Colossians: Confident Christianity - Six studies for individuals or groups - Paperback

It Happens All the Time. And It Can Happen to You.

People start out well as Christians. They are gripped by the gospel. They love Jesus. They are growing.

And then, slowly and often imperceptibly, something shifts. The gospel of Jesus Christ — the announcement that God has acted in his Son to rescue sinners — begins to seem insufficient. Not wrong exactly. Just not quite enough on its own. Something needs to be added. A spiritual practice. A particular experience. A moral framework. A school of thought. A tradition or movement that promises deeper life, greater power, more certain growth.

And before long, the focus has shifted from Jesus Christ and his saving death to these other things. Christianity is still the vocabulary — but the centre has moved.

This is precisely what was happening in Colossae when Paul wrote his letter. And as Mark Meynell shows throughout these six studies, undoubtedly, Christians today face the same danger. Wikipedia

The Most Relevant Letter in the New Testament

Paul wrote Colossians to a church that was being enticed by fine-sounding arguments — arguments that Jesus was important but not quite sufficient. That true spiritual progress required additional elements: rituals, ascetic practices, mystical experiences, philosophies, and observances that promised to take believers beyond the basics of the gospel into a deeper and more fulfilling spiritual life.

Paul’s response was not to add better arguments to theirs. It was to present Christ — in his full, cosmic, unrivalled identity and sufficiency. The Christ who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, in whom all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form. The Christ who is head over every power and authority. The Christ in whom believers have already been given fullness, already died with him and been raised with him, already clothed themselves with his new humanity.

The case of Colossians is simple and devastating: once you have seen who Christ truly is, there is nothing to add. Jesus is enough. And Colossians: Confident Christianity by Mark Meynell helps small groups and individuals see this — and be genuinely transformed by it.

Six Sessions — One Argument

The six studies in this Good Book Guide work through Colossians with a structure that follows and reinforces Paul’s own argument:

1. Jesus Our Confidence (Colossians 1:1–14) The opening of the letter — Paul’s thanksgiving and prayer for the Colossians — establishing the gospel as the foundation of all Christian confidence

2. Jesus Our Lord (Colossians 1:15–23) The great Christological passage — the supremacy of Christ over all creation and all things, and the sufficiency of his reconciling death

3. Jesus Our Rock (Colossians 1:24–2:7) Paul’s own ministry and his pastoral burden for the Colossians — presenting Christ as the mystery now revealed, in whom all wisdom and knowledge are hidden

4. Jesus Our Fullness (Colossians 2:8–23) The direct engagement with the Colossian error — showing why no human tradition, practice, or philosophy can add to what believers already have in Christ

5. Jesus Our Lifestyle (Colossians 3:1–4:1) The practical implications of being raised with Christ — putting off the old life and putting on the new, structured around the household and community

6. Jesus Our Ministry (Colossians 4:2–18) The closing section — prayer, wisdom in witness, and the network of gospel workers that surrounds Paul Wikipedia

Together these six sessions trace the whole argument of Colossians — from Paul’s opening gospel summary to his closing personal greetings — and help participants both understand what Paul is saying and be confronted by its implications for their own Christian lives.

The Danger Is Real — and Particularly Relevant in India

The specific form of the Colossian error — adding to Christ; supplementing the gospel with practices, experiences, traditions, and philosophies that promise something more — is not a first-century curiosity. It is one of the most common and most dangerous patterns in Christian life in every generation and every culture.

For Christians in India — navigating the spiritual richness and complexity of a culture where religious practices, rituals, and spiritual experiences are deeply valued, and where the pressure to incorporate elements from other traditions or to find spiritual power through additional means is both constant and often sincere — Colossians speaks with particular directness. Mark Meynell’s guide helps Indian Christians think clearly about what the letter is actually saying and what it means for their specific context.

Built for Small Groups — and for Individuals

Each session draws you to look closely at the Bible text and apply it meaningfully to your own life and situation. The Good Book Guides are designed to enable genuine engagement with the text — not just to provide answers but to help participants discover what the passage is saying for themselves, guided by carefully crafted questions. The Good Book Company

“The Good Book Guides are a fantastic resource for small-groups and personal study. I’ve used many of them myself. For a busy small-group leader, or a Christian looking for refreshment in his or her devotional life, these come so highly recommended.” — Sam Allberry, Pastor; author of Is God Anti-Gay? Wikipedia

“Each guide provides a framework for your group to dig into the text of Scripture for itself while providing enough of a steer to keep you on track plus useful pointers towards application. The result is a great combination of fidelity to Scripture and ease of use.” — Tim Chester, Crosslands Training Wikipedia

What This Study Guide Covers

• The Colossian error — what the false teaching involved and why it was dangerous
• The supremacy and sufficiency of Christ — Paul’s full, cosmic, unrivalled portrait of who Jesus is
• The fullness believers already have in Christ — why nothing can be added to what they already possess
• The practical implications of being raised with Christ — what the new life looks like in community and household
• How to identify and resist modern equivalents of the Colossian error
• The gospel as the foundation of genuine Christian confidence, growth, and fruitfulness

What Participants Will Gain

• A clear, exegetically grounded, and personally challenging understanding of Colossians from beginning to end
• A renewed conviction that Christ is sufficient — nothing needs to be added to what he has done
• The ability to identify and engage the modern equivalents of the Colossian error in their own context
• Genuine confidence as a Christian — rooted not in religious achievement or spiritual experience but in the person and work of Jesus Christ
• Rich, substantive small group discussion — generated by questions designed to take participants into the text and into application
• A guide that rewards both first-time and experienced readers of Colossians with fresh insight and renewed confidence

Who Should Use This Study Guide

• Small groups wanting a well-structured, text-focused, and applicatory guide through the book of Colossians
• Individual Christians wanting to work through Colossians carefully in a personal study context
• Pastors and church leaders wanting a reliable resource for a preaching or teaching series through Colossians
• Christians in India navigating the specific pressures of syncretism, spiritual supplementation, and the temptation to add to Christ
• New believers wanting a grounded and accessible introduction to what it means to have everything in Christ
• Mature Christians who sense that their focus has drifted from Christ — and who need Colossians to bring them back
• Churches wanting a complete six-session study that covers a New Testament letter from beginning to end

About the Author

Mark Meynell served in a church in Sheffield before moving to Kampala, Uganda to train pastors. He now lives in Maidenhead with his wife Rachel and two children. He is on the staff of Langham Partnership and an honorary Curate at All Souls Langham Place in London. His experience of ministry in both the United Kingdom and Uganda — and his work with Langham Partnership, which focuses on equipping preachers and church leaders in the Global South — gives his engagement with Colossians a cross-cultural breadth and pastoral urgency that makes it particularly valuable for churches in India and across the developing world. Thegoodbook

About the Good Book Guides Series

Colossians: Confident Christianity is part of the Good Book Guides series from The Good Book Company — best-selling Bible-study guides with over one million sold. Each guide is designed to help groups and individuals dig into a book of the Bible or a biblical theme with genuine depth, clear application, and the kind of questions that generate real rather than superficial discussion. Other titles in the series cover books and themes across the Old and New Testaments, making it one of the most comprehensive and widely-used Bible study resources available for churches worldwide. The Good Book Company

What is Colossians: Confident Christianity about? It is a six-session Good Book Guide through the letter to the Colossians, written by Mark Meynell. It addresses the danger of adding to Christ — supplementing the gospel with rituals, experiences, philosophies, or traditions — by presenting Paul’s full, cosmic portrait of who Jesus is and why he is completely sufficient. The six studies help groups and individuals find the way to achieve true Christian growth into confidence and fruitfulness.