You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him, if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which is being proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, was made a servant.
Parallel Translations
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You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds,
yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him,
if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which is being proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, was made a servant.
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And you (which were in tymes past straungers and enymes because youre myndes were set in evyll workes) hath he now reconcilied
in the body of his flesshe thorowe deeth to make you holy vnblameable and with out faut in his awne syght
yf ye continue grounded and stablysshed in the fayth and be not moved awaye from the hope of the gospell wher of ye have herde howe that it is preached amonge all creatures which are vnder heven wher of I Paul am made a minister.
Show all 3 translations
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And you which were in times past strangers and enemies, because your mindes were set in euill workes, hath he nowe also reconciled,
In that body of his flesh through death, to make you holy, and vnblameable and without fault in his sight,
If ye continue, grounded and stablished in the faith, and be not moued away from the hope of the Gospel, whereof ye haue heard, and which hath bene preached to euery creature which is vnder heauen, whereof I Paul am a minister.
Cross-references (94)
- Hebrews 3:14 (v23) For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm to the end,
- Hebrews 3:6 (v23) but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house. We are his house, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the…
- Ephesians 5:27 (v22) that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and…
- Matthew 24:13-14 (v23) But he who endures to the end will be saved. This Good News of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all the…
- Ephesians 2:12 (v21) that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the…
Show all 94 cross-references
- Galatians 6:9 (v23) Let’s not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up.
- Hebrews 10:38 (v23) But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”
- Ephesians 1:4 (v22) even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love,
- Jude 1:24 (v22) Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy,
- Acts 14:22 (v23) strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into…
- Hebrews 10:10 (v22) by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
- Ephesians 2:1-3 (v21) You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world,…
- Titus 3:3-7 (v21) For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating…
- Romans 5:9-10 (v21) Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. For if while we were enemies, we were…
- Ephesians 4:18 (v21) being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of…
- Colossians 1:5-6 (v23) because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Good News which has…
- Romans 10:18 (v23) But I say, didn’t they hear? Yes, most certainly, “Their sound went out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
- Titus 2:14 (v22) who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for…
- Romans 7:4 (v22) Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was…
- Ephesians 3:17 (v23) that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
- Hebrews 6:19 (v23) This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil;
- Ephesians 2:19 (v21) So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God,
- John 15:6 (v23) If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are…
- Romans 8:7-8 (v21) because the mind of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be. Those who are in the…
- 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (v21) Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor…
- 1 Thessalonians 3:5 (v23) For this cause I also, when I couldn’t stand it any longer, sent that I might know your faith, for fear that by any means the tempter had…
- Revelation 2:10 (v23) Don’t be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be…
- John 8:30-32 (v23) As he spoke these things, many believed in him. Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, then…
- Acts 2:5 (v23) Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under the sky.
- Ephesians 1:18 (v23) having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his…
- Titus 1:15-16 (v21) To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience…
- Hebrews 10:20 (v22) by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh,
- John 15:9-10 (v23) Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as…
- 2 Corinthians 3:6 (v23) who also made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives…
- 2 Corinthians 11:2 (v22) For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I married you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
- Ephesians 2:15-16 (v22) having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man…
- Hebrews 13:21 (v22) make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom…
- Luke 8:13-15 (v23) Those on the rock are they who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; but these have no root, who believe for a while, then fall away…
- Luke 22:32 (v23) but I prayed for you, that your faith wouldn’t fail. You, when once you have turned again, establish your brothers.”
- 2 Peter 2:18-22 (v23) For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping…
- Matthew 7:24-25 (v23) “Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on a rock. The rain…
- Romans 1:30 (v21) backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
- Romans 2:7 (v23) to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life;
- Colossians 1:25 (v23) of which I was made a servant according to the stewardship of God which was given me toward you to fulfill the word of God,
- 1 Thessalonians 4:7 (v22) For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.
- 2 Peter 3:14 (v22) Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without defect and blameless in his sight.
- Luke 1:75 (v22) in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.
- 1 Corinthians 15:58 (v23) Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in…
- 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 (v23) But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; namely, that…
- 2 Corinthians 6:1 (v23) Working together, we entreat also that you do not receive the grace of God in vain,
- Galatians 5:7 (v23) You were running well! Who interfered with you that you should not obey the truth?
- Ephesians 3:7-8 (v23) of which I was made a servant according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power. To me,…
- Hebrews 4:14 (v23) Having then a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let’s hold tightly to our confession.
- 1 Peter 1:3 (v23) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope…
- 1 Peter 1:5 (v23) who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
- 1 John 3:1-3 (v23) See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us,…
- Deuteronomy 2:25 (v23) Today I will begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole sky, who shall hear the report of…
- Deuteronomy 4:19 (v23) and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn…
- Psalms 92:13-14 (v23) They are planted in Yahweh’s house. They will flourish in our God’s courts. They will still produce fruit in old age. They will be full of…
- Psalms 125:5 (v23) But as for those who turn away to their crooked ways, Yahweh will lead them away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be on Israel.
- Lamentations 3:66 (v23) You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 18:26 (v23) When the righteous man turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and dies therein; in his iniquity that he has done he shall…
- Hosea 6:3-4 (v23) Let’s acknowledge Yahweh. Let’s press on to know Yahweh. As surely as the sun rises, Yahweh will appear. He will come to us like the rain,…
- Zephaniah 1:6 (v23) those who have turned back from following Yahweh, and those who haven’t sought Yahweh nor inquired after him.
- Mark 16:15 (v23) He said to them, “Go into all the world, and preach the Good News to the whole creation.
- Luke 6:48 (v23) He is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep, and laid a foundation on the rock. When a flood arose, the stream broke against…
- Acts 1:17 (v23) For he was counted with us, and received his portion in this ministry.
- Acts 1:25 (v23) to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas fell away, that he might go to his own place.”
- Acts 4:12 (v23) There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that is given among men, by which we must be saved!”
- Acts 11:23 (v23) who, when he had come, and had seen the grace of God, was glad. He exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they should remain near to…
- Acts 20:24 (v23) But these things don’t count; nor do I hold my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I…
- 1 Corinthians 4:1-3 (v23) So let a man think of us as Christ’s servants, and stewards of God’s mysteries. Here, moreover, it is required of stewards that they be…
- James 4:4 (v21) You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a…
- Psalms 51:7 (v22) Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
- Acts 26:16 (v23) But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things…
- Romans 5:5 (v23) and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
- Romans 15:16 (v23) that I should be a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the Good News of God, that the offering up of the…
- 1 Corinthians 3:5 (v23) Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed, and each as the Lord gave to him?
- 2 Corinthians 4:1 (v23) Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we don’t faint.
- 2 Corinthians 11:23 (v23) Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in…
- Galatians 4:11 (v23) I am afraid for you, that I might have wasted my labor for you.
- Galatians 5:5 (v23) For we, through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness.
- Ephesians 2:21 (v23) in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord;
- Ephesians 4:16 (v23) from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each…
- Colossians 2:7 (v23) rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.
- 1 Thessalonians 3:3 (v23) that no one would be moved by these afflictions. For you know that we are appointed to this task.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:8 (v23) But since we belong to the day, let’s be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:16 (v23) Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
- 1 Timothy 1:12 (v23) I thank him who enabled me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he counted me faithful, appointing me to service;
- 1 Timothy 2:7 (v23) to which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am telling the truth in Christ, not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
- 2 Timothy 1:11-12 (v23) For this I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For this cause I also suffer these things. Yet I am not…
- 2 Timothy 4:5-6 (v23) But you be sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry. For I am already being offered,…
- Titus 3:7 (v23) that being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
- 1 John 2:27 (v23) As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (24 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv21–23 21. And whereas ye were formerly. The general doctrine…
21. And whereas ye were formerly. The general doctrine which he had set forth he now applies particularly to them, that they may feel that they are guilty of very great ingratitude, if they allow themselves to be drawn away from Christ to new inventions. And this arrangement must be carefully observed, because the particular application of a doctrine, so to speak, affects the mind more powerfully. Farther, he leads their views to experience, that they may recognize in themselves the benefit of that redemption of which he had made mention. “You are yourselves a sample of that grace which I declare to have been offered to mankind through Christ. For ye were alienated, that is, from God. Ye were enemies; now ye are received into favor: whence comes this? It is because God, being appeased by the death of Christ, has become reconciled to you.” At the same time, there is in this statement a change of person, for what he has previously declared as to the Father, he now affirms respecting Christ; for we must necessarily explain it thus, in the body of HIS flesh
The term διανοίας (thought) I explain, as employed by way of amplification, as though he had said, that they were altogether, and in the whole of their mental system, alienated from God, that no one may imagine, after the manner of philosophers, that the alienation is merely in a particular part, as Popish theologians restrict it to the lower appetites. “Nay,” says Paul, “what made you odious to God, had taken possession of your whole mind.” In fine, he meant to intimate, that man, whatever he may be, is wholly at variance with God, and is an enemy to him. The old interpreter renders it (sensum) sense. Erasmus renders it mentem, (mind.) I have made use of the term cogitationis, to denote what the French call intention. For such is the force of the Greek word, and Paul’s meaning requires that it should be rendered so.
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Farther, while the term enemies has a passive as well as active signification, it is well suited to us in both respects, so long as we are apart from Christ. For we are born children of wrath, and every thought of the flesh is enmity against God. (Romans 8:7.)
In wicked works. He shews from its effects the inward hatred which lies hid in the heart. For as mankind endeavor to free themselves from all blame, until they have been openly convicted, God shews them their impiety by outward works, as is more amply treated of in Romans 1:19. Farther, what is told us here as to the Colossians, is applicable to us also, for we differ nothing in respect of nature. There is only this difference, that some are called from their mother’s womb, whose malice God anticipates, so as to prevent them from breaking forth into open fruits, while others, after having wandered during a great part of their life, are brought back to the fold. We all, however, stand in need of Christ as our peace maker, because we are the slaves of sin, and where sin is, there is enmity between God and men.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv21–23 The Son.
The Son.
Sanctification is another work of God in us by Christ, in that that he restored us (which hated God extremely, and were wholly and willingly given to sin) to his gracious favor, in such sort, that he therewithall purifieth us with his holy Spirit, and consecrateth us to righteousness.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv21–23 21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies…
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
Ver. 21. Enemies in your mind] Haters of God, Rom 1:30, and so, God slayers, 1Jn 3:15. Omne peccatum est Deicidium. All sin is a killer of God.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv21–23 And you, that were sometime alienated: the particle and,…
And you, that were sometime alienated: the particle and, by a Hebraism, is put for therefore, or wherefore, leading the Colossians from the doctrines he had proposed, to consider their own estrangement from God and the things that please him, before they were effectually called by the gospel, being then in such a miserable condition as others were in a state of corrupted nature. See Psa 5:9; Rom 6:19; 1Co 6:11; Eph 2:1,3,11,12.
