15 Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. 16 After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea. (Colossians 4:15-16)
For at least 250 years the early church met in homes, and when they met they read the Scriptures. Very often we see that the early church met in the homes of the more wealthy women in the city. Such is the case in Colossae.
Here, Paul is encouraging the Colossians to read the letters which were shared among all of the groups of believers in the area. These readings largely formed a great part of their time together, as it does in our churches today. These readings would create much discussion among the believers as these early Christians would learn of the Lord from the Apostle Paul.
You will notice that there is no letter to the church at Laodicea in our New Testament. Many scholars feel that the letter to the Ephesians is this letter to Laodicea, as the Ephesian letter was, in a sense, a letter read by all of the churches in the region.
The first and last of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation are Ephesus and Laodicea respectively, so that the letter to the Ephesians, as we call it, was sent first to Ephesus, then to the other churches on that circuit, and finally ended up at Laodicea. If that is the case then we have not lost anything in that regard.
Let me leave you with this observation: the word of God must be central to our understanding of the world. All things must be evaluated through the lens of God's word. If this happens, we come to understand the words of the Lord Jesus when He said, "It is not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of him. " It is at this point that we come to see that all things are sacred, and we will be known for what we believe rather than what we don not believe.
