reflection of his reconciliation of the world through death in our own minds and lives.

(Take this interpretation of leave it though. This is a hard passage. One commentator I have looked at sees this as a possible eschatological view that there were a certain number of sufferings that needed to be undertaken by the church before the second coming. This is possible I suppose, but it does seem a little bit disconnected from the current discussion in the passage. Paul talks about the sufferings being for the Colossians in particular. However you could read it the other way.)

The Knowledge of God in the Life of the Colossians

Let’s finally look back at the beginning of the passage to have some idea of what Paul is seeking to do for the Colossians. This section 1:9-12 is partly what it looks like for the Colossians to be reconciled with Christ. It is a knowledge of God’s will for their actions with wisdom and understanding. It is a deepening of knowledge of who God is. We are to bear fruit just as the Gospel heard throughout the world is bearing fruit.

Conclusion

If we take anything from this chapter, it should be that Jesus loves us and that his redemption if far bigger and greater than we can imagine. He is the one who has made peace, and in some way it encompasses all of creation itself. Somehow, as well, we have our part in this our sufferings and our growth into Christ’s likeness are part of this healing of reality itself. It will require a lot of us though. It is not something that will happen on its own, but it will be accomplished by God. Through us but by him.