-This New Testament letter we know as Colossians is from Paul, who here identifies himself as an apostle. This appears to be his preferred title when writing letters to other Christ-followers (1&2Thessalonians have no title, Philemon has desmios/prisoner, Philippians has doulos, Romans and Titus have both doulos and apostolos, 1&2Corinthians, Galatians/Ephesians/Colossians/1&2Timothy have only apostolos, so 9 out of 13). It means a delegate, messenger, one sent out with orders, i.e with the authority of the one who sent them. This title had special weight in the 1st century church, as it specifically referred to the twelve men who had been with the Lord Jesus Himself and who had been specially selected by Him to go out as His delegates to preach the message of the Kingdom of God and of Jesus as the resurrected Messiah (cf Matthew 10.1-4, Luke 6.13, Acts 1.26, Revelation 21.14). Apostolic authority was not only conferred by Jesus but was also confirmed by God, specifically through fruitful ministry (cf 2Corinthians 3.1-3, 1Corinthians 9.1-2) and through supernatural deeds (cf 2Corinthians 12.12), and since he was not one of the original ‘twelve’, we find Paul repeatedly restating (defending?) his claim that he received special inclusion into this select group by Jesus as well (Acts 26.15-17, Galatians 1.11-16, 1Timothy 2.7, 2Timothy 1.11). Apparently he was not the only one to do so (others made patently false claims of apostleship, cf 2Corinthians 11.13, Revelation 2.2), and the term itself actually does get a little bit fuzzy in places, because we see it applied to others who also were not part of that initial band of twelve (1Corinthians 15.5-8, Acts 14.14, Galatians 1.19, Romans 16.7).
-Nevertheless, the title of apostle is (at least in part) intended to help Paul’s audience pay particular attention to his words and to attach perhaps even more weight to them than they would to just any teacher or pastor.
-Paul does emphasize the authenticity and import of his office by adding that he is an apostle because God wanted him to be one (the greek word theléma means want or desire). God Himself chose Paul - it was not Paul’s choice, he had not been tagging along with Jesus (clearly, as Paul was literally headed in the opposite direction when Jesus appeared to him). He was in fact doing all he could to destroy the body of Christ at the time, but God wanted him instead do all he could to build up the body of Christ (1Corinthians 15.8-10).
-Timothy is included in the writing of this letter. He is not an apostle - he never saw Jesus nor did he get specific marching orders directly from the Lord. But here he is the adelphos - he is Paul’s brother, and he is these people’s brother, and he is our brother, looking down today from heaven and cheering each of us on as we follow in the steps of Christ and run the race He has set before us (Hebrews 12.1). And let’s not lose the weight of that word ‘brother’. There are significant spiritual bonds between those who follow Christ which are like family, forged by the Holy Spirit Himself (cf Ephesians 4.3-6 - remember that all Christ-followers have the same heavenly Father), ties which can be even stronger than those of blood relatives (cf Matthew 12.46-50). That in no way diminishes the importance of earthly family, and a family that follows Christ together is blessed indeed, but unfortunately there is ample evidence in Scripture and in our world that one’s blood relations can become primary obstacles to following Christ and living into what He wants in this life (Matthew 10.37, Matthew 19.28-29, Luke 9.59-62, Luke 14.26, Luke 18.29-30, Luke 21.16). God actually gives us spiritual siblings to help us better follow Jesus (Ephesians 4.16, 1Corinthians 12.14-19, Hebrews 10.24-25, Hebrews 12.1), and really we cannot fully follow Jesus without them. We actually read nothing of Paul’s earthly family in any of his writings, yet we read quite a bit about his spiritual brothers and sisters and sons, and we observe that much of the time he appeared to be surrounded by members of this family he had in Christ (and no doubt he was quite deliberate in seeking this himself).
-One school insists this letter (along with the companion letter to Philemon) was written from prison in Rome around 60AD. Another view has Paul writing from prison in Caesarea in around 59AD (cf Acts 23.33, Acts 24.27). The prison origin is seen from Colossians 4.10. Caesarea was much closer to Colossae, and as far as we know Paul had been hoping to go from Rome to Spain, not back to Asia Minor where Colossae was located (compare Romans 15.28 with Philemon 22). This would support the latter view.
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