the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his saints, to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim him, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus;
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Colossians 1:26-28 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the assembly, 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, the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his saints, to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim him, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; for which I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.
Parallel Translations
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the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his saints,
to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
We proclaim him, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus;
-
that mistery hid sence the worlde beganne and sence the begynnynge of generacions: but now is opened to his saynctes
to whom god wolde make knowen the glorious riches of this mistery amonge the gentyls which riches is Christ in you the hope of glory
whom we preach warnynge all men and teachinge all men in all wisdome to make all men parfect in Christ Iesu.
Show all 3 translations
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Which is the mysterie hid since the world began, and from all ages, but nowe is made manifest to his Saintes,
To whome God woulde make knowen what is the riches of his glorious mysterie among the Gentiles, which riches is Christ in you, the hope of glory,
Whome we preache, admonishing euery man, and teaching euery man in all wisdome, that we may present euery man perfect in Christ Iesus,
Cross-references (96)
- John 14:20 (v27) In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
- Romans 8:10 (v27) If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
- Ephesians 3:16-17 (v27) that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner…
- 1 John 4:4 (v27) You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.
- Galatians 2:20 (v27) I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live…
Show all 95 cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 3:16 (v27) Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
- Revelation 3:20 (v27) Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and…
- John 14:17 (v27) the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him and doesn’t know him. You know him, for he lives with you, and…
- Ephesians 1:17-18 (v27) that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him,…
- Ephesians 5:27 (v28) 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…
- Jeremiah 3:15 (v28) I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
- 2 Corinthians 4:6 (v27) seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory…
- Galatians 4:19 (v27) My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you—
- John 14:23 (v27) Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.
- 1 Timothy 1:1 (v27) Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ our hope;
- Colossians 2:3 (v27) in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
- John 17:26 (v27) I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
- 2 Corinthians 6:16 (v27) What agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them and…
- John 15:2-5 (v27) Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are…
- Ephesians 4:11-13 (v28) He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints,…
- Colossians 3:11 (v27) where there can’t be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, or free person; but Christ is all,…
- John 17:22-23 (v27) The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and you in me, that they may…
- Ephesians 2:22 (v27) in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
- Matthew 5:48 (v28) Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
- 1 Peter 1:3-4 (v27) 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…
- John 6:56 (v27) He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him.
- Romans 9:23 (v27) and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,
- Ephesians 1:7 (v27) in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
- Philippians 4:19 (v27) My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
- Psalms 16:9-11 (v27) Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices. My body shall also dwell in safety. For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither…
- Romans 5:2 (v27) through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
- Romans 8:18-19 (v27) For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us. For…
- Colossians 3:16 (v28) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,…
- 2 Timothy 2:24-25 (v28) The Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but be gentle toward all, able to teach, patient, in gentleness correcting those who oppose him:…
- Luke 8:10 (v26) He said, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of God’s Kingdom, but to the rest in parables; that ‘seeing they may not see, and…
- Colossians 1:5 (v27) 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
- Matthew 13:11 (vv26–27) He answered them, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them.
- Luke 17:21 (v27) neither will they say, ‘Look, here!’ or, ‘Look, there!’ for behold, God’s Kingdom is within you.”
- Romans 16:25-26 (v26)
- 1 Corinthians 2:6 (v28) We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown, yet a wisdom not of this world nor of the rulers of this world who are coming to…
- 2 Corinthians 4:17 (v27) For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory,
- Galatians 1:15-16 (v27) But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through his grace to reveal his Son in me,…
- Ephesians 3:8-10 (v27) To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men…
- 2 Corinthians 2:14 (v27) Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place.
- 1 Corinthians 2:12-14 (v27) But we received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us…
- Ephesians 3:3-10 (v26) how that by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I wrote before in few words, by which, when you read, you can perceive my…
- Colossians 1:22 (v28) yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him,
- Psalms 25:14 (v26) The friendship of Yahweh is with those who fear him. He will show them his covenant.
- Mark 4:11 (v26) He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables,
- Acts 20:31 (v28) Therefore watch, remembering that for a period of three years I didn’t cease to admonish everyone night and day with tears.
- 1 Corinthians 2:7 (v26) But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory,
- 2 Corinthians 11:2 (v28) 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.
- 2 Timothy 1:10 (v26) but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light…
- Acts 8:35 (v28) Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him about Jesus.
- Romans 11:33 (v27) Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
- 2 Corinthians 4:5 (v28) For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake,
- Luke 21:15 (v28) for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict.
- 1 Corinthians 12:8 (v28) For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit;
- Ephesians 3:8 (v28) To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
- Colossians 2:10 (v28) and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:12-14 (v28) But we beg you, brothers, to know those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to respect and honor them…
- 1 Timothy 3:2 (v28) The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching;
- Hebrews 10:14 (v28) For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
- Proverbs 8:5 (v28) You simple, understand prudence! You fools, be of an understanding heart!
- Matthew 28:20 (v28) teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
- Mark 6:34 (v28) Jesus came out, saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to…
- Acts 5:42 (v28) Every day, in the temple and at home, they never stopped teaching and preaching Jesus, the Christ.
- Acts 8:5 (v28) Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and proclaimed to them the Christ.
- Acts 9:20 (v28) Immediately in the synagogues he proclaimed the Christ, that he is the Son of God.
- Acts 13:38 (v28) Be it known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man is proclaimed to you remission of sins,
- 1 Corinthians 1:23 (v28) but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Greeks,
- 1 Corinthians 1:30 (v28) Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:
- 1 Corinthians 15:12 (v28) Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
- 2 Corinthians 10:14 (v28) For we don’t stretch ourselves too much, as though we didn’t reach to you. For we came even as far as to you with the Good News of Christ,
- Philippians 1:15-18 (v28) Some indeed preach Christ even out of envy and strife, and some also out of good will. The former insincerely preach Christ from selfish…
- Deuteronomy 4:5 (v28) Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do so in the middle of the land…
- Ecclesiastes 12:9 (v28) Further, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yes, he pondered, sought out, and set in order many proverbs.
- Jeremiah 6:10 (v28) To whom should I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t listen. Behold, Yahweh’s word…
- Ezekiel 33:4-9 (v28) then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet, and doesn’t heed the warning, if the sword comes, and takes him away, his blood will be on his…
- Matthew 3:7 (v28) But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to…
- Acts 3:20 (v28) and that he may send Christ Jesus, who was ordained for you before,
- Acts 10:36 (v28) The word which he sent to the children of Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all—
- Acts 17:3 (v28) explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you,…
- Romans 16:25 (v28)
- 1 Corinthians 2:15 (v28) But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is judged by no one.
- 1 Timothy 3:16 (v28) Without controversy, the mystery of godliness is great: God was revealed in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached…
- Ezekiel 3:17-21 (v28) “Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me. When I tell…
- Ezekiel 7:10 (v28) “ ‘Behold, the day! Behold, it comes! Your doom has gone out. The rod has blossomed. Pride has budded.
- Acts 11:20 (v28) But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord…
- Acts 20:27-28 (v28) for I didn’t shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the…
- 1 Corinthians 4:14 (v28) I don’t write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:6 (v28) that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as…
- Hebrews 13:21 (v28) 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…
- 2 Peter 3:15 (v28) Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you,
- Acts 17:18 (v28) Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said,…
95 distinct cross-references across this passage (96 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (23 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv26–28 26. Hidden mystery. Here we have a commendation of…
26. Hidden mystery. Here we have a commendation of the gospel — that it is a wonderful secret of God. It is not without good reason that Paul so frequently extols the gospel by bestowing upon it the highest commendations in his power; for he saw that it was
a stumblingblock to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks. (1 Corinthians 1:23.)
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We see also at this day, in what hatred it is held by hypocrites, and how haughtily it is contemned by the world. Paul, accordingly, with the view of setting aside judgments so unfair and perverse, extols in magnificent terms the dignity of the gospel as often as an opportunity presents itself, and for that purpose he makes use of various arguments, according to the connection of the passage. Here he calls it a sublime secret, which was hid from ages and generations, that is, from the beginning of the world, through so many revolutions of ages. Now, that it is of the gospel that he speaks, is evident from Romans 16:25, Ephesians 3:9, and other similar passages.
