The major theme of the book of Colossians is the total sufficiency and preeminence of Christ.  Chris Brannon starts out a new sermon series, Unrivaled.  We will be going through the book of Colossians to study the supremacy of Christ.  He starts out by helping us to understand the book of Colossians a little better.  It is a letter from Paul to the church of Colossae.

The city of Colossae was a city in the midst of a cultural and religious mixing bowl.  It was located in a Roman province and was characterized by the paganistic values and beliefs of its day.  Yet, the city itself, also had a large Jewish population.  Sometimes these cultures blended together in some strange ways.  Paul didn’t start the church, but it was influenced by him, through his work at Ephesus.  It was an outgrowth of the Word of God being preached in Ephesus and the believers there living out the life of the gospel.

A combination of Eastern mysticism, Jewish legalism and Gnosticism threatened the church at Colossae.  Gnosticism is based on two false premises.  The first is that it espouses a dualism regarding spirit and matter.  Gnostics assert that all matter is inherently evil and spirit is good.  Secondly, they claim to possess an elevated knowledge, a “higher truth” known only to a certain few.

For Paul, the solution to the Colossians was simple:  believers need to be taught to have complete confidence in the fact that, as far as God is concerned, they’re already made “perfect” in His eyes, through their relationship with Christ.  We also need to be gripped by the truth of our complete sufficiency in the Savior:  that He is everything we need; and having Him, we need nothing else.