The Message of Colossians & Philemon - Paperback

Fullness and Freedom in Christ — and Nothing Else Required

The epistle to the Colossians is filled with teachings and warnings that are relevant to the church in every era. Its central message is one of the most liberating and most urgently needed in every generation of the church: that in Jesus Christ, believers already possess every spiritual fullness they could ever need — and that nothing, however attractive or spiritually impressive it sounds, can improve on or add to what God has already given them in his Son.

This is the message that Paul pressed on the Colossian church against teachers who were insisting that Jesus was not quite enough — that true spiritual progress required additional elements beyond the gospel. And it is the message that Dick Lucas opens up in The Message of Colossians & Philemon with the exegetical care, theological precision, and pastoral urgency that has made this volume one of the most trusted and enduring in the entire Bible Speaks Today series.

A Classic Commentary — Revised and Refreshed

The Message of Colossians & Philemon is one of the foundational volumes in the Bible Speaks Today series from InterVarsity Press — the series founded by John Stott that has set the standard for accessible, applicatory, expository Bible commentary for more than half a century.

In this revised Bible Speaks Today volume, Dick Lucas identifies key themes of Paul’s letter and considers applications for today. Guiding readers through each passage, Lucas explores the great truths of the faith packed into Colossians: freedom, victory over evil, knowledge of God, unity, and other aspects of the riches available in Christ. This new edition of a classic BST volume includes a new interior design, lightly updated language, and updated Scripture quotations throughout. Westminster Bookstore

This revision ensures that one of the series’ most trusted volumes is fully accessible for a new generation of readers — preachers, teachers, small group leaders, and individual Christians who want a reliable, readable, and applicatory guide through two of the New Testament’s most important letters.

Colossians — The Sufficiency of Christ Expounded

The letter to the Colossians is, at its heart, an extended argument for the complete sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Paul works through the letter showing who Christ is — the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, the head of the body, the one in whom all the fullness of the Deity dwells — and then drawing out the implication: if you have Christ, you have everything. If you add anything to Christ as necessary for spiritual progress, you have subtracted from Christ.

These are the great objective truths of the faith that Dick Lucas highlights in The Message of Colossians and Philemon, enabling readers to see both the riches that are ours in Christ and the irrelevance — even blasphemy — of all would-be improvements on what God has done. Christianbook.com

Lucas works through the letter with the steady, careful attention of someone who has preached it many times and understands not just what Paul is saying in individual passages but what he is building toward in the whole. His exposition is clear, his theological instincts are sound, and his application is consistently drawn from the text rather than imposed upon it.

Philemon — The Gospel in a Personal Letter

The letter to Philemon is one of the New Testament’s most intimate documents — a personal appeal from Paul to a slave owner on behalf of a runaway slave named Onesimus. In just twenty-five verses, Paul demonstrates the social implications of the gospel with a rhetorical skill and pastoral warmth that few texts in the entire Bible can match.

Lucas handles this brief but rich letter with equal care — showing how the gospel of reconciliation that Paul expounds in Colossians is put into practice in the specific, uncomfortable, socially costly situation of Philemon and Onesimus. The themes of freedom, forgiveness, and the new relationships that the gospel creates are nowhere more vividly illustrated than in this remarkable little letter.

What This Commentary Covers

• Colossians 1:1–14 — Paul’s thanksgiving and prayer; the gospel bearing fruit across the world
• Colossians 1:15–23 — The supreme Christ; the cosmic Christology that is the foundation of Paul’s argument
• Colossians 1:24–2:7 — Paul’s ministry; the mystery now revealed; Christ in you, the hope of glory
• Colossians 2:8–23 — The Colossian error exposed; fullness in Christ; the irrelevance of human tradition and religious observance
• Colossians 3:1–4:1 — The new life in Christ; the household code; putting off the old and putting on the new
• Colossians 4:2–18 — Prayer, wisdom, and the gospel network that surrounded Paul
• Philemon 1–25 — Paul’s appeal for Onesimus; the gospel that transforms social relationships

What Readers Will Gain

• A clear, exegetically grounded, and applicatory understanding of both Colossians and Philemon
• A richer grasp of the supreme sufficiency of Christ — the central argument of Colossians — and its implications for Christian life and doctrine
• An understanding of the situation facing the Colossian and Philemonian Christians in the first century and how very similar issues continue to face Christians today Crossway
• Reliable guidance for preaching or teaching through either letter — from a commentator who has done exactly that across a distinguished ministry
• The fruit of Dick Lucas’s decades of exposition at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate — one of the most significant centres of expository Bible teaching in the twentieth century

Who Should Read This Book

• Pastors and preachers preparing to preach through Colossians or Philemon
• Small group leaders wanting a reliable expository commentary to prepare for leading others through these letters
• Individual Christians wanting a serious but accessible guide through two of the New Testament’s most important letters
• Christians in India navigating the same pressure the Colossians faced — to supplement Christ with additional spiritual elements — who want a thorough, biblically grounded engagement with Paul’s response
• Theology students and seminary candidates studying the Pauline letters or New Testament theology
• Anyone working through the Bible Speaks Today series wanting the Colossians and Philemon volume
• Preachers wanting to engage with Dick Lucas’s exposition of letters he preached at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate for decades

About the Author

Dick Lucas served for many years as rector of St. Helen’s Bishopsgate, London. Under his ministry, St. Helen’s became one of the most significant centres of expository Bible teaching in the English-speaking world — particularly through its lunchtime Bible teaching ministry to workers in the City of London, which shaped the faith of thousands of professionals and future church leaders across several generations. His books include The Message of 2 Peter and Jude and Teaching John, and his contribution to the Bible Speaks Today series reflects a lifetime of careful, faithful, and applicatory engagement with the text of Scripture. His exposition of Colossians draws on decades of preaching the letter and a deep pastoral conviction that its message — the complete sufficiency of Christ — is as urgently needed today as it was when Paul first wrote it. Christian Focus

About the Bible Speaks Today Series

The Message of Colossians & Philemon is part of the Bible Speaks Today series from InterVarsity Press — one of the most trusted and widely-used series of expository Bible commentaries available, founded by John Stott and spanning the entire Old and New Testaments. Each volume is designed to combine careful exposition of the biblical text with clear, applicatory writing that makes serious Bible engagement accessible to preachers, teachers, and ordinary Christians. The series is widely used in pastoral training, sermon preparation, personal Bible study, and church discipleship programmes across the world, including a growing and significant readership in India and South Asia.