The reason, however, why it is so called, is demanded. Some, in consequence of Paul’s making express mention of the calling of the Gentiles, are of opinion, that the sole reason why it is so called is, that the Lord had, in a manner, contrary to all expectation, poured out his grace upon the Gentiles, whom he had appeared to have shut out for ever from participation in eternal life. Any one, however, that will examine the whole passage more narrowly, will perceive that this is the third reason, not the only one, in so far, I mean, as relates to the passage before us, and that other in the Romans, to which I have referred. For the first is — that whereas God had, previously to the advent of Christ, governed his Church under dark coverings, both of words and of ceremonies, he has suddenly shone forth in full brightness by means of the doctrine of the gospel. The second is — that whereas nothing was previously seen but external figures, Christ has been exhibited, bringing with him the full truth, which had lain concealed. The third is, what I have mentioned — that the whole world, which had up to this time been estranged from God, is called to the hope of salvation, and the same inheritance of eternal life is offered to all. An attentive consideration of these things constrains us to reverence and adore this mystery which Paul proclaims, however it may be held in contempt by the world, or even in derision.
Which is now revealed. Lest any one should turn aside to another meaning the term mystery, as though he were speaking of a thing that was still secret and unknown, he adds, that it has now at length been published, that it might be known by mankind. What, therefore, was in its own nature secret, has been made manifest by the will of God. Hence, there is no reason why its obscurity should alarm us, after the revelation that God has made of it. He adds, however, to the saints, for God’s arm has not been revealed to all, (Isaiah 53:1,) that they might understand his counsel.
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 vv26–28 Whom he chose to sanctify unto himself in Christ:…
Whom he chose to sanctify unto himself in Christ: moreover he sayeth that the mystery of our redemption was hidden since the world began, except it were revealed unto a few, who also were taught it extraordinarily.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv26–28 26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from…
26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Ver. 26. But now is made manifest] God hath now opened his whole heart to his saints, Rev 11:3. {See Trapp on "Rom 7:25"} {See Trapp on "Mat 4:16"}
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 vv26–28 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages…
Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations; viz. that holy secret of godliness, Col 2:2,3; 4:3; Mat 13:11; Rom 16:25,26; 1Co 2:7; Eph 3:3,4,6,8,9,10; see 1Ti 3:16; Rev 14:6; which doth not consist in beggarly elements, Gal 4:9, or vain speculations, which these Colossians are cautioned to avoid, Col 2:8, however varnished; but is to them who are saved, the power of God, Rom 1:16; 1Co 1:18,19, and the wisdom of God, 1Co 1:24, which lay hid in God before the world, 1Co 2:7; 2Ti 1:9; Tit 1:2; 1Pe 1:20; yea, and after God had to our first parents, and so to his people the Jews, given some glimpse of this mystery, which yet the Gentiles of several ages were ignorant of, and many of the Jews, yea, the most knowing of them did not, for many generations, know that the Gentiles without circumcision, &c. were to be admitted into the church, Act 10:28; the prophets were very inquisitive to know the meaning of it, but yet they also were much in the dark, 1Co 2:9; 1Pe 1:10,11; yea, the angels did not know this hidden mystery, till revealed by the church, Eph 1:10.
But now is made manifest to his saints; but now God that revealeth secrets, Dan 2:28, hath opened his bosom counsel about this affair most clearly, so that his glory, by those that really fear him, may be seen with open face as in a glass through Christ, Mat 13:11; Mar 4:11; Joh 8:47; 15:15; Act 16:14; 1Co 2:10,16; 2Co 3:18; all necessary to salvation being made conspicuous and clear to them, 1Pe 2:9.
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 v28 Observe here, 1. What was the principal subject of…
Observe here, 1. What was the principal subject of the apostle’s preaching, it was Christ; whom we preach; Christ was the matter of his preaching, and the great end of his preaching.
Observe, 2. The manner of St. Paul’s preaching; it was by informing the understanding and judgment, and of the danger of continuing in it.
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Observe, 3. The end of his preaching, it was to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; that is, to render them complete both in knowledge and obedience.
Observe, 4. The indefatigable pains and diligence used by the apostle in that work of preaching, intimated in the words labouring and striving, whereunto I also labour, striving.
Observe, 5. The gracious help and blessed success which he had in his preaching, humbly and thankfully acknowledged, and ascribed unto God, according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
From the whole, learn, 1. What was the sum of St. Paul’s preaching, and ought to be of ours also, to bring men to repentance and faith in Christ, to advance them towards a perfection in knowledge and obedience, by informing their judgments, and directing their practice.
Learn, 2. That the faithful ministers of Christ do judge no labour and pains too great, no strivings or sufferings too much, no contending with the errors and sins of men sufficient, in order to the bringing of them unto God by conversion and repentance.
Learn, 3. That such ministers as thus indefatigably labour and strive for the good of souls, shall not labour and strive alone, they shall be accompanied with divine assistance: Christ will strive with them, and work with them: Striving according to his working.
4. That when ministers have met with success in their striving, by Christ’s working with them, they must ascribe nothing of praise to themselves, to their own piety, parts, or pains, but ascribe all to him that striveth by them, and worketh in them mightily.
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 vv26–28 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages…
Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and generations,.... This is said, as explanative of the word of God; signifying that he did not mean the Scriptures in general, which are the word of God, and every part of them; some part of which is historical, another prophetical, another practical, and another doctrinal; nor the law, which also is the word of God, but the Gospel, called "the mystery", as it often is; because it contains things, which, though revealed, are mysteries to a natural man; and even to enlightened persons, who have the clearest view of them, the "modus" of them is not to be accounted for; such as the doctrines of the Trinity, of the union of the two natures in Christ, the incarnation of the Son of God, the union and communion of the church with Christ, the resurrection of the dead, &c. And though perhaps great and special regard may be here had to the calling of the Gentiles, which, though revealed in the prophecies of the Old Testament, was in a great measure hid in them, and not so clearly known in ages and generations past as now, yet the whole may be applied to the Gospel mystery in general; which was first hid in the heart of God, in his thoughts and purposes, in his counsel and covenant, and in his Son, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; and then in the ceremonies and shadows of the law, which but few had any insight into, and discerning of; and, during that dispensation, was wholly hid from the Gentiles; and but in part known by the Jews, and but by a few, and comparatively by them very darkly; and not so clearly by the angels themselves, who pry into these mysteries, and now, under the Gospel dispensation, learn from the church the manifold wisdom of God; and indeed it was hidden from all men, Jews and Gentiles, in a state of nature, and even from the wise and prudent of this world:
but now is made manifest to his saints; now under the Gospel dispensation, since the coming of Christ; there is an external revelation of the Gospel by him, more clearly, by whom grace and truth came, called the revelation of Christ; and an internal revelation of it by his Spirit, who is the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of him; which is made to saints, the holy apostles and prophets, who are the saints to whom this faith, and the mystery of it, were first delivered with so much power and evidence; and to all the elect of God, whom he has separated for himself in eternal election; whom Christ has sanctified by his blood, and to whom he is made sanctification; and who are called with an holy calling, have principles of grace and holiness wrought in them by the Spirit of God, and therefore called "his" saints; these have only a spiritual discerning of the Gospel, for the natural man neither knows nor receives it.
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 vv26–28 The mystery - Namely, Christ both justifying and sanctifying…
The mystery - Namely, Christ both justifying and sanctifying gentiles, as well as Jews. Which hath been comparatively hid from former ages and past generations of men.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv26–27 Verse 26. The mystery which hath been hid] The…
Verse 26. The mystery which hath been hid] The mystery is this: that God had designed to grant the Gentiles the same privileges with the Jews, and make them his people who were not his people. That this is what St. Paul means by the mystery, see Eph 3:3, c.
Made manifest to his saints] It is fully known to all who have embraced the doctrine of Christ crucified to all Christians.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv26–28 Even the mystery - To make that mystery fully…
Even the mystery - To make that mystery fully known. See this explained in the notes at Eph 3:2-9. The great doctrine that salvation was to be proclaimed to all mankind, Paul says, had been concealed for many generations. Hence, it was called a mystery, or a hidden truth.
