"A Visit to Colosse" Timeline

Two of the three New Testament books that we are reading this week are written to believers in Colosse: Philemon and Colossians. And yes, they probably should be in that order but it is not a perfect reading schedule. (I'm fallible. Scripture is not.)Since the letters were written at the same time and were delivered to Colosse by the same carrier it might just be 6 of one and half-dozen of the other but I suspect that Paul dealt first with the private issue before addressing public ones.

Philemon

The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to a man named Philemon, a member of the church at Colosse, requesting that he forgive Onesimus, the runaway slave that Paul was sending back. Evidently Onesimus was an unbeliever when he ran away from his master but then encountered Paul and the gospel. After his conversion, Paul made it clear that Onesimus must return to Philemon as a slave but that now spiritually they were equal as brothers in Christ. Paul also stated that Onesimus was useful to Paul's ministry, especially during this time of imprisonment, and he would have allowed Onesimus to stay with him if permission could be obtained.

Since this letter is one of the prison epistles the date of writing would be approximately A.D. 60-62.


Colossians
Pastor Dad has been preaching a series of messages from this book over the last several weeks so I could almost bury you in material if I so chose. Or I could at least give you an extended outline. I'll do neither. The sermons will probably be posted at our church's website soon if they are not already so I will not presume to preach them here. :)

This book was written to the believers in the church at Colosse and was delivered at the same time as the letter to Philemon. These letters were carried from the imprisoned Paul by Tychicus and Onesimus (the returning slave). That makes the date of A.D. 60-62 the same as for the book of Philemon.

Paul's reason for writing this letter included combating certain forms of philosophy and mysticism. Evidently man's obsession with angels is not a new thing! (see 2:18) He also used the opportunity to explain how to get along in personal and commercial relationships while maintaining a proper respect for authority.




I Timothy
Paul addressed this letter to his son in the faith, Timothy. The letters that we have read from Paul at this point have mostly been letters to churches with the exception of the one to Philemon, which was a personal letter. This letter was also a personal letter but the recipient was a pastor. Timothy had been sent to help organize some of the converts into churches in the cities where Paul had previously preached. Having Timothy teach sound doctrine in these new churches was one of the ways that the step of disciple-making as required by the Great Commission could be carried out.  As such, this book could be considered Paul's manual for pastors.

It is hard to pinpoint an exact date for writing since there are various theories concerning Paul's time of imprisonment, and how many times of imprisonment, and whether he left Rome for a few years before being taken back and executed. This means the writing could be anywhere from AD 62-66.