SUNDAY October 13, 2024

Faithful Brethren

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Colossians 1:1-2

While under house arrest, Paul continued to write. Remember, there are four prison epistles. He had completed the epistles to the Ephesians and the Philippians. He now moved forward to communicate by letter to the Colossian church.

The book of Colossians not only contains a classic passage about the preeminence of Jesus Christ, but it also contains a severe warning against the false philosophies that were being taught at that time. There were two main philosophies––Gnosticism and Judaism. Gnosticism was capable of destroying people’s faith in Christ. It challenged Christ’s deity. Judaism was legalism. Knowing the danger that these false philosophies could cause, Paul decided to write to the faithful brethren in Christ.

In the New Testament times, among the Greeks, when a letter was written, you would always put the name of the writer first. Then you would write who the letter was being addressed to at the end. That is why, in every one of Paul’s epistles, we see these types of salutations: Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy our brother. Timothy was discipled by Paul; he was a son in the faith.

Interestingly, Paul had never visited the church of Colossae. He had not even visited the city. This established church was not Jewish; the majority of the church was Gentile. In order to have a synagogue in any city, you needed to have at least 12 Jewish men. And so it was, the church of Colossae was a Gentile church, having among them a number of Jews.

However, Paul did know some of the people by face and by name in the church. In Colossians 4, we find out that he knew Epaphras, Onesimus, and Archippus. Philemon and Apphia are mentioned in his letter to Philemon. These were some of the people who Paul had contact with––faithful brethren.

The Church does not need brilliant personalities but faithful servants of Jesus and the brethren. Not in the former but in the latter is the lack.
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer~

For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!