Welcome to Walking With Christ. I'm Jeremy, and I'm really glad you're here. This devotional is a short time we set aside to reflect on a portion of Scripture, and we do that contextually, thoughtfully, and prayerfully. And as we go verse-by-verse through these portions of Scripture, we'll look not only to understand God's Word more, but also to apply it, and to let it shape how we live, think, and walk with Jesus Christ each and every day. As Colossians 2 verse 6 reminds us, therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. So, let's begin our time together now with our hearts open to what God wants to show us, and we'll begin in the book of Colossians. We'll start with an introduction and an overview of Paul's letter to the church in Colossae. As always, it's good practice to spend just a few minutes learning about the audience, culture, history, and setting of the church, as well as the author's purpose in writing the letter. For background, Colossae was a city located in what is modern-day Turkey and was about 100 miles east of the city of Ephesus. Colossae was part of the Roman Empire and considered to be an important trade center in the area, so the church members likely consisted of a range of individuals from wealthy merchants all the way down to slaves. Founded around 1100 BC, Colossae had been a major trading city for centuries, up until about 100 BC, when neighboring city Laodicea, just a few miles away, became a tough competitor, and that caused the wealth in the city to steadily decline. History tells us the city of Colossae suffered a devastating earthquake in 60 AD, right around the time this letter was written. However, the event is not recorded in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul is well established as the author of the letter to the Colossians, while his friend and fellow gospel worker, Epaphras, is generally credited with founding the church in Colossae. Reference Colossians 1 verse 7. Paul wrote this letter, as well as those to the Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon, while he was imprisoned in Rome during the rule of Nero. These four letters combined are often referred to as Paul's prison epistles. The letter to Philemon was also addressed to several members of the church in Colossae and may have been delivered at the same time as this one. Paul's letter to the Colossians is one of great encouragement, but it also addresses several important doctrinal issues that the church was struggling with. Early in the first century AD, the worship of angels had begun as a cult practice in the region, and the church had significant social influence from Jewish, Gnostic, and pagan cultures. This caused quite a bit of confusion in the young church, which affected their ability to clearly understand who Jesus really is and how to apply gospel principles to their lives. For example, a heresy had taken root that embraced doctrines of works-based salvation, as well as Gnosticism, which says that God and spirit are good, but anything physically created, like matter or our bodies, is bad, and that Jesus was not really human, but just an emanation from God, and that radical self-denial, also known as asceticism, And a secret higher knowledge outside the existing scriptures and apostolic teachings was needed in order to be saved. All of these are heresies. The situation had apparently grown so bad that Epaphras made the very long journey to visit Paul and to seek counsel and help from the Apostle. Reference Colossians 4 verses 12 to 13. In this letter, Paul goes into painstaking detail explaining who Jesus Christ is, as well as the true gospel, as he aimed to correct the false teachings and beliefs affecting the Colossian church. Paul's teaching is some of the most potent and profound that we find on the nature of Christ's deity and humanity, as well as the proper way to understand our grace-by-faith salvation. But even with all the doctrinal difficulties Paul was addressing, he remained encouraging, gentle, and pastoral. Perhaps this is because it is unlikely that Paul ever personally visited the church in Colossae. He had only heard of their faith, love, and works, as we see in Colossians 1 verse 4. He was likely trying to avoid the harsher rebukes like those found in his letters to the Galatians and Corinthians because he was not personally known to these specific believers. Instead, Paul provided them sound teaching that they could use to have a true understanding of the Christian faith. Some of the key themes and doctrines we find in the letter to the Colossians are, Christ is affirmed as both God, having equality with the Father, and man who was born in the flesh. Christ was personally involved in the act of creation with the Father. God the Father's Spirit dwells fully in Jesus Christ. Christ is the head of the Church. We learn of the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice to cover our sins, the importance for unity among believers, the importance of living in a way that reflects our faith. We learn of our standing as citizens of heaven, the dangers of false teaching and bad doctrine, and the importance of prayer and forgiveness among the saints. I do hope and pray that you will be encouraged, challenged, and blessed by this series in Colossians, and that your faith in and understanding of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ is strengthened as we unpack this amazing epistle verse by verse. Again, I'm Jeremy, and thank you so much for listening to Walking With Christ.