Letters to the Colossians and Philemon

 

 

LET’S KNOW THE BIBLE

 

The letter to the Colossians is also one of Paul’s writings from prison. During the first Roman imprisonment, between 61 and 63, he writes an encyclical letter to the area of Ephesus; this is a particular letter to the community of Colossae; and also a personal note to a Christian from Colossae named Philemon.

Therefore, the letter to the Colossians is very similar to the letter to the Ephesians; it deals with the same subject, it has the same kind of language, vocabulary and argumentation, and as we have already said for the letter to the Ephesians, it also refers to the syncretic environment of Ephesus.

By syncretism, we understand the habit of joining things together, that is to say, of fusing different doctrines and unifying them in one big container, putting together disparate elements, taking this or that, and choosing what is most pleasing. This approach is relatively modern; the so-called new age mentality expresses a syncretistic religiosity. Each one picks what he likes the most, a little bit like the criteria of the supermarket.

That’s how modern man often behaves concerning religions: he enters with the cart from the supermarket of religions and puts in what he likes, takes out, puts in. It is the mentality of the remote control, of those who change channels at the stroke of a pen, choose what they want, close one and put on another, so, you get the impression that you can do the same with religions, change the channels, see more things, mix them up, and same with religion; everybody does their own thing. They are those who say they are Christians in their own way.

It’s a situation as old as the world. In the city of Colossae, the Christian community was in danger of falling prey to such a mentality, where each one made his own Christian religion, mixing elements. That’s why Paul intervenes, placing the person of Jesus Christ as the objective and fundamental point of reference. Scholars speak of a Colossian heresy, that is, of a way of thinking developed in the community of the Colossians, which is something characteristic of that whole cultural context.

In the letter, in chapter 2, verse 8, we find some interesting references. The apostle says: “See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy according to human tradition, according to the elemental powers of the world and not according to Christ.” Three terms: philosophy, human traditions, and elements of the world. They are terms that qualify the syncretistic mentality typical of Ephesus. The human reasoning that transmits personal inventions, made by various people and based on the elements of the world. We would say the forces of nature.

“See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy according to human tradition.” The focus is on Christ because “in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily.” A very important phrase; in Jesus dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The “pléroma,” translated as fullness, is a technical term of Gnostic language to indicate this great and complex presence of the divine forces in the world.

The fullness of divinity is not what belongs to the gods, as the ancient philosopher Thallete said, but that all divinity is entirely present in the body of Christ, in his humanity and in his historical continuation, which is the Church, the body of Christ. “In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not administered by hand, by stripping off the carnal body, with the circumcision of Christ,” by overcoming the old man in the transformation of humanity marked by sin.

“You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.” He has made you alive who were dead because of your sins, forgiving you all your sins. “Obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims, he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross; despoiling the principalities and the powers, he made a public spectacle of them, leading them away in triumph by it.”

The principalities and powers are all these cosmic forces that in Ephesus were worshiped as divinities and that the Christians of Colossae risked following as important forces. Christ overcame all this, nailing to the cross the document of our debt. It is a strong and poetic image to indicate the fundamental and historical work of the man Jesus who died on the cross, and it is precisely that historical event that determined the change in the persons of each one.

Therefore, in the sacramental moment of baptism, each person dies with Christ, is buried in Christ, submerged in Christ, but in reality, resurrected with Christ and glorified with Christ, identified with the same person as Jesus. In chapter one, Paul presents a great Christological text to emphasize how Christ is the beginning, the center and the end of everything; and he invites us to give thanks with joy to the Father who has allowed us to share the lot of the saints in the light.

The experts say that it is a language of the mystic type. He has enabled us to participate in the life of the divine world. In this type of language are the ‘saints.’ The light and the transcendent divine reality; we thank God because he has enabled us to participate in this luminous life and has enabled us because he has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, through whom we have redemption. Jesus Christ, the Son, is the image, icon of the invisible God.

God cannot be seen. The only way to see God, his authentic image, is the Son. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Generated before every creature. We have put this symbol in our tradition. The Fathers of the Church took this image to explain well the person of Jesus: “Generated, not created, of the same nature as the Father, generated before all ages. By him all things were made.” All things were created by him—the things of heaven and the things of earth. “The visible and the invisible; thrones, dominions, principalities, powers…. All have been created through him and for him.” He is the cause, and he is the end of all.

You can recognize the syncretistic problem that multiplies the forces that are present in Paul’s discourse. Christ alone is the image; “he is the creator, he is the cause from which all things derive, he is the end to which all things tend. He is before all things; all things exist in him.” Here the apostle is using philosophical language, taking the Greek way of presenting cosmic consistency. He is before all things; he is the cause of all things, and all things subsist in him. “He is the head of the body, the Church. He is the beginning”, the αρχή, ‘arche.’

