Colossians vs Ephesians

I dont know much about the books of the bibles. Could someone tell me what the diff is between these two books. I notice the same things are being said in both books, but who is Paul speaking to in each, and does one relate more to us today than the other, or more specific to us etc.?

Thanks in Advance
Ph3

PS. or perhaps where I might find a reliable book that would help me with this in the future, when I come upon other questions about the history, or make up of the bible.

The two books are very similar. The book of Ephesians was written to the church at Ephesus, and the book of Colossians was written to the church at Colosse. These churches were dealing with different problems at the time, and Paul was trying to help them to learn how to deal with those problems. Ephesus was a port city, and as such they were having problems dealing with carnal people. go figure, a bunch of sailors hanging around all the time. So the focus of this book was how the Body of Christ (you and I) should deal with carnal people as mature believers. The people at Colosse had a different problem. They had a nostic view of life. Basicaly that everything of the spirit was good, and everything that was of the flesh was bad. In this book Paul took the focus of them, and put it squarely on Jesus where it's supposed to be. He spends alot of time talking about Jesus, and all that He did for us. Both of the books are relevant today. All the books have somethig to teach. Sometimes it just depends on what problems you are facing at that given time.

Reading the epistles is like hearing one side of a telephone converstatsion. Unless the side you are hearing restates the questions and issues, you are just hearing the responses.
Hence you can see the problem. You have to read them and reverse engineer the issues. Of course this also lends itself to much speculation and conjecture. Many of the books you read including commentaries take this approach.

I'm sorry, but what you said went straight over my head.

thanks for your input.

I googled colossians vs ephesians and came up with a nice bit by andrew womack, which seems to be a popular man in these forums.

Try looking at the recurrent themes in these and Paul's other epistles...

Other than carnality, Paul was also debating false teachers (Judaizers) who were attempting to place the believers into bondage to either Jewish customs or to man-made rules and regulations.

__________________

The Inheritance is yours,
riverpastor

Galatians 3:19 - What then was the purpose of the Law? It was added because of transgressions and [to make men more conscious of the sinfulness] of sin; and it was intended to be in effect until the Seed (the Descendant, the Heir) should come, to and concerning Whom the promise had been made.