But now is made manifest to his saints - It was communicated especially to the apostles who were appointed to proclaim it, and through them to all the saints. Paul says that he regarded himself as specially called to make this truth known, as far as possible, to mankind.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v26 The mystery of Christ’s incarnation, which hath been hidden,…
The mystery of Christ’s incarnation, which hath been hidden, &c. See Ephesians i. 12. and v. 4, &c. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv26–28 the mystery--(See on Eph 1:9-10; Eph 3:5-9). The mystery,…
the mystery--(See on Eph 1:9-10; Eph 3:5-9). The mystery, once hidden, now revealed, is redemption for the whole Gentile world, as well as for the Jews, "Christ in you (Gentiles) the hope of glory" (Col 1:27).
from ages--"from," according to ALFORD, refers to time, not "hidden from": from the time of the ages; still what is meant is that the mystery was hidden from the beings living in those "ages." The "ages" are the vast successive periods marked by successive orders of beings and stages of creation. Greek, "Æons," a word used by the Gnostics for angelic beings emanating from God. The Spirit by Paul presciently, in opposition to Gnostic error already beginning (Col 2:18), teaches, that the mystery of redemption was hidden in God's purposes in Christ, alike from the angelic beings (compare Eph 3:10) of the pre-Adamic "ages," and from the subsequent human "generations." Translate as Greek, "the ages . . . the generations."
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made manifest to his saints--to His apostles and prophets primarily (Eph 3:5), and through them to all His saints.
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 vv26–28 26. Mystery—The word used of facts and truths not…
26. Mystery—The word used of facts and truths not fully revealed, occurs four times in this epistle, and in that to the Ephesians six times, and always, with a single exception in the latter, with a reference more or less direct to Christ. Here it is the doctrine of salvation through Christ, or, more simply, Christ himself. He had not been revealed to former ages of the world, for they were not prepared to receive a Saviour; and even the angels had not fully comprehended the great plan. Now he is revealed to the apostles, (Eph_3:5,) preached by them, believed in, and thus is made manifest to his saints. Believers know 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 vv26–28 26. the mystery] I.e. as always in N.T., a…
26. the mystery] I.e. as always in N.T., a truth undiscoverable except by revelation, a holy secret; whether or no, when revealed, it is what we can or cannot understand. See our note on Eph_1:9. We have this “secret” unveiled and described just below. Lightfoot points out that the Greek word mustêrion, “mystery,” is “not the only term borrowed from the ancient mysteries [rites of special and secret initiation, lying, in a sense, apart from and behind the popular heathen worship] which St Paul employs to describe the teaching of the Gospel.” He gives instances from Col_1:28 below, Php_4:12, and perhaps Eph_1:14. “There is this difference however, that whereas the heathen mysteries were strictly confined to a narrow circle, the Christian mysteries are freely communicated to all. There is therefore an intentional paradox in the employment of the image by St Paul.”—And this may have had regard here to the suggestion by the alien teachers at Colossæ that they had esoteric truths to tell to their disciples.
hid] Cp. esp. 1Co_2:7-10; Eph_3:9. And see for cognate truth Mat_11:25; Luk_10:21.
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from ages and from generations] Cp. “from the beginning of the world,” Eph_3:9; where lit., “from the ages.” Here lit., from the ages, &c., or, as well paraphrased in R.V., from all ages, &c. “From” is here a preposition of time; “ever since ages and generations were;” through all developments of the history of intelligent creation, whether longer (“ages,” æons), or more limited (“generations”). See our note on Eph_3:9.
now] “When the fulness of the time was come,” Gal_4:4. Cp. Eph_3:5; Eph_3:9-10.
revealed] Historically, in the Incarnation, Sacrifice, and Triumph of Christ; personally and spiritually (1Co_2:10), by the Holy Ghost dealing with the man.
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 vv26–28 (26) The mystery.—On the Scriptural sense of the word…
(26) The mystery.—On the Scriptural sense of the word “mystery,” and its relation to the modern use of the word, see Note on Eph_1:9. In this passage, perhaps, most of all, it is defined with perfect clearness, as “a secret long hidden, and now revealed.”
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 vv26–28 The mystery which hath been hidden away from the…
The mystery which hath been hidden away from the ages and from the generations (Eph_2:2, 3 3:5, 9; Rom_16:25, 26 11:25, 26, 33) The word "mystery" plays a large part in Colossians and Ephesians. It occurs in 1 Corinthians, and twice in the Roman Epistle, written from Corinth. Its use in Rom_16:25 is identical with that of the passage before us. The Greek mysteries were secret religious doctrines and rites made known only to initiated persons, who formed associations statedly assembling at certain sacred spots, of which Eleusis near Athens was the most famous. These systems exercised a vast influence over the Greek mind, and Greek literature is full of allusions to them; but their secret has been well kept, and little is known of their real character. Some of these mystic systems, probably, inculcated doctrines of a purer and more spiritual type than those of the vulgar polytheism. The ascetic and mystical doctrines ascribed to Pythagoras were propagated by secret societies. The language and ideas connected with the mysteries were readily adopted by the Jewish Broad Church of Alexandria, whose endeavour it was to expand Judaism by a symbolical and allegorizing method into a philosophic and universal religious system, and who were compelled to veil their inner doctrine from the eyes of their stricter, unenlightened (or unsophisticated) fellowbelievers. Musthrion appears in the Apocrypha as an epithet of the Divine Wisdom: (RAPC Wis 2:22 8:4; etc.) (Psa_49:4 Psa_78:2 comp. Mat_13:34, Mat_13:35) furnished the Old Testament basis of this usage. (See Philo, "On the Cherubim," "On Fugitives," etc., for the place of mystery in the Alexandrine theology.) St. Paul, writing to men accustomed, either as Greeks or as Hellenistic Jews, to this phraseology, calls the gospel "a mystery," as that which is "hidden from the natural understanding and from the previous searchings of men". (1Co_2:6-16) But in the words that follow he repudiates the notion of any secrecy or exclusiveness in its proclamation; (2Co_3:12-18; 2Co_4:1-6) in his language, "mystery is the correlate of revelation." The thrice-repeated ajpo ("from," "away"), with the double indication of time, "gives a solemn emphasis" (Meyer) to the statement. Ages are successive epochs of time, with their states and conditions; (comp. Gal_1:4) generations are successive races of men, with their traditions and hereditary tendencies. But now it was made manifest to his saints (Col_2:2 Col_4:3; Eph_1:9 Eph_3:5; 1Ti_3:16 1Pe_1:20) The word "reveal" (Eph_3:5; 1Co_2:10) indicates a process, "make manifest" points to the result of this Divine act Rom_16:25, 26: Rom_1:17 with 3:21; see Trench"s "Synonyms"). The transition from the participle in the last clause to the strongly assertive finite verb in this almost disappears in English idiom: comp. vers. 5, 6; (Eph_1:20-22) (Greek) and see Winer"s "N.T. Grammar," p. 717, or A. Buttmann, p. 382. There is also a change of tense: the manifestation is a single, sudden event (aorist), breaking through the long and seemingly final concealment of all previous time (present perfect participle); similarly (Rom_16:25, 26 and 1Pe_1:20 comp. Col_2:14, note) To his sailors; i.e. to the Church at large (ver. 2; Col_3:12) but this implies a spiritual qualification. (1Co_2:14) "His saints" are the recipients; "his holy apostles and prophets, in the Spirit," the organs (Eph_3:5) of this manifestation. The Church had long ago formally accepted this revelation; (Act_11:18) it was St. Paul"s office to make it practically effectual.
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 vv26–28 The mystery which hath been hid from ages and…
Col_1:26
The mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations.
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The gospel mystery
The term mystery, as here used twice, and often in this epistle, does not describe what is essentially incomprehensible, but rather what was hidden and is now revealed. The gospel is a mystery, but a mystery that is to be preached fully, and into which (as the word borrowed from the ancient mysteries in Col_1:28 suggests) every man may be initiated.
I. The gospel a mystery. All religion deals with mystery. Genuine mystery is the stamp of a religious Divinity--false mystery is the counterfeit superstition stamp. In its aspect to wards the vast, the infinite, the Divine, religion must always have some mystery to man.
II. The gospel a mystery that was long secret from man. The secret things belong unto God. There are hidden facts and laws in nature that science has only gradually discovered, or is now only gradually discovering; hidden moral meanings in nature and history that poets sight only can descry, and poets song only describe. There were hidden things in religion that only holy men of old, moved by the Holy Ghost, could reveal.
III. The gospel is a mystery that is now fully revealed. Whatever may have been the guesses of nobler pagans, or the anticipations of patriarchs, or the predictions of prophets, it was only as the pale light of very early dawn upon the hills of antiquity. It was noon when Christ lived, taught, died. The seal was broken, the secret revealed. What secret?
IV. The gospel is the revealed secret of Gods universal redeeming love. Christ is fully proclaimed, and Christ is the mystery. In Him are all the treasures of God stored away.
1. All the mystery is proclaimed in Christ. As the rainbow has all possible colours in its wondrous are, as the fabled music of the spheres has all possible tones in its chord, so in Christ is all the wisdom, righteousness, love of God.
