Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians: The Gospel as Everything

Sources: I. Howard Marshall et al., Exploring the New Testament: A Guide to the Letters and Revelation (IVP, 2002); Raymond E. Brown, The New Testament: an Introduction (Doubleday, 1997); Bart Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 3d ed. (Oxford, 2004).

I. The Good News Bearing Fruit and Growing
Colossians and Ephesians are progressions, or perhaps descendants, of Paul's theology.

Colossians sounds more typically Pauline, especially in 'guest speaker mode' (like Romans).
Ephesians has some distinct grammar and conceptual vocabulary, and is less intimate (3:2).
Is it an encyclical (1:1 variant)? From an associate? Paul would not have written it to just the Ephesians.

They witness to "the Christian revolution" unfolding like expanding ripples in a pond.

Col and Eph are consistent with the rest of Paul, but more developed.
Their eschatological focus is more 'already' and less 'not yet.'

II. Everything: Colossians
Thanksgiving (1:3-8): faith and love because of hope spurs his prayers that the Colossians will appreciate and honor Christ's omni-significance (2:2) to

all creation (1:16: "all things"),
all former ways of thinking (2:8, 2:16-23),
all nations (1:27),
all social orders (2:15: "principalities and powers" both 'secular' and 'spiritual'; 3:19-25),
all followers (1:24, 1:28),

all time (1:18; 2:10ff).

All this 'indicative' (1-2) is channeled or funneled into one imperative (3-4):

all the lives and testifying of the saints and brethren (3:1ff, "seek the things that are above").
Because of lack of broader social power, or because only the eschaton reveals what is now hidden (3:3-4)?
Like a telescope, Christians make the otherwise invisible visible to broader society (4:3) and all creation (1:23).

Everyone: Philemon testifies to the concrete implications for the Roman institution of slavery:

Brotherhood trumps ownership.
Paul works gently rather than forcefully.
Paul here is too gentle for abolitionists, and too clear for slavers.

III. Our Everything: Ephesians
Ephesians focuses more fully on the church's role in its messianic apocalyptic context:

The church is the heir of God's eternal promise in Christ (1:3-14).
It may gain wisdom, revelation, enlightenment, hope, and power in that knowledge (1:15-23).
It is already raised (in hope) with Christ's resurrection (2:1-10).
Its new humanity is at peace from the exclusions of Gentiles (2:11-22).
It broadcasts its good news to the principalities and powers from below and above them (3:1-13).
Its message remakes and 'divinizes' those who understand it (3:14-21).
It lives worthy of this calling and destiny (4:1-16).
It rejects the futile old nature and unenlightened life (4:17-24).
It imitates God-in-Christ in a life of holiness and wisdom (5:1-20).
It submits to Christ's reshaping/relativizing of old hierarchies while awaiting their eschatological transformation (5:21-6:9).
It fights Christ's apocalyptic war and resist the enemy's pushback with weapons only of the Spirit (6:10-20).
If Christians in Colossians are a telescope on earth, in Ephesians they are the Hubble Space Telescope.

These texts hang together; reading only parts in isolation (e.g., Col 2 or Eph 5) amounts to misreading.

IV. Re-setting Moral Foundations
The more cosmic scope of Colossians and Ephesians represent a rather comprehensive community ethic with a more explicit foundation. Philemon demonstrates its fruit.
Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind 146 and 214-215, on 'moral foundations theory':

	Care/Harm	Fairness/Cheating	Loyalty/Betrayal*	Authority/Subversion*	Sanctity/Degredation*	Liberty/Oppression
Adaptive Challenge	protect and care for children	reap benefits of partnerships	form cohesive coalitions	forge beneficial relationships within hierarchies	avoid contaminants	band together against tyrants and bullies
Original Triggers	child's suffering, distress, neediness	cheating, cooperation, deception	threat or challenge to group	signs of dominance and submission	waste products, diseased people	signs of attempted domination
Current Triggers	baby seals, cute cartoon characters	marital infidelity, fraud, free riding	sports teams, nations	bosses, respected professionals	taboo ideas (communism, racism)	concentrated power, oppression, inequality
Characteristic Emotions	compassion	anger, gratitude, guilt	group pride, rage at traitors	respect, fear	disgust	resentment, hatred
Relevant Virtues	caring, kindness	proportionality, trustworthiness	loyalty, patriotism, self-sacrifice	obedience, deference	temperance, chastity, piety, cleanliness	equality, independence, family, liberty

Jesus' heavenly rule re-creates each foundation for Christian community and personal life:

