David W. Pao's volume treats Colossians and Philemon together. Colossians answers an error threatening the church with philosophy, legal observance and angel worship, and Paul's reply is the preeminence and sufficiency of Christ, in whom the fullness of deity dwells bodily, worked out in the new self and the ordering of the household. Philemon follows, where Paul asks a master to receive Onesimus back as a brother.

The Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament works from the Greek text and follows a fixed structure for each passage: literary context, main idea, a graphical layout of the argument, structure, exegetical outline, verse-by-verse explanation, and theology in application. Clinton E. Arnold is general editor. Pao gives careful attention to the Christ hymn of Colossians 1 and to the nature of the error Paul confronts, which has long been debated.