And enemies; not only in their outward deportment had they no communion with the true God, but inwardly they hated God as an enemy, and they were hated of him as his enemies; by their willing and nilling that which was contrary to him and his pleasure, in opposing his revealed will, Joh 15:18,21; Ro 1:29,30; 5:10; 8:7; Jam 4:4.
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In your mind by wicked works; this enmity was predominant in their mind, or cogitation, or carnal reasoning, not receiving or comprehending the things of the Spirit of God, 1Co 2:14; that leading power of their souls being darkened, Eph 4:18, there was an enmity against God, so that they neither could be subject to God’s law, Rom 8:7, under the prevaleney of that corrupt reasoning which was so intent upon their corrupt courses, Gen 6:5, that then they thought not of peace with God.
Yet now hath he reconciled; yet such was the unconstrained compassion of God, that now while sinners, (in a divided sense), Rom 5:10, they were actually reconciled; now, not before, not from eternity in his decree, nor meritoriously when upon the cross, 2Co 5:19; he doth not mean simply the action, of such virtue, necessary and efficacious to make reconciliation, and the appeasing of God’s displeasure; but compriseth the efect of it also when it is wrought in time, 2Co 5:20, and the enmity in the subject is actually removed.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv21, 23 St. Paul having treated of Christ’s work of reconciliation…
St. Paul having treated of Christ’s work of reconciliation in general, in the preceding verse, in this he applies it ot the Colosssians in particular:
Where 1. He describes to them the miserable state and deplorable condition they were in before they were converted to the Christian faith; they were strangers, nay, enemies unto God: Enemies in their minds, which implies a deep rooted enmity, advancing so high as to hate God, not as a Creator, but as a lawgiver; not as a Benefactor, but as a judge and revenger of sin.
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O deplorable degradation, to be at enmity in our minds against him who is the author of our being, and the fountain of our happiness!
Observe, 2. The gracious change wrought in their condition by virtue of Christ’s mediation, you hath he reconciled; not only laid own his life to purchase reconciliation for them, but by the ministry of his word, accompanied with the operation of his holy Spirit, working upon their hearts, even then when they had a strong aversion from God, to accept of terms of peace and reconciliation with him: You, who were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, now hath he reconciled.
Observe, 3. The way and means by which Christ effected this work of reconciliation for them and us, namely, by taking upon him a true body, subject to fleshly infirmities, though without sin; and in that body suffering death for us, that we might be presented at the last day, perfectly holy unto god.
In order to our reconciliation with God, it pleased Christ, the second Person in the ever-glorious Trinity, to assume a body of flesh, that he might be of the same nature with us, and in that body of flesh to die for sin; that the same nature which had sinned, might give satisfaction for sin.
And further, to make us completely happy, he has not only taken away the legal enmity on God’s part, but the natural anmity on our part; for he sanctifies those whom he reconciles initially in this life, but perfectly and completely in the next, and where and when they shall be presented holy, unblameable, and unreproveable, to his heavenly Father.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv21–23 And you that were sometime alienated,.... The general blessing…
And you that were sometime alienated,.... The general blessing of grace and reconciliation, which belongs to the whole body of Christ, the church universal, all the elect of God, whether in heaven or in earth, is here particularly applied to the saints at Colosse, who were eminent instances of it; and that the free grace of God towards them in it might more illustriously appear, the apostle takes notice of what they were before the coming of Christ in the flesh, before the Gospel came among them, and while in a state of unregeneracy, as that they were "alienated": that is from God, not from his general presence, power, and providence, which reach to all his creatures, but from the life of God; see Eph 4:18; from living agreeably to the will of God, being estranged from him who is the fountain of moral and spiritual, as well as natural life; from the law, the rule of life, and from a principle of life in themselves; and altogether disapproving of such a life, as contrary to their carnal affections and lusts: and which alienation from God greatly lay in their forsaking him, the one only and true God, and following and serving strange gods, not attending to the dictates and light of nature; and being destitute of a divine revelation, they went further and further off from God, and from his people, worship, and ordinances; and were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise; the source of all which was sin, and was owing to themselves: God did not alienate himself from them first; they alienated themselves from him; their sins separated between God and them, set them at a distance from him, and at enmity to him, and which very early appeared, for they were estranged from the womb:
and enemies in your mind by wicked works. They were enemies to God, the true God, and were lovers and worshippers of idols; they were enemies to the being and perfections of God, as all men in a state of nature are; and more or less show it, by either denying there is a God, or wishing there was none, or fancying him to be such an one as themselves; or they dispute his sovereignty, deny his omniscience, arraign his justice and faithfulness, and despise the riches of his grace and goodness; they are enemies to his purposes, providences, and word; cannot bear that he should determine any thing concerning them or others; their eye is evil to him because he is good to others; they reply against him, they run upon him, and charge his decrees with unrighteousness and cruelty; murmur at and quarrel with the dispensations of his providence, as unequal and unjust; cast away the law of the Lord, will not be subject to it, and condemn the revelation of his will. They are enemies to Christ in one shape or another; either to his person, denying his proper deity, or real humanity; or to his offices, not hearkening to him as a prophet, trampling on his blood and sacrifice as a priest, and unwilling to have him to rule over them as a King; or to the way of salvation by him, of pardon by his blood, atonement by his sacrifice, justification by his righteousness, and acceptance with God through his person; or to his doctrines and ordinances, which are unsuitable to their vicious tastes, carnal affections, and appetites: they are enemies to the Spirit of Christ, by either denying his deity and personality, or by ridiculing the operations of his grace; or treating with contempt, and as foolish, everything of his, the Bible and all the truths contained in it, dictated by him. They are enemies to the people of God, exceeding mad against them, hate them and persecute them, reckon them the faith of the world, and the offscouring of all things, living in malice to them, and hateful and hating one another: and this enmity to everything divine and good is seated "in the mind"; the mind is not the object of this enmity, as some read the words, "to the mind": for the mind of a carnal man is enmity itself against God; but it is the subject of it, where it has its chief place, and from whence it proceeds, and shows itself in evil actions; and though the word "your" is not in the original text, it is rightly supplied; for the meaning is not that they were enemies "of his mind"; of the mind of the Lord, of his counsels and will, as some read and explain the words, though there is a truth in this, but in their own minds: so that not the body but the soul is the seat of this enmity; and not the inferior faculties of the soul only, the sensitive appetite and passions, but the understanding, the judgment and will, the more noble and rational powers of the soul; from hence spring all the malice and enmity expressed in word and actions: where then is man's free will to that which is good? and hence it is that the mind stands in need of being renewed, enlightened, cleansed and sanctified, and renovation begins here, which is the effect of almighty power; for nothing else can remove the rooted enmity in the heart of men; and which, as deep and as secret as it is, sooner or later, in one way or another, shows itself "by wicked works"; and that frequently, as by loving what God hates, and hating what he loves; by omitting what he commands, and committing what he forbids; by maintaining friendship with the world, and by harbouring his professed enemies, and persecuting his dear friends; and by their wicked words, and evil lives and conversations; and by the various works of the flesh, which are manifest, some being more directly against God, others by which they wrong themselves, and others by which they injure their neighbours:
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yet now hath he reconciled; which may be understood either of the Father's reconciling them to himself by his Son; and so the words are a continuation of the account of the Father's grace, as to all the elect in general, so to the Colossians in particular, notwithstanding the black characters in which they stand described in their natural estate: or else of Christ's reconciling them to his Father, by the sacrifice of himself, which he voluntarily offered for them, though this was their case, and of enemies made them friends: and may be meant either of the impetration of reconciliation for them by his sufferings and death; or of the virtue and efficacy of it in the application of it; in the former sense the "now" refers to the coming of Christ into the world, and the time of his death, and the offering up of his body once for all, when peace and reconciliation were completely made at once for all God's elect; in the latter sense it refers to the time of the conversion of these Colossians, when Christ by his Spirit, in consequence of reconciliation made in the body of his flesh, through death reconciled them to God; to his mind and will, to the way of salvation by himself, to the saints the excellent in the earth, to the Gospel and the ordinances of it, and to all his ways and worship.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv21–23 And you that were alienated, and enemies - Actual…
And you that were alienated, and enemies - Actual alienation of affection makes habitual enmity. In your mind - Both your understanding and your affections. By wicked works - Which continually feed and increase inward alienation from, and enmity to, God. He hath now reconciled - From the moment ye believed.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv21–23 Verse 21. And you, that were sometime alienated] All…
Verse 21. And you, that were sometime alienated] All men are alienated from God, and all are enemies in their minds to him, and show it by their wicked works; but this is spoken particularly of the Gentiles. The word απαλλοτριοω, which we render to alienate, to give to another, to estrange, expresses the state of the Gentiles: while the Jews were, at least by profession, dedicated to God, the Gentiles were alienated, that is, given up to others; they worshipped not the true God, but had gods many and lords many, to whom they dedicated themselves, their religious service, and their property. The verb αλλοτριοω, to alienate, being compounded here with the preposition απο, from, signifies to abalienate, to estrange utterly, to be wholly the property of another. Thus the Gentiles had alienated themselves from God, and were alienated or rejected by him, because of their wickedness and idolatry.
