Getting Biblical in Daily Life
Hundreds and thousands of words have been written trying to make sense of the theology behind Ephesians and Colossians. Shmoop will now attempt to boil this down into a few understandable paragraphs.
Who Wrote These Letters?
This is an easy question, right? Paul of Tarsus wrote 'em. His name is right there on the letterhead. Case closed!
Not so fast.
While most scholars think that Paul did write Colossians, Ephesians is a different story. Lots of folks think that Paul wrote Colossians sometime in the early 50s CE and that a follower of his used that letter as a template to write the letter to the Ephesians sometime after Paul died. You probably noticed that the two letters have a lot of overlap. Unless Paul copied them from each other, there's something fishy going on.
Of course, this is in no way set in stone: there's lots of debate on either side. If you want more details on the arguments for and against Paul's authorship of each book, take a look at our guide to Paul in the "Figures" section. In any case, we still refer to the author of both as "Paul," just to simplify things. But you can make up your own mind about the truth behind the author.
Why Did They Write These?
Now that we (kind of) know who wrote these letters, we're asking ourselves one question: why? It seems that Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians as a way to communicate with them while he was in jail. He was planning a trip there, too, as soon as he got out of the Big House.
But Ephesians is a little trickier. It doesn't address any specific ideas. It sort of reads more like a summary of some of Paul's most important thoughts. The anonymous author was probably a close friend of Paul's and he wanted to offer the world some sort of meditation on some of the best stuff that Paul ever said. He took ideas from Paul's actual letters, added some of his own, and—voilà!—created a theological masterpiece.
Even though we think it's a forgery, we've gotta hand it to the guy. He was pretty good. His thoughts on God and Jesus have inspired and encouraged Christians for thousands of years. Not too shabby.
Jesus Rules
Okay, so what kinds of stuff do Ephesians and Colossians have to say? Well—surprise, surprise—there's a whole lot of talk about Jesus. Whodathunk?
In Paul's opinion, Jesus is pretty much the greatest thing God ever did. Saving the Israelites from slavery? Eh. Helping his people win the Promised Land? Boring. Inspiring Solomon to build the first temple in Jerusalem? No biggie. But Jesus? He's major news.
Just why is he so amazing?
• He helped God during the creation of the world. (Colossians 1:15)
• His death saved all of humanity. (Colossians 1:20)
• He's the head of the whole church. (Ephesians 5:23)
• He's currently relaxing up in Heaven at the right hand of God. (Ephesians 1:20)
The dude is solid.
Essentially, according to Paul, everything God has ever said or did was leading up to Jesus. God wanted to rescue humanity from its sinful ways, so he sent Jesus to Earth to save us. Mission accomplished! Now, says Paul, Christians can be sure they're good with God because he brought Jesus back from the dead and kicked death's butt. He's also revealed how amazing he is through the Holy Spirit.
All Together Now
And there's more good news to Paul's story: Jesus has brought unity to the whole world. See, back in the old days, God formed a covenant with the Jewish people. They were the only ones in his little club. Now that he's brought Jesus to Earth, God has decided to get rid of the divisions between Jews (his chosen people) and Gentiles (the so-not-chosen people). Yay, equality!
Paul calls this the "mystery" (Ephesians 1:9) that God has revealed to him. Basically, the idea is that God doesn't just want to save all his good stuff for the Jewish people anymore. He wants to open his arms to anyone who wants to hang with him and Jesus. Paul is pretty psyched because he's been entrusted to spread this message to the Gentiles. That's job security right there.
You Gotta Have Faith
Because God is so friendly with all people, he's decided to get rid of anything that might set limits on his relationship with people. Namely, Jewish law. Or so Paul thinks (Ephesians 2:15).
He says that God has tossed aside the law so that anyone can be "saved through faith" (Ephesians 2:7). Basically, he just means that there's nothing that people can do to "earn" salvation. Observing the Sabbath? Avoiding bacon? Those things won't get you anywhere with God anymore. Just believe in Jesus and everything will be swell for you.
Okay, so Christians are saved just by believing, right? Sounds simple.
A little too simple.
Paul is pretty clear that you've still gotta do stuff (or not do stuff) to get in good with God. He's pretty critical of what he called "works," but then he quickly goes onto list all the works that Christians need to be doing if they want to gain entry into Heaven. No gossiping. No idolatrizing. And most definitely no sexytimes.
That might seem like a conflict, but it's totally not. Paul believes that Christians need to live lives that are totally oriented toward Jesus. If you have faith in Jesus, says Paul, then you'll want to do all good and moral things because that's what Jesus would do. You talk the talk, so you gotta walk the walk.
The End Is Not Nigh
Unlike almost all of Paul's other letters, these two don't mention anything at all about the end of the world and Jesus' second coming. It was a pretty common belief among Christians of the time. They thought that Jesus would come back again to judge the world and that everyone would feel really, really silly for not believing them. Just look at the Book of Revelation as an example. The heavens open up, plagues rain down, and God takes back what is rightfully his (read: the world).
But Ephesians and Colossians don't have any of this. Weird, huh? Maybe Paul took the day off from doom and gloom? Or maybe he just had more important (and more cheerful) things to say in these letters?
The world may never know.