2. All men may receive the blessings of this mystery. Christ, and Christ freely given to the Gentiles, given to be an indwelling power in them, is the great mystery which, as Paul dwelt in it, made Him proclaim it with newer and deepening joy. (U. R. Thomas.)
I. The mystery.
1. The term is borrowed from the ancient systems in which certain rites and doctrines were communicated to the initiated (Php_4:12, and the word perfect, which means initiated, in verse 28). Potentous theories have been spun out of this word. The Greek mysteries implied secrecy; the rites were done in deep obscurity; the esoteric doctrines were muttered in the ear. The Christian mysteries are spoken on the housetop, nor does the word imply anything as to the comprehensibility of the doctrines or facts which are so called.
3. We talk about mysteries, meaning thereby truths that transcend human faculties. But the New Testament mystery may be, and most frequently is, a fact perfectly comprehensible when once spoken. Behold I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, etc. There is nothing incomprehensible in that. We should never have known it if we had not been told; but when told it is quite level with our faculties. The word is most frequently used in connection with the notion of declaring. It frequently occurs in this epistle and in the Ephesians, and in every instance but one refers to a fact perfectly plain when once made known--the entrance of the Gentiles into the Church.
4. Then it follows that a steward of the mysteries is simply a man who has truths, formerly unknown but now revealed, in charge to all who will hearken, and neither the claims of a priesthood nor the demand for the unquestioning submission of the intellect have any foundation in this much-abused term.
II. The substance. Of the mystery.
1. The wonderful fact that all barriers were broken down. He saw in that the proof and prophecy of the world-wide destination of the gospel. There is no greater revolution in history than the cutting loose, through Him, of Christianity from Judaism, and widening the Church to the width of the race. No wonder that he was misunderstood and hated by Jewish Christians all his days. He thinks of these once heathens and now Christians at Colossae, and of many another little community in Judea, Asia, Greece, and Italy; and as he thinks of how a solid bond of brotherhood bound them together in spite of their differences of race and culture, the vision of the oneness of mankind in the Cross of Christ shines out before him as no other man had seen it till then.
2. That Christ dwelt in their hearts. That dwelling reveals the exuberant abundance of glory. To Paul the mystery was all running over with riches, and blazing with fresh radiance, and the possession of Christ was a pledge of future blessedness. The closer we keep to Him the clearer will be our vision of that blessedness. Anything seems more credible to a man who has Christ abiding in Him, than that such a trifle as death should have power to end such a union. This hope is offered to all. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The mystery manifest
Christ, by His incarnation, answered the vague and unsatisfactory queries of the world.
1. The Second Person of the Godhead was suspected by the ancients to be the active agent of the unknown God. Seneca: Whoever formed the universe, whether the Almighty God Himself, or that incorporeal reason which was the artificer of these vast concerns.
2. The ancients conceived this Second Person to stand to the First in the relation of a word to the thought which it expresses. Zendavesta: O, Ormuzd, what is that great word given by God, that living and powerful word, which existed before the heavens, before the waters, before the earth, before the flocks? Compare Philos Philosophy of the Logos with the Introduction to Johns Gospel.
3. The ancients looked for some incarnation of the Divine Word. Persian Serosch, Hindoo Vishnu. Plato: It is necessary that a Lawgiver be sent from heaven to instruct men; and this Lawgiver must be more than a man. Jewish expectancy.
4. The ancients tried to furnish the ideal of perfect human character--e.g., the ideals of Confucius, Socrates, Seneca. The mythologic personages. Christ appeared manifestly
(1) perfectly a man,
(2) a perfect man, and challenged all moralists. Which of you convinceth Me of sin?
5. The ancients had the idea of atonement. Altars lined the track of history. Christs cry when coming into the world: A body hast thou prepared Me. Lo! I come to do thy will. John the Baptists recognition: Behold the Lamb of God!
6. The ancients tried to demonstrate the perpetuity of human life. Our strongest points in the philosophy of immortality announced by Plato. The mythology of Greeks and Scandinavians. Christs declaration, I am the Resurrection and the Life, demonstrated by His resurrection. (Homiletic Review.)
.
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 v28 Chapter 1 Part 9
Chapter 1 Part 9
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY IN ITS THEME, METHODS, AND AIM
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Col_1:28-29 (R.V.)
THE false teachers at Colossae had a great deal to say about a higher wisdom reserved for the initiated. They apparently treated the Apostolic teaching as trivial rudiments, which might be good for the vulgar crowd, but were known by the possessors of this higher truth to be only a veil for it. They had their initiated class, to whom their mysteries were entrusted in whispers. Such absurdities excited Pauls special abhorrence. His whole soul rejoiced in a gospel for all men. He had broken with Judaism on the very ground that it sought to enforce a ceremonial exclusiveness, and demanded circumcision and ritual observances along with faith. That was, in Pauls estimate, to destroy the gospel. These Eastern dreamers at Colossae were trying to enforce an intellectual exclusiveness quite as much opposed to the gospel. Paul fights with all his might against that error. Its presence in the Church colours this context, where he uses the very phrases of the false teachers in order to assert the great principles which he opposes to their teaching. "Mystery," "perfect" or initiated, "wisdom,"-these are the keywords of the system which he is combating; and here he presses them into the service of the principle that the gospel is for all men, and the most recondite secrets of its deepest truth the property of every single soul that wills to receive them. Yes, he says in effect, we have mysteries. We have our initiated. We have wisdom. But we have no whispered teachings, confined to a little coterie; we have no inner chamber closed to the many. We are not muttering hierophants, cautiously revealing a little to a few, and fooling the rest with ceremonies and words. Our whole business is to tell out as fully and loudly as we can what we know of Christ, to tell to every man all the wisdom that we have learned. We fling open the inmost sanctuary, and invite all the crowd to enter.
This is the general scope of the words before us which state the object and methods of the Apostles work; partly in order to point the contrast with those other teachers, and partly in order to prepare the way, by this personal reference, for his subsequent exhortations.
I. We have here the Apostles own statement of what he conceived his life work to be.
"Whom we proclaim." All three words are emphatic. "Whom," not what-a person, not a system; we "proclaim," not we argue or dissertate about. "We" preach-the Apostle associates himself with all his brethren, puts himself in line with them, points to the unanimity of their testimony -"whether it were they or I, so we preach." We have all one message, a common type of doctrine.
So then the Christian teachers theme is not to be a theory or a system, but a living Person. One peculiarity of Christianity is that you cannot take its message, and put aside Christ, the speaker of the message, as you may do with all mens teachings. Some people say: "We take the great moral and religious truths which Jesus declared. They are the all-important parts of His work. We can disentangle them from any further connection with Him. It matters comparatively little who first spoke them." But that will not do. His person is inextricably intertwined with His teaching, for a very large part of His teaching is exclusively concerned with, and all of it centres in, Himself. He is not only true, but He is the truth. His message is, not only what He said with His lips about God and man, but also what He said about Himself, and what He did in His life, death, and resurrection. You may take Buddhas sayings, if you can make sure that they are his, and find much that is beautiful and true in them, whatever you may think of him; you may appreciate the teaching of Confucius, though you know nothing about him but that he said so and so; but you cannot do thus with Jesus. Our Christianity takes its whole colour from what we think of Him. If we think of Him as less than this chapter has been setting Him forth as being, we shall scarcely feel that He should be the preachers theme; but if He is to us what He was to this Apostle, the sole Revealer of God, the Centre and Lord of creation, the Fountain of life to all which lives, the Reconciler of men with God by the blood of His cross, then the one message which a man may be thankful to spend his life in proclaiming will be, Behold the Lamb! Let who will preach abstractions, the true Christian minister has to preach the person and the office-Jesus the Christ. To preach Christ is to set forth the person, the facts of His life and death, and to accompany these with that explanation which turns them from being merely a biography into a gospel. So much of "theory" must go with the "facts," or they will be no more a gospel than the story of another life would be. The Apostles own statement of "the gospel which he preached" distinctly lays down what is needed-"how that Jesus Christ died." That is biography, and to say that and stop there is not to preach Christ; but add, "For our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was raised again the third day,"-preach that, the fact and its. meaning and power, and you will preach Christ.