Enemies in your mind] They had the carnal mind, which is enmity against God; and this was expressed in their outward conduct by wicked works. See Clarke on Ro 5:10. The mind is taken here for all the soul, heart, affections, passions, &c.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v21 Col 1:21-23. And you — Colossians, in particular, with…
Col 1:21-23. And you — Colossians, in particular, with all other Gentiles; that were sometime — Greek, ποτε, once, formerly; alienated — Estranged from the knowledge, love, and life of the one living and true God, (see note on Eph 4:18,) being destitute not only of all conformity to him, and union with him, but of all fear of him, and acquaintance with his nature and attributes; yea, and enemies — To him and to his worship and service; in your mind — Your understanding, judgment, will, and affections; by wicked works — Which at once manifested your inward enmity, and continually fed and increased it. Observe, reader, every violation of the divine law, every instance of disobedience to his commands, is an undeniable proof of enmity to him. This, however, is not the only evidence thereof: for, as he manifests his will by the dispensations of his providence, as well as by the precepts of his word, so far as we do not receive these dispensations, however afflictive, with resignation and patience, we manifest our enmity to him; as we do likewise, according to Rom 8:6-7, (where see the note,) so far as we are carnally minded; that is, esteem, desire, and delight in visible and temporal, in preference to spiritual and eternal things; or set our affection on things beneath, instead of setting it on things above, and seek that happiness in the creature which ought to be sought, and certainly can only be found, in the Creator. Yet now hath he reconciled — To himself and to the society of his people. That is, he is both reconciled to you, having forgiven you all your trespasses, and also hath reconciled you, or removed your enmity, by shedding his love abroad in your hearts; in the body of his flesh — (Thus distinguished from his body the church,) namely, his entire manhood, offered up upon the cross for you; through death — Endured to expiate your guilt, and thereby both to render a holy and just God reconcileable, on the terms of repentance toward him, and faith in his Son, and to procure for you the Holy Spirit to work that repentance and faith in you, and give you such a display of God’s love to you as should win and engage your affections to him. See on Rom 5:10; to present you holy — Toward God, dedicated to him in heart and life, conformed to his image, and employed in his service; and unblameable — Αμωμους, spotless in yourselves; cleansed from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit; and unreproveable — With respect to your neighbour, cultivating truth in your words, and justice and mercy in your actions toward all men. If ye continue — That is, you will assuredly be so presented, if you continue in the faith, exercising living faith in Christ and his gospel; grounded and settled — Τεθεμελιωμενοι και εδραιοι, placed on a good foundation, and firmly fixed upon it; and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel — Namely, that lively hope of eternal life, felicity, and glory, (Tit 1:2; 1Pe 1:3,) to which you were begotten again when made children of God by adoption and grace, Rom 8:17. This is termed the hope of the gospel, because the gospel reveals that future and immortal state which is the great object of this hope, and shows us how we may secure a title to that state. Faith and hope are the principal means of our salvation, from first to last. By the former, we are not only justified, and made the children of God, (Rom 3:28; Gal 3:26,) but sanctified and saved eternally; (Act 26:18;) and by the latter, we have patience, gratitude, joy, purity, with a disposition to be zealous and diligent in the work of the Lord, 1Th 1:3; 1Pe 1:3; Rom 5:2; 1Jn 3:3; 1Co 15:58. It is therefore of absolute necessity, in order to our eternal salvation, that we should continue in the lively exercise of these graces. Which ye have heard — Even ye Gentiles; and which was preached — Or is already begun to be preached, by a special commission from God; to every creature which is under heaven — Being no longer confined to the Jews, but extended to all the different nations and languages of men; whereof — Of which gospel; I, Paul, am made a minister — By the singular mercy and grace of God.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv21–23 And you, that were sometime alienated - In this…
And you, that were sometime alienated - In this work of reconciling heaven and earth, you at Colossae, who were once enemies of God, have been reached. The benefit of that great plan has been extended to you, and it has accomplished in you what it is designed to effect everywhere - to reconcile enemies to God. The word “sometime” here - ποτε pote - means “formerly.” In common with all other men they were, by nature, in a state of enmity against God; compare the notes at Eph 2:1-3.
In your mind - It was not merely by wicked works, or by an evil life; it was alienation seated in the mind, and leading to wicked works. It was deliberate and purposed enmity. It was not the result of passion and excitement; it had a deeper seat, and took hold of the intellectual powers The understanding was perverse and alienated from God, and all the powers of the soul were enlisted against him. It is this fact which renders reconciliation with God so difficult. Sin has corrupted and perverted alike the moral and the intellectual powers, and thus the whole man is arrayed against his Creator; compare the notes at Eph 4:18.
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By wicked works - The alienation of the mind showed itself by wicked works, and those works were the public evidence of the alienation; compare Eph 2:1-2.
Yet now hath he reconciled - Harmony has been secured between you and God, and you are brought to friendship and love. Such a change has been produced in you as to bring your minds into friendship with that of God. All the change in producing this is on the part of man, for God cannot change, and there is no reason why he should, if he could. In the work of reconciliation man lays aside his hostility to his Maker, and thus becomes his friend; see the notes at 2Co 5:18.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv21–23 The Colossians are included in this general reconciliation (compare…
The Colossians are included in this general reconciliation (compare Eph 2:1, Eph 2:12).
sometime--"once."
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alienated--from God and salvation: objectively banished from God, through the barrier which God's justice interposed against your sin: subjectively estranged through the alienation of your own wills from God. The former is the prominent thought (compare Rom 5:10), as the second follows, "enemies in your mind." "Actual alienation makes habitual 'enemies'" [BENGEL].
in your mind--Greek, "in your understanding" or "thought" (Eph 2:3; Eph 4:18).
by wicked works--rather as Greek, "in your wicked works" (wicked works were the element in which your enmity subsisted).
yet now--Notwithstanding the former alienation, now that Christ has come, God hath completely reconciled, or restored to His friendship again (so the Greek, compare Note, see on Col 1:20).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv21–23 3. The idea realized in the experience of the…
3. The idea realized in the experience of the Colossians, Col_1:21-23.
21. You that were… alienated—As in science, so in religion, experience establishes the theory. Formerly alienated from God in affection, and enemies—hostile to him in intellectual action and notions of truth, as abundantly manifest in wicked life, they were now actually reconciled with God through Christ.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv21–23 21–23. The Subject pursued: the special case of the…
21–23. The Subject pursued: the special case of the Colossians with regard to Redemption
21. you] In the Greek “you” is accusative, and (in the best supported reading) the only verb to govern it is “to reconcile” in Col_1:20. (See note on “hath He reconciled” just below.) Thus the construction runs unbroken from Col_1:20 into this verse. But there is a break, a paragraph, practically, in the thought and treatment.
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As in Eph_1:13, so here, the Apostle moves from the general case of the “all things” to the particular case of the Colossian believers, included among “the things on the earth.” Cp. also Eph_2:1; a close parallel.
sometimes] Ideally, before Christ’s work; biographically, before their conversion to Him.
alienated] Estranged, Lightfoot.—Cp. Eph_2:12; Eph_4:18, and our notes there. Here, as there, the unregenerate man, and now particularly the heathen man, is viewed as (ideally) once in covenant and peace with God, and recipient of His “life,” but “fallen” thence.—See note above on “to reconcile,” Col_1:20.
enemies] Not, as some render, “hated.” The Greek does mean “hated” Rom_11:28; but scarcely so anywhere else in N.T.—For the truth, cp. Rom_8:7. In its inmost essence, sinfulness is hostility to the nature, will, and claims of the Holy One. He therefore on His part must be judicially adverse to the sinner, apart from the propitiation He has provided. But this side of the fact is less prominent here.
in your mind] The word rendered “mind” commonly denotes the rational powers in general; cp. e.g. Eph_4:17; 1Pe_1:13. The Colossians in their heathen state had shewn their “enmity” “in those powers,” inasmuch as the approved principles of their lives were contrary to the will of God.
by wicked works] More lit., in your wicked works; the orbit, so to speak, traced by their life of “enmity.” For the truth, cp. 1Co_6:9-11; Eph_2:1-3; Tit_3:3-7.
now] “As the fact is,” in the actual provision of mercy and gift of grace. “Comp. e.g. Col_1:26, Rom_5:11; Rom_7:6; Rom_11:30-31; Rom_16:26; Eph_2:13; Eph_3:5; 2Ti_1:10; 1Pe_1:12; 1Pe_2:10; 1Pe_2:23.” (Lightfoot.)
hath he reconciled] More lit., did He reconcile, in the finished work of Christ. But the somewhat better supported reading gives the passive; you were reconciled. Thus (see note on “you” just above) we have here a new sentence, grammatically, although the order of thought practically justifies the rendering of the A.V. Reading thus, we may regard the words from “yet now” to “through death” as a parenthesis in the construction.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv21–23 (21) Alienated.—Not naturally aliens, but estranged. (See Note on…
(21) Alienated.—Not naturally aliens, but estranged. (See Note on Eph_2:12.)
By wicked works.—Properly, in your wicked works. The enmity of heart is not properly caused by wicked works, but shown in them, and probably intensified by reflex action through them.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv21–23 And you, at one time being (men) alienated, and…
And you, at one time being (men) alienated, and enemies in your thought, (engaged) in your wicked works, yet now did he reconcile; or, were ye reconciled so Meyer, Lightfoot, Westcott and Hort, and R.V margin, following Codex B (Col_2:11 Col_3:7; Eph_2:1-3, Eph_2:11, 12 4:18 5:5-8; 1Co_6:4; Rom_6:21 1Pe_1:11 1Pe_4:3) The combination of ontev ("being") with perfect passive participle ("having been alienated") implies a fixed condition, that has become as a part of one"s nature. (so in Eph_4:18, Revised Text) As the opposite of "reconciled," "alienated" is strictly passive, and denotes, not a subjective feeling on the part of the sinner, but an objective determination on the part of God, an exclusion from the Divine favour, from "the kingdom of the Son" and "the lot of the saints". (vers. 12, 13; Eph_5:9 Eph_2:3, 11-13 4:18; Rom_1:18: comp. usage of LXX in. Psa_68:9 RAPC 1Est_9:4 Sir 11:34) "Enemies in your thought" sets forth the disposition of the sinner towards God Rom_8:7; Php_3:18: so Alford,ellicott, Lightfoot) Meyer maintains the passive sense of "enemies," as found in Rom_5:10 Rom_11:28; a Gal_4:16. On the latter view, sh dianoi) is instrumental dative, "by," "in virtue of your state of mind;" on the former, it is dative of reference or definition. Dianoia (here only and Eph_2:3 and 4:18 in St. Paul) has possibly a polemical reference. It denotes in Greek philosophy, the faculty of thought, as opposed to the bodily powers. In Philo"s teaching it signifies the higher part of human nature, akin to God, and opposed to evil which belongs to the senses: "Thought (dianoia) is the best thing in us" ("On Fugitives," "Every man in regard to his intellect (dianoia) is united to the Divine Word, being an impression or fragment or ray of that blessed nature; but in respect of his body he belongs to the entire world" ("On the Creation of the World," But here sin is associated With the intellect in man, and redemption with "the body of Christ"s flesh" (ver. 22): comp. notes on "reason," Col_2:18, and "body," Col_2:23; also Eph_4:18, where the reason is vain, the intellect darkened.
emphasized by its position in the Greek, denoting active evil; see Trench"s "Synonyms," on ponhrov works" is a phrase common in St. John, only used here by St. Paul. (comp. Col_3:7; Rom_6:19, Rom_6:20; Gal_5:19; Heb_9:14) These works are the practices of life in which the sinner is abidingly excluded from "the kingdom of Christ and God", (Eph_5:5) and manifests the radical antipathy of his mind toward God. "Yet or, "but" now:" comp. ver. 26; Col_3:8; Eph_2:13; Rom_3:21, etc. a lively form of transition characteristic of St. Paul, primarily temporal, then also logical in sense. "Were ye reconciled" breaks through the grammatical structure of the sentence, as in vers. 26, 27 (see Lightfoot, and Winer"s "N. T. Grammar," p. 717). If "did he reconcile" (or, "hath he reconciled") be the correct reading, "Christ" is still subject of the verb, as in vers. 19-22, and consistently with Eph_2:15, Eph_2:16. (On "reconcile," see ver. 20.)
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Vers. 21-23.
Application of the reconciliation to the special case of the Colossians.
I THE NATURAL STATE OF THE COLOSSIANS. "And you, being in time past estranged and enemies in your mind in evil works, hath he reconciled.
1. They were estranged from God. The original term denotes that they had fallen from a prior relationship of amity. It points suggestively to the original innocence of man in Eden, and to the deplorable effects of the Fall, as separating between God and man. (Isa_59:2) They had become strangers to God,
(1) because strangers to the life of God (Eph_4:10)
(2) because they followed strange gods (Deu_32:16; Rom_1:25)
(3) because they were "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel". (Eph_2:12)
2. They were hostile to God both in thought and deed. A strange thought that man should cherish a living enmity in a dead heart! It is enmity to God as Lawgiver and Punisher of sin.
