For I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
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For I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. Now I say this that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
Parallel Translations
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For I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;
that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ,
in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
-
I wolde ye knewe what fyghtinge I have for youre sakes and for them of Laodicia and for as many as have not sene my parson in the flesshe
that their hertes myght be conforted and knet togedder in love and in all ryches of full vnderstondynge for to knowe the mistery of God the father and of Christ
in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
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For I woulde ye knewe what great fighting I haue for your sakes, and for them of Laodicea, and for as many as haue not seene my person in the flesh,
That their heartes might be comforted, and they knit together in loue, and in all riches of the full assurance of vnderstanding, to know the mysterie of God, euen the Father, and of Christ:
In whom are hid all the treasures of wisedome and knowledge.
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Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (81)
- 1 Corinthians 1:24 (v3) but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God;
- 1 Corinthians 1:30 (v3) Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:
- Colossians 1:27 (v2) 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…
- Romans 11:33 (v3) 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!
- Colossians 4:8 (v2) I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts,
Show all 79 cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 2:6-8 (v3) 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…
- Colossians 1:29 (v1) for which I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.
- Romans 16:25 (v2)
- Ephesians 6:22 (v2) I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know our state and that he may comfort your hearts.
- 2 Timothy 3:15-17 (v3) From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.…
- Ephesians 3:9-10 (vv2–3) and to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through…
- Colossians 1:9 (vv2–3) For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the…
- Colossians 3:14 (v2) Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.
- Matthew 10:26 (v3) Therefore don’t be afraid of them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed; and hidden that will not be known.
- Ephesians 1:8 (v3) which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
- Philippians 1:30 (v1) having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.
- Colossians 1:15-17 (v2) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth,…
- Proverbs 2:4 (v3) if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures:
- Isaiah 53:11 (v2) After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of…
- Philippians 2:1 (v2) If therefore there is any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and…
- Philippians 3:8 (v2) Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered…
- Colossians 3:16 (v3) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,…
- Colossians 4:12-13 (v1) Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salutes you, always striving for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and…
- Revelation 3:14-22 (v1) “To the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write: “The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of God’s creation, says these…
- Job 28:21 (v3) Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky.
- John 6:69 (v2) We have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
- John 10:30 (v2) I and the Father are one.”
- Romans 15:13 (v2) Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
- 2 Peter 1:3 (v2) seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by…
- Revelation 1:11 (v1) saying, “What you see, write in a book and send to the seven assemblies: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and…
- Revelation 2:17 (v3) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I…
- Hosea 12:3-4 (v1) In the womb he took his brother by the heel; and in his manhood he contended with God. Indeed, he struggled with the angel, and prevailed;…
- John 17:21-23 (v2) that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that…
- Acts 20:38 (v1) sorrowing most of all because of the word which he had spoken, that they should see his face no more. Then they accompanied him to the ship.
- 2 Corinthians 1:4-6 (v2) who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we…
- Colossians 1:19 (v3) For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him,
- Colossians 1:24 (v1) 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…
- Colossians 3:3 (v3) For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
- 1 Timothy 3:16 (v2) Without controversy, the mystery of godliness is great: God was revealed in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached…
- Hebrews 10:22 (v2) let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed…
- Genesis 32:24-30 (v1) Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day. When he saw that he didn’t prevail against him, the man…
- Psalms 133:1 (v2) See how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in unity!
- Isaiah 11:2 (v3) Yahweh’s Spirit will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of…
- Isaiah 32:17 (v2) The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.
- Isaiah 40:1 (v2) “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.
- Jeremiah 9:24 (v2) But let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice,…
- Matthew 11:25 (v2) At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding,…
- Matthew 11:27 (v2) All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows the Son, except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father, except the…
- Luke 10:21-22 (v2) In that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these…
- Luke 22:44 (v1) Being in agony he prayed more earnestly. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.
- John 1:1-3 (v2) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were…
- John 5:17 (v2) But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, so I am working, too.”
- John 5:23 (v2) that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.
- John 10:38 (v2) But if I do them, though you don’t believe me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the…
- John 14:9-11 (v2) Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do…
- John 16:15 (v2) All things that the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he takes of mine and will declare it to you.
- John 17:3 (v2) This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
- Acts 20:25 (v1) “Now, behold, I know that you all, among whom I went about preaching God’s Kingdom, will see my face no more.
- 1 Corinthians 2:12 (v2) 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…
- Galatians 3:28 (v2) There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
- Galatians 4:19 (v1) My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you—
- Ephesians 1:17-19 (v2) 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,…
- Colossians 2:5 (v1) For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the steadfastness of your faith…
- Colossians 4:15-16 (v1) Greet the brothers who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the assembly that is in his house. When this letter has been read among you, cause…
- Hebrews 5:7 (v1) He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from…
- Hebrews 6:11 (v2) We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end,
- 1 Peter 1:8 (v1) whom, not having known, you love. In him, though now you don’t see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy that is unspeakable and…
- Genesis 30:8 (v1) Rachel said, “I have wrestled with my sister with mighty wrestlings, and have prevailed.” She named him Naphtali.
- Acts 4:32 (v2) The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul. Not one of them claimed that anything of the things which he possessed was…
- 1 Thessalonians 1:5 (v2) and that our Good News came to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind…
- 1 Thessalonians 2:2 (v1) but having suffered before and been shamefully treated, as you know, at Philippi, we grew bold in our God to tell you the Good News of God…
- 1 Thessalonians 3:2 (v2) and sent Timothy, our brother and God’s servant in the Good News of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith,
- 1 Thessalonians 5:14 (v2) We exhort you, brothers: Admonish the disorderly; encourage the faint-hearted; support the weak; be patient toward all.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 (v2) Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your…
- 2 Peter 1:10 (v2) Therefore, brothers, be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble.
- 2 Peter 3:18 (v2) But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
- 1 John 3:19 (v2) And by this we know that we are of the truth, and persuade our hearts before him,
- 1 John 4:12-13 (v2) No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we…
- 1 John 5:7 (v2) For there are three who testify:
79 distinct cross-references across this passage (81 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (30 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1. I would have you know. He declares his…
1. I would have you know. He declares his affection towards them, that he may have more credit and authority; for we readily believe those whom we know to be desirous of our welfare. It is also an evidence of no ordinary affection, that he was concerned about them in the midst of death, that is, when he was in danger of his life; and that he may express the more emphatically the intensity of his affection and concern, he calls it a conflict. I do not find fault with the rendering of Erasmus — anxiety; but, at the same time, the force of the Greek word is to be noticed, for ἀγών is made use of to denote contention. By the same proof he confirms his statement, that his ministry is directed to them; for whence springs so anxious a concern as to their welfare, but from this, that the Apostle of the Gentiles was under obligation to embrace in his affection and concern even those who were unknown to him? As, however, there is commonly no love between those who are unknown to each other, he speaks slightingly of the acquaintance that is contracted from sight, when he says, as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; for there is among the servants of God a sight different from that of the flesh, which excites love. As it is almost universally agreed that the First Epistle to Timothy was written from Laodicea, some, on this account, assign to Galatia that Laodicea of which Paul makes mention here, while the other was the metropolis of Phrygia Pacatiana. It seems to me, however, to be more probable that that inscription is incorrect, as will be noticed in its proper place.
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 vv1–3 Me present in body.
Me present in body.
The taking away of an objection, in that that he visited not the Colossians, nor the Laodiceans, he did it not of any negligence but is so much the more careful for them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1 For I would that ye knew what great…
1 For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;
Ver. 1. For I would that ye knew] Little do most men know what incessant care and pains their faithful ministers take for their souls’ health. But we would they should know it, and know those that labour among them, and are over them in the Lord, and to "esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake," 1Th 5:12-13.
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 vv1–3 For; this causal particle refers to what he had…
For; this causal particle refers to what he had said just before in the former chapter.
