Colossians

Colossians was written to counter a strange teaching that diminished Christ by adding to him — rules, rituals, angelic mediators and 'philosophy'. Paul answers with a soaring vision of the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ: 'in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell', the image of the invisible God in whom all things hold together (1:15–20).

Because believers are complete in Christ, they need nothing else. The letter moves from this high Christology to practical holiness — putting off the old self, putting on the new, and ordering home and daily life around Christ, in whom 'are hidden all the treasures of wisdom'.