(1) Mark the reality of this enmity.
(a) The threatening of the second command asserts it: "Them that hate me". (Exo_20:5)
(b) The friendship of the world involves it: "Whosoever will be a friend of the world will be an enemy of God". (Jam_4:4)
(c) The carnal mind is full of it. (Rom_8:7)
(d) All scoffs and blasphemies manifest it. (Psa_74:18)
(2) The seat of this enmity. "In your mind." It is an essentially carnal mind. The enmity lies deep down in the heart, which is a "chamber of imagery," full of all shapes of hatred to God and man. Strange that there should be hatred to him who is Author of our being and Fountain of our happiness! We need, indeed, in regeneration to be "renewed in our mind", (Eph_4:23) that we may exchange our hatred for love.
(3) The practical sphere of this enmity. "In evil works." The enmity is not caused by evil works, but is manifested through them. (Mat_15:19) They whose "mind and conscience are defiled" are "unto all good works reprobate". (Tit_1:16)
II THE RECONCILIATION OF THE COLOSSIANS. "Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death." The reconciliation has been already explained. The means of it are here expressively set forth by the apostle. The passage suggests:
1. That the atonement was a great historic fact; so that no person might conclude that the reconciliation was effected apart from the person of the incarnate Son or after his return to glory.
2. That he was a real man in a human body, as if to refute Gnostic theories as to a phantom body or as to the body being essentially evil. It was a heresy to say that "Jesus Christ had not come in the flesh". (1Jn_4:2, 1Jn_4:3)
3. That he carried about with him on earth a sin-bearing humanity. It was, therefore, a "weak, abased, and suffering humanity". (Rom_8:3)
4. That his life was consummated by death, as the completion of his atoning sacrifice for sin.
III THE FRUIT OR EFFECT OF THE RECONCILIATION, "To present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him.
1. We see that sanctification follows reconciliation and does not precede it. It confounds the relations of things and perverts Christian doctrine to reverse the order.
2. The atonement provides for our sanctification. It purchased for us all the communications of Divine life. Christ is made to us at once "Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption"; (1Co_1:30)
1. The nature of this sanctification. "Holy and without blemish and unreprovable." The words point, not to the relative standing before God, but to the externally observable advances in spiritual life. These are
2. represented, first, positively and then negatively blemish and unreprovable.
3. The end of this sanctification. "To present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him." Not, as some allege, at the day of judgment, but for his personal approbation, implying
(1) that all we do is in God"s presence (Luk_2:18 Luk_13:26; Act_10:33)
(2) that God is the Witness of all our acts (Luk_8:47; 2Co_7:12; Gal_1:20)
(3) that God not only accepts what is in any measure good, (Luk_1:75) but highly esteems what is good in the saints (Luk_1:25; 2Ti_2:2, 3 5:4)
IV AN EXHORTATION TO PERSEVERANCE IN CONNECTION WITH THE PROVISION FOR THEIR RECONCILIATION. "If at least ye continue in the faith grounded and steadfast, and are not constantly shifting from the hope of the gospel, which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven.
1. There is nothing strictly hypothetical in this passage, as the tense clearly indicates; yet warning is needed as the divinely ordered means of averting failure. There were risks to faith in the presence of Judaeo-Gnostic teachers. We need to be reminded that "he that endureth to the end shall be saved"; (Mat_24:13) but God himself provides for us the grace of continuance.
2. The mode of this continuance. "Grounded and steadfast.
(1) Marking its positive side.
(a) We must be built on the true Foundation. (Eph_2:20) We must be grounded in the doctrines of grace as well as "built as living stones" on "the precious Cornerstone" laid in Zion. (1Pe_2:6) Otherwise we shall be swept away in the rising floods of judgment. (Luk_6:48, Luk_6:49)
(b) We must be steadfast as the result of this grounding. An ungrounded Christian cannot be a growing Christian. It is well to be settled in the faith if we would make progress in Christian life. Suffering has its influence in increasing our stability. Therefore our apostle prays that the God of grace, "after that ye have suffered a while," may "make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you". (1Pe_5:10)
(2) Marking its negative side. "And are not constantly shifting from the hope of the gospel, which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven.
(a) The apostle points to the danger of drifting. When the anchors are lifted, it is impossible to know where the ship may go on a dangerous shore. The false teachers were subtle and plausible and speculative. It may have been hard to resist their logic. But the end of their speculations was death the sacrifice of the hope of the gospel.
(b) He points to a sure anchorage hope of the gospel, which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven.
(a) This hope may have been that of the resurrection, of which the false teachers said it "was past already", (2Ti_2:18) and thus cut up by the roots the true expectations of the Christian.
(b) It was more probably the "hope of the gospel" generally, which is described in Eph_1:18 as "the hope of our calling," including all the blessings of redemption with resurrection itself.
(c) It was a hope
(i.) made known by the gospel;
(ii.) imparted to them by Epaphras, the delegate of the apostle ye heard;
(iii.) and proclaimed as the universal hope of man to all creation.
It was not, therefore, reserved for a select coterie of men. "Its universal tendency was already realized," and its wide publicity was not to be called in question.
(3) Consider the importance of religious steadfastness. "We must hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of hope unto the end". (Heb_3:6) Let us, therefore, bless God that "he has begotten us to a lively hope". (1Pe_1:3)
(4) Seek wisdom from on high "to know what is the hope of our calling". (Eph_1:18)
(5) Let us read the Scriptures prayerfully, that "through patience and comfort of the Scriptures we may have hope". (Rom_15:4)
(6) Let us acknowledge that "truth that is according to godliness". T.C. (Tit_1:1, Tit_1:2)
Vers. 21-29.
The indwelling Christ the believer"s Hope of glory.
The apostle now passes from the general idea of the reconciliation in Christ of all things, to its particular application to the Colossians. We may allow the idea, by its very vastness and grandeur, to become indefinite. We need, therefore, to see its application to the individual soul. Paul consequently brings the reconciliation home to every heart. And here we noticeI THE COLOSSIANS" NATURAL STATE. (Ver. 21.) They were "alienated, and the alienation passed into downright enmity, which manifested itself in "wicked works." Not only were they alienated from God, but from one another and even from themselves. For sin is such a separating power that it not only cuts us off from God and from our fellow-men, but also from ourselves, so that we are divided and dissipated in the faculties and energies of our souls. Hence we find ourselves incurring, not only the Divine anger and the anger of our fellows, but we become angry with ourselves. It will be seen, therefore, that the reconciliation needed is a very wide one.
II THEIR GRACIOUS RECONCILIATION. (Vers. 22-27.) The reconciliation has been brought about at no less a cost than the death of the Son of God. It must be precious. And now we are to notice how real it is. For just as the alienation and enmity have been towards God and men and self, so the reconciliation brings us into unity with God, unity with men, and unity with self. We are reconciled to God; we are reconciled to our fellow men; we are reconciled to ourselves. This is secured by Christ"s indwelling, so that he becomes our Hope of glory (ver. 27) and the Source of that holiness and blamelessness which are the characteristics of redeemed men. Let us look at this reconciliation through atonement and indwelling.
1. We are reconciled to God by it. The Divine hatred to sin found fitting outlet in the cross of Jesus, and in consequence Christ"s Spirit comes and dwells in the believer as the Source and Fountain of a holy character. The inspired, Christ-inhabited soul becomes the object of restored fellowship and complacency; God looks down in love, and he and man are one.
2. We are reconciled to our fellow men by it. The indwelling Christ leads us to peace-making, and we refuse to continue at war with those around us. We rather rejoice in the assurance that the atonement and inspiration of Christ are intended to bring about peace and concord among men.
3. We are reconciled to ourselves by it. For in sin, as we have seen, we are divided and dissipated; but grace comes and we are united to fear God"s Name. We doubtless battle with our sins, but we realize that this is the way to regain our true selves and put internal discord away.
III THEIR EXPECTED PERSEVERANCE AND PERFECTION. (Vers. 23-28.) This faith in Christ, this body of truth through which we have been brought into such intimate relations to Christ, is that in which we are grounded and settled. We expect to continue therein, and this is the meaning of our perseverance. Now, if Christ dwells within us by his Spirit, our progress is assured through his inspiration, and perfection in him is the goal we are to reach at last. This perfection which Paul aims at for the Colossians is not the imputed perfection which "completeness in him" implies, but the perfection of sanctification which his inspiration secures in due season. Only thus are we brought into complete harmony with the universe of God.
IV THE APOSTLE"S PAINFUL MINISTRY IN SECURING THIS. (Vers. 24-29.) As the minister or servant of the Colossian Church, he had taken "pains" to instruct them properly. In this respect every good and noble work is painful; unless we take pains we cannot do it well. But over and above this, Paul was called upon to suffer special trials. He was a prisoner at this time at Rome. He was a suffering member in Christ"s mystical body. Now, one member often suffers in the interests of other members. The atonement of Christ was the suffering of the Head in the interests of all the members. In this none of the members can have any share. But Christ"s afflictions had a wider meaning than simply atonement. He was perfected in experience by them, so as to be sympathetic in a degree impossible otherwise. In this department Paul could have fellowship with Christ in his sufferings. (Php_3:10) Now, the Colossians profited by Paul"s sufferings for them at Rome. All his pain, all his agonizings for them, all the devotedness of spirit he had manifested for them during many years, went to make up the needful basis for their spiritual progress. If he had not suffered as he did, he could not have composed these Epistles of the captivity. To this painful ministry all earnest souls are called. It is part of our heritage, and the experiences found within it are altogether glorious. R.M.E.
Vers. 21-23.
The apostle"s comprehensive view of salvation.
The work of Christ, though comprehensive enough to affect the whole universe, is so penetrative and personal that not a single human soul is overlooked in it. Note how Paul narrows his range of view from the universe to the individual: "To reconcile all things you hath he reconciled I was made a minister." But in his view of what the salvation of each individual was, there was no narrowness. In vers. 21-23 he gives us a comprehensive view of salvation. He speaks of the past, the present, and the future.