Of course there is a narrower and a wider sense of this expression. There is the initial teaching, which brings to a soul, which has never seen it before, the knowledge of a Saviour, whose Cross is the propitiation for sin; and there is the fuller teaching, which opens out the manifold bearings of that message in every region of moral and religious thought. I do not plead for any narrow construction of the words. They have been sorely abused, by being made the battle cry for bitter bigotry and a hard system of abstract theology, as unlike what Paul means by "Christ" as any cobwebs of Gnostic heresy could be. Legitimate out, growths of the Christian ministry have been checked in their name. They have been used as a cramping iron, as a shibboleth, as a stone to fling at honest and especially at young preachers. They have been made a pillow for laziness. So that the very sound of the words suggests to some ears, because of their use in some mouths, ignorant narrowness.
But for all that, they are a standard of duty for all workers for God, which it is not difficult to apply, if the will to do so be present, and they are a touchstone to try the spirits, whether they be of God. A ministry of which the Christ who lived and died for us is manifestly the centre to which all converges and from which all is viewed, may sweep a wide circumference, and include many themes. The requirement bars out no province of thought or experience, nor does it condemn the preacher to a parrot-like repetition of elementary truths, or a narrow round of commonplace. It does demand that all themes shall lead up to Christ, and all teaching point to Him; that He shall be ever present in all the preachers words, a diffused even when not a directly perceptible presence; and that His name, like some deep tone on an organ, shall be heard sounding on through all the ripple and change of the higher notes. Preaching Christ does not exclude any theme, but prescribes the bearing and purpose of all; and the widest compass and richest variety are not only possible, but obligatory for him who would in any worthy sense take this for the motto of his ministry, "I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
But these words give us not only the theme, but something of the manner of the Apostles activity. "We proclaim." The word is emphatic in its form, meaning "to tell out," and representing the proclamation as full, clear, earnest. "We are no muttering mystery mongers. From full lungs and in a voice to make people hear, we shout aloud our message. We do not take a man into a corner, and whisper secrets into his ear; we cry in the streets, and our message is for every man." And the word not only implies the plain, loud earnestness of the speaker, but also that what he speaks is a message, that he is not a speaker of his own words or thoughts, but of what has been told him to tell. His gospel is a good message, and a messengers virtue is to say exactly what he has been told, and to say it in such a way that the people to whom he has to carry it cannot but hear and understand it.
This connection of the Christian ministers office contrasts on the one hand with the priestly theory. Paul had known in Judaism a religion of which the altar was the centre, and the official function of the "minister" was to sacrifice. But now he has come to see that "the one sacrifice for sins forever" leaves no room for a sacrificing priest in that Church of which the centre is the Cross. We sorely need that lesson to be drilled into the minds of men today, when such a strange resurrection of priestism has taken place, and good, earnest men, whose devotion cannot be questioned, are looking on preaching as a very subordinate part of their work. For three centuries there has not been so much need as now to fight against the notion of a priesthood in the Church, and to urge this as the true definition of the ministers office: "we preach," not "we sacrifice," not "we do" anything; "we preach," not "we work miracles at any altar, or impart grace by any rites," but by manifestation of the truth discharge our office and spread the blessings of Christ.
This conception contrasts on the other hand with the false teachers style of speech, which finds its parallel in much modern talk. Their business was to argue and refine and speculate, to spin inferences and cobwebby conclusions. They sat in a lecturers chair; we stand in a preachers pulpit. The Christian minister has not to deal in such wares; he has a message to proclaim, and if he allows the "philosopher" in him to overpower the "herald," and substitutes his thoughts about the message, or his arguments in favour of the message, for the message itself, he abdicates his highest office and neglects his most important function.
We hear many demands today for a "higher type of preaching," which I would heartily echo, if only it be preaching; that is, the proclamation in loud and plain utterance of the great facts of Christs work. But many who ask for this really want, not preaching, but something quite different; and many, as I think, mistaken Christian teachers are trying to play up to the requirements of the age by turning their sermons into dissertations, philosophical or moral or aesthetic. We need to fall back on this "we preach," and to urge that the Christian minister is neither priest nor lecturer, but a herald, whose business is to tell out his message, and to take good care that he tells it faithfully. If, instead of blowing his trumpet and calling aloud his commission, he were to deliver a discourse on acoustios and the laws of the vibration of sonorous metal, or to prove that he has a message, and to dilate on its evident truth or on the beauty of its phrases, he would scarcely be doing his work. No more is the Christian minister, unless he keeps clear before himself as the guiding star of his work this conception of his theme and his task- Whom we preach-and opposes that to the demands of an age, one half of which "require a sign," and would again degrade him into a priest, and the other calls for "wisdom," and would turn him into a professor.
II. We have here the varying methods by which this one great end is pursued.
"Admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom."
There are then two main methods-"admonishing" and "teaching." The former means "admonishing with blame," and points, as many commentators remark, to that side of the Christian ministry which corresponds to repentance, while the latter points to that side which corresponds to faith. In other words, the former rebukes and warns, has to do with conduct and the moral side of Christian truth; the latter has chiefly to do with doctrine, and the intellectual side. In the one Christ is proclaimed as the pattern of conduct, the "new commandment"; in the other, as the creed of creeds, the new and perfect knowledge.
The preaching of Christ then is to be unfolded into all "warning," or admonishing. The teaching of morality and the admonishing of the evil and the end of sin are essential parts of preaching Christ. We claim for the pulpit the right and the duty of applying the principles and pattern of Christs life to all human conduct. It is difficult to do, and is made more so by some of the necessary conditions of our modern ministry, for the pulpit is not the place for details; and yet moral teaching which is confined to general principles is woefully like repeating platitudes and firing blank cartridges. Everybody admits the general principles, and thinks they do not apply to his specific wrong action; and if the preacher goes beyond these toothless generalities, he is met with the cry of "personalities." If a man preaches a sermon in which he speaks plainly about tricks of trade or follies of fashion, somebody is sure to say, going down the chapel steps, "Oh, ministers know nothing of business!" and somebody else to add, "It is a pity he was so personal," and the chorus is completed by many other voices, "He should preach Christ, and leave secular things alone."
Well! whether a sermon of that sort be preaching Christ or not depends on the way in which it is done. But sure I am that there is no "preaching Christ" completely, which does not include plain speaking about plain duties. Everything that a man can either do rightly or wrongly belongs to the sphere of morals, and everything within the sphere of morals belongs to Christianity and to "preaching Christ."
Nor is such preaching complete without plain warning of the end of sin, as death here and hereafter. This is difficult, for many people like to have the smooth side of truth always put uppermost. But the gospel has a rough side, and is by no means a "soothing syrup" merely. There are no rougher words about what wrongdoers come to than some of Christs words; and he has only given half his Masters message who hides or softens down the grim saying, "The wages of sin is death."
But all this moral teaching must be closely connected with and built upon Christ. Christian morality has Jesus for its perfect exemplar, His love for its motive, and His grace for its power. Nothing is more impotent than mere moral teaching. What is the use of perpetually saying to people, Be good, be good? You may keep on at that forever, and not a soul will listen, any more than the crowds on our streets are drawn to church by the bells monotonous call. But if, instead of a cold ideal of duty, as beautiful and as dead as a marble statue, we preach the Son of man, whose life is our law incarnate; and instead of urging to purity by motives which our own evil makes feeble, we reecho His heart-touching appeal, "If ye love Me, keep My commandments"; and if, instead of mocking lame men with exhortations to walk, we point those who despairingly cry, "Who shall deliver us from the body of this death?" to Him who breathes His living spirit into us to set us free from sin and death, then our preaching of morality will be "preaching the gospel" and be "preaching Christ."
This gospel is also to be unfolded into "teaching." In the facts of Christs life and death, as we ponder them and grow up to understand them, we get to see more and more the key to all things. For thought, as for life, He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the ending. All that we can or need know about God or man, about present duty or future destiny, about life, death, and the beyond, -all is in Jesus Christ, and to be drawn from Him by patient thought and by abiding in Him. The Christian ministers business is to be ever learning and ever teaching more and more of the "manifold wisdom" of God. He has to draw for himself from the deep, inexhaustible fountains; he has to bear the water, which must be fresh drawn to be pleasant or refreshing, to thirsty lips. He must seek to present all sides of the truth, teaching all wisdom, and so escaping from his own limited mannerisms. How many ministers Bibles are all dog-eared and thumbed at certain texts, at which they almost open of themselves, and are as clean in most of their pages as on the day when they were bought!
