Paul's Epistle to the Colossians Part 7: Christianity and Slavery, with Philemon
One of the underlying themes we have been building upon from what Paul of Tarsus has taught us in the first several chapters of this epistle to the Colossians is judgment. Paul of Tarsus began when he advised these Christians of Colossae that they should let no man judge them concerning feasts, sabbaths and other celebrations, and then he also informed them that they should not submit to the ordinances of the men, nor should they worship angels, as he called them, who would prevent them from the use of those elements of God’s Creation that are beneficial to the satisfaction of the flesh, which was basically a refutation of both Pharisaism and asceticism, or, as the King James Version translates the term, “will worship”, which describes asceticism.
However Paul also informed these Colossians that, because they had an assurance of life in Christ, they should choose to abstain from the sins of the world, fornications, evil desires, covetousness, which Paul identified as a form of idolatry, and “filthy communications”, among which are blasphemies, deceits, slanders, ribaldry, and even the wrath of men.
Saying these things, Paul explained that in Christ “one is not Greek and Judaean, circumcision and uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but altogether and in all ways Anointed.” Paul made a similar statement in Galatians chapter 3, where he had said, as it reads in the King James Version, “26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew [properly Judaean] nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” And here is where many supposedly pious Christians have found, or have even created much confusion.