I WHAT WE WERE. "Alienated." True in an especial sense of the heathen Colossians, (Eph_2:11, 12 4:17-19) we yet must not shrink from recognizing this as a description of the natural state of all sinful men who have not yet accepted the offer of reconciliation. It thus agrees with our Lord"s verdict on humanity. (Joh_3:3) If we do not relish communion with God or conversation about him, and have no eager desire to do his will and enjoy his favour, these are clear signs of alienation, that there is a gulf between us and our Father. Such alienation does not end in mere indifference; it leads to positive enmity. (Rom_8:7) This "hard saying" of Scripture can easily be justified in the court of conscience, and needs to be impressed on the hearts of the unconverted. They may feel a complacent regard towards a God of their own imagining, but a positive aversion to the living and true God, who hates iniquity and "is angry with the wicked every day." Are they subject to the Law of God? that is the test. They are not. Both hearts and acts are in antagonism to him; "enemies in your mind in your evil works." Not to speak of those sins of the flesh from which they may have been restrained, selfishness and all its kindred sins of the Spirit are sufficient proofs of the alienation and enmity of mind in its relations to God. The lamentable indifference of men to Christ and his salvation is the crowning proof of the enmity of the heart towards God. (Joh_3:18, Joh_3:19)
II WHAT WE ARE. "Reconciled. The work of reconciliation is twofold. There was a reconciliation effected on the cross (ver. 23; 2Co_5:19) There is a reconciliation still to be accomplished in the heart of every impenitent sinner. (2Co_5:20) For there are two obstacles in the way of complete reconciliation the one is in the character of God; the other, in the character of man. The first arises from God"s holiness; the second, from man"s wilfulness. The first was removed by the work of Christ as a propitiatory sacrifice he might himself be just, and the Justifier of hint that hath faith in Jesus; the second is taken away, immediately by the work of the Holy Spirit on man"s heart, but mediately through the death and resurrection of Christ and all the spiritual powers that flow therefrom (Joh_16:7-11; Rom_5:10) What a manifestation of" the riches of his grace which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence," thus to open a pathway by which a holy God might righteously make the first overtures of mercy to a reluctant rebel race! And was it not equally glorious to be able, without destroying man"s freedom or doing any violence to his nature, to overcome his own unwillingness, and open a pathway into his sinful heart for "the peace of God which passeth all understanding"? But at what a cost this has been done! Paul never shrinks from "the offence of the cross." In the face cf false teachers at Colossae and amongst ourselves, he affirms the reality of the sacrificial death of the Divine Son in whom "all the fulness" dwelt. None but incarnate God could effect this reconciliation, and even he only "in the body of his flesh through death. (Heb_10:5-10)
III WHAT WE SHALL BE. "Presented faultless." That the apostle is looking forward to the future we infer from ver. 23. He holds out before us the prospect of attaining that perfection of character which we are striving to attain to, but which, as an ideal, is perpetually rising and receding as we reach after it. (Php_3:12-14) We shall gain that holiness which we now "follow". (Heb_12:14 1Pe_1:13-16) We shall be "unblamable," or "without blemish" (a sacrificial term). The precept in Romans 12. I will be perfectly fulfilled then. The confession in 1Co_4:3 will be needless then. We shall be "unreprovable." Now Christ must at least say, "I have a few things against thee," and we confess Job_9:20, etc. But then neither the accuser of the brethren, nor our own enlightened consciences, nor God himself, will reprove us. (Rom_8:33, Rom_8:34) And all this "before him." We shall be pure enough to bear the scrutiny and to be happy in the presence of that God whose holiness is a consuming fire and whose presence would therefore be intolerable to a sinful soul (1Jn_3:1, 1Jn_3:2; Jud_1:24, 25) But there is a condition attached. Paul describes it in terms of generous confidence:" If, as I would take for granted," etc. ) cf. (Php_1:6) There is a truth to be believed ("the gospel"), a confidence to be maintained (your "faith,", 2Co_1:24) and an expectation to be cherished ("hope;" cf. (Heb_3:14 Heb_6:11; 1Pe_1:3-5; Jud_1:20, 21) Learn:
1. Our steadfastness in Christ is the best evidence of our reconciliation by Christ, and our earnest of a presentation in glory. The loss of faith is the knell of hope.
2. Our assurance of reconciliation and our hope of final perfection are both bound up with the glorious gospel, and may be the privilege of all; for that gospel is a message of salvation for every creature under heaven. E.S.P.
Vers. 21-23.
Our reconciliation.
St. Paul had just been describing the great universal reconciliation. He now directs attention to the enjoyment of a share in it by himself and his readers. It is useless to think of a grand and glorious restoration if we lie outside its blessings, dead and lost. Yet there is a constant danger lest we should be merely interested in the contemplation of the riches of redemption from the outside. Especially when we are considering very large, sublime truths, we are tempted to ignore our own experience. It is instructive to observe that St. Paul always connects his most abstract speculations with practical results, and descends from soaring visions of truth to personal experience.
I A PAST ALIENATION. This was the early condition of the Colossians; it is the condition of all of us before we are renewed in Christ.
1. The alienation arises out of wicked works. We cannot keep our sins to ourselves. They affect our relations with God; they separate us from him. This is the worst result of them.
2. The alienation consists in the state of our minds. The deeds of the hand react on the thoughts of the heart. He who begins by breaking God"s Law ends by separating his whole inner life from God.
3. The alienation results in enmity to God. It cannot remain in passive neglect of the will of God. He who is not with Christ is against him. He who does wicked works may think that his deeds have no relation to God; but, in truth, he is fighting against God.
II A PRESENT RECONCILIATION.
1. It is accomplished at a great cost. Nothing less than death the death of the Son of God could bring it about. How stubborn must have been our enmity! How great must the love of God be! How highly should we value the reconciliation which God has provided at such a fearful price!
2. It is enjoyed through our union with Christ. The reconciliation is "in the body of his flesh." As we eat his flesh, spiritually, by faith and communion, we receive the blessing of reconciliation.
3. It is a present condition. "Yet now hath he reconciled." Reconciliation is accomplished at once, fully, perfectly, and ungrudgingly, with no hints or reminders of the old sins ever again brought up. In the strength of the reconciliation we go on to the working out of the salvation that is only perfected when all sin is conquered.
III A FUTURE PERFECTION. Though reconciled, we are not yet presented to God. A process of preparation is necessary for this.
1. The reconciled must be made holy. Forgiveness is the first step; but it is not the last. Without holiness no man can see God. The whole of life should be a cleansing and purifying and preparing for the unblemished condition in which only Christ can present us to God. But the reconciliation is a necessary preliminary, an important beginning, and a constraining motive for the perfect purification.
2. We must do ore-Tart to realize the future perfection. It depends on our continuing in the faith. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv22–23 To present you holy and umblameable and unreproveable in…
Col_1:22-23
To present you holy and umblameable and unreproveable in His sight.
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The ultimate purpose of reconciliation
I. The ultimate purpose of God in the work of Christ.
1. In present there is possibly a sacrificial allusion (Rom_12:1), or the more eloquent metaphor of the bringing of the bride to the husband by the friend of the bridegroom (2Co_2:2; Eph_5:27), or perhaps it means simply to sit in the presence of. The reference is to the day of judgment (2Co_4:14). In the light of that revealing day His purpose is that we shall stand holy, i.e., devoted to God, and therefore pure, without blemish, as the offerings had to be, and unreproveable, against whom no charge can be brought. They must be spotless indeed who are without fault before the throne.
2. All the lines of thought in the preceding section lead up to this peak. The meaning of God in creation and redemption cannot be fathomed without taking into view the future perfecting of men. The Christian ideal of the possibilities for men is the noblest vision that can animate our hopes. Nothing short of this satisfies Gods heart, for it has to be connected with It pleased the Father. Nor will anything less exhaust the power of the reconciling Christ. His Cross and passion reach no adequate result short of the perfecting of the saints. We ought, then, to keep before us this as the crowning object of Christianity; not to make us happy except as a consequence of holiness. Nothing less should satisfy us.
II. The conditions on which the accomplishment of that purpose depends.
1. Generally speaking, a steadfast adherence to the gospel. If ye continue in the exercise of your faith. This continuance is explained--
(1) Positively, grounded, i.e., built into a foundation, and steadfast, as banded into the firm rock, and so partaking of its fixedness.
(2) Negatively, not moved away, a process that may be continually going on, and in which, by some force constantly acting from without, they may be imperceptibly pushed off from the foundation, i.e., the hope evoked or held out by the gospel.
2. Some plain lessons may be drawn from these words.
(1) There is an if. However great the powers of Christ, and deep the desire, and fixed the purpose of God, no fulfilment of these is possible except on the condition of our habitual exercise of faith. The gospel does not act on men by magic. He could not do because of their unbelief.
(2) It must be present faith that leads to present results. We cannot make an arrangement by which we exercise faith wholesale once for all, and secure a delivery of its blessings in small quantities for a time after.
(3) If our lives are to be firm we must have a foundation outside of ourselves. If my practical life be not built on Christ the blows of circumstance will make it reel and stagger.
(4) This Christ-derived steadfastness will make us able to resist influences that would move us away from the hope of the gospel. If we do not look to our moorings we shall drift away down stream and never know we are moving. Many a man is completely unaware how completely his Christian faith has gone till some crisis comes when he needs it.
III. A three-fold motive for adherence to the gospel.
1. The gospel which ye heard. Paul would have them recall what they heard at their conversion, and tamper with no teaching inconsistent with it. He also appeals to their experience. Have these truths become less precious? To us the same appeal comes. The word has been sounding in our ears since childhood. The one thing we know is not to be lightly abandoned.
2. This gospel was preached in all creation under heaven, whereas the heretical teachings only belonged to a class. All errors are transient and limited; but the gospel can go into any corner under heaven.
3. Whereof I Paul am made a minister.
(1) This is not merely an appeal to their affection, though that is perfectly legitimate.
(2) He puts stress upon the fact that he became a minister, as being an evidence of Christianity; which indeed it is. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Holiness through Christ
What are you doing here by yourself? asked a man of his neighbour one day. I am reading a book that has only two leaves, was the reply. Then it wont take you long to read it, said the other. Months passed away, and they met again. Well, what are you doing now? I am still reading my little book. What! and only two leaves in it? Yes; a white leaf and a red one. I dont understand you. Well, the white leaf is the holiness of God, and the red leaf is the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son. When I study the white leaf, and see my sin in the light of Gods holiness, I am glad to turn to the red leaf and rest my eye on the blood of Jesus. And when I realize the preciousness and efficacy of the Saviours blood, I feel a longing for holiness, and turn again to the white leaf. The little book will occupy me all my life, and I expect it will be my joyful meditation through eternity. (New Encyclopedia of Anecdotes.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v22 Chapter 1 Part 7
Chapter 1 Part 7
THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE OF RECONCILIATION AND ITS HUMAN CONDITIONS
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Col_1:22-23 (R.V.)
THE Apostle has been sketching in magnificent outline a vast system, which we may almost call the scheme of the universe. He has set forth Christ as its Lord and centre, through Whom all things at first came into being, and still continue to be. In parallel manner he has presented Christ as Lord and Centre of the Church, its life giving Head. And finally he has set forth Christ as the Reconciler of all discords in heaven and earth, and especially of that which parts sinful men from God.
And now he shows us here, in the first words of our text, the purpose of this whole manifestation of God in Christ to be the presenting of men perfect in purity, before the perfect judgment of God. He then appends the condition on which the accomplishment of this ultimate purpose in each man depends-namely, the mans continuance in the faith and hope of the Gospel. That leads him to gather up, in a series of clauses characterising the Gospel, certain aspects of it which constitute subordinate motives and encouragements to such steadfastness. That is, I think, the outline connection of the words before us, which at first sight seem somewhat tangled and difficult to unravel.