The Christian ministry, then, in the Apostles view, is distinctly educational in its design. Preachers and hearers equally need to be reminded of this. We preachers are poor scholars ourselves, and in our work are tempted, like other people, to do most frequently what we can do with least trouble. Besides which, we many of us know, and all suspect, that our congregations prefer to hear what they have heard often before, and what gives them the least trouble. We often hear the cry for "simple preaching," by which one school intends "simple instruction in plain, practical matters, avoiding mere dogma," and another intends "the simple gospel," by which is meant the repetition over and over again of the great truth, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." God forbid that I should say a word which might even seem to underestimate the need for that proclamation being made in its simple form, as the staple of the Christian ministry, to all who have not welcomed it into their hearts, or to forget that, however dimly understood, it will bring light and hope and new loves and strengths into a soul! But the New Testament draws a distinction between evangelists and teachers, and common sense insists that Christian people need more than the reiteration of that message from him whom. they call their "teacher." If he is a teacher, he should teach; and he cannot do that, if the people who listen to him suspect everything that they do not know already, and are impatient of anything that gives them the trouble of attending and thinking in order to learn. I fear there is much unreality in the name, and that nothing would be more distasteful to many of our congregations than the preachers attempt to make it truly descriptive of his work. Sermons should not be "quiet resting places." Nor is it quite the ideal of Christian teaching that busy men should come to church or chapel on a Sunday, and not be fatigued by being made to think, but perhaps should be able to sleep for a minute or two and pick up the thread when they wake, quite sure that they have missed nothing of any consequence. We are meant to be teachers, as well as evangelists, though we fulfil the function so poorly; but our hearers often make that task more difficult by illconcealed impatience with sermons which try to discharge it.
Observe too the emphatic repetition of "every man" both in these two clauses and in the following. It is Pauls protest against the exclusiveness of the heretics, who shut out the. mob from their mysteries. An intellectual aristocracy is the proudest and most exclusive of all. A Church built upon intellectual qualifications would be as hard and cruel a coterie as could be imagined. So there is almost vehemence and scorn in the persistent repetition in each clause of the obnoxious word, as if he would thrust down his antagonists throats the truth that his gospel has nothing to do with cliques and sections, but belongs to the world. To it philosopher and fool are equally welcome. Its message is to all. Brushing aside surface diversities, it goes straight to deep-lying wants, which are the same in all men. Below kings robe and professors gown, and workmans jacket and prodigals rags, beats the same heart with the same wants, wild longings, and weariness. Christianity knows no hopeless classes. But its highest wisdom can be spoken to the little child and the barbarian, and it is ready to deal with the most forlorn and foolish, knowing its own power to "warn every man and to teach every man in all wisdom."
III. We have here the ultimate aim of these diverse methods.
"That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus."
We found this same word "present" in Col_1:22. The remarks made there will apply here. There the Divine purpose of Christs great work, and here Pauls purpose in his, are expressed alike. Gods aim is Pauls aim too. The Apostles thoughts travel on to the great coming day, when we shall all be manifested at the judgment seat of Christ, and preacher and hearer, Apostle and convert, shall be gathered there. That solemn period will test the teachers work, and should ever be in his view as he works. There is a real and indissoluble connection between the teacher and his hearers, so that in some sense he is to blame if they do not stand perfect then, and he in some sense has to present them as in his work-the gold, silver, and precious stones which he has built on the foundation. So each preacher should work with that end clear in view, as Paul did. He is always toiling in the light of that great vision. One sees him, in all his letters, looking away yonder to the horizon, where he expects the breaking of its morning low down in the eastern sky. Ah! how many a formal pulpit and how many a languid pew would be galvanised into intense action if only their occupants once saw burning in on them, in their decorous deadness, the light of that great white throne! How differently we should preach if we always felt "the terror of the Lord," and under its solemn influence sought to "persuade men"! How differently we should hear if we felt we must appear before the Judge, and give account to Him of our profitings by His word!
And the purpose which the true minister of Christ has in view is to "present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." "Perfect" may be used here with the technical signification of "initiated," but it means absolute moral completeness. Negatively, it implies the entire removal of all defects; positively, the complete possession of all that belongs to human nature as God meant it to be. The Christian aim, for which the preaching of Christ supplies ample power, is to make the whole race possess, in fullest development, the whole circle of possible human excellences. There is to be no one-sided growth, but men are to grow like a tree in the open, which has no barrier to hinder its symmetry, but rises and spreads equally on all sides, with no branch broken or twisted, no leaf worm eaten or wind torn, no fruit blighted or fallen, no gap in the clouds of foliage, no bend in the straight stem, -a green and growing completeness. This absolute completeness is attainable "in Christ," by union with Him of that vital sort brought about by faith, which will pour His Spirit into our spirits. The preaching of Christ is therefore plainly the direct way to bring about this perfecting. That is the Christian theory of the way to make perfect men.
And this absolute perfection of character is, in Pauls belief, possible for every man, no matter what his training or natural disposition may have been. The gospel is confident that it can change the Ethiopians skin, because it can change his heart, and the leopards spots will be altered when it "eats straw like the ox." There are no hopeless classes in the glad, confident view of the man who has learned Christs power.
What a vision of the future to animate work! What an aim! What dignity, what consecration, what enthusiasm, it would give, making the trivial great and the monotonous interesting, stirring up those who share it to intense effort, overcoming low temptations, and giving precision to the selection of means and use of instruments! The pressure of a great, steady purpose consolidates and strengthens powers, which, without it, become flaccid and feeble. We can make a piece of calico as stiff as a board by putting it under a hydraulic press. Men with a fixed purpose are terrible men. They crash through conventionalities like a cannon ball. They, and they only, can persuade and arouse and impress their own enthusiasm on the inert mass. "Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!" No Christian minister will work up to the limits of his power, nor do much for Christ or man, unless his whole soul is mastered by this high conception of the possibilities of his office, and unless he is possessed width the ambition to present every man "perfect in Christ Jesus."
IV. Note the struggle and the strength with which the Apostle reaches toward this aim.
"Whereunto I labour also, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily." As to the object, theme, and method of the Christian ministry, Paul can speak, as he does in the previous verses, in the name of all his fellow workers: "We preach, admonishing and teaching, that we may present." There was substantial unity among them. But he adds a sentence about his own toil and conflict in doing his work. He will only speak for himself now. The others may say what their experience has been. He has found that he cannot do his work easily. Some people may be able to get through it with little toil of body or agony of mind, but for himself it has been laborious work. He has not learned to "take it easy." That great purpose has been ever before him, and made a slave of him. "I labour also"; I do not only preach, but I toil-as the word literally implies-like a man tugging at an oar, and putting all his weight into each stroke. No great work for God will be done without physical and mental strain and effort. Perhaps there were people in Colossae who thought that a man who had nothing to do but to preach had a very easy life, and so the Apostle had to insist that most exhausting work is brain work and heart work. Perhaps there were preachers and teachers there who worked in a leisurely, dignified fashion, and took great care always to stop a long way on the safe side of weariness; and so he had to insist that Gods work cannot be done at all in that fashion, but has to be done "with both hands, earnestly." The "immortal garland" is to be run for, "not without dust and heat." The racer who takes care to slack his speed whenever he is in danger of breaking into a perspiration will not win the prize. The Christian minister who is afraid of putting all his strength into his work, up to the point of weariness, will never do much good.
There must be not only toil, but conflict. He labours, "striving"-that is to say, contending-with hindrances, both without and within, which sought to mar his work. There is the struggle with oneself, with the temptations to do high work from low motives, or to neglect it, and to substitute routine for inspiration and mechanism for fervour. Ones own evil, ones weaknesses and fears and falsities, and laziness and torpor and faithlessness, have all to be fought, besides the difficulties and enemies without. In short, all good work is a battle.
The hard strain and stress of this life of effort and conflict made this man "Paul the aged" while he was not old in years. Such souls agony and travail are indispensable for all high service of Christ. How can any true, noble Christian life be lived without continuous effort and continual strife? Up to the last particle of our power, it is our duty to work. As for the sleepy, languid, selfindulgent service of modern Christians, who seem to be chiefly anxious not to overstrain themselves, and to manage to win the race set before them without turning a hair, I am afraid that a large deduction will have to be made from it in the day that shall "try every mans work, of what sort it is."
So much for the struggle; now for the strength. The toil and the conflict are to be carried on "according to His working, which worketh in me mightily." The measure of our power then is Christs power in us. He whose presence makes the struggle necessary, by His presence strengthens us for it. He will dwell in us and work in us, and even our weakness will be lifted into joyful strength by Him. We shall be mighty because that mighty Worker is in our spirits. We have not only His presence beside us as an ally, but His grace within us. We may not only have the vision of our Captain standing at our side as we front the foe-an unseen presence to them, but inspiration and victory to us-but we may have the consciousness of His power welling up in our spirits and flowing, as immortal strength, into our arms. It is much to know that Christ fights for us; it is more to know that He fights in us.
