This passage, according to him, has the following meaning: "I have not only great concern for you, but also for those who have not seen me." "Others want to prove the non-existence of St. Paul in Colossae and neighboring cities by the fact that in the book of Acts it is said twice that the Apostle passed through Phrygia on his second and third journeys; but it is never mentioned that he stopped there to preach.

But in the Acts it is not noticed about Galatia that St. Paul, passing through it, stopped there to preach; and yet in the Epistle to the Galatians he directly says that they were taught the faith by him. And Blessed Theodoret, from what is mentioned in the Book of Acts about the passage of St. Paul through Phrygia, draws the conclusion that he also planted faith in it, and precisely in those places of which we are speaking: for, he says, Laodicea is the chief city of Phrygia, and Colossae (with Hierapolis) is in close proximity to it.

Если, направляясь в Ефес в третье свое путешествие, святой Павел посетил Церкви, насажденные в первое его путешествие, то не мог миновать именно этих городов: они на пути из Иконии в Ефес. — Ничто не мешало ему в них остановиться. Но пусть не останавливался; он мог побывать у них из Ефеса. По дороге не останавливался; но, когда в Ефесе обратились Епафрас с Филимоном и насадили потом веру в своем и соседних городах, тогда и святой Павел побывал у них: и недалеко, и сообщение удобно.

— Говорится, что веру колоссяне уведали от Епафраса (см.: Кол. 1, 7). Так и предполагается, что Епафрас насадил веру, а святой Павел мог посетить те города, когда вера уже распространилась в них. Итак, ни одно из предлагаемых оснований не дает решительного заключения о небытии святого Павла в Колоссах и соседних городах. На это может наводить только то, что в Послании никакого на это не делается указания.

Если б видел их святой Павел, то как-нибудь намекнул бы об этом в Послании. Можно видеть намек в следующих словах: ей же (Церкви) бых аз служитель по смотрению Божию, данному мне в вас исполнити слово Божие (ср.: Кол. 1, 25); но этот намек нельзя счесть определенным, потому что под: в вас — можно разуметь язычников вообще. —- И вообще тон речи всего Послания скорее идет к не видевшему колоссян, чем к видевшему их. На чем же остановиться?

Остановимся на вероятности: кажется, — не был, а может быть, и был. Блаженный Феодорит, утверждающий, что святой Павел был в тех местах и сам насадил там веру, заключает свои о том наведения так: «впрочем, пусть разумеют это, как кому угодно, потому что говорить так или иначе (о сем) не составляет различия в догматах». Так и нам можно поступить.

Впрочем, другие наши толковники полагают, что святой Павел не видел колоссян.   2) Повод к написанию Послания.   Вера верующих колоссян и соседей их была в хорошем состоянии; но ей угрожала опасность от каких-то лжеучителей. Епафрас, не надеясь или видя свое бессилие защитить от них свою паству, прибег за помощию к святому Павлу, учителю своему, когда он находился в узах, вероятно в Риме.

Learning of such a danger of the Christians there, the Apostle writes the Epistle to Colossae, and through them to all their neighbors (Col. 4:16). What kind of false teachers they were, and what kind of false teaching, is not clearly visible. Let us read the passages of the Epistle about this and make possible inferences from them. St. Paul writes: "Let no one deceive you in verbal disputes, with insinuating words" (cf. Col. 2:4).

Here we point only to the general method of false teachers – to cover up lies with eloquence and cunning. Further we read: "Ye who have been observed, let no one deceive you with philosophy and vain flattery, according to human tradition, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ" (cf. Col. 2:8). From this it is evident that there was some kind of philosophizing that did not agree with faith, which considered itself to come from remote antiquity according to human tradition, as was the case, for example, with the Kabbalists, Theosophists, and Theurgics of that time, and in which an outstanding significance was given to the elements of the world. perhaps as instruments for communion with spirits, which is mentioned below in the Apostle, just as it was with the astrologers, magi and spirit-evokers, similar to today's spiritualists.

Then it is said: "Let no one condemn you about eating or drinking, or about part of the feast, or about the New Moons, or about the Sabbaths (cf. Col. 2:16). It is evident that the false teachers were from among the Jews, who adhered to the decrees of their law concerning food and feasts, as well as circumcision and everything else that the Jew cherished, as can be inferred from the preceding speech of the Apostle (cf. Col. 2:11-15).

Then: let no one deceive you with his humility and the service of angels... from the mind of his flesh, and not holding his head (cf. Col. 2:18-19). Here we can see the germ of the doctrine of the forces mediating between the hidden Divinity and the visible creatures, which later developed into a whole system among the Gnostics. With these powers, invisible spirits, they thought by means of, perhaps, incense or something else, like today's tables, to enter into communion and this, as some kind of service, or to completely limit the satisfaction of their religious needs, or to use it as a means to communion with God apart from Christ the Lord.

They considered such their wisdom to be the height of wisdom and, puffing up with it, treated Christian teaching with contempt, although outwardly they kept a humble appearance. Finally, in verses 20-23 of the same chapter, after "Do not touch, taste less, touch less," there is also mention of the lack of mercy for the body in general. This is a kind of strict life, not kept in the proper spirit and not properly directed, as, for example, with our Doukhobors and Khlysts, and therefore reproachful, because of the admixture of superstition with it.

Bringing together all the features of the false teaching that crept up on the Colossians, we conclude that it was a kind of mixture of Judaism with Eastern superstitions and with the superstitions of Hellenic paganism, which had points of contact with Christianity and through this could have access to Christians, not in favor of the faith of Christ, but for its destruction. It is evident that by the time the Epistle was written, this false teaching had not yet formed into a system, but had already clearly revealed that it was completely contrary to Christian truth.

It established the rapprochement of man with God apart from Christ the Lord, in some way through the Angels, with the participation of the elements and bodily deprivations. And this clearly abolished the cross of Christ. This is how our interpreters depict this false teaching. Theophylact writes: "A certain impious teaching began to penetrate into the Colossians, in which it was believed that not through the Son of God, but through the Angels, we had a connection to God."