I. We have then, first, to consider the ultimate purpose of God in the work of Christ.
"To present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before Him." It may be a question whether these words should be connected with "now hath He reconciled," or whether we are to go farther back in the long paragraph, and make them dependent on "it was the good pleasure of the Father." The former seems the more natural-namely, to see here a statement of the great end contemplated in our reconciliation to God; which, indeed, whatever may be the grammatical construction preferred here, is also, of course, the ultimate object of the Fathers good pleasure. In the word "present" there is possibly a sacrificial allusion, as there is unquestionably in its use in Rom_12:1, "Present your bodies a living sacrifice"; or there may be another and even more eloquent metaphor implied, that of the bringing of the bride to the husband by the friend of the bridegroom. That lovely figure is found in two instances of the use of the word in Pauls epistle (2Co_2:2, "to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ," and Eph_5:27, "that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church"), and possibly in others. It certainly gives an appropriate and beautiful emblem here if we think of the presentation of the bride in virginal beauty and purity to her Lord at that last great day which is the bridal day of the perfected Church.
There is, however, no need to suppose any metaphor at all, nor any allusion beyond the general meaning of the word-to set in the presence of. The sacrificial reference is incongruous here, and the bridal one not indicated by anything in the context, as it is in the instances just quoted. One thing is clear, that the reference is to a future presentation in the day of judgment, as in another place, where Paul says, "He shall raise up us also and shall present us". {2Co_4:14} In the light of that revealing day, His purpose is that we shall stand "holy," that is, devoted to God and therefore pure-"without blemish," as the offerings had to be, and "unreprovable," against whom no charge can be brought. These three express a regular sequence; first, the inward principle of consecration and devotion to God, then its visible issue in stainless conduct and character, and then its last consequence, that in the judgment of God and of men we shall stand acquitted of blame, and every accusation drop away from our dazzling purity, like muddy water from the white wing of the sea bird as it soars. And all this moral perfectness and unblamableness is to be not merely in the judgment of men, but "before Him," the light of whose "pure eyes and perfect judgment" discovers all stains and evils. They must be spotless indeed who are "without fault before the throne of God."
Such, then, is the grand conception of the ultimate purpose and issue of Christs reconciling work. All the lines of thought in the preceding section lead up to and converge in this peak. The meaning of God in creation and redemption cannot be fully fathomed without taking into view the future perfecting of men. This Christian ideal of the possibilities for men is the noblest vision that can animate our hopes. Absolute moral purity which shall be recognised as perfect by the, perfect Judge, and a close approach to God, so as that we shall be "before Him" in a manner unknown here-are hopes as much brighter than those which any other systems of belief print on the dim canvas curtain of the future, as the Christian estimate of mans condition apart from Christ is sadder and darker than theirs. Christianity has a much more extended scale of colours than they have. It goes further down into blackness for the tints with which it paints man as he is, and further up into flashing glories of splendour for the gleaming hues with which it paints him as he may become. They move within narrow limits of neutral tints, The Gospel alone does not try to minimise mans evil, because it is triumphantly confident of its power to turn all that evil into good.
Nothing short of this complete purity and blamelessness satisfies Gods heart. We may travel back to the beginning of this section, and connect its first words with these, "It pleased the Father, to present us holy and spotless and blameless." It delights Him. thus to effect the purifying of sinful souls, and He is glad when He sees Himself surrounded by spirits thus echoing His will and reflecting His light. This is what He longs for. This is what He aims at in all His working-to make good and pure men. The moral interest is uppermost in His heart and in His doings. The physical universe is but the scaffolding by which the true house of God may be built. The work of Christ is the means to that end. and when God has got us, by such lavish expenditure, to be white like Himself, and can find nothing in us to condemn, then, and not till then, does He brood over us satisfied and glad at heart, resting in His love, and rejoicing over us with singing.
Nor will anything short of this complete purity exhaust the power of the Reconciling Christ. His work is like an unfinished column, or Giottos Campanile, all shining with marbles and alabasters and set about with fair figures, but waiting for centuries for the glittering apex to gather its glories into a heaven-piercing point. His cross and passion reach no adequate result, short of the perfecting of saints, nor was it worth Christs while to die for any less end. His cross and passion have evidently power to effect this perfect purity, and cannot be supposed to have done all that is in them to do, until they have done that with every Christian.
We ought then to keep very clear before us this as the crowning object of Christianity: not to make men happy, except as a consequence of holiness; not to deliver from penalty, except as a means to holiness; but to make them holy, and being holy, to set them close by the throne of God. No man understands the scope of Christianity, or judges it fairly, who does not give full weight to that as its own statement of its purpose. The more distinctly we, as Christians, keep that purpose prominent in our thoughts, the more shall we have our efforts stimulated and guided, and our hopes fed, even when we are saddened by a sense of failure. We have a power working in us which can make us white as the angels, pure as our Lord is pure. If it, being able to produce perfect results, has produced only such imperfect ones, we may well ask where the reason for the partial failure lies. If we believed more vividly that the real purpose and use of Christianity was to make us good men, we should surely labour more earnestly to secure that end, should take more to heart our own responsibility for the incompleteness with which it has been attained in us, and should submit ourselves more completely to the operation of the "might of the power" which worketh in us.
Nothing less than our absolute purity will satisfy God about us. Nothing less should satisfy ourselves. The only worthy end of Christs work for us is to present us holy, in complete consecration, and without blemish, in perfect homogeneousness and uniformity of white purity and unreproachable in manifest innocence in His sight. If we call ourselves Christians let us make it our lifes business to see that that end is being accomplished in us in some tolerable and growing measure.
II. We have next set forth the conditions on which the accomplishment of that purpose depends:
"If so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel."
The condition is, generally speaking, a steadfast adherence to the Gospel which the Colossians had received. "If ye continue in the faith," means, I suppose, if ye continue to live in the exercise of your faith. The word here has its ordinary subjective sense, expressing the act of the believing man, and there is no need to suppose that it has the later ecclesiastical objective sense, expressing the believers creed, a meaning in which it may be questioned whether the word is ever employed in the New Testament. Then this continuance in the faith is further explained as to its manner, and that first positively, and then negatively. They are to be grounded, or more picturesquely and accurately, "founded," that is, built into a foundation, and therefore "steadfast," as banded into the firm rock, and so partaking of its fixedness. Then, negatively, they are not to be "moved away"; the word by its form conveying the idea that this is a process which may be continually going on, and in which, by some force constantly acting from without, they may be gradually and imperceptibly pushed off from the foundation-that foundation is the hope evoked or held out by the Gospel, a representation which is less familiar than that which makes the Gospel itself the foundation, but is substantially equivalent to it, though with a different colour.
One or two plain lessons may be drawn from these words. There is an "if," then. However great the powers of Christ and of His work, however deep the desire and fixed the purpose of God, no fulfilment of these is possible except on condition of our habitual exercise of faith. The Gospel does not work on men by magic. Mind, heart, and will must be exercised on Christ, or all His power to purify and bless will be of no avail to us. We shall be like Gideons fleece, dry when the dew is falling thick, unless we are continually putting forth living faith. That attracts the blessing and fits the soul to receive it. There is nothing mystical about the matter. Common sense tells us, that if a man never thinks about any truth, that truth will do him no good in any way. If it does not find its road into his heart through his mind, and thence into his life, it is all one as if there were no such truth, or as if he did not believe it. If our creed is made up of truths which we do not think about, we may just as well have no creed. If we do not bring ourselves into contact with the motives which the Gospel brings to bear on character, the motives will not mould our character. If we do not, by faith and meditation, realise the principles which flow from the truth as it is in Jesus, and obtain the strength which is stored in Him, we shall not grow by Him or like Him. No matter how mighty be the renewing powers of the Gospel wielded by the Divine Spirit, they can only work on the nature that is brought into contact with and continues in contact with them by faith. The measure in which we trust Jesus Christ will be the measure in which He helps us. "He could do no mighty works because of their unbelief." He cannot do what He can do, if we thwart Him by our want of faith. God will present us holy before Him if we continue in the faith. And it must be present faith which leads to present results. We cannot make an arrangement by which we exercise faith wholesale once for all, and secure a delivery of its blessings in small quantities for a while after, as a buyer may do with goods. The moments act of faith will bring the moments blessings; but tomorrow will have to get its own grace by its own faith. We cannot lay up a stock for the future. There must be present drinking for present thirst; we cannot lay in a reserve of the water of life, as a camel can drink at a draught enough for a long desert march. The Rock follows us all through the wilderness, but we have to fill our pitchers day by day. Many Christians seem to think that they can live on past acts of faith. No wonder that their Christian character is stunted, and their growth stopped, and many a blemish visible, and many a "blame" to be brought against them. Nothing but continual exercise of faith, day by day, moment by moment, in every duty, and every temptation, will secure the continual entrance into our weakness of the strength which makes strong and the purity which makes pure. Then again, if we and our lives are to be firm and stable, we must have a foundation outside of ourselves on which to rest. That thought is involved in the word "grounded" or "founded." It is possible that this metaphor of the foundation is carried on into the next clause, in which case "the hope of the Gospel" would be the foundation. Strange to make a solid foundation out of so unsubstantial a thing as "hope"! That would be indeed to build a castle on the air, a palace on a soap bubble, would it not? Yes, it would, if this hope were not "the hope produced by the Gospel," and therefore as solid as the ever-enduring Word of the Lord on which it is founded. But, more probably, the ordinary application of the figure is preserved here, and Christ is the foundation, the Rock, on which builded, our fleeting lives and our fickle selves may become rock like too, and every impulsive and changeable Simon Bar Jonas rise to the mature steadfastness of a Peter, the pillar of the Church.
Translate that image of taking Christ for our foundation into plain English, and what does it come to? It means, let our minds find in Him, in His Word, and whole revealing life, the basis of our beliefs, the materials for thought; let our hearts find in Him their object, which brings calmness and unchangeableness into their love; let our practical energies take Him as their motive and pattern, their strength and their aim, their stimulus and their reward; let all hopes and joys, emotions and desires, fasten themselves on Him; let Him occupy and fill our whole nature, and mould and preside over all our actions. So shall we be "founded" on Christ.