I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you; the certainty of which truth, for the evidence of his unfeigned affection to them, he heartily wishes they might be certified what a combat he sustained for them, by reason of that opposition he met with in his ministerial labours. This filled him with inward fears and cares, and encompassed him with outward troubles, as 2Co 11:23-30; 2Ti 2:10, wherein he addressed himself to God for them by earnest prayers, as Col 4:12; 2Th 1:11, desiring the assistance of their prayers, Rom 15:30; Heb 13:18; these, with his travels, writings, &c., might well be called a conflict, Phi 1:30.
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And for them at Laodicea; which he had not only for the saints at Colosse, but for their neighhours, liable also to the impression of the same or the like seducers, at Laodicea, definitely, to whom he designed this Epistle might be imparted, Col 4:16.
And for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; and indefinitely, for as many Christians, especially in Phrygia, as had not seen him bodily present amongst them, or heard him preach with a lively voice; whether, because it is said he twice passed through all Phrygia, where Colosse and Laodicea were situate, Act 16:6; 18:23, he had been personally at these cities, is not determinable from the copulative here, (which possibly may be used as a particle to separate these from those who had not conversed with him), neither is it of much importance. It should seem Paul was acquainted with Philemon, (a Colossian or Laodicean), his wife and family, Phm 1:1,2.
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 vv1–3 Observe here, 1. The holy agony which our apostle…
Observe here, 1. The holy agony which our apostle was in, and the mighty conflict he had with himself, upon the account of the Colossians; I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you; namely, by prayer, care, study, and endeavour to do you good:
Here we see how passionately good men long for the good of those whom they never saw; as members of the catholic church, they wish well to the whole, and to every part.
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Observe, 2. What was the ground and occasion of St. Paul’s inexpressible agony and concern of spirit, for and on behalf of these Colossians; namely this, there was a number of men risen up who began very early to corrupt the purity and simplicity of the gospel and the Christian religion: a sort they were, partly of Judaizing, and partly Paganizing Christians; the former joined the Jewish ceremonies, the latter the Gentiles impurities, even in worship with the Christian religion.
Now the urgency of this case put the solicitous and concerned spirit of this great apostle into an inexpressible agony, as his words here intimate; I would ye knew what a conflict I have for you and your near neighbours of Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.
The men of the world little understand, and less consider, what burden of solicitous care lies upon the ministers of Christ, for and on behalf of the whole church of Christ in general, which is continually in danger of being corrupted by false teachers, who everywhere lie in wait to deceive.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 We may observe here the great concern which Paul…
We may observe here the great concern which Paul had for these Colossians and the other churches which he had not any personal knowledge of. The apostle had never been at Colosse, and the church planted there was not of his planting; and yet he had as tender a care of it as if it had been the only people of his charge (Col 2:1): For I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. Observe, 1. Paul's care of the church was such as amounted to a conflict. He was in a sort of agony, and had a constant fear respecting what would become of them. Herein he was a follower of his Master, who was in an agony for us, and was heard in that he feared. (2.) We may keep up a communion by faith, hope, and holy love, even with those churches and fellow-christians of whom we have no personal knowledge, and with whom we have no conversation. We can think, and pray, and be concerned for one another, at the greatest distance; and those we never saw in the flesh we may hope to meet in heaven. But,
I. What was it that the apostle desired for them? That their hearts may be comforted, being knit together in love, etc., Col 2:2. It was their spiritual welfare about which he was solicitous. He does not say that they may be healthy, and merry, and rich, and great, and prosperous; but that their hearts may be comforted. Note, The prosperity of the soul is the best prosperity, and what we should be most solicitous about for ourselves and others. We have here a description of soul-prosperity.
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1. When our knowledge grows to an understanding of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, - when we come to have a more clear, distinct, methodical knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, then the soul prospers: To understand the mystery, either what was before concealed, but is now made known concerning the Father and Christ, or the mystery before mentioned, of calling the Gentiles into the Christian church, as the Father and Christ have revealed it in the gospel; and not barely to speak of it by rote, or as we have been taught it by our catechisms, but to be led into it, and enter into the meaning and design of it. This is what we should labour after, and then the soul prospers.
2. When our faith grows to a full assurance and bold acknowledgment of this mystery. (1.) To a full assurance, or a well-settled judgment, upon their proper evidence, of the great truths of the gospel, without doubting, or calling them in question, but embracing them with the highest satisfaction, as faithful sayings and worthy of all acceptation. (2.) When it comes to a free acknowledgment, and we not only believe with the heart, but are ready, when called to it, to make confession with our mouth, and are not ashamed of our Master and our holy religion, under the frowns and violence of their enemies. This is called the riches of the full assurance of understanding. Great knowledge and strong faith make a soul rich. This is being rich towards God, and rich in faith, and having the true riches, Luk 12:21; Luk 16:11; Jam 2:5.
3. It consists in the abundance of comfort in our souls: That their hearts might be comforted. The soul prospers when it is filled with joy and peace (Rom 15:13), and has a satisfaction within which all the troubles without cannot disturb, and is able to joy in the Lord when all other comforts fail, Hab 3:17, Hab 3:18.
4. The more intimate communion we have with our fellow-christians the more the soul prospers: Being knit together in love. Holy love knits the hearts of Christians one to another; and faith and love both contribute to our comfort. The stronger our faith is, and the warmer our love, the greater will our comfort be. Having occasion to mention Christ (Col 2:2), according to his usual way, he makes this remark to his honour (Col 2:3): In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He had said (Col 1:19) that all fulness dwells in him: here he mentions particularly the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. There is a fulness of wisdom in him, as he has perfectly revealed the will of God to mankind. Observe, The treasures of wisdom are hidden not from us, but for us, in Christ. Those who would be wise and knowing must make application to Christ. We must spend upon the stock which is laid up for us in him, and draw from the treasures which are hidden in him. He is the wisdom of God, and is of God made unto us wisdom, etc., Co1 1:24, Co1 1:30.
II. His concern for them is repeated (Col 2:5): Though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying, and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. Observe, 1. We may be present in spirit with those churches and Christians from whom we are absent in body; for the communion of saints is a spiritual thing. Paul had heard concerning the Colossians that they were orderly and regular; and though he had never seen them, nor was present with them, he tells them he could easily think himself among them, and look with pleasure upon their good behaviour. 2. The order and stedfastness of Christians are matter of joy to ministers; they joy when they behold their order, their regular behaviour and stedfast adherence to the Christian doctrine. 3. The more stedfast our faith in Christ is, the better order there will be in our whole conversation; for we live and walk by faith, Co2 5:7; Heb 10:38.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–3 For I would that ye knew what great conflict…
For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you,.... This is occasioned by what he had said in Col 1:29, that he laboured and strove according to the energy of divine power in him, to present every man perfect in Christ; and lest these Colossians should think that these labours and strivings of his were only for all and every of those persons among whom he was, and to whom he personally preached, he would have them know, observe, and assure themselves, that the great conflict, strife, and agony, in which he was engaged, was for them also; by which he means, his fervent prayers and wrestlings with God, the conflicts he had in his own mind, with his own spirit, about the good of the churches of Christ, the care of which were upon him, and even of those to whom he was by face unknown, sometimes hoping, sometimes fearing, sometimes rejoicing, at other times weeping, at what he heard concerning them; also his combats with the false apostles, striving and earnestly contending for the faith of the Gospel, giving no place to them, no, not for an hour, defending truth, refuting error, and fighting the good fight of faith, by preaching, writing, and disputing; likewise the various persecutions, great afflictions, and hardships he met with from men, for the sake of the Gospel; add to all this, the frequent battles he had with the enemy of souls, his wrestlings against principalities and powers, the many temptations of Satan with which he was attacked, to draw him off from the service of Christ, to weaken his hands, and hinder his success in it; all which he endured and went through with a greatness of mind, and that for the good of the churches of Christ, and the glory of his name, which were the great things he had in view and among others, for the good of these Colossians,
and for them at Laodicea; the saints of that place, the church of Christ which was there; and is the rather mentioned, because near to Colosse: it was a famous city by the river Lycus, first called Diospolis, and then Rhoas (p), and afterwards Laodicea; it was the metropolis of Phrygia, in which Colosse stood: hence this epistle is ordered to be read to them also, they being infested with false teachers, and in the same situation and circumstances as the Colossians were; and though the apostle was unknown to both of them, having never been at either place, yet was heartily concerned for each of their welfare, and he strove for them as he did for others; one of Stephens's copies adds, "and them in Hierapolis"; see Col 4:13.
