Front Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright information -- Contents -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- Introduction to Colossians and Philemon -- Colossians -- Letter Opening and Greeting (1:1-2) -- Thanksgiving and Intercession: The Prayer of Paul for the Colossians (1:3-14) -- The Supremacy of Messiah in Creation and Reconciliation: The Christ Hymn (1:15-20) -- Reconciliation and the Colossians (1:21-23) -- Paul's Service: Messianic Woes, Messianic Mission, and the Messianic Mystery (1:24-2:7) -- Engaging the Empty Deceit of a Mystic Judaism in a Hell enistic Philo sophical Garb (2:8-23) -- Transformed and Renewed: New Creation and the New Life (3:1-17) -- Christian Houses in Pagan Cities (3:18-4:1) -- Closing Wo rds of Exhortation from a Missionary Friend (4:2-18) -- Philemon -- Letter Opening, Greeting, and Thanksgiving (1-7) -- The Pathos and Persuasion of the Apostle (8-22) -- Paul's Final Greetings to Philemon (23-25) -- Bibliography -- Back Cover.