And so "founded," we shall, as Paul here beautifully puts it, be "steadfast." Without that foundation to give stability and permanence, we never get down to what abides, but pass our lives amidst fleeting shadows, and are ourselves transient as they. The mind whose thoughts about God and the unseen world are not built on the personal revelation of God in. Christ will have no solid certainties which cannot be shaken, but, at the best, opinions which cannot have more fixedness than belongs to human thoughts upon the great problem. If my love does not rest on Christ, it will flicker and flutter; lighting now here and now there, and even where it rests most secure in. human love, sure to have to take wing some day, when Death with his woodmans axe fells the tree where it nestles. If my practical life is not built on Him, the blows of circumstance will make it reel and stagger. If we are not well joined to Jesus Christ, we shall be driven by gusts of passion and storms of trouble, or borne along on the surface of the slow stream of all-changing time like thistle down on the water. If we are to be stable, it must be because we are fastened to something outside of ourselves that is stable, just as they have to lash a man to the mast or other fixed things on deck, if he is not to be washed overboard in the gale. If we are lashed to the unchangeable Christ by the "cords of love" and faith, we too shall, in our degree, be steadfast. And, says Paul, that Christ-derived steadfastness will make us able to resist influences that would move us away from the hope of the Gospel. That process which their steadfastness would enable the Colossians successfully to resist is described by the language of the Apostle as continuous, and as one which acted on them from without. Intellectual dangers arose from false teachings. The ever-acting tendencies of worldliness pressed upon them, and they needed to make a distinct effort to keep themselves from being overcome by these.
If we do not take care that imperceptible, steady pressure of the all-surrounding worldliness, which is continually acting on us, will push us right off the foundation without our knowing that we have shifted at all. If we do not look well after our moorings we shall drift away down stream, and never know that we are moving, so smooth is the motion, till we wake up to see that everything round about is changed. Many a man is unaware how completely his Christian faith has gone till some crisis comes when he needs it, and when he opens the jar there is nothing. It has evaporated.
When white ants eat away all the inside of a piece of furniture, they leave the outside shell apparently solid, and it stands till some weight is laid upon it, and then goes down with a crash. Many people lose their Christianity in that fashion, by its being nibbled away in tiny flakes by a multitude of secretly working little jaws, and they never know that the pith is out of it till they want to lean on it, and then it gives under them.
The only way to keep firm hold of hope is to keep fast on the foundation. If we do not wish to slide imperceptibly away from Him who alone will make our lives steadfast and our hearts calm with the peacefulness of having found our All, we must continuously make an effort to tighten our grasp on Him, and to resist the subtle forces which, by silent pressure or by sudden blows, seek to get us off the one foundation.
III. Then lastly, we have a threefold motive for adherence to the Gospel.
The three clauses which close these verses seem to be appended as secondary and subordinate encouragements to steadfastness, which encouragements are drawn from. certain characteristics of the Gospel. Of course, the main reason for a mans sticking to the Gospel, or to anything else, is that it is true. And unless we are prepared to say that we believe it true, we have nothing to do with such subordinate motives for professing adherence to it, except to take care that they do not influence us. And that one sole reason is abundantly wrought out in this letter. But then, its truth being established, we may fairly bring in other subsidiary motives to reinforce this, seeing that there may be a certain coldness of belief which needs the warmth of such encouragements. The first of these lies in the words, "the Gospel, which ye heard." That is to say, the Apostle would have the Colossians, in the face of these heretical teachers, remember the beginning of their Christian life, and be consistent with that. They had heard it at their conversion. He would have them recall what they had heard then, and tamper with no teaching inconsistent with it. He also appeals to their experience. "Do you remember what the Gospel did for you? Do you remember the time when it first dawned upon your astonished hearts, all radiant with heavenly beauty, as the revelation of a Heart in heaven that cared for you, and of a Christ Who, on earth, had died for you? Did it not deliver you from your burden? Did it not set new hope before you? Did it not make earth as the very portals of heaven? And have these truths become less precious because familiar? Be not moved away from the Gospel which ye have heard."
To us the same appeal comes. This word has been sounding in our ears ever since childhood. It has done everything for some of us, something for all of us. Its truths have sometimes shone out for us like suns, in the dark, and brought us strength when nothing else could sustain us. If they are not truths, of course they will have to go. But they are not to be abandoned easily. They are interwoven with our very lives. To part with them is a resolution not to be lightly undertaken.
The argument of experience is of no avail to convince others, but is valid for ourselves. A man has a perfect right to say, "I have heard Him myself, and I know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." A Christian may wisely decline to enter on the consideration of many moot questions which he may feel himself incompetent to handle, and rest upon the fact that Christ has saved his soul. The blind man beat the Pharisees in logic when he sturdily took his stand on experience, and refused to be tempted to discuss subjects which he did not understand, or to allow his ignorance to slacken his grasp of what he did know. "Whether this man be a sinner or no, I know not one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." There was no answering that, so by excommunicating him they confessed themselves beaten.
A second encouragement to steadfast adherence to the Gospel lies in the fact that it "was preached in all creation under heaven." We need not be pedantic about literal accuracy, and may allow that the statement has a rhetorical colouring. But what the Apostle means is, that the gospel has spread so widely, through so many phases of civilisation, and has proved its power by touching men so unlike each other in mental furniture and habits, that it had showed itself to be a word for the whole race. It is the same thought as we have already found in Col_1:6. His implied exhortation is, "Be not moved away from what belongs to humanity by teachings which can only belong to a class." All errors are transient in duration and limited in area. One addresses itself to one class of men, another to another. Each false, or exaggerated, or partial representation of religious truth, is congenial to some group with idiosyncrasies of temperament or mind. Different tastes like different spiced meats, but the gospel, "human natures daily food," is the bread of God that everybody can relish, and which everybody must have for healthy life. What only a certain class or the men of one generation or of one stage of culture can find nourishment in, cannot be meant for all men. But the great message of Gods love in Jesus Christ commends itself to us because it can go into any corner of the world, and there, upon all sorts of people, work its wonders. So we will sit down with the women and children upon the green grass, and eat of it, however fastidious people whose appetites have been spoiled by high-spiced meat, may find it coarse and insipid. It would feed them too, if they would try-but whatever they may do, let us take it as more than our necessary food.
The last of these subsidiary encouragements to steadfastness lies in, "whereof I Paul was made a minister." This is not merely an appeal to their affection for him, though that is perfectly legitimate. Holy words may be holier because dear lips have taught them to us, and even the truth of God may allowably have a firmer hold upon our hearts because of our love for some who have ministered it to us. It is a poor commentary on a preachers work if, after long service to a congregation, his words do not come with power given to them by old affection and confidence. The humblest teacher who has done his Masters errand will have some to whom he can appeal as Paul did, and urge them to keep hold of the message which he has preached.
But there is more than that in the Apostles mind. He was accustomed to quote the fact that he, the persecutor, had been made the, messenger of Christ, as a living proof of the infinite mercy and power of that ascended Lord, whom his eyes saw on the road to Damascus. So here, he puts stress on the fact that he became a minister of the gospel, as being an "evidence of Christianity." The history of his conversion is one of the strongest proofs of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. You know, he seems to say, what turned me from being a persecutor into an apostle. It was because I saw the living Christ, and "heard the words of His mouth," and, I beseech you, listen to no words which make His dominion less sovereign, and His sole and all-sufficient work on the cross less mighty as the only power that knits earth to heaven.
So the sum of this whole matter is-abide in Christ. Let us root and ground our lives and characters in Him, and then Gods inmost desire will be gratified in regard to us, and He will bring even us stainless and blameless into the blaze of His presence. There we shall all have to stand, and let that all-penetrating light search us through and through. How do we expect to be then "found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless"? There is but one way-to live in constant exercise of faith in Christ, and grip Him so close and sure that the world, the flesh, and the devil cannot make us loosen our fingers. Then He will hold us up, and His great purpose, which brought Him to earth, and nailed Him to the cross, will be fulfilled in us, and at last we shall lift up voices of wondering praise "to Him who is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv21–23 21–29. You, that were some time alienated. In a…
21–29. You, that were some time alienated. In a state of estrangement before conversion. Enemies in your mind. Hostile on account of wicked works. A wicked life will fill a man with hostile thoughts to God. Yet now hath he reconciled. Christ has changed them by the gospel so that they are enemies no longer. God needs no change. The change must be wrought in man.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv21, 23 Col_1:21. You, that were sometime alienated.—Does not mean, of…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Col_1:21. You, that were sometime alienated.—Does not mean, of course, occasionally alienated, but as the R.V. gives it, “being in time past alienated”—up to the time of the reconciliation always estranged. Enemies in your mind by wicked works.—The most interesting question here is whether God is reconciled to the sinner or only the sinner to God. Is “enemies” to mean “hostile” or “hateful”? Lightfoot says, “It is the mind of man, not the mind of God, which must undergo a change that a reunion may be effected.”
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Col_1:22. In the body of His flesh through death.—When a teacher has to be explicit it may seem to those familiar with the subject as if he were verbose or tautological. So here the body is no phantasm, but fleshly and mortal. To present you holy.—They were professedly holy “saints” (Col_1:2), and the final purpose of their reconciliation is reproachless saintship (on this word, and “unblamable,” see Eph_1:4). Unreprovable in His sight.—It is a lofty eminence to which the holy apostle invites us to look in this word. The light in which we walk—fierce indeed towards sin—reveals no evil, so that the most captious critic has no objection (Tit_2:8).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Col_1:21-22
The Personal Blessings of Reconciliation.
Having shown the relation of Christ to God, to the whole creation, and to the Church, and His connection with all moral beings, the writer now proceeds to point out the relation of Christ to individual man in delivering him from the fetters of sin, and opening up the way of reconciliation with an outraged but loving Deity. In this passage we have a description of the attitude of sinful man towards God and the method of His restoration. We learn that:—
I. Sin has placed man in antagonism to God.—
1. Man is estranged from God. “And you that were sometime alienated” (Col_1:21). Sin severs the soul from God. The principle of cohesion—the consciousness of rectitude which God implanted in man in his sinless state—is weakened, and the sinner, breaking away from the centre of all goodness, drifts into an ever-widening and ever-darkening wilderness of alienation and evil. Sin places man at an infinite distance from God, leads him to shun the divine presence and disregard the divine overtures. A state of alienation is a state of danger; it is a state of spiritual death; and yet it is painful to observe how few in this state are conscious of their awful peril.
2. Man is hostile to God.—“Enemies in your mind” (Col_1:21). The enmity follows from the estrangement, and both have their seat in the mind—“in the original and inmost force of the mind which draws after it the other faculties.” The mind of man opposes the mind of God, sets up a rival kingdom, and organises an active rebellion against the divine Ruler. “The carnal mind is enmity against God” (Rom_8:7). If the hostility is not always flagrantly open, it is in the mind; the fountain of all sin is there. To be a stranger to God is to be an enemy of God: “He that is not with Me is against Me.” The sinner is his own greatest enemy. It is a vain thing to fight against God; terrible will be the vengeance He will ere long wreak upon His enemies.
3. Man’s estrangement and hostility are evident in his actions.—“By wicked works” (Col_1:21). Man is stimulated by his sinful mind to perpetrate the most outrageous acts of rebellion against God, and to indulge in the most fiendish cruelty towards his fellow-man. But there are “wicked works” that may not figure in the criminal columns of the newspapers, nor be detected by the most vigilant watcher. To cherish envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness is equally heinous in the sight of God, and an unmistakable evidence of hostility towards Him. Sin conceived in the mind will, sooner or later, manifest itself in action.