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And for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; meaning the churches in Christ, and believers in him; such as had never heard him preach, nor had any personal knowledge of him, and conversation with him, which tend to knit the hearts of Christians more firmly together; yet his heart was towards them, he laboured for them, by praying for them, writing to them, suffering all things for their sakes, for the confirmation of them, and of the Gospel of Christ. Christian love and care, and the benefit of the labours and sufferings of Gospel ministers, extend and reach to persons that never saw them,
(p) Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 29.
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 vv1–2 How great a conflict - Of care, desire, prayer.…
How great a conflict - Of care, desire, prayer. As many as have not seen my face - Therefore, in writing to the Colossians, he refrains from those familiar appellations, "Brethren," "Beloved."
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–3 The apostle shows his great concern for the Church…
CHAPTER II.
The apostle shows his great concern for the Church at Colosse
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and at Laodicea; and exhorts them to steadfastness in the
faith, and to beware of being seduced by specious and enticing
words, 1-5.
And to walk in Christ, as they had been taught, and to abound in
faith and holiness, 6, 7.
To beware of false teachers, who strove to pervert the Gospel,
and to lead their minds from him in whom the fulness of the
Godhead dwells; with whom they were filled; by whom they had
received spiritual circumcision; and into whom they were
baptized and were quickened, and raised from a death of sin to
a life of righteousness, 8-12.
He points out their former state, and the great things which
Christ had done for them, 13-15.
Warns them against particular tenets of the Judaizing teachers
relative to meats, drinks, holydays, festivals, and the
specious pretences of deceivers, 16-19.
And shows that all the things taught by these, though they had
a show of wisdom, yet perished in the using, and were the
commandments and doctrines of men, 20-23.
NOTES ON CHAP II.
Verse 1. What great conflict] The word αγων, which we here render conflict, is to be understood as implying earnest care and solicitude, accompanied, undoubtedly, with the most fervent application to the throne of grace in their behalf. The αγωνιζομενος of the preceding verse gave the apostle occasion to use the word αγων here. He agonized with God, and his agony was for them.
Laodicea] A city of Asia Minor, on the borders of Caria, Phrygia, and Lydia. It was originally called Diospolis, or the city of Jupiter, and afterwards Rhoas; but obtained the name of Laodicea from Laodice, the wife of Antiochus. It is now called Ladik. It was formerly celebrated for its commerce, and the fine black wool of its sheep. Colosse, or the city of the Colossians, lay between it and Hierapolis. This Hierapolis was also a town of Phrygia, famous for its hot baths: it is now called Bambukholasi.
As many as have not seen my face in the flesh] From this it has been conjectured that St. Paul had never been at either Colosse or Laodicea, and this, from the letter of the text, appears probable; and yet, his having passed more than once through this country, preaching and strengthening the Churches, renders it very improbable. It is, therefore, most likely that we should understand the apostle as speaking collectively; that he had the most earnest concern, not only for the welfare of those Churches with which he was acquainted, such as Colosse and Laodicea, but also for those to whom he was not personally known.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v1 Col 2:1-3. I would, &c. — The apostle having…
Col 2:1-3. I would, &c. — The apostle having declared, in the latter part of the preceding chapter, the commission which Christ had given to his apostles to preach salvation to the Gentiles through his death, and having described his own labours as an apostle in preaching that great blessing, and thereby having shown what great obligations mankind were under to him for communicating and perpetuating such interesting discoveries; he begins this second chapter with expressing an earnest desire that the Colossians knew what a great concern he was under for their establishment in grace, and that of others, to whom he had not personally ministered. That ye knew what great conflict — Of care, desire, prayer; I have — The original expression is taken from the athletic exercises of the Greeks, and expresses the great solicitude, or agony of mind, the apostle was in on their account. For you — Not only for the members of such churches as I myself have been the instrument of planting, and among whom I have exercised my ministry in person, but for those among whom I have not so ministered; and for them at Laodicea, and as many as have not seen my face, &c. — For my concern for the spread of the gospel, and the salvation of the heathen, is influenced, not by considerations of personal friendship for those whom I particularly know and love, but by a benevolent regard for the good of mankind in general, known or unknown, that they may receive and retain this glorious revelation, and have it delivered to them with all possible advantage. It appears to have grieved the apostle to think how incapable he was rendered of serving them otherwise than by his letters and prayers. And should not this language inspire every minister who reads this, with an earnest desire to use his liberty to the best of purposes, and to exert himself as much as, under such confinement, he would wish he had done? That their hearts may be comforted — With the consolations of the Holy Ghost, and animated to every holy affection and beneficent action. This the original word implies, signifying, not only to have consolation administered under affliction, but to be quickened and excited to zeal and diligence; being knit together — Συμβιβασθεντων, compacted; in mutual Christian love — To the whole body, and to Christ the head of it; unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding — That is, unto the fullest and clearest knowledge of the gospel, here termed the mystery of God, even of the Father, and of Christ, in whom — Or in which mystery, (as may be intended,) and not in any or all of the heathen mysteries; are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge — Christ being himself the wisdom of God incarnate, and his gospel the most perfect and glorious revelation which God ever made, or will make to mankind.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–3 For I would that ye knew - I wish…
For I would that ye knew - I wish you knew or fully understood. He supposes that this would deeply affect them if they understood the solicitude which he had had on their account.
What great conflict - Margin, fear, or care. The Greek word is “agony” - ἀγῶνα agōna. It is not, however, the word rendered “agony” in Luk 22:44 - ἀγωνία agōnia - though that is derived from this. The word is rendered conflict in Phi 1:30; contention, 1Th 2:2; fight, 1Ti 6:12; 2Ti 4:7; and race, Heb 12:1. It properly refers to the combats, contests, struggles, efforts at the public games; the toil and conflict to obtain a victory. It refers here to the anxious care, the mental conflict, the earnest solicitude which he had in their behalf, in view of the dangers to which they were exposed from Judaizing Christians and Pagan philosophy. This mental struggle resembled that which the combatants had at the public games; compare the 1Co 9:25, note, 27, note. And for them at Laodicea For Christians there, who were exposed to similar danger. Laodicea was the capital of Phrygia, in Asia Minor, and a little south of Colossae. See Introduction, Section 1. 6. Notes, Col 4:16. There was a church early planted there - the “lukewarm” church mentioned in Rev 3:14. Being in the vicinity of Colossae, the church there would be exposed to the same perils, and the rebuke in Rev 3:14, showed that the fears of Paul were well founded, and that the arts of the false teachers were too successful.
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And for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh - That is, evidently in that region. He had, doubtless, a general solicitude for all Christians, but his remark here has reference to those in the neighborhood of the church at Colossae, or in that church. On the question which has been raised, whether this proves that the apostle Paul had never been at Colossae or Laodicea, see Introduction, Section 2, 4. This passage does not seem to me to prove that he had not been there. It may mean that he had great solicitude for those Christians there whom he knew, and for all others there, or in the vicinity, even though he was not personally acquainted with them. He may refer:
(1) To some churches in the neighborhood formed since he was there; or.
(2) To strangers who had come in there since he was with them; or.
(3) To those who had been converted since he was there, and with whom he had no personal acquaintance. For all these he would feel the same solicitude, for they were all exposed to the same danger. To “see one’s face in the flesh,” is a Hebraism, meaning to become personally acquainted with him.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain On v1 Colossians Chapter 2
Colossians Chapter 2
Thus we have a double ministry, as well as a double preeminence of Christ, and a double reconciliation; and each having a similar relationship the one to the other: Christ, the Head of all things in heaven and earth, the Head of the assembly; all things in heaven and earth are to be reconciled, Christians are reconciled; Paul exercises his ministry in the whole creation under heaven, he is the minister of the assembly. Naturally his ministry was limited to the earth. In every respect the extent and bearing of the glory of Christ, and of the ministry, went beyond the limits of Judaism, and were in contrast with the whole system.
