The following quotation is provided regarding the book of Colossians, namely: " COLOSSIANS  (Cō·lŏs´ sĭans).…  The City of Colosse  Colosse was located in the southwest corner of Asia Minor in what was then the Roman province of Asia.  Hierapolis and Laodicea were situated only a few miles away.  All three were in the Lycus River valley.  A main road from Ephesus to the east ran through the region.  See Asia Minor.  Colosse was prominent during the Greek period.  By Paul's day it had lost much of its importance, perhaps due to the growth of the neighboring cities.  Extremely detrimental to all of the cities of the region were the earthquaked which occassionally did severe damage.  Shortly after Paul wrote Colossians, the entire Lycus Valley was devastated by an earthquake (about A.D. 61) which probably ended occupation of the city.  The region included a mixture of people native to the area, Greeks, Romans, and transplanted Jews.  The church probably reflected the same diversity.  As far as we know, Paul never visited Colosse.  His influence was felt, however, during his ministry in Ephesus.  (Acts 19:10 records that all Asia heard the gospel.)  The letters to Philemon and to the Colossians indicate that many of Paul's fellow workers (if not Paul himself) had worked among the churches of the Lycus Valley.  As a result, the relationship between the apostle to the Gentiles and the Colossian church was close enough that when trouble arose some of the church turned to Paul for instruction. "¹  Paul ( see Acts 26:1 ) said that Christ was the first to rise from the dead ( see Acts 26:23, for example ), in the sense of all being made alive in his own order, with Christ being the firstfruits ( see 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, for example ).  NOTE: The picture, located at the upper, left corner of this paragraph, was downloaded from the " google.com " web page²

The book of Colossians has been called the bookend to the book of Ephesians.  Specifically, in Ephesians 1:22, 23, it is written, " ²² And ^d he put all things under his feet and gave him as ^e head over all things to the church, ^23 f which is his body, ^g the fullness of him ^h who fills ⁱ all in all. "  In Colossians 1:18, as we see in the text box on page one of the church bulletin, above, Jesus is the Head of the body, the church.  Thus, the Bible clearly teaches that there is one head of the church of Christ, that is, Jesus, and there is one body of Christ, that is, the church of Christ.  Since there is salvation only in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth ( see Acts 4:5-12, for example ), then it is NOT possible to be saved outside of the church of Christ.

Six names for Jesus, and their significance, are shown in Table 1, below:

Table 1: Six Names For Jesus And Their Significance.

Please see Chart 1, below, regarding the number of references to slavery in some of the New Testament books.

( † ) Chart 1: Number Of References To Slavery In Some Of The New Testament Books.

( † ) The data points for this chart are not exhaustive.  The number of references to slavery were taken from the first chapter of each of the books listed.

The Bible teaches that a son is a slave ( see John 8:31-38; Romans, chapter 6 ( especially verses 3, 4, and 15-23, for example ); 1 Corinthians 7:17-24 ( especially verses 22 and 23, for example ); and Galatians 3:26, 27, for example ).  If, as so many in this world wrongly claim, slavery came to an end as a result of the outcome of the American Civil War, then that woul wrongly imply that there were no more children born in this country at the end of the that civil war.  It would also wrongly imply that there were no more marriages in this country at the end of that civil war, since the Bible teaches that the husband is the master, and his wife is his slave ( see Romans 7:1-4; Ephesians 5:24; and Colossians 3:20, 22, for example ).  It would also imply that the system of education in this country came to an end at the end of that civil war.  Matthew 23:8 ( KJV; with center-column references ) teaches that the teacher-disciple relationship is a master-slave relationship.  The phrase " ^t a slave of Christ, " in 1 Corinthians 7:22, has two cross-references, the first of which is to 1 Corinthians 9:21, which reads as follows, namely: " ²¹ To ^l those outside the law I became ^m as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but ⁿ under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. "  The Bible teaches that to be a slave of Christ is to be under the law of Christ, for example.  Thus, the Bible teaches, in general terms, that slavery is being under law.  Those of us who are Christians, members of the church of Christ, are under the law of Christ, while everyone else is under the law of Satan ( see Matthew 16:23, for example ).  Those who wrongly attempt to explain away all slavery are actually justifying slavery to Satan, which involves utter lawlessness, for example.  If there were no education system in this country, then there would be no understanding of basic mathematics and science, for example.  The following constants regarding the mass and orbital speed of the earth are given below, namely: \begin{equation}\tag{1} M_{E} = 5.98 × 10^{\hspace{0.1em}{24}}\hspace{0.2em}kg, \end{equation} and \begin{equation}\tag{2} Speed\_of\_the\_earth_\left\{{orbital}\right\} = 29.8\hspace{0.2em}km/s.^{\textit{3}} \end{equation} Moreover, the equation for electric flux through a surface, for example, would not be known, as shown in equation ( 3 ), below: \begin{equation}\tag{3} \phi\hspace{0.25em} = \int\hspace{0.2em}E_{\hspace{0.09em}{n}}\hspace{0.2em}dS\hspace{0.2em} = \int\hspace{0.2em}\textbf{E} \cdot d\textbf{S}.^{\textit{4}} \end{equation} Most importantly, God has commanded us to study His word, the Holy Bible, so that we will know what to do to be saved, and that we are to live for Christ ( see Acts 2:38, 41, and 47 ( KJV, for example ) and 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15, for example ), for example.  Please seek and read from the book of the LORD ( see Isaiah 34:16, for example ).