Listen to this post NOW on Beyond Everything Radio!

The Apostle Paul begins his letters in his usual fashion: he states who he is, then he states to whom he is writing, and lastly he blesses the readers. Most of Paul’s Epistles, which comprise the majority of the New Testament, are letters to Christian believers who are a part of the Christ following movement in that city. In his letter to this community in Colossae, he addresses them as: “àgios” (holy, dedicated, God’s people) and “pistois”(faithful, trusting) “àdelphois” (brothers and sisters, fellow believers). Contrast this to Romans where Paul is writing to “Everyone in Rome who is loved and called”. This means that his letter is “insider information” and will most likely resonate with those who have “experiential knowledge.” This is important because Paul is going to say something huge about experiential knowledge.

The same is also true for modern readers.

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints (ágios) and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:”

Many scholars have concluded that Paul never went to Colossae, but clearly his colleague Epaphras had and perhaps Timothy as well. This greeting segues quickly into a dense Pauline sentence that I believe is an onramp for the substance of this letter. It’s my conclusion that the English translations simply cannot carry the nuance and depth that the Greek does here, and as a result, the common English trajectory of Paul’s words always lands in the future hope of Heaven.

“…because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” (v.5)

Paul is saying much more. Paul is expressing gratitude to God for the work He is doing in this group of “àgios” because he has “heard” (indicating he wasn’t there, also he wrote this while in prison in Rome) about this group’s: 1. Faith (in Christ Jesus) and 2. Love (for all àgios). When Paul wrote to the church in Corinth he wrote: “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13), and in similar manner he highlights the fruit of the Spirit to the church in Galatia: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,” (Galatians 5:22), so by knowing something of his other letters, we can understand that Paul recognizes that this community in Colossae comprises mature Christ followers whose lives reflect the Spirit of God working within them.

Without Paul’s other letters, it’s more challenging to see what I believe exists between the lines of this passage. Consider the sequence in his big sentence.

1. Thanks for their Faith and love…
2. Because of the hope (existing in the abode of God…within them)
3. Which they heard in the word of truth…the gospel…
4. the one “inside them” and “in all the world”…
5. where they learned about the grace of God in truth from Epaphras.

If you’ve never diagramed a sentence, especially one of Paul’s run-on’s, then his sentences can wash over us. It’s really easy to hear his theological terms (faith, love, hope, word, truth, gospel, etc… and have them bounce off our modern minds. Considering most Christians would struggle to provide Paul’s theological definitions for such terms, we can appreciate how we’ve lost the tapestry of what Paul has woven together.

With this in mind, I’ll provide verses 3-7 transliterated from the Greek, with minor comments to help illuminate Paul’s letter and allow it to contextualize within our modern hearing.

3 “We (Paul & Timothy) give thanks to God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, always praying for you

4 “having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the (àgios-holy, God’s people)

5 “because of the hope, the one “existing” (àpokeiménen- exist, put away, be necessary) [this is in the present, passive voice, indicating it has been established and continues now] (èn toĩs oúranois– “in the heavens”)[in the abode/dwelling of God] which you heard before in the“lógoi tēs áletheias”-word of the truth, the eùaggeliou-gospel (the Good News).

Paul anchors his thesis in the hope of the Gospel.

6 the one (gospel) present within you, kathós (as also, just as) in all the world (pantì töi kósmoi) [indicated the gospel these holy people possess is also present, existing in the entire cosmos, world systems, i.e. the gospel has already at that time, gone out to all the world], it is producing results and growing also among you (evidence of the gospel-parable of the sower-good soil) since the day you listened to it and learned about the grace of God in truth “xárin toú Theoũ én áletheia.”

7 as you learned from Epaphras…“

I’d like to highlight some areas where Paul’s theological definitions differ from modern Evangelical Christianity.

1. The people of God, those with faith in Christ are seen as holy…as saints. The church doesn’t make them that way, there wasn’t an institutionalized religion to codify sainthood back then. Their anthropology was neither totally negative (depravity) nor totally positive (divine), but potentiated. Their holiness is not perfection, but living in fidelity to their faith.
2. The architecture of Paul’s cosmology emerges through the Greek in that Heaven is a present reality, just as Jesus taught: “Behold the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”(Luke 17:21). The hope of heaven in Paul’s mind is NOW, not as religion spins it: one day after we die. Heaven’s hope exists as we exist, and heaven isn’t another place altogether, but a realm where God dwells, accessed within us now. Compare this to the “earth evacuation” gospel of today.
3. The gospel, as the word of truth, is proving itself real in the lives of people by results, bearing fruit, and this gospel, this word of truth also exists in the entire world. This means Paul’s gospel is based on a universally inclusive cosmology, it’s in “panti” ALL .

I recognize this is a fairly technical post, and many of these will be in the coming weeks. However, getting the details correct will really help us to align more with Paul’s gospel than what is preached in institutional religion. Religion’s gospel employs a tiny Christology and cosmology compared to Paul’s gospel. This is proven by the fact that most Christians conflate the work of Christ with Jesus’ life, and the world will be abandoned in order to go to heaven.

If we begin discern between Paul’s gospel and that of institutionalism, then freedom, or experiencing a genuine life in Christ, that is, complete integration of all things in Christ becomes possible. This is light years away from putting our faith in the Christian religion, having an intellectual attestation to Christ’s work on the cross, and then living on a sin/repent carousel until we die and barely squeak into heaven.

Next week Paul begins v.9 with “And so…” meaning he will build on this foundation. If Paul is possibly opening up a portal through which we can rediscover the convergence of faith and life, the question for us is:

Do we want to experience it? If so, will we actually believe it enough to displace 2000 years of church history? If the àgios had already comprised the Church (the return of the body of Christ), then what is the purpose of religion?