The epistle to the Colossians is a book that focuses on the sufficiency of Jesus Christ and the significance of that for our spiritual life: for the way we think and the way we live.
The author of this epistle is the apostle Paul.
There was heresy going on in Colossee, which was a blend of different ideas. We run into the same kind of thing today. There is all manner of blends of religions today. People think they can pick a little bit of this and a little bit of that, mix it together and add a sprinkling of something else and come up with something they think works for them, and make some new religion. Religion isn’t something that you can believe in because it just “works for you,” it has to be something that has objective reality and objective truth, and is internally coherent and consistent. Yet most of what most people believe is nothing more than a bunch of irrational bilge that somehow makes them feel good rather than deal with what the Word of God says about their basic condition as a sinner. People don’t like to recognize they are a sinner and in disobedience to God because in arrogance they are rejecting the truth.
So with this Colossian heresy, we see the focus is on the sufficiency of Christ. It is that which helps us to realize that no matter what the issues are that we face today, the solution is still the same. It is still the sufficiency of Christ. There are three areas of sufficiency that are always attacked by false teaching and by Satan: the sufficiency of Christ, the sufficiency of grace, and the sufficiency of God’s Word. If God’s Word, God’s grace, and Jesus Christ aren’t enough, then where are we going to get help? We going to go to psychology, to science, sociology, or to some other area of human thought and thus we are going to dilute and diminish the power of God, and we end up destroying grace, destroying Scripture, and destroying the reality of who Jesus Christ is. This is the reason Paul is writing.
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