[1.
Introduction.
(1) SALUTATION (Colossians 1:1-2).
(2) THANKSGIVING, for their faith and love and hope, with an emphatic reference to the “word of the truth of the gospel” as first preached unto them in all faithfulness by Epaphras, the fellow-servant and representative of the Apostle (Colossians 1:3-8).
(3) PRAYER that they may have further knowledge, and fruitfulness in good works, being strengthened to endurance, and encouraged by the hope of heaven (Colossians 1:9-12).]
This chapter contains the main substance of the characteristic doctrine of the Epistle; to which, however, St. Paul returns in the next chapter, enforcing it with special application to the circumstances of the Colossian church, and special warning against a peculiar form of half-Judaic and half-Gnostic error. It should be compared throughout with Ephesians 1:2; Ephesians 1:3. On such comparison, we find, on the one hand, a strong general similarity both of thought and expression; on the other hand, a marked difference in the subject to which main prominence is given. The first glance discovers that both Epistles dwell emphatically on Christ the Head, and the unity of all as one Body in Him. But a more thoughtful consideration will show that in this Epistle the main stress is on the headship of Christ; in the Ephesian Epistle, on the unity and glory of the Church as His body.