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The apostle then insists on the second part of his ministry, of which he had been just speaking; dwelling however particularly on that which met the need of the Colossians, and developing it, in order to secure them in the enjoyment of the whole circle of these precious truths. He completed the word of God by announcing this mystery, which had been hidden from all ages and generations, but was now manifested to the saints. No display of the ways of God since the creation had (in the truths on which it was founded, in the revelation of God-of His power, or of His thoughts, which formed its basis and gave it its character) contained the mystery contained in the doctrine of the assembly. It had not been communicated to any of those who formed part of the system which preceded it, or who were the medium of light to others, as instrumental in the revelation of the light of God. Angels, men, Israel, the prophets-all were alike in ignorance of it. The assembly (this body united to the Son of God become man and glorified) and the calling of the Gentiles into that unity was hidden from them all.
Now that Christ the Head of the assembly, the Head of the body, was glorified, the mystery of this body was made known. The apostle here dwells on one particular side of this subject, which, after the Person of Christ, forms the centre of all God’s ways. This side is Christ in us, especially as Gentiles, the hope of glory. And in this again we see how the saints are viewed as on earth, though in the power of resurrection. The aspect here given of the mystery is, Christ in us down here, not union with Him actually in glory, though inseparable from that. In fact this mystery was in every way a new thought, a new truth. That which was known was a Messiah who should be manifested among the Jews, the accomplishment of glory in their midst; the Gentiles at most having part in it, as subordinate to the people of God. But according to the doctrine of the assembly, Christ invisibly dwelt in the midst of the Gentiles, [14] and even in them; and as to the glory He was only the hope of it. A Christ dwelling in the hearts of men, and of men formerly rejected and outside the promises, and filling their hearts with joy and glory in the consciousness of union with Himself-this was the wondrous mystery prepared of God for the blessing of the Gentiles. It was this Christ, a Christ such as this, whom Paul preached, warning every man, and teaching every man according to the full development of the wisdom of God, which wrought mightily in the apostle by the Spirit, in order that he might present every man in a spiritual state answering to this revelation of Christ, as being also its fruit. Not that every man would receive it; but there was no longer any limit. All distinction between them was blotted out, alike by sin and by grace, and there was but one thing to do; that is, to seek that every man, by the power of the word and the Spirit, should reflect Christ and grow up unto the stature of His fullness as revealed in the doctrine committed to the apostle. He laboured for this according to the working of Christ in him; for Christ was not only the object, but the power that wrought to form souls after His own image.
Now this power wrought in the apostle’s weakness; in a human heart, that felt the necessities of men and the difficulties that occurred by the way-that felt them as a man, although according to God, and was the fruit of His love. He desired that the Colossians should understand the conflict he had for them, and for all those who had never seen him, in order that they might be encouraged and be thoroughly united in love; so that they might understand, in all the riches of a full assurance, the mystery of God.
The apostle felt that it was this which they needed and which would be a blessing to them. He knew that union with Christ, realised in the heart, was a safeguard from the wiles of the enemy, to which the Colossians were exposed. He knew the unutterable value of this union, and even of its realisation by faith. He laboured, he wrestled in prayer-for it is indeed a conflict-in order that the full sense of this union with the glorious Head might be wrought in their hearts, so that the Christ on high should be in them by faith. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were found in the mystery, of which this was to their souls the centre and the power. They had not to seek elsewhere. Science, falsely so called, might pretend to furnish them with heights to which the simplicity of the doctrines of Christ did not reach but in fact the wisdom of God and the depths of His counsels left these cloudy efforts of the human mind at an infinite distance. Moreover they were truth -reality-instead of being but the creatures of imagination inspired by the enemy.
For this reason the apostle had brought forward these marvelous revelations of God respecting the double glory of Christ, and with regard to His Person. He declared them in order that no one should beguile the Colossians with enticing words. He avails himself of the order that existed among them, and of their faith to guard them against the danger they were in from these thoughts which might glide unperceived into their minds, while all was yet going on well, and the consciousness of their faith was not touched. This often happens. People have faith in Christ, they walk well, they do not perceive that certain ideas overthrow that faith; they admit them, while still maintaining the profession of faith together with these ideas; but the force of the truth and the sense of union with Christ and the simplicity that is in Him are lost. The enemy has so far attained his end. That which is received is not the development of Christ, but something outside Him.
Therefore the apostle says, “As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him; rooted and built up in him, and confirmed in the faith, even as ye have been taught.” When we have received Christ, all the rest is but a development of that which He is, and of the glory which the counsels of God have connected with His Person. Knowledge, or pretended knowledge, outside this, does but turn us away from Him, withdraw our hearts from the influence of His glory, throw us into that which is false, and lead our souls into connection with the creation apart from God, and without possessing the key to His purposes. Thus, since man is incapable of fathoming that which exists, and of explaining it to himself, his efforts to do so cause him to invent a mass of ideas that have no foundation, and to endeavor to fill up the void that is found in his knowledge through his ignorance of God by speculations, in which (because he is at a distance from God) Satan plays the chief part without man’s suspecting it.
Man, as a child of Adam, is not at the centre of the immense system of God’s ways. Out of Christ and without Christ, he does not know the centre; he speculates, without foundation and without end, only to lose himself more and more. His knowledge of good and evil and the energy of his moral faculties, do but lead him astray the more, because he employs them on higher questions than those which simply relate to physical things; and they produce in him the need of reconciling apparently inconsistent principles, which cannot be reconciled without Christ. Moreover the tendency of man is always to make himself, as he is, the centre of everything; and this renders everything false.
Christians then ought to walk with simplicity in the ways of the Lord, even as they have received Him; and their progress ought to be in the knowledge of Christ, the true center and fullness of all things.
When man occupies himself philosophically with all things, the insufficiency of his own resources always throws him into the hands of an intellectual leader, and into tradition; and, when religion is the subject, into traditions which develop the religion of the flesh, and are suited to its powers and tendencies.
In those days Judaism had the highest pretensions to this kind of religion, allied itself with human speculations and adopted then, and even pursued them assiduously; offering at the same time proofs of divine origin, and a testimony to the unity of the Godhead, which the absence of the grossness of Pagan mythology and the meeting of human consciousness of the divine rendered credible. This relative purity tended to remove-for enlightened minds-that which was disgusting in the Pagan system. The Jewish system had, by the death of Jesus, lost all pretension to be the true worship of God; and was therefore suited (by the advantages it offered in the comparative purity of its dogmas) to be an instrument of Satan in opposing the truth. At all times it was adapted to the flesh, was founded on the elements of this world, because by its means, when owned of God, God was proving man in the position man stood in. But now God was no longer in it; and the Jews, moved by envy, urged the Gentiles to persecution; and Judaism allied itself to Pagan speculations, in order to corrupt and sap the foundations of Christianity, and destroy its testimony.
In principle it is always thus. The flesh may appear for a time to despise tradition, but that which is purely intellectual cannot stand in the midst of humanity without something religious. It has not the truth nor the world which belongs to faith, and for an immense majority superstition and tradition are needed; that is to say, a religion which the flesh can lay hold of, and which suits the flesh. God by His power may preserve a portion of the truth, or allow the whole to be corrupted; but in either case true Christian position and the doctrine of the assembly are lost. [15] We may indeed find philosophy apart from the religion of the flesh, and the latter apart from the former; but inthis case philosophy is impotent and atheistic, the religion of the flesh narrow, legal, superstitious, and, if it can be so, persecuting.
In our chapter we find philosophy and the emptiness of human wisdom united with the traditions of men, characteristic as “the elements of this world,” in opposition to Christ: for we have a heavenly Christ who is a perfect contrast to the flesh in man living on earth, a Christ in whom is all wisdom and fullness, and the reality of all that which the law pretended to give, or which it presented in figure: and who is at the same time an answer to all our wants. This the apostle develops here, shewing death and resurrection with Him as the means of participating in it.
