Smoodock's Blog

As we conclude our study of the first chapter of Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians, we come to the point where Paul claims to be a minister of the Gospel of the peace of God toward men, which had been preached to the Colossians by Epaphras (Colossians 1:7), which is, also, the same Gospel that Paul and other servants of Christ preached to everyone throughout the world (Colossians 1:23). In other words, what Epaphras had preached to them at Colossae, was the very same Gospel that Paul preached to the world,[1] which, presently, Paul is helping the Colossians fully understand what they had been given by the grace of God (Colossians 1:15-23).

The fact is, Paul continued, that he was imprisoned in Rome for the very reason that the Gospel had been preached to them at Colossae and other gentile cities (Colossians 1:24). Nevertheless, rather than be ashamed of his chains, as though he had done something wrong, he tells his Colossian brethren, he rejoiced in the fact that he had been true to the Gospel of God and hadn’t capitulated, even under the threat of imprisonment and death. Yes, Paul rejoiced in his imprisonment for preaching the Gospel, because such a circumstance proves his determination to preach the unadulterated Gospel of Christ freely to all, to gentiles and Jews alike (Acts 22:18-22). Years earlier, the Jews protested Paul’s preaching the Gospel to gentiles, as was done for the Colossians, and had him imprisoned, and he was presently at Caesar’s seat to determine whether he should live or die for treating Jews and gentiles alike before God.

Just prior to his death, Paul wrote to Timothy, saying: “All who will live godly in Christ, Jesus, will suffer persecution” (2Timothy 3:12). Paul’s imprisonment at Rome was a witness to his faithfulness in preaching the Gospel of Christ, and he claimed that he rejoiced in his sufferings, because his persecution proved that no one was able to keep him from fulfilling his mission to preach to Jew and gentile alike. Moreover, in the context of 2Timothy 3:12, Paul claimed that his many sufferings helped to fill up the sufferings allotted to Christ, vis-à-vis the Body of Christ, the Church. In other words, if the Church had to suffer to a certain degree, Paul’s many sufferings should help to save others from some suffering to meet that predestined degree of persecution (Colossians 1:24).

So, Paul rejoiced in his service to the Church, to which he was made a minister by God, and he fulfilled his stewardship by fulfilling the Lord’s command to preach the Gospel to men like the Colossians, even when the command of God was rejected by men (Colossians 1:25, cp. Acts 22:21-22). This Gospel that Paul preached was a secret that God kept hidden during past ages, but he had been revealing the first century AD to the saints, vis-à-vis those whom God had set apart to preach the Gospel (Colossians 1:26).

Thus, God was presently making known to the saints, such as Paul, whom he has set apart to preach the Gospel, vis-à-vis the glorious riches, which God had always intended to give the gentiles, but had kept it secret in the past, namely: Christ in men of all nations, whether Jew or gentile; he is one’s hope of glory. In other words, the glorious hope of the gentiles, which was not understood by men in the past, is Christ, the Spirit of God (Romans 8:9), now dwelling in gentile believers (Colossians 1:27).

This was the very Gospel that Paul preached among the gentiles, warning them and teaching them according to the wisdom of God, as understood in that secret, now revealed. These things were done among the gentiles in order to present each one perfect, vis-à-vis fully mature, in Christ, Jesus (Colossians 1:28), and Paul continued to labor toward that end, striving according to God’s work in him, which was often done powerfully in the miracles God had done through Paul (Colossians 1:29).

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[1] Regardless of Epaphras’ maturity in Christ or his total understanding of the Gospel, he did present the truth of the Gospel as found in the narratives. Paul may have had to add to what Epaphras preached, but he didn’t have to correct what Epaphras preached, only how the Colossian believers understood the Gospel over against the worldview they had of God and the world, whether that worldview was Jewish or gentile in nature.