Book Review: Colossians & Philemon Commentary (Douglas J Moo)

For our series on the book of Colossians, many of us are going to want more information on how to wrestle with the text on a deeper level. For that goal, a good commentary can be extremely helpful for everyday readers to be able to learn more about any particular book of the Bible. This commentary on Colossians and Philemon by Douglas Moo is a great example that we would like to officially recommend as a church.

While some commentaries are written for academic use by scholars, others are written for a broader audience and devotional usage. The goal is to find a commentary that can provide knowledge and resources allowing for you, the reader, to learn and grow, while not being too difficult to grasp or understand. The Pillar New Testament Commentary series is a great collection of biblical commentaries that seeks to provide helpful information for both types of audiences, making it great for our church body. This commentary (which also covers Philemon, since both are relatively short letters) includes a great introduction that contains background information on both books of Scripture, analyzing date of authorship, historical background, and cultural knowledge that will illuminate the text further. The bulk of the commentary is a verse by verse walkthrough of the books of Scripture, explaining each verse fully in-depth. This makes this commentary a resource that is very easy and helpful to use, allowing for looking up passages quickly.

Douglas Moo is a world-renowned New Testament professor at Wheaton College. He is a leading figure in the evangelical academic world, having written some of the most well respected commentaries on the book of Romans, James, and many others. This book can be confidently trusted to guide faithful believers in their interpretation of this book.

We believe this book is a great resource for any Christian wanting to dive deeper into the text. It serves as an excellent companion for our series on the book of Colossians, and will help anyone wanting to engage deeper in this sermon series, to contribute more fully in City Group discussions, or to study the Word in their own lives with greater understanding.