And first all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily. Instead of the misty speculations of men and fantastic aeons, we have the fullness of God bodily, in a real human body, and thus efficaciously for us, in the Person of Jesus Christ. In the second place we are complete in Him; we need nothing out of Christ. [16] On the one side, we have, in Him, God perfectly presented in all His fullness; on the other side, we possess in Him perfection and completeness before God. We are wanting in nothing as to our position before God. What a truth! What a position! God, in His perfect fullness, in Christ as man, we in Him before God, in the perfection of what He is- in Him who is head of all principality and power, before which man in his ignorance would incline to bend the knee! We are in Him, in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells as to His Person; in Him, who is above all principality as to His position and His rights as Christ, man exalted on high.
The apostle then enters into some details of application to demonstrate that the faithful have all in Christ, viewed according to the position which He has taken without having anything to seek elsewhere here below.
Circumcision (the divine token of the covenant with the Jews, and of the putting off the flesh, which was required in order to form part of God’s people) had its reality in Him. By the power of the life which is in Him, and which is theirs-being made partakers of the efficacy of His death-Christians account themselves to be dead, and have put off this body of sin by faith. This is the true circumcision of Christ made without hands. Circumcision made by hands was but the sign of this putting off the body of the flesh-the privilege of the Christian in Christ. Having a new life in Christ, he has efficaciously put off the old man.
We are buried with Christ by baptism (this is its meaning), in which also we are risen with Him by faith in this operation of the power of God whereby He was raised from among the dead. Baptism was the sign and expression of this ; [17] faith in the operation of God which raised Him, the means by which is effected in us this marvelous resurrection with Christ into a new state and scene-this happy death, or rather this precious participation in the death of Him who has accomplished all for us. And when I say “faith,” it is the power of God’s Spirit working in us. But it is the power of God Himself, as it wrought in Christ, which works in us to give us the new standing in life. Viewed in connection with our resurrection with Christ it implies-by the very fact of our receiving it-that we are forgiven perfectly and for ever. We were under the burden of our sins, and dead in them. This burden Christ took upon Himself, and died for us, accomplishing what put away our sins in going down into death. Raised up with Him, inasmuch as partaking of that life which He possesses as risen from the dead, we have-like Him and with Him-left all that burden of sin and condemnation behind us with the death from which we have been delivered. Therefore He says, “Having forgiven you all trespasses.”
Christ, when He arose, left death and the weight of condemnation under which we were lying, behind Him-we also being raised up with Him. Naturally God, in thus raising us up from the state in which we were, has not raised us up to condemn us, or with condemnation attached to this new life, which is Christ Himself. For He had already borne the condemnation, and satisfied the justice of God, and died for the putting away of sin, before He communicated this life to us. God brought us out of death and condemnation with Christ who had borne it for us. But this is connected with another aspect of this work of grace, spoken of here, and also in Ephesians, and even in Joh 5:1-47 and 2Co 5:1-21. He who is alive in sins is dead in them towards God. If I look at him as alive in them, death must come in and has come in on the cross. (See Rom 6:1-23” Rom 6:1-23) This side is not brought forward in Ephesians; only death in Romans; in Colossians death and resurrection in Christ, of which we have spoken. In Ephesians this is not spoken of at all. We are viewed as dead in sins, dead towards God, and all good is a new creation according to God’s counsels. We are quickened together with Christ when dead in sins. This also is taken up in Colossians: only it is not spoken of as a new creation. But in both a new life is given when we are dead; only Ephesians begins with this in Christ raised and exalted, and by the same power in us. In Colossians it is introduced as completing what is taught of the administration of this doctrine of death in baptism and our resurrection by faith of God’s operation in Christ. In Ephesians grace finds us dead and quickened with Christ. In Colossians it finds us alive in sins and brings in death and resurrection, and completes this by quickening with Christ.
All the ordinances likewise, which belonged to the rudiments of this world and which applied to man in the flesh, and weighed as an insupportable yoke upon the Jews (and to which they endeavoured to bring others into subjection), which put the conscience always under the burden of a service unaccomplished by man, and a righteousness, unsatisfied in God-these ordinances were blotted out. In them the Jew had put his signature, so to speak, to his guiltiness; but the obligation was destroyed and nailed to the cross of Christ. We receive liberty as well as life and pardon.
This is not all. There was, the strength of principalities and powers against us-the might of spiritual wickedness. Christ has vanquished and despoiled them on the cross, having triumphed over them in it. All that was against us He has put aside, in order to introduce us, entirely delivered from it all, into our new position. It will be seen here, that what the apostle says of the work of Christ does not go beyond that which He did for our deliverance, in order to set us in the heavenly places. He speaks (ver. 10) of the rights of Christ, but not as sitting in the heavenly places, nor as, leading the enemy captive; neither does he speak of us as sitting in Him in the heavenlies. He has done all that is necessary to bring us into them; but the Colossians are viewed as on earth though risen, and in danger at least of losing the sense of the position which was theirs in virtue of their union with Christ, and were in danger of slipping back into the elements of the world and of flesh, of the man alive in the flesh, not dead, not risen with Christ; and the apostle seeks to bring them back to it, by shewing how Christ had accomplished all that was requisite-had taken out of the way all that prevented their attaining it. But he cannot speak of the position itself: they were not consciously in it. In the things of God we cannot comprehend a position without being in it. God may reveal it. God may shew us the way to it. The apostle does so here with regard to the Person of Christ, which alone could bring them back to it; and at the same time he develops the efficacy of His work in this respect, in order to set them free from the shackles that kept them back, and to shew them that all obstacles had been removed. But in detail he has to apply it to the dangers that beset them rather than to display its glorious results in heaven.
Jewish ordinances were but shadows, Christ is the substance. By bringing in angels as objects of homage, and thus putting them between themselves and Christ, they would separate themselves from the Head of the body, who was above all principalities. The simplicity of Christian faith held fast the Head, from which the whole body directly drew its nourishment and thus increased with the increase of God. It looked like humility, thus to bring themselves into relation with angels, as superior and exalted beings who might serve as mediators. But there were two faults of immense importance in this apparent humility. First, it really was thorough pride-this pretension to penetrate into the secrets of heaven of which they were ignorant. What did they know of any position held by angels, which would make them the objects of such homage? It was pretending to mount up into heaven for and by themselves, and to measure their relations with God’s creatures without Christ, and at their own will to connect themselves with them. Secondly, it was to deny their union with Christ. One with Him, there could be nothing between Him and them; if there were anything, then they were dead and twice dead. Besides by this union they were one with Him who was above the angels. United to Him, they received, as we have seen, a communication, through all the members of the body, of the treasures of grace and life which were in the Head. The mutual links between the members of the body itself were thereby strengthened, and thus the body had its increase.
Two applications of the doctrine that they are dead with Christ and risen with Him follow. (Col 2:20.) He applies the principle of death to all the ordinances, and to the asceticism which treated the body as a thing vile in itself which ought to be rejected; and (Col 3:1) he uses the resurrection to raise their hearts into a higher sphere and to bring them back to Christ by looking up; they being dead as regards the old man. [18] To make these instructions more plain by shewing their connection, we may remark that the apostle points out the double danger, namely, philosophy, and human tradition, in contrast with Christ. (Col 2:3; see Col 2:9-15.) While identifying us with Christ, he speaks of the bearing of the work of Christ Himself rather thanof this identification. In Col 2:16-19 he applies it first (Col 2:16) to subjection to ordinances, that is, to the Jewish side of their danger; and then (Col 2:18) to the Gnostic philosophy, [19] science falsely so called, which linked itself with Judaism (or to which Judaism linked itself), reproducing itself under a new form. From Col 2:20 the apostle applies our death and resurrection with Christ to the same points, or to the deliverance of the Colossians by raising their thoughts on high.
But the Colossians are not the only ones who may have been in this danger. In the main these principles have been the ruin of the church at all times. They are those of the mystery of iniquity, [20] which has so much ripened since then, and produced effects so various, and under such different modifications, on account of other principles which have also acted, and under the sovereign providence of God. We shall see the deep, simple, and decisive principle which is involved in it in the verses that follow.