Colossians	Care/Harm	Fairness/Cheating	Loyalty/Betrayal*	Authority/Subversion*	Sanctity/Degredation*	Liberty/Oppression
Powers: Col 1:13, 2:8, 2:15-23	hostility 1:21, abduction 2:8, debt 2:14, disqualification 2:18, wrath 3:8, provoking/discouraging powerless 3:21	‘the flesh’ 2:23, deception 3:9, earthly/old 3:5-8	alienation 1:21, judgmentalism 2:16, tribalism 3:11	ls 2:18, "masters according to the flesh" 3:22 (lords, husbands, parents)	sacral dogmas 2:16, 2:21-22, sacral enforcers 2:18, obscenity 3:8	hierarchies 3:22, slavery 3:11, Philemon 16
Christ: Col 1:13-14	warning and teaching for maturity 1:28, Epaphras’ prayers 4:12, Onesimus Paul’s child Philemon 10	fruitfulness 1:10, P 11, inheritance 1:12, accountability 3:23-25, peace 1:20, forgiveness 3:13, graciousness 4:5-6, sacrifice Philemon 17	gospel knowledge 1:5-6, self-sacrifice 1:24, Christ-circumcision and baptism 2:11-14, owed selves Philemon 19-20	Son's Kingdom 1:13-14, benevolence 3:19, 3:21, 4:1, submissiveness under Christ preeminent 1:18, 3:18, 3:20, 3:22-24, Philemon 14	hope of glory 1:27, death to dogmas 2:20-21, life hidden above 3:1-3, chastity 3:8	love 3:14, endurance 3:13, charitable emancipation 4:9, Philemon 16

The same reset occurs in Ephesians:

Ephesians	Care/Harm	Fairness/Cheating	Loyalty/Betrayal*	Authority/Subversion*	Sanctity/Degredation*	Liberty/Oppression
Powers	children of wrath 2:3, separation 2:12, carried about by winds of doctrine 4:14; callousness 4:18-19, neglect 4:25, corrupting talk 4:29, provocation of children 6:4	fleshly passions 2:3, deceit 4:14, 4:25, greed 4:19, theft 4:28	alienation 2:12, 4:18, ethnic division 2:15	(demonic?) powers of and above 'this world' 2:2, disobedience 2:2, hierarchs 5:21-6:9	Torah and Temple wall 2:14-15, sexual immorality and impurity 5:3, filthiness 5:4, darkness 5:8-12	hostility 2:16, callousness 4:18-19, bitterness 4:31, threatening 6:9
Christ	suffering for church 3:13, 5:1, gentleness 4:2, gifts for maturity 4:7-14, tenderheartedness 4:32, beloved children 5:1, children of light 5:8, parents raise children in Lord’s instruction/discipline 6:4	forgiveness 1:7, 4:32, generosity 1:8, 4:28, inheritance/Spirit 1:13-14, 1:18, mercy 2:4, fruitfulness 2:10, work 4:28, constant love 6:24	election and adoption 1:4-5, 1:22-23, Gentile inclusion 2:13-17, 3:6, Spirit’s unity 4:3	unification 1:10, 4:3-6, 5:28-29, power above all 1:19-22, access to Father 2:18, speaking wisdom to power 3:8-10, humility 4:2, mutual submission 5:21-6:9	temple of Spirit 2:22, 4:30, knowledge and fullness of God 3:17-19, 5:7-19, judgment/dispossession 5:5, resurrection 5:14, sanctification 5:25-27	peace 2:14, fellow citizenship 2:19-22, courage 3:13, patience 4:2, God’s impartial judgment 6:9, God’s armor 6:13-17, prayer and evangelism 6:18-20

This remaking shows the Kingdom to be a more supportive and transcultural foundation than either pre-Christian predecessors or the Enlightenment's narrower ones.

V. The Good News as Metanarrative
The ripples keep expanding to this day:

Historian Tom Holland chronicles Paul's "depth charges" re-creating the Christian and post-Christian world: Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World.

With Constantinianism, the church's imaginative scope continues to grow.

Roman Christians soon reorder their whole culture: Augustine, City of God; see Robert Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought.

Then Celts envision the reign of Jesus in non-Roman terms, and so Christian faith survives the demise of the Roman Empire: Robert Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization.
Awareness that Israel's God is loving lord of all grounds the development of common law and rights (e.g., Magna Carta).
Thomas Aquinas follows Augustine's engagement with the classical world in Summa Contra Gentiles: Curtis Chang, Engaging Unbelief.
Confidence in God as creator and savior of all creation drives western sciences and humanities: Stanley Jaki, Savior of Science.
Today the faith is re-creating cultures in the southern hemisphere: Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom.

Is the gospel our metanarrative? Do we respect its universal significance?

Or do we relativize Jesus Christ and read this material selectively according to some other metanarrative?

Where do we channel that significance? To our lives together, where what is hidden is displayed for others to see?

Or to projects of our dreams and intuitions that aren't the Lord's?