Colossians
INTRODUCTION
COLOSSIANS
WILLIAM L. LANE
The first century AD was an age of syncretism. The essence of syncretism is the tendency to identify deities, rites, observances and interpretations of one people or region with those of another. People did not hesitate to alter or modify their religious orientation by adopting elements of belief or expressions of piety originally quite foreign or distinct from their own. Judged from the religious and social perspective of the Roman world, Christianity represented merely another new cult. Particularly in Asia Minor attempts were made to accommodate its truth to Greek religious philosophy. Faced with this threat of syncretism, a primary concern of the apostle Paul became the integrity of the gospel. This is expressed pointedly in Colossians, which was written at a time of crisis when the nature of salvation was being obscured by false teaching.