The Chosen Key Word in this Book is “Fullness” it comes from the Greek Word “pleroma” which means “fullness, completeness.”
One book, four chapters, and a letter written to correct a church being pulled toward mystical philosophy, legalistic rules, and even the worship of angels. Colossians responds to all of it with one central, towering claim: Christ is enough, supreme over everything, sufficient for everything, with nothing left to add. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Book Reviews. I am Chris and this is Colossians.
Paul opens with thanksgiving for the Colossians’ faith and love, praying that they would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will and walk worthy of the Lord, before moving into one of the most exalted descriptions of Christ found anywhere in Scripture. Jesus is described as “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature,” the one through whom “all things were created,” visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers, and the one who holds everything together, “that in all things he might have the preeminence.” Paul then describes his own calling to make known God’s previously hidden plan, “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Chapter two directly confronts the false teaching threatening the church, warning believers not to be taken captive through “philosophy and vain deceit,” empty human tradition, or legalistic rules about food, festivals, and religious observances, which Paul describes as merely “a shadow of things to come,” while “the body is of Christ.” The Greek word “pleroma,” meaning “fullness,” describes Christ perfectly here, since “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,” and believers themselves are described as already “complete in him.”
Chapter three shifts to practical living, urging believers to “set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth,” since their true life is now “hid with Christ in God.” Paul describes putting off old, destructive habits like anger and malice, and putting on new ones instead, compassion, kindness, humility, and forgiveness, summarizing it all with the command to “put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.”
The chapter continues with instructions for households, wives, husbands, children, and servants, urging each relationship to be lived out as an act of service ultimately done for the Lord rather than merely for other people.
The book closes in chapter four with instructions to remain devoted to watchful prayer and to speak wisely and graciously toward outsiders, letting their speech be “alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” Paul closes with warm, personal greetings from several coworkers, including Luke, described here as “the beloved physician,” and instructions for the letter to be shared with the neighboring church at Laodicea as well.
Colossians answers every distraction and every add-on religion tries to offer with the same simple, confident claim: Christ is already enough. He is not one spiritual option among many, and He does not need philosophy, legalism, or angelic mediators to complete Him. Colossians reminds us that a life truly centered on Christ has nothing missing that needs to be supplemented from anywhere else.
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