The verses already quoted, as far as the twentieth, had judged this whole Judeo-philosophic system from the point of view of Christ’s work, of His resurrection, and of union with Him in His heavenly position.
That which follows judges it after our position. The preceding verses had demonstrated that the system was false because Christ and His work were such as is declared in them. The passage we are going to consider shews that this system is absurd, cannot be applied to us, has no possible application, because of our position. On the one hand it is a false system, null and void in all its parts, if Christ is true and is in heaven; and, on the other hand, it is an absurd system in its application to us, if we are Christians. And for this reason: it is a system which supposes life in this world, and relationships to be acquired with God, having their foundation in that life, while it pretends to mortify flesh; and yet it addresses itself to persons who, for faith, are dead. The apostle says, that we are dead to the rudiments of this world, to all the principles on which its life acts. Why then as though we were still living (alive) in it, as though we were still alive in this world, do we subject ourselves to ordinances which have to do with this life, and which suppose its existence?-ordinances which apply to things which perish in the use of them, and which have no connection with that which is heavenly and eternal. They have indeed a semblance of humility and self-denial as regards the body, but they have no link with heaven, which is the sphere of the new life -of all its motives, and all its development; and they do not recognize the honour of the creature, as a creature come out of the hand of God, which, as such, has always its place and its honour. They put a man in and under the flesh, while pretending to deliver us from it, and they separate the believer from Christ by putting angels between the soul and the heavenly place and blessing; whereas we are united to Christ, who is above all these powers, and we in Him.
These ordinances had to do with merely corruptible things-were not connected with the new life, but with man living in his life of flesh on the earth, to which life the Christian is morally dead; and as far as regarded this life, they did not recognize the body as a creature of God, as it ought to be recognised.
Thus this system of ordinances had lost Christ, who was their substance. It was connected with the pride that pretended to penetrate heaven, in order to put itself in relation with beings whom we do not know in such a manner as to have any relations with them -pride which in so doing separated from the Head of the body, Christ, and thus disowned all connection with the source of life, and with the only true position of the soul before God. This system falsified equally our position on earth by treating us as though still alive after the old man, whereas we are dead; and dishonoured the creature as such, instead of recognizing it as coming from the hand of God.
That which was a danger to Christians in the apostle’s days characterises Christianity at the present time.
The Christian’s position was thus set forth, but in its application thus far rather to the danger of Christians than to their heavenly privileges. Thus grace has provided us with all we need, using every privilege, using the faith of some, giving warnings and instruction above all price, and turning the faults of others to account.
Footnotes for Colossians Chapter 2
14: I have already remarked that the Gentiles are especially in view in the Colossians, not the union of Jew and Gentiles in one.
15: There were some very beautiful legends, embracing partial truths, in the Gnostic system; but they had lost God and truth, and reality of conscience before God.
16: These expressions relate to the double character of Christ already set before us in chapter 1. They shew us what we have in Christ in a positive way as that which follows applies it to everything here below which would prevent our enjoying it. In Christ is the fullness of the Godhead, the object of our delight, in whom we possess all things. We have also in Him a position above all creation, in the perfection which has placed Christ there. We are complete in Him who is the Head of all principalities and of all power. As regards the phraseology, the change of a word, to one not however better in itself, shews the mind of the apostle. In Him dwelleth all the completeness of the Godhead bodily; and we are complete in Him.
17: Some do not connect “risen” with baptism. If so, I apprehend the passage must be read thus: “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism; in whom also ye are risen together [meaning with Christ] through faith,”. Baptism clearly signifies death, and it is not the baptizing but the coming out of the water which can be applied to resurrection. The giving of life is in no way the sense of baptism even as a figure, but leaving the life of Adam by death (the death of Christ) and entrance through that gate into a wholly new place and position.
18: These applications flow from Col 2:11-12. It is to be remarked that Romans from Rom 5:12 treats of death to sin, in which man (as child of Adam) was alive. In Ephesians man is reckoned as dead in sins as towards God. Colossians takes up both: Col 2:11-12 follows them out, adding resurrection with Christ. Col 2:18 follows Ephesians doctrine. Col 2:20, Col 3:1, follow on Col 2:11-12. and we have the putting off of the old and putting on of the new man
19: Although this word has the appearance of learning and of not being scriptural, this is not the case. Science, falsely so called, of which the apostle speaks elsewhere, is in Greek “gnosis” , whence this presumptuous and corrupting philosophy was called “Gnosticism,” and its votaries “Gnostics.” It plays an immense part in the history of the church, with which I have nothing to do here. But its principles are frequently formed in the New Testament, brought forward by the apostles in order to combat them. The Jews had largely fallen into the notion of a mediatorial work of angels, though not in the form exactly of Gnostic philosophy.
20: This was working in the apostles’ days; Paul withstood it in the energy of the Holy Ghost. After his departure that power was gone. The historical church never had the two great fundamental principles of Christianity, perfection in Christ (“by one offering he hath perfected for ever “), and the presence and leading power of the Holy Ghost down here. These were supplanted by sacraments and the clergy.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 4. Anxiety of the Apostle about their being led…
4. Anxiety of the Apostle about their being led away by false wisdom
(Col_2:1-15.)
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1For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for1 you and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen2 my face in the flesh; 2that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together3 in love, and unto all riches4 of the full assurance [lit., of the fulness of assurance] of understanding, to the acknowledgment [full knowledge] of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ 3 [or omit all after God],5 in whom [or which] are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4And this I say, lest any man [that no one, μηδείς]6 should beguile you with enticing words. 5For though I be absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness [firm foundation] of your faith in Christ. 6As ye have therefore [or As then ye have] received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk [walk] ye in him; 7rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith [or by faith],7 as ye have been taught, abounding therein8 with thanksgiving. 8Beware lest any man spoil you [lit., lest there shall be any one that maketh you his booty]9 through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of 9 men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For [Because] in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10And ye are complete [made full, πεπληρωμένοι] in him, which [who]10 is the head of all principality and power: 11in whom also ye are [ye also were] circumcised with the [a, article wanting ] circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins [omit of the sins]11 of the flesh, by [in, ἐν] the circumcision of Christ; 12buried with him in baptism, wherein [or in whom]12 also ye are risen with him [were raised] with him [or together] through the faith of [in] the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. 13And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, [insert you]13 hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you [us]14 all 14 trespasses; blotting [having blotted] out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took [he has taken, ἧρχεν]15 it out of the 15 way, nailing [by nailing]16 it to his cross: and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly [with boldness],17 triumphing over them in it.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Winning exordium full of tender concern for the spiritual health of the Church. Col_2:1 to Col_3:18
Col_2:1. For I would that ye knew (1Co_11:3; Php_1:12; Rom_11:25).—“For” links this to the foregoing, and according to the context, to “striving” (1:29); with good reason did he speak of conflicts in this Epistle, since he was anxious about the Colossians also.
What great conflict I have for you.—Ἡλίκον (only in Jam_3:5, where it is used twice of little fire and great wood), derived from ἧλιξ (one of the same age, a companion), describes the manner, the vehemence and importance rather than the extent (Meyer and others), as πηλίκοις (Gal_6:1119)=qualibus. Hesychius: ποδαπόν, ὁποῖον. [Ellicott: qualitative adjective.—R.] Ἀγῶνα ἔχω denotes the continuance of his anxiety. [Eadie: “intense and painful anxiety.” Any reference to outward sufferings (Ellicott) is very doubtful.—R.] Περὶ ὑμῶν indicates the readers as the object; what is more prominent in ὑπέρ, viz., for their benefit, is put in the back ground. And them at Laodicea adds a neighboring church in the same situation (see Introd. § 4.).
