Introduction to Colossians: Authorship, Date, Audience - Crain Home

Interpretation 3
Third, the new life that characterizes the faith community
now hidden with Christ in God (3:1-4) bears witness to God
through Christ by word and deed (3:12-17).
http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/webcommentary
Matthew Henry analyzes Colossians three into a section addressing spiritual
life and the need to mortify sin and a section recommending love and
relative duties. He says of chapter three, " The apostle, having described our
privileges by Christ in the former part of the epistle, and our discharge from
the yoke of the ceremonial law, comes here to press upon us our duty as
inferred thence." He goes on in his conclusion to remark on Paul's broad
understanding of duty:
It is probable that the apostle has a particular respect, in
all these instances of duty, to the case mentioned 1 Cor. vii. of
relations of a different religion, as a Christian and heathen, a
Jewish convert and an uncircumcised Gentile, where there
was room to doubt whether they were bound to fulfil the
proper duties of their several relations to such persons. And,
if it hold in such cases, it is much stronger upon Christians
one towards another, and where both are of the same religion.
And how happy would the gospel religion make the world, if
it every where prevailed; and how much would it influence
every state of things and every relation of life!
http://www.apostolic-churches.net/bible/mhc/MHC51003.
HTM
From husband to wife to children, Paul moves to the master-slave
relationship:
http://crain.english.mwsc.edu/colossians/interpretation_3.htm (9 of 13)6/17/2003 8:18:08 AM
Paul completes the Colossian Haustafel by turning his
attention to slave masters. Already he has described the
sociology of the community located by God's grace in Christ,
which makes "slave and free" equal because they are both in
Christ and he in them (3:11). It should not surprise the reader,
then, that Paul promotes an alternative understanding of the
Roman institution of slavery. The gospel does not necessarily
seek to reverse the social arrangements between slave and
master; in this case, Paul does not exhort the master to