Reading for July 7th

Read Colossians 1.24-2.19 A personal witness and a warning.
An autobiographical sketch describes the church's maturation (1.24-2.5) and leads to
a warning against deviating from the truth (2.6-18).
In verse 1.24 a certain amount of suffering is assumed to be necessary (see 1 Thess 3.3)
before the end can arrive.
Completing...Christ's afflictions, any suffering brings the end sooner.
In verses 26-27 the mystery is Christ in you, the image of Christ growing in you.
In verse 29 toil, struggle, the effort to bring about the community's maturity.
See 1 Thess 2.9.
In verse 2.6 live your lives, "conduct" your lives; see 1.10.
In verses 8-19 the warning: although the heresy appears as wisdom because of its ascetic
and ritualistic practices, Christ's death and resurrection are sufficient to bring the believers'
lives into the new dominion.
In verse 8 takes you captive, false teachers are like robbers or kidnappers.
In verses 11-12 putting off, buried with him in baptism, baptismal images joined with
spiritual circumcision to describe entry into the new life (see Gal 3.27).
In verse 14 Record, a not of debt.
In verse 15 Disarmed, stripped of power.
Roman emperors led captives in a public triumphal procession.
In verse 17 Shadow and substance, a familiar contrast in Greek thought
(see Plato's Republic 514a-518b).
In verse 18 Angels' worship, worship offered to angels or worship offered by angels,
probably the latter.
Comments or Questions...