The early philosophers of the Greek tradition, who lived in that same environment, had committed themselves to search for the ‘arche’: Thallete, Anaximander, Anaximenes sought the ‘arche,’ the beginning. And the language was still in vogue even in Paul’s time. Paul uses that language and proposes another answer: ‘He, the Christ, is the ‘arche,’ he is the beginning, he is the firstborn among the dead, the first begotten among those who died; the first of the dead not to have remained dead but to have been born to new life to obtain supremacy over all things.

He is the first of creation; he is the first of the new creation precisely because it pleased God to cause all things to dwell fully in him. The ‘pléroma’ of which we have already spoken. And through him to reconcile in himself all things. “And through him he willed to reconcile to himself all things that exist, restoring peace by the blood of the cross both among the creatures on earth and in heaven.” Christ is the mediator of creation. Christ is the mediator of redemption, of reconciliation, restoring peace between heaven and earth. He is the first; he is the icon, he is the image of the invisible God; he is the one; in him all things subsist.

And so, when in the second part of the letter, especially in chapter 3, Paul comes to the moral consequences, he begins from this fundamental idea: of the union with Christ. “If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” You have died with Christ; you have risen with Christ. This is the consequence: may your life be a life of resurrected people, of people who now live in a divine dimension.

Looking for things up there does not mean having your head in the clouds, to think of the other world and wish only to die; it means to have another mentality that is not earthly but heavenly. “Think on what is above,” that is, think from the perspective of Christ, not from an earthly perspective.

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.” What has happened in baptism, the death of the old man, and the resurrection of the new man, presuppose an operative change in the Christian life. “Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. By these you too once conducted yourselves, when you lived in that way. But now you must put them all away: anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language out of your mouths. Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator.”

What has happened sacramentally in baptism, the union with Christ, death and resurrection with him, demands to be realized in the moral life, leaving the old man with all his vices and defects behind and clothing the new man with all his qualities and virtues. “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision,” barbarian, Scythian, slave, free (these distinctions no longer exist) but Christ is all and in all.”

In theory, Christ must become all in all. This is the practical principle. “Therefore, put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts.”

It is important to note that when Paul develops a moral reflection and gives a great deal of practical advice, he does so as a consequence of his doctrine. First of all, there is the work that Christ has done for us; consequently, there is our response, the acceptance of that grace which little by little transforms life. This is the difference between the Jewish mentality of one who strives with his own strength to observe the law. A transformation of grace is necessary; however, this event then calls for our responsibility.

While writing to the Colossians, Paul also sends a note to his friend Philemon, a Christian living in the city of Colossae. It is about a particular case he had to deal with. A slave of Philemon, named Onesimus, had run away from home and had gone to Paul asking for help. In the Roman empire, a runaway slave deserved death; probably this young man Onesimus had heard Paul’s preaching, he had listened to the evangelical discourse that was being given in his master’s house and appealed to Paul to be set free, almost as if to force Paul to make a manifesto to set the slaves free.

Paul works in another way; he evangelizes Onesimus, the runaway slave and begets him to the Christian life, baptizes him, makes him a son, and then sends him back. He makes him understand that he cannot become a Christian to have a social benefit; if he has become a son of God, a brother of Jesus Christ in a righteous way, he must return and put himself at the service of Philemon and serve him better than before, with affection and with love, but he gives Onesimus this letter to deliver to Philemon, the owner, in which Paul invites the landlord to free the slave. He does not command him to do so; he points out that it must be a natural consequence of his faith; it’s not so much a question of a social change; it’s a question of a moral change. Paul writes to Philemon, saying ‘you must do what is right on your own, voluntarily; what is right, that is, treat this slave as your dearest brother, as my son, whom I have begotten in chains, you must treat him as you would treat me.

If he owes you anything, if he has caused you harm, put it all on my account, and I will pay for the damage he has caused you,’ but with splendid delicacy, Paul concludes by saying to Philemon, ‘remember that you also owe me something; you owe me your life, then we will settle accounts, put it on my account and I will make you pay all that you owe me: the knowledge of Christ, the transformation of your life.’

It is a text that does not become a manifesto of the liberation of slaves, but concrete and practical application of the Pauline doctrine: grace transforms and has operative consequences. Onesimus, if he is truly a Christian, must return and serve. Philemon, if he is truly Christian, must welcome and treat him as a brother, without the need for social revolutions. What is necessary is the change of the person; if the person and the heart change in depth, relationships change, and society is new and different.