II. Man is reconciled to God in Christ.—
1. The distinguished blessing. “Yet now hath He reconciled” (Col_1:21). To effect this all that is necessary is to persuade the sinner to cease his rebellion and submit to God. In Christ God is reconciled to the sinner; there is no need to persuade Him. He is love; the sinner is enmity. He is light; the sinner is darkness. He is nigh unto the sinner, but the sinner is afar off. The great object is to destroy the sinner’s enmity, that he may have divine love; bring him from darkness into divine light, bring him from his evil works nigh unto God, and reconciliation is the result (Biblical Museum). The amity existing between the soul and God, and which sin had interrupted, is now restored. Dear as are the friendships of earth, none can equal friendship with God.
“He calls a worm His friend,
He calls Himself my God;
And He shall save me to the end
Through Jesu’s blood.”
The loftiest communion of the soul with God is renewed. In this the soul finds its strength, consolation, life, rapture. How much does that man lose whose heart is not reconciled to God?
2. The gracious medium of the blessing.—“In the body of His flesh through death” (Col_1:22). The apostle here refers in the most explicit terms to the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, and shows that the great work of reconciliation was effected in His body, and through death, for that body was crucified and actually died. The apostle perhaps aimed at correcting certain pseudo-spiritualistic notions regarding the person of Christ, busily propagated by the false teachers; some of whom held that Christ was an angelic emanation which animated the man Jesus for a time and withdrew from Him before He suffered. While maintaining the proper deity and glory of Christ’s nature, the apostle plainly indicates that the divine method of reconciliation was by the incarnation and sacrificial death of Christ. He thus exalts the significance and value of the death of Christ. Reconciliation was not accomplished by the faultless example of Christ’s life or the supernal wisdom of His teaching, but by His crucifixion and death. The cross, with its unfathomable mystery, is to them that perish foolishness; but to them that believe it is still the power and wisdom of God.
III. The divine purpose in reconciliation is to promote man’s highest blessedness.—The magnificence of the believer’s future career will be in marked contrast with the obscurity and imperfection of the present; but even in this life he is lifted by the reconciling grace of God to a high standard of moral excellence. The terms here employed, while referring to the same spiritual state, delineate its different aspects.
1. The highest blessedness of man consists in his moral purity.—“To present you holy” (Col_1:22). This shows the condition of the soul in relation to God; it is freely offered to Him as a living sacrifice; the inward consciousness is wholly consecrated to the permanent indwelling of the Holy One; every thought, affection, and aspiration of the soul is hallowed; the whole man is enriched, ennobled, and radiant with a holy character.
2. The highest blessedness of man consists in his personal blamelessness.—“Unblamable” (Col_1:22). This aspect of character has reference to one’s self; it is the development in the outward life of the purity and consecration of the heart; it is a sacrificial term, and means without blemish. The soul is inspired with a sense of integrity, and of always acting for the best. When Socrates was asked, just before his trial, why he did not prepare himself for his defence, he calmly answered, “I have been doing nothing else all my life.” A noble, blameless life is its own defence.
3. The highest blessedness of man consists in his freedom from censure.—“Unreprovable in His sight” (Col_1:22). This feature of a holy character has reference to others. If man thus purified and blessed can bear the piercing glance of Him whose scrutiny no defect can escape, his character is unchallengeable. To be accepted and approved of God places him beyond the accusations of man or demon; the subtle insinuations of the Great Accuser are powerless to hurt. “It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?” To be holy, unblamable, and unreprovable in the sight of God is to enjoy the highest honour and completest bliss. This is the ultimate result of reconciliation in Christ.
Lessons.—
1. Sin is the great foe of God and man.
2. The death of Christ is the means of reconciling sinful man to God.
3. The aim of reconciliation is to produce an irreproachable character.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Col_1:21. Reconciliation by Christ.
I. Estrangement.—
1. The cause—by wicked works.
2. The result—not merely that God is angry, but we have become enemies to God.
II. Reconciliation.—
1. Christ has reconciled man to God.
2. He hath reconciled man to man.
3. He hath reconciled man to himself.
4. He hath reconciled man to duty.—Robertson.
Col_1:22. Holiness the Supreme End of Reconciliation.
I. Holiness an inward state and an outward result.—“Holy, unblamable and unreprovable.”
II. Holiness alone can satisfy God.—“In His sight.”
III. Holiness is the final completion of the soul.—“To present you.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v22 22. “—To present you holy and blameless and unrebukable…
ARGUMENT 6
HOLINESS THE ULTIMATUM
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22. “—To present you holy and blameless and unrebukable in His presence.” Here Paul reaches the culmination of his prologue, running into a transcendent climax on holiness, the end of the apostolic ministry. No wonder he reaches this conclusion after the wonderful affirmations on the Christhood, leading human thought up to the highest pinnacle of the created universe, amid the splendors and glories of cherubim and seraphim, to gaze upon the unparalleled beauties of the glorified bridehood. No wonder he reminds us of the absolute necessity that we be holy and blameless and irreproachable in his presence. The slipshod theology that would satisfy carnal people short of entire sanctification will never get in a million miles of the glorified bridehood. It is a wholesale delusion and caprice of the devil.
23. “If ye abide, having been grounded in the faith, firm and immovable from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard.” The holiness which Paul preaches is no superficial affair; it goes down through all the mud, sand, and slate, and builds its superstructure on the everlasting Rock, destined to stand forever unshaken by cyclones, eternally towering, the admiration of angels and redeemed spirits. This experimental holiness gives you a permanent and abiding settlement in Christ, no longer the sport of the billow, the caprice of the storm. “Preached in all creation, which is under heaven;” not as E.V. reads, “to every creature,” as if the gospel had reached all people in Paul’s day; but it is for the whole world.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v21 Reconciliation. The Greek word signifies "to change thoroughly from,"…
reconciled
Reconciliation. The Greek word signifies "to change thoroughly from," and occurs, Rom 5:10; Rom 11:15; 1Co 7:11; 2Co 5:18; 2Co 5:19; 2Co 5:20. Reconciliation looks toward the effect of the death of christ upon man, as propitiation (See Scofield "Rom 3:25"), is the Godward aspect, and is that effect of the death of Christ upon the believing sinner which, through divine power, works in him a "thorough change" toward God from enmity and aversion to love and trust. It is never said that God is reconciled. God is propitiated, the sinner reconciled (cf) 2Co 5:18-21.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v21 The application of these truths to the Christians of…
The application of these truths to the Christians of Colossae:
v. 21. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
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v. 22. in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight,
v. 23. if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I, Paul, am made a minister.
All the blessed truths which he has discussed in the previous paragraph the apostle wants to apply to the Colossians, his aim being to make them conscious of the unspeakable glories which are the lot of the believers here and in the world to come: And you that were formerly strangers and enemies as to your mind in wicked works. The Colossian Christians, for the most part Gentiles by birth, had not merely been alienated, estranged, from God, as though they had at one time been in fellowship with Him, but they had been absolute strangers to Him, shut out entirely from His love and mercy; they had been His outspoken and inveterate enemies in their own nature. See Eph 2:1; Eph 2:12; Eph 4:18. They were in a state and condition of estrangement as to their affections, passions, desires, understanding. The sphere in which they were moving was that of wicked works, of deeds which increased the alienation between God and them day after day, Rom 8:7. They were thus under the wrath of God and doomed to the judgment of everlasting damnation.
But now the miracle of God’s mercy is brought out: But now has He reconciled (you) in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and unreprovable before Him. This characterizes the present state of the Colossians, the state into which they entered through faith in conversion. Now they have been reconciled, now they have become partakers of the reconciliation of Christ. By God they were reconciled to Himself, in the body of His flesh. The Son of the God of love, the only-begotten Son, the eternal Word, was made flesh, and earned and effected a full reconciliation between the righteous God and the sinful world, through His vicarious death. He bore the curse of being forsaken by God, of being condemned to the fires of eternal death; He paid the debt, He delivered mankind from sin, death, and the devil. This reconciliation is ours by faith, it is a gift of God’s free love, whose purpose was to set us forth, to present us before Himself and His judgment as holy, as people that have been cleansed from sin and consecrated to God, as blameless, free from the faults and stains of sin, as unreprovable, no one being able to fasten an accusation upon us. See 2Co 5:19-21.
How this condition may obtain and continue is shown in the next words: If, indeed, you remain firmly grounded through faith, and firm and not to be moved from the hope of the Gospel which you have heard, which was preached before every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Faith is a condition of salvation inasmuch as it is the instrument and means by which salvation is accepted. Paul writes in a very delicate way: Assuming that, by which he means to say that there could surely be no doubt as to their remaining in faith. With this faith in their hearts, faith in the redemption through the death of Christ, the Christians of Colossae and of all times are grounded, firmly established, they have the surest foundation, for their trust is grounded in Jesus, the Author and Finisher of their faith. It was not only thus in the past, it is thus in the present. And with the help of the Holy Spirit the Christians will not be moved away from the hope of the Gospel which they have heard. The Gospel holds out the aim and object of the believers’ faith, the salvation of their souls, the glory of heaven. No suggestions and persecutions from without, no foolish lusts and desires from within should make us deviate from the directness of our way to heaven. For the promises of the Gospel which have been given us are so sure and certain that no other certainty can compare with their simple assurance. Paul adds that this same Gospel which the Colossians had heard had been preached in the presence of every creature under heaven. Even then the Gospel had been carried forth into every part of the civilized world; it was being spoken of in all the earth, Rom 10:18. All men in search of the truth were being given an opportunity of hearing and learning the way of salvation, of becoming acquainted with the message of redemption, of which Paul had become a minister. The Gospel as preached by Paul is the only way to heaven.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v21 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Paul makes it clear that God has now revealed that Christ exchanges the sin of Gentile believers for his holiness.
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At one time, you also
"There was a time when you Colossian believers also"
were strangers to God
"were like people whom God did not know" or "had pushed God away"
to present you holy, blameless, and above reproach before him
Paul is describing the Colossians as though Jesus had physically cleaned them, put them in clean clothes, and brought them to stand before God the Father. (See: Metaphor)
blameless, and above reproach
Paul uses two words that mean almost the same thing to emphasize the idea of perfection. AT: "perfect" (See: Parallelism)
before him
This expression of location stands for "in God's view" or "in God's mind" (See: Metaphor)
that was proclaimed
that believers proclaimed (See: Active or Passive)
to every person created under heaven
"to every person in the world"
the gospel of which I, Paul, became a servant
Paul was actually a servant of God. AT: "the gospel that I, Paul, serve God by proclaiming" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
God
evil
reconcile
die
holy
blameless
faith
good news
preach
create
heaven
Paul
servant
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv21–23 1:21-23 Paul applies the truth of 1:15-20 to the…
1:21-23 Paul applies the truth of 1:15-20 to the Colossian Christians. As people who have been reconciled to God, they enjoy a new spiritual status and need to stand firm in the truth they have been taught.
1:21 The phrase once far away from God probably refers to their condition as Gentiles (see Eph 2:12).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.