St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church
3230 Washington Pike | Bridgeville PA 15017
Every Sunday - 9:30am Matins, 10:30am Divine Liturgy
Weekly Orthodox Bible Study

This Bible Study is prepared by Michael Simmons of St Michaels Orthodox Church in Greensburg PA. Fr. Bogdan Bucur of St Anthony's in Butler PA, and Fr. Stephen De Young of St George Cathedral in Charleston WV as advisors for this weekly commentary on the Wednesday Scripture readings. "Ancient Faith Bible Study" is published with the blessing of His Grace, Bishop Thomas of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Diocese of Charleston, Oakland, and the Mid-Atlantic. Please note that this study is not affiliated with Ancient Faith Ministries.

Weds. October 21, 2015

Beloved in Christ, God bless you.

The Church at Colossae was somewhat different from many of the other churches that St. Paul planted for the Lord's Vineyard as he traveled throughout the Roman world. Unlike many of St. Paul's other letter destinations, Colossae was not a city of any great importance. It was, for all intents and purposes, a small town serving as a way-station along the trade road …  The religion formerly believed by the Colossians was an early form of Gnosticism, and held many similarities to Eastern religions of today. They believed in a type of pantheism, that everything that existed was part of the Divine, a kind of infinite God above the other gods that they referred to as the 'pleroma' in Greek, or the fullness. …  In place of this false religion, St. Paul places the Christian faith. He posits there is one God, the Father, and that the Father has a Son, Jesus Christ. But this Son is not some secondary being who has fallen away from the fullness of the Father, but is Himself the fullness, the 'pleroma', the beginning, the preeminent one. … Though Christ is the fullness of Divinity - He possesses within Himself everything which is God - He does not come into the created world clothed in His Glory with great displays of power and might. Rather, He came into the world as a helpless infant, as a child. …   He suffered and died … publicly executed as a common criminal in a humiliating and excruciatingly painful way. Likewise, those of us who would follow Him, who genuinely desire to be forgiven of our sins and to be reconciled to God, must do likewise and become servants.

Bible Study for Wednesday, October 21st, 2015.

 
Yours in Christ,
+Bp. THOMAS