After mentioning that Paul’s ethic in Colossians is a resurrection, ascension, liberation, and eschatological ethic, Walsh and Keesmaat, in Colossians Remixed, contend also that the ethic of Paul is “relational” and “narrative” and (tomorrow’s post) an ethic of secession.
This section then explores, wondrously, all the relational “in Christ” language of Colossians. Here are some: from 2:9-15 we see this 7x — fullness dwells in him, we come to fullness in him, buried with him, raised with him…
The ethic is rooted not in Torah as commandment but in life in Christ … “because of a matrix of relationships that characterize new life in Christ” (157).
It is also a narrative ethic. “Praxis — that is, human culture-forming, ethical behavior in daily life — is narratively grounded because we act out of who we are” (157). And here I think W-K do some very important theologizing in Colossians: character is narrative formed and the narrative Paul forms them in is the narrative story of Jesus — his whole story is their story. He identifies them with every major event in the life of Jesus.
Here are those events:
Death, burial, resurrection, ascension and second coming.
“The story of Jesus is our story.”