Colossians 1:1–9 Structure

• Not just a neat literary structure, but reflects the core concern of the epistle:
  • the truth of the gospel
  • when communicated
  • bears fruit and grows
  • producing faith and love
• This epistle itself is a container for this truth, and in sending it out Paul anticipates that it will bear such fruit, so this passage is the schema for the epistle. The rest of the epistle simply unpacks this concept.

Romans 8

35. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?…
37. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39. nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Andrew Fountain 2024-08-04)