The church in Colossae was struggling with many of the same problems that faced the other new first century Christian churches. Here was a community that had heard and received the Good News, believers who had died and been raised again in Christian baptism, and disciples who were striving to match their worship lives and lifestyles to their theological expectations. The writer of Colossians addressed all these aspects of this church's life and faith in the four brief chapters of this book.

The compact nature of this epistle means that every verse is laced with layers of meaning. Unfortunately, some of the veiled references and cued code-words that were easily decipherable to the first century Colossians are not so readily apparent to 20th century readers. This week's text is representativ…