Let us take courage then for all work and conflict; and remember that if we have not "striven according to the power"-that is, if we have not utilised all our Christ-given strength in His service-we have not striven enough. There may be a double defect in us. We may not have taken all the power that he Has given, and we may not have used all the power that we have taken. Alas, for us! we have to confess both faults. How weak we have been when Omnipotence waited to give Itself to us! How little we have made our own of the grace that flows so abundantly past us, catching such a small part of the broad river in our hands, and spilling so much even of that before it reached our lips! And how little of the power given, whether natural or spiritual, we have used for our Lord! How many weapons have hung rusty and unused in the fight! He has sowed much in our hearts, and reaped little. Like some unkindly soils, we have "drunk in the rain which cometh oft upon it," and have "not brought forth herbs fit for Him by whom it is dressed." Talents hid, the Masters goods squandered, power allowed to run to waste, languid service and half-hearted conflict, we have all to acknowledge. Let us go to Him and confess that, "we have most unthankful been," and are/,x zEfitable servants indeed, coming far short of duty. Let us yield our spirits to His influence, that He may work in us that which is pleasing in His sight, and may encircle us with ever-growing completeness of beauty and strength, until He "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 vv26–28 26. Even the mystery. The mystery of the gospel,…
26. Even the mystery. The mystery of the gospel, of salvation through Christ, hidden from past ages, but now revealed to the saints. A mystery, as Paul uses the term, is a thing hidden in the past, but now made known.
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 v28 Col_1:28. Whom we preach.—What a glorious comprehensiveness there is…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Col_1:28. Whom we preach.—What a glorious comprehensiveness there is in preaching Him in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead! Here is nothing narrow. Warning every man.—R.V. “admonishing.” It is a direction of the reflective faculty—a reproof administered with intent to amend the conduct. It corresponds to “Repent ye!” And teaching every man.—The positive side of which the warning is the negative. It is not enough to tell a man he is wrong—the right must be indicated; so the heralds of the gospel followed up “Repent ye” with “Believe the gospel.” Note the repeated “every man.” Exclusiveness which shuts the door in the face of any “weak brother for whom Christ died” is utterly strange to the teaching of St. Paul. That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.—St. Paul, and every true successor, labours for this end; and, as Col_1:22 shows, in so doing all are “workers together with God.” We have the idea of presentation elsewhere in St. Paul, as where he speaks of presenting his converts as a chaste virgin to Christ. The risk of offering a tainted animal for sacrifice is as nothing in comparison of offering a hypocrite as a trophy of the gospel.
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Col_1:29. I also labour.—The word implies strenuous effort. “The racer who takes care to slack his speed whenever he is in danger of breaking into a perspiration will not win the prize” (Maclaren). Striving.—Lit. “agonising,” as in Luk_13:24. Like a stripped gymnast, every encumbrance cast off. The same word in 1Ti_6:12. “Fight the good fight.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Col_1:28-29
The Secret of Effective Preaching.
Much has been written concerning the inefficiency of the modern pulpit; and it has been argued that the press is now the great and successful rival of the preacher, and must ere long render his office nugatory. This prediction might possibly be fulfilled if the preaching of the gospel was simply a human institution and depended only on man for its permanency. But when we remember that preaching is a divine ordinance, and is adapted to reach and stir the heart as no other agency can, the preacher’s function can never cease while human nature remains what it is, or while God honours His own institution with His blessing. Only as the pulpit is faithful to its grand theme and lofty mission will it be effective. The deepest want of the age is Christ; and that preaching will be irresistibly potent that most adequately represents Him. These verses reveal to us the secret of effective preaching.
I. In order to effectiveness in preaching Christ must be the changeless theme.—“Whom we preach” (Col_1:28).
1. Preach Christ as to the special characteristic and unrivalled excellencies of His person.—The greatest men who ever lived, however brilliant and capacious their genius or stupendous their labours, never made so profound and widespread an impression upon humanity as Christ has done and is now doing. Their influence operated for only a limited period; His pervades all time—past, present, and future; theirs was confined to a narrow locality, His is diffused through the universe. The person of Christ is unique in this—that it combines two natures, the divine and the human. It was necessary He should be both God and man in order to fully accomplish the work He voluntarily undertook. As God, He met and satisfied all the requirements of Deity; and as man—putting Himself in our place—He realised and reached the extremities of our need, and thus fairly laying hold of us, gathering up and grasping the roots of our corrupt nature, He raised from sin to holiness, from earth to heaven. He is Emmanuel—God with us.
2. Preach Christ in His mediatorial character.—As the Prophet who testified of the truth of God; as the Priest who, by His one offering of Himself on the cross, has atoned for sin and made reconciliation possible; and as the King who has vanquished all our spiritual enemies and demands our absolute allegiance to His rule.
3. Preach Christ as the Saviour of every man, and as the only Saviour.—The threefold repetition of the phrase “every man” has a special significance, and emphasises the universality of the gospel. This great truth, a truth which the apostle sacrificed his life in establishing, had been endangered by the doctrine of a ceremonial exclusiveness taught by the Judaizers in several places, and was now endangered by the doctrine of an intellectual exclusiveness taught by the Gnosticizers at Colossæ. Christ must be proclaimed as the Saviour of men of every class, community, and country. He is the only Saviour, for “there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” The preaching of Christ is no narrow theme, but stands essentially related to all the noblest truths of the universe.
II. In order to effectiveness variety of method must be adopted.—The declaration of the truth must be:—
1. Authoritative.—“Whom we preach” (Col_1:28). The New Testament idea of preaching involves three elements—the announcement of joyful tidings; the proclamation of truth as by a herald, urgently and authoritatively; and the conviction and persuasion of men to belief by means of arguments. The preacher is the ambassador of God, and the message must be delivered as coming from Him, in His name, and by His authority.
2. Admonitory.—“Warning every man.” Sin has placed man in imminent peril, and its tendency is to deaden his sensibilities and render him oblivious of his danger. Hence he must be roused to concern and repentance by faithful remonstrance, by earnest exhortation, by solemn admonition, by impassioned appeal.
3. Instructive.—“Teaching every man” (Col_1:28). Not only must the emotions be swayed, but the understanding enlightened. It is not enough to convince the unbeliever of his error, not enough to bring home to the lover of sin the vileness and enormity of his transgressions, but by clear and forcible exposition and persuasion the will of the individual offender must be seized, and with firm, yet loving pressure biassed to seek after the light, truth, and purity that once were shunned.
4. With shrewd insight as to its adaptability.—“In all wisdom” (Col_1:28). The ancients spoke of a blind faith in their mysteries which belonged to the many, and of a higher knowledge that was confined to the few. The apostle, while declaring that in the gospel the fullest wisdom was offered to all alike, without restriction, exercised discretion as to the method in which he presented it to the individual. The style of his address at Athens would be different from that adopted at Jerusalem. This involves a study of character, and of what goes to make it—habits, customs, opinions, sympathies, and the general circumstances of life-culture.
III. In order to effectiveness man must be aided in realising the highest ideal of the Christian character.—“That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Col_1:28). The gospel is a mirror in which is glassed the portrait of the character after which each believer is to model his own. That character is not simply a development of one’s own natural manhood, so much as it is something added to and thrown around that manhood, lifting it into dignity and transfiguring it with a glorious beauty. The gospel reveals the ideal of the Christian character after which the soul is continually to aspire. That ideal, in all its loveliness and witchery, is projected before the soul’s inmost vision in the Spirit and life of the man Christ Jesus. He who approximates nearest to the Christly character attains the highest moral perfection. It is the sublime mission of the preacher not to gratify the intellect, charm the imagination, or expand the mind by propagating the ideas of a transcendental philosophy; but to strengthen the soul in the great contest with evil, to supply it with holiest motives, to promote its spiritual progress, to present it “perfect in Christ Jesus.”
