Colossians Introduction

 Colossians Introduction

Most of us have read about prison, and some may even know someone who is or has been in jail, this letter of Paul to the Colossians was written from a Roman prison.  It seems the apostle Paul was placed in prison to silence the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ; prison doors cannot stop the Gospel!  Not only did he send letters to the Colossians, but also to the Ephesians, the Philippians, and Philemon, and these are referred to as “prison epistles.”

When I think of prison, my mind always goes to Viktor E. Frankl who was in one of the cruelest of prisons, a Nazi concentration camp.  Quote from Frankl; “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. “  “When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.”

There are other names that come to mind, Mahatma Gandhi; “You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.”  And one must not forget the apostle Peter and the disciples being arrested and brought before the high priest and his family.  And this was the question ask of them; “By what power or by what name did you do this?” (Acts 4:7b)  And I’m sure Peter wanted clarification on the charge against them, and so he ask; “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well.”   

And you recall the council was confused about these uneducated, ordinary men, and they remembered they had been with Jesus.  The council ordered them to not speak any longer in the name of Jesus Christ.  This is Peter and John’s reply; “But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

 I’ve no understanding of your backbone, your moral or spiritual stances, but this I know, we the Church of the living God should be asking for what Peter, John, and Paul had.  If we did, then the way we live would change, and a Gandhi would not have said such things as: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.  Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice