Today we continue our study of Colossians. Our text is Colossians 1:24-2:10. We first need to remember that we can only understand the truth by the Spirit. Truth is spiritually discerned. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man…but God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10) When the word of God is released, Holy Spirit responds.

We need to beware of twisting Scripture. It is pervasive, destructive, and caused by untaught and unstable people. The aim of good interpretation is simple: to get at the “plain meaning of the text,” the author’s intended meaning.

The historical context of our text is that Paul had never visited Colossae. He was imprisoned in Rome but had heard about their faith and challenges. Colossians is a letter Paul wrote to them, delivered by Onesimus and Tychicus. In the literary context, we see that Paul highlighted the complete preeminent of Christ through which the Father reconciled us to Himself.

As we look for themes in our text, we find Paul’s concern for them is that 1) their hearts may be encouraged, (2) their fellowship would be knit together in love, and (3) that they would have rich understanding and knowledge of the mystery of God. He exhorts that the Colossian believers are complete in Christ, who is the head of all principality and power.

Next we find our thesis of this text: Paul's message & mission is to present every believer mature in Christ – rooted and built up in Him, and not drawn away by counterfeit sources.

As we study the text itself, we can utilize resources like different Bible translations. Three theories of Bible translation include formal equivalence (literal), functional equivalence (dynamic equivalence), free translation (paraphase / interpretation). Overall, we need to remember that neither Bible translation pride nor ignorance is helpful to the body of Christ.

Another important study resource is concordance. Let’s study Colossians 2:10: “You are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” A concordance gives us many resources to discover how we are “complete in Him.” We discover that this phrase refers to each one of us being fully furnished, made replete, filled to knowing we are filled! You are not trying to get something new… you are realizing Who already lives in you.

Are you satisfied with Christ? What is your source? What is your priority of ministry? Paul gladly suffered in ministry, “that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.” (Philemon 1:6)