Concluding Colossians

Greetings, our last week in Sunday School (November 20, 2016) I wrote on the board various questions and musings on the letter of Colossians. Listed below are 12 questions I invite you to process and digest. Should you have any questions, feel free to let me know. Shalom!

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• Grace is vital to the proclamation of Paul’s gospel to the gentiles (see Colossians 1:2; 4:18). Show the ways Paul ministers grace in ministering to the Colossians.
• What is God’s action toward His creation? In other words, locate at least ten references to God as the subject of the verb in the entirety of the letter of Colossians.
• Why does the role of the mind come into conversation when speaking about humanity’s bondage to Sin?
• Identify the calling of the church, and the place you find yourself in all of this?
• The revelation of God’s gospel shows that God is hiding some things. Explain.
• How would it affect your understanding to learn the letter to the Laodiceans is the letter to the Ephesians?
• Paul’s language of faith shows a great level of imagination at work (eg. In 2:14 the legal demands on the cross are cancelled is referring to the inscription above Jesus’ head on the cross). Find other references in Colossians of Paul using his apostolic imagination.
• Comment upon the vertical/horizontal dimensions described in the letter. What effect does this give to the hearers?
• According to Paul in Colossians, a mature Christian community/people/church is characterized by ____________.
• Paul appears to throughout the letter to take a positive tone to the Colossian church. In this light, many scholars speak of a “Colossian Heresy” in the letter that Paul is warning Colossians Christians. Reconcile this conundrum.
• The Christian hope, as described by Paul, is shown in the letter to be what?
• Compare Paul’s letter to the Romans with Colossians, what major similarities and differences do you notice? 

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