The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (The Pillar New Testament Commentary Quotes

“Christ who is your life,' (Col 3:4): This identification reflects the relentless Christological focus of Colossians.”
― Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (The Pillar New Testament Commentary

“But more important here is the rhetorical point that they make: Philemon is to respond to Paul because he, Paul, and Onesimus are all “in the Lord/Christ.”1365 The fellowship that is created among those who have faith in Christ (v. 6) brings with it obligations to one another.”
― Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (The Pillar New Testament Commentary

“When people believe in Christ, they become identified with one another in an intimate association and incur both the benefits and responsibilities of that communion. Philemon is fundamentally all about those responsibilities, as Paul, Onesimus, and Philemon, bound together in faith, are forced by circumstances to think through the radical implications of their koinnia.”
― Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (The Pillar New Testament Commentary

“But we should not view the public nature of the letter as simply a lawyer ’s tactic to win his case; it rather reflects the corporate nature of early Christianity, in which no matter was “private” but inevitably affected, and was affected by, one’s brothers and sisters in the new family of God.1163”
― Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (The Pillar New Testament Commentary

“Yet it does suggest that our notion of Philemon as a “private individual” or of his handling of the Onesimus situation as a “private matter” needs rethinking. We may be injecting into the first-century Christian community a contrast of “private” versus “public” that was simply not present there. Indeed, we will suggest that one of the enduring and extremely relevant teachings of Philemon is the degree to which Christians are bound to one another in all their activities through their common faith. Paul”
― Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (The Pillar New Testament Commentary

“At first sight, Paul’s command that slaves obey their masters seems simply to endorse the status quo. But we need to see that what he writes here also subtly undermines it. First, it is significant that Paul chooses to address slaves at all, implying not only that they are assembled with the other Christians of the Colossian church to hear the letter being read but that they are responsible people who need to choose a certain kind of behavior. Second, Paul clearly relativizes the status of the slave’s master by repeatedly reminding both slave (vv. 22, 23, 24) and master (4:1) of the ultimate “master” to whom both are responsible: the Lord Jesus Christ. Third, Paul never hints that he endorses the institution of slavery. He tells slaves and masters how they are to conduct themselves within the institution, but it is a bad misreading of Paul to read into his teaching approval of the institution itself. (For”
― Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (The Pillar New Testament Commentary

“Paul’s point, as v. 23 will make rather more clearly, is that the false teachers have been making far too big a deal of matters that do not get to the essence of true Christian spirituality: the change of heart and mind that leads to true holiness. Jesus made a very similar point in his rebuke of the Pharisees for their preoccupation with their own rules of ritual uncleanness: “Nothing outside you can defile you by going into you. Rather, it is what comes out of you that defiles you” (Mark 7:15).”
― Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (The Pillar New Testament Commentary

“Any teaching that in any way detracts from Christ’s exclusive role is by definition both wrong and ineffective. The teachers themselves are probably not denying that Christ was central to God’s saving purposes. They seem rather to be arguing that certain practices must be added on in order to achieve true spiritual fulfillment. But, for Paul, in this case, addition means subtraction: one cannot “add” to Christ without, in effect, subtracting from his exclusive place in creation and in salvation history.”
― Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (The Pillar New Testament Commentary

“However, as Gordon Fee has argued, it is doubtful whether Paul ever uses the language of “spirit” without some reference to the Holy Spirit. Here, then, while the immediate reference may be, indeed, to Paul’s own “spirit,” it is his spirit as taken up into the Holy Spirit. His “presence” with the Colossians, then, is not a simple “you will be in my thoughts and prayers,” but involves a profound corporate sense of identity, based on and mediated by the Spirit of God.”
― Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (The Pillar New Testament Commentary

“And, at the risk of generalizing unduly, we might suggest that here as well is the point of contact for the application of the message of Colossians to a wide variety of historical and contemporary teachings. Any teaching that questions the sufficiency of Christ — not only for “initial” salvation but also for spiritual growth and ultimate salvation from judgment — falls under the massive christological critique of Colossians.”
― Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (The Pillar New Testament Commentary