IV. In order to effectiveness there must be self-denying toil and the vigorous forth-putting of divinely inspired energy.—“Whereunto I also labour, striving according to His working which worketh in me mightily” (Col_1:29). All great ideas have cost the solitary and individual thinker unspeakable labour, and not a little suffering in the endeavour to elaborate and make them known and set them in their due relation before the world. The world is ruled by ideas; but the revolution they occasion is a slow and painful process. The apostle was the custodian of a great idea—that the gospel was intended for all, and must be fully preached to all. The idea is familiar to us; but it was new to that age, and revolutionised the whole realm of human thought. If the apostle had been content to preach an exclusive gospel, he might have saved himself more than half the troubles of his life. But he saw the magnitude of the issues at stake; he espoused the God-given truth with all the strength of his great nature; he confronted the colossal prejudices of the ages; he trained himself in the discipline of self-denying toil; he suffered as only the true martyr-soul can suffer; he strove with an agony of earnestness to make known the whole truth; and, aided by the mighty working of the divine power within him, he triumphed signally. Preaching is always effective when it is the consentaneous outworking of the divinely imparted energy within the man. The preacher alone, however strenuous his efforts, is powerless; but inspired and strengthened by the divine Spirit, and acting in harmony with His promptness and help, he is mighty to prevail.
Lessons.—
1. Every sermon should be full of Christ.
2. The preacher should be master of every method that will ensure success.
3. That sermon will be most effective that is prepared and preached under the most direct influence of the divine Spirit.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Col_1:28. Apostolic Preaching.
I. They preached Christ as the only foundation of a sinner’s hope of salvation.
II. As the object of supreme love.
III. As the source of our supplies.
IV. As the model of our lives.—W. Antliff, D.D.
Col_1:29. The Christian Ministry—
I. Involves strenuous labour and patient suffering.
II. Is dependent on divine help.
III. Ascribes all its success to God.
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 v28 28. “Whom we preach admonishing every man and teaching…
ARGUMENT 8
PERFECTION THE ULTIMATUM OF THE PAULINE MINISTRY
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28. “Whom we preach admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ.
29. “For which indeed I labor, agonizing according to his energy, which worketh in me with dynamite.” How an immortal man destined quickly to leave his pulpit and stand before the judgment-bar, there to give an account of his ministry, can open his Bible and read these flaming declarations of inspired Paul, and then not only fail to preach Christian perfection, but have the effrontery to antagonize it, is a mystery to me indissoluble. I preached fifteen years before I received the experience of perfection, but I always preached it in the honesty of my heart, and the candor of my convictions, though like a blind dog in a meathouse, smelling the meat and jumping after it, but as apt to jump the wrong way as the right. We live amid the awful fulfillments of the latter-day prophecies, when “men will not endure sound doctrine.” John Wesley advised his people, when a preacher spoke against perfection, quietly to get up and leave. Now, sad to say, his so-called gospel sons speak against it with impunity. Wesley said, that any man who could take the vows of a Methodist preacher, and go back on Christian perfection, was fit for any other place than the pulpit.
No honest person can read the two verses at the head of this argument, and not see beyond the possibility of cavil that Paul and his comrades made Christian perfection the constant burden of their preaching and pastoral labor, doing everything in their power by faithful warning against everything out of harmony with perfection and importunately and indefatigably laboring night and day, teaching the people the Word of the Lord and the way of salvation, thus leading every person into the experience and doing their utmost not only to bring all into the experience, but to establish them there, sedulously fortifying them against apostasy. Hear him certify, “for which (perfection) indeed I labor agonizing.” Do you not know that agonize is the strongest word in the English language?
It is of Greek origin, and means the awful fight of the gladiators in the Coliseum; where they met and fought for life, the contest ending only in the death of one or both of the gladiators. So Paul certifies that he is striving for the perfection of every person, just like the gladiator struggled with all the power of every nerve and muscle, fists and feet, teeth and toenails, for dear life. Paul says he was thus agonizing, “according to His energy, which worketh in me with dynamite.” Not only did Paul use all of his own power, physical, intellectual, and spiritual, but he lays under contribution all the Divine energy imparted to him by the Holy Ghost, “working in him with dynamite.” When men of science discovered the wonderful mechanical power called dynamite a few years ago, they found no word in the English vocabulary competent to describe this greatest of all mechanical powers; consequently they went to the old Greek, and took the very word used so frequently by the Holy Ghost in the New Testament to reveal the power that defeats the devil, and explodes sin out of the human heart. Paul declares that the Divine energy wrought in him with dynamite, thus qualifying him for the climactic work of his ministry; i.e., leading “every person” into perfection. Woe unto the man who dares to intrude into the sacred desk, and not only prove delinquent in preaching perfection, but even have the diabolical audacity to oppose it! Infinitely better for that man that he had never been born. The preacher’s hell is, of all, the most terrible. I have been preaching forty-four years in my humble way; if, in the end, hell should be my doom, I would gladly exchange places with the gambler or the saloonist; but, glory to God! I am a long way from hell, and running heavenward at racehorse speed. Yet I am on probation, liable to fall and make my bed in hell. God, help me to be true the little remnant of my pilgrimage!
The controversy on perfection in the modern pulpit is a confirmation of the awful infidelity which has flooded our Churches like avalanches from the bottomless pit. Perfection is the battle-cry of the apostolic ministry, the great salient fact culminating in every epistle, standing out so boldly as to sweep all candid controversy forever from the field. It is like the atonement of Christ, so patent that “he who runs may read.” Good Lord, have mercy on the preacher so blind as not to read Christian perfection from the Alpha to Omega of the New Testament, and pity the man so fraught with demoniacal delusion and Satanic effrontery as to try to explain it away!
1. It had not been the privilege of the beloved apostle in person to meet the saints of Colosse and Laodicea, his ministerial comrades having enjoyed that honor.
2. “In order that their hearts may be comforted, being cemented together in Divine love and in all the riches of the full assurance of understanding.” The Oriental cement is wonderful, utterly obliterating all seams and consolidating all the fragmentary rocks into a vast monolith. When I ascended to the roof of Simon the tanner in Joppa, that I might kneel on the roof where Peter was praying when the messengers of Cornelius arrived, I observed that the whole house was a solid limestone from the foundation to the roof, including the stone stairway on the outside, the cementation so perfect that I could not recognize a seam anywhere, impressing me as if the whole house had dropped solid from the hand of the Creator. Such is the mystical union of all the members constituting the bride of Christ, “cemented in Divine love.” This is all descriptive of the sanctified experience for which the “full assurance” is but another name. “In the perfect knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ.” The Greek word here, “knowledge,” E.V., is epignosin, from gnosis, knowledge, and epi, perfect. Hence, it means perfect knowledge of the mystery. We receive a knowledge of this wonderful mystery of salvation in regeneration; but it is not free from the liability of interruption ever and anon by the clouds of doubt and fear, prone to rise out of the old bogs of inbred sin still surviving in the deep interior of the spiritual realm. Entire sanctification must come to our relief, expurgating all inbred corruption. Then we will walk in cloudless day, delighted in the victories of experimental certainty.
3. “In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” While knowledge is the wonderful insight into Divine truth, imparted by the infallible Revelator, wisdom is that blessed enduement of heavenly gumption which we constantly need to qualify us to make a correct application of this wonderful supernatural knowledge revealed in God’s Word, Spirit, and providence.
4. “I say this, that no one may deceive you in a persuasive discourse.” This is a solemn warning against Satan’s preachers, whose strong forte is soft palaver, winning words, and genial manners, pandering to the prejudices of all and antagonizing none, so soft and polite that butter will hardly melt in their mouths. An old bishop in his cabinet, surrounded by the elders, receives a petition from a metropolitan Church, “Please send us a round man, who will please all the people.” Pausing a moment, he observes, “There is but one round figure, and that is Zero; the other nine all having sharp points and corners. So I hope I have no such a man in this Conference as this petition calls for; i.e., naught. Tell them I can not supply them, but they can pick such a one almost anywhere.”
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 vv26–28 (See Scofield "Mat 13:11").
mystery
(See Scofield "Mat 13:11").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v28 we proclaim ... We admonish ... we teach ...…
we proclaim ... We admonish ... we teach ... we may present
These words do not include the Colossians. (See: Exclusive and Inclusive "We")
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We admonish every person
"We warn everyone"
so that we may present every person
You may need to make explicit to whom they will present every person. AT: "so that we may present to God every person" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
complete
Being complete is a metaphor for being spiritually mature. AT: "spiritually mature" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
preach
wise
labor
power
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 v26 1:26 The concept of a secret, hidden at one…
1:26 The concept of a secret, hidden at one time and then revealed, is based upon Jewish apocalyptic ideas. Jewish thinkers conceived of God’s entire plan as already existing in heaven, hidden until God should draw back the curtain and reveal it. The Good News, especially for the Gentiles, had been kept secret until it was revealed in Christ.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.