And as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.—On ἑώρακαν (see Winer’s Gram. p. 73). Col_2:2 : αὐτῶν, requires us to understand this of persons belonging together and grouped together. It is improper to imply it either to those unknown to Paul in other places, in contrast with those in Colosse and Laodicea (Theodoret, Schultz in Stud. und Krit., 1829, p. 135 sq.). Paul having been in both places, or to those Colossians and Laodiceans who remained unknown to him (Rohr, Wiggers), Paul merely adds a category for his readers; they had not seen him. [Alford: καί is not copulative, but generalizing. See his remarks on the grammatical inference that Paul had not been at Colosse—so most modern editors.—Wordsworth is decided in favor of the other view, following Theodoret. The passage so naturally suggests the thought that Paul had not been there, as to require far stronger evidence than has yet been adduced to sustain any other view.—R.] He adds to πρόσωπόν μου (1Th_2:17; 1Th_3:10) ἐν σαρκί, since the contrast between spiritual presence and lack of personal acquaintanceship (Col_2:5) readily suggested this concrete strengthening (bodily face). The reason for it is not to be found in the spiritual physiognomy (Olshausen), nor is it to be joined with ἑώρακαν (Chrysostom and others). It marks rather, that the readers need not be surprised at the Apostle’s concern, when they did not know each other, that he included all Christians, known and unknown, in his sympathy as brethren, than that the motive of his concern was the fact of his not having himself founded and instructed this Church (Schenkel), or his having only an uncertain idea of it (Bleek). Bengel: Paulus se omnium gentium debitorum statuit.
Col_2:2. That their hearts might be comforted.—This is the purpose of the conflict (ἵνα). The verb means accurately, “to call upon,” then “to admonish” (Php_4:2), “to entreat” (Phm_1:10), [rendered “beseech” in both cases in E. V.—R.], “to comfort” (2Co_1:4), so that trust, confidence, strength is there, not doubt, uncertainty, wavering (4:8; Eph_6:22); hence also “to strengthen, confirm” (Jam_4:3; Isa_35:3). [Alford insists that the idea of confirming predominates here. But Meyer, Eadie, Ellicott agree in upholding the usual meaning.—R.] The Apostle regards the danger from false teachers as misfortune, affliction (Chrysostom: οὔτε κατηγορῶν οὔτε ἀπαλλάττων αὐτοὺς κατηγορίας). This comfort and tranquillity should first affect the heart, the centre.—Being knit together in love.—Συμβιβασθέντες according to the sense, as though it were αὐτοί, 3:16; Eph_4:2-3, Winer’s Gram. p. 532. On the meaning, comp. 2:19; Eph_4:16. The participle denotes the way, the mode of the comfort; union in love according to the context: in amore fidelium mutuo, brotherly love, as the ethical element (Meyer) in which the “knitting together” was consummated. The Vulgate (instructi) is incorrect, and Luther also: comprehended (coördinate to “comforted”).
And unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery of God [even Christ. Ellicott. God Christ, Wordsworth.—R.]—Καί joins coördinately the end (εἰς) of the union, and in a two-fold direction; formally and quantitatively, “all riches of the fulness of assurance of understanding,” materially and qualitatively, “to the full knowledge of the mystery of God.” It is not sufficient to maintain, to know individual matters, the understanding must extend to the whole, in its fulness, and must attain to knowledge of the mystery. Comp. 1:9.; Eph_3:18; in fellowship we advance to full knowledge.—On πληροφορία, see 1Th_1:5; Heb_6:11; Heb_10:22; it denotes full conviction, excludes incompleteness, includes joyous self-certainty. [Eadie: “the fixed persuasion that you comprehend the truth, and that it is the truth which you comprehend.” What is commonly termed “assurance of knowledge,” rather than “assurance of faith.”—R.]—On “the mystery of God” see Eph_1:9. If Χριστοῦ is inserted, this could not be regarded as dependent on θεοῦ (against Huther, Meyer, Schenkel), since the article is wanting, and every clear ground for it in the text, but only as in apposition to θεοῦ, so that Christ is called God, a singularity which is not Pauline, notwithstanding Rom_9:5; Eph_5:5; Tit_2:13 (against Steiger)—nor is it in apposition to μυστηρίον, as a gloss indicates. [Rejecting the reading of the Rec. as untenable, but one other than the shortest, has a claim upon our attention, the one referred to above: τοῦ θεοῦ Χριστοῦ. Braune refers to the three interpretations suggested. The first: the “mystery of the God of Christ,” is harsh, as well as open to the grammatical objection he urges. The second is defended by Wordsworth, following Hilary: “the mystery of the God Christ,” i.e. the mystery of the Divine nature of the Man Christ Jesus. His notes are worthy of attention. The third, making Χριστοῦ in apposition with μυστηρίον seems far preferable: “the mystery of God, even Christ.”—It is well supported by Ellicott, and the gloss above referred to (ὅ ἐστιν Χριστός), is not without weight in determining the reading and the interpretation. Even Meyer, in adopting the interpretation “the mystery of the God of Christ,” says: In Christ God has comprehended and consummated the decree of Redemption (the μυστήριον). To him who has acknowledged God as the God of Christ, the divine mystery is thereby revealed.” Of course the meaning of μυστήριον is widely extended by taking Ellicott’s view. It includes not simply the mystery of the Incarnation, but also of Redemption as involved in the Incarnation. The next verse can certainly be interpreted more readily, if this view be accepted.—R.]
Col_2:3. In which—Ἐνῷ refers to μυστηρίον. [E. V., “in whom”—(with the marginal reading “wherein,”) refers it to Christ. If Χριστοῦ is retained above, and then taken in apposition to μυστηρίον, the meaning is the same. Unless the reference be to Christ in some direct way, it seems scarcely likely that Paul would say that in it were “hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” So wide a predicate is best applied to Christ.—R.]—Are.—Εἰσίν stands first for emphasis, to lay stress upon the fact that in God all mysteries are actually present.—All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, πάντες οἱ θησαυροὶ τῆς σοφίας καὶ τῆς γνώσεως.—Σοφία is the practical wisdom, to which every Christian attains, γνῶσις is the dialectic science, which is found only in a mentally gifted and cultivated Christian. [Σοφία, the more general, γνῶσις, the more special, Meyer, Eadie, Alford, Ellicott.—R.] Calvin is incorrect: duplicatio ad augendum valet. Bengel: θησαυροί, hinc πλοῦτος, σοφία hinc σύνεσις, γνῶσις hinc ἐπίγνωσις. Hence the mystery must needs be revealed for the treasures are hid, ἀπόκρυφοι, in it. The adjective is a closer definition of the existence of the treasures in the mystery, and not a description of the treasures in themselves, therefore not an attributive joined to θησαυροί (Bengel, Meyer, Schenkel). [Alford defends most fully the interpretation: “the secret treasures.” Eadie upholds the view not noticed by Braune, that the treasures are “laid up.” Ellicott, whose notes here are valuable, makes it a “secondary predicate of manner,” i.e., the treasures, etc., are in the mystery or in Christ, they are so suddenly; until revealed and made the object of “full knowledge” as above (Col_2:2). This recognizes the emphatic position of the verb, takes the adjective in its natural meaning, and accords better with the context. It seems to be Braune’s view. Davies refers to the gnostical stamp of the terms in this verse. There is probably an allusion to the false doctrine at Colosse.—R.] The church did not need another system of doctrine, only more profound exposition.20
Brief sketch of the Situation. Col_2:4-5.
Col_2:4. And this I say, refers to Col_2:1-3, not to Col_2:3 alone (Œkumen, Calvin, Baehr and others). In Col_2:5 he proves his λέγω by his sympathy. The danger which environs his readers, on account of which he cannot be silent, corresponds with his inward conflict about and for them: that no one should beguile you.—The verb (παραλογίζηται, only here and Jam_1:22,) denotes, through παρα, as in παραβαίνω, παράδοξος, a deviation, violation, of the λόγος, the λογίζεσθαι, to miscalculate, to be deceived through sophisms (Passow, sub voce).
With enticing words, ἐν πιθανολογίᾳ denotes especially the danger. Πιθανός means “adapted to convince, persuading,” like πειθός, and λογία denotes the mode in which this skill appears, viz.: in speech; it is stronger than ἐν πειθοῖς σοφίας λόγοις (1Co_2:4); it is found here only and in malam partem. Luther is incorrect—“with rational speech.” The formal side of the false doctrine, the sophistical, rhetorical, insinuating method is noted, there is nothing from which the purport of the false doctrine can be inferred. [Ellicott: “the preposition ἐν has that species of instrumental force, in which the object is conceived as existing in the means,” rather than indicating merely “the element in which the deceit works” (Alford).—R.]
