Friday, December 14, 2012

A Letter From a Stranger

We now turn to Paul's letter to the Christians who live in a town called Colosse. we call his letter the book of Colossians. Two near by towns are Laodices and Hieroplis. The town no longer exists except in ruins. Most of what we know about the town is contained in Paul's letter.

Paul writes his letter while in prison for preaching the Gospel. He had never met the Christians Hrpell was writing to. It was Paul's friend Epaphras who had established the church and told Paul about his friends.

For the congregation who received this letter, it was like us receiving a personal letter from Billy Graham, Billy Sunday, or a well known missionary in your denomination. His life and sacrifice were Paul's credentials. The Colossians would have paid attention to what Paul had to say.

I knew a young woman in her twenties that declared she would not read books anyone had written about God or the Bible because she wanted to hear directly from God. The problem with that theory is that it ignores both the principle of body ministry laid out in 1Corinthians 12 and Romans 12. The person limits in their mind God's ability to speak to you through others or make you aware when someone is teaching false doctrine. If my friend had lived during Paul's time she would have missed the entire New Testament.