Col_2:5. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit.—Comp. 1Co_3:5. External, bodily absence, and spiritual presence, strongly marked by σὺν ὑμῖν, are here contrasted. There is no hint here of a previous presence at Colosse (Wiggers, Stud. und Krit. 1838, p. 181). [Nor does ἐν πνεύματι refer to the Holy Spirit, even secondarily (Davenant).—R.] There is no proof here of the danger of enticement to which the Colossians were exposed, nor of the greatness of the Apostle’s anxiety, though these are involved. This proof lies in what follows; a description of the possessions endangered through the dangerous false teachers: joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.—“Joying and beholding”. describe the mode of Paul’s presence. The joy is emphasized by the position, in order to point to the noble possessions which it concerns: his joy on this account enchains him, so that he stands there as a spectator. The representations made by Epaphras were sufficient to bring him into this attitude, although he was then unknown and absent. The object of the “joying and beholding” is, first, “your order;” its opposite is ἀταξία. It is the external appearance of the Church in good order—fixed, orderly deportment (1Co_14:40); ὑμῶν, placed first, indicates the contrast with the false teachers, who disturb such order. Secondly, “and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ,” describes sharply and definitely the internal state of the Church. Στερέωμα, firmamentum, like τάξις, is a military word, a fortification into and upon which they could and should fall back; perhaps suggested by ἀγῶνα (Col_2:1). 1Pe_5:9 : στερεοὶ τῇ πίστει is similar. It is incorrect to regard the participles as a hendiadys: cum gaudeo videns (Bengel), or gaudeo videns (Grotius), nor is καί causal: quia video (Calvin), nor explicative: to wit (Winer’s Gram. p. 438), nor can the order of words be called illogical. Neither should another object than that of βλέπων be given to χαίρων: his spiritual presence with the readers (Meyer, Schenkel), or about you (Winer), [apparently Ellicott, see Alford also.—R.] Στερέωμα is not=στερέοτης (Huther and others). [Alford: not any abstract quality, but as all nouns in -μα, the concrete product of the abstract quality.—R.] Finally we cannot limit this to a part of the Church (Flatt) which was unseduced, or apply it to the whole, hypothetically, were this the case (Baumgarten-Crcsius). [Ellicott: “after these words we have no reason for doubting that the church at Colosse—was substantially sound in the faith.”—R.]
Admonition to fidelity in walk, Col_2:6-7.
Col_2:6. As then ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord.—The emphasis rests upon ὡς; on which account καθώς is repeated (Col_2:7). “Ye have been taught” there corresponds to “ye have received” here. Comp. ver 8: κατὰ τὴν παράδοσιν; Eph_4:20 : ἐμάθετε; 1Th_2:13 : παραλαβόντες—ἐδέξασθε. It is not then: have accepted [angenommen habt (Luther and others); it refers to correct instruction. “Christ Jesus the Lord” [lit., the Christ, Jesus the Lord.—R.] sets forth the object, and “the summary of the whole confession” (Meyer), giving stronger prominence to the Person. “The Lord” marks, in apposition, what Jesus is for us, whom Paul had named “the Christ” over against God: τὸνκύριον is not to be interpreted, ut dominum (Bengel and others). [Ellicott well remarks: “Though the reference seems mainly to reception by teaching, the object is so emphatically specified, as apparently to require a more inclusive meaning; they received not merely the doctrinam Christi, but Christ Himself, in Himself the sum and substance of all teaching.”—R.] From the favorable state of the Christian cause, the Apostle deduces (οὗν), according to the received instruction, the obligation: walk in him !—Ἐναὐτῷ standing first, is emphasized; He is the Life-element. “Walk” includes in agreement, external and internal mode and conduct of life. “In Him” is still further explained by
Col_2:7. Rooted and built up, ἐῤῥιζωμένοι καὶ ἐποικοδομουένοι, [lit. “having been rooted and being built up.”—R.]—The perfect denotes a concluded and still efficient fact,—the present, a continuing state, a process of becoming, a progressing development; hence it is not ἐποικοδομηθέντες (Eph_2:20) or τεθεμελιωμένοι (Eph_3:18). Bengel: præteritum pro initio, præsens etiam in progressu. The figures are different, yet related. Lucian de saltat., 34: ῥίζαι καὶ θεμέλιοι. Comp. Eph_3:18. Thus the readers are more closely characterized in their relation to Christ, and obligated to Christian walk. [The mixed figures mark “the stable growth and organic solidity of those who truly walk in Christ.” “The accessory idea of the foundation is admirably conveyed by the ἐπί in the compound verb” (Ellicott).—R.] Schenkel is incorrect in beginning a new sentence here, because the participles do not correspond with “walk.”—In him, is of course to be joined with both participles according to the figure. Christ is first regarded as the soil, and then as the corner stone, [foundation,—R.]; but not as the bond of the root-fibres and the parts of the building (Schenkel).
And stablished by faith.—To the objective ground of life, the subjective element is thus added. Βεβαιούμενοι, also in the present, denotes a progressing development, the means of which is indicated by τῇ πίστει; the Christian is fortified by means of appropriating faith; it is almost=διὰ τῆς πίστεως (Theophylact), and not the dative of reference: “as to the faith” (De Wette). [The former view is that of Meyer, and Eadie, if ἐν, be omitted. Alford and Ellicott, rejecting ἐν, adopt the latter view. If ἐν αὐτῇ, below, be retained, “faith” must be considered subjective, a view which is preferable on other grounds.—R.]—As ye have been taught.—Καθώς connects with τῇ πίστει, and ἐδιδάχθητε reminds of Epaphras (i. 7).—Abounding therein with thanksgiving, is subordinate to “stablished,” in order to denote the tone in which the “becoming established” acts upon the extension and enlargement of the measure of faith. [Ellicott; “mainly reiterating with a quantitative, what had previously been expressed with a, qualitative reference.—R.] Hence περισσεύοντες ἐν αὐτῇ is abundantes ea, i. e., fide (Php_1:9; Rom_15:13; 2Co_8:7), which is felt to be a privilege, a great gift; ἐν εὐχαριστίᾳ=σὺν εὐχαριστίᾳ (Œkumen). [Alford: “the field of operation in which that abundance is manifested.” Ellicott more accurately distinguishes: “the accompaniment with which περισσ. ἐν πίστει was associated and as it were, environed.”—R.] Luther incorrectly joins (reichlich dankbar) “abundantly thankful:” the position of the words and the context, which treats of faith, are against this.
Warning against apostasy. Col_2:8.
Col_2:8. Take heed lest there shall be any one that maketh you his booty.—The future indicative (ἔσται) denotes an impending danger, whose entrance is feared as certain. (Heb_3:12; comp. Luk_11:35; Gal_4:11. Winer’s Gram. p. 469.) Υ̓μᾶς ἔσται ὁ συλαγωγῶν is not =συλαγωγῇ: it marks the continuance of this state; it is not simply that one or another one deceives them, but there is one or another there, who in character and action is a deceiver, ever misleads others. Winer’s Gram. p. 326. ‘Υμᾶς, emphatically placed, makes perceptible the advantages described in Col_2:4, which they have above others [as well as indicating that they themselves were the booty to be carried away.—R.] The verb, occurring only here in New Testament, means prædam abigere (Bengel: qui non de vobis, sed vos ipsos spoliam faciat): they themselves were made a spoil, lost to the Lord. Luther is incorrect; who may rob you; and the Vulgate (decipiat).
Through philosophy and vain deceit.—The means employed by the seducers. Since the preposition and article are not repeated, one means, a category is here presented. Bengel: quod adversarii jactabant esse philosophiam et sapientiam, id Paulus inanem fraudem esse dicit. [Not “philosophy” in general, but what they called such, which was “vain deceit.”—R.] In distinction from “enticing words,” Col_2:4, “philosophy” refers to the substance, the thought and doctrine (against Theodoret, Calvin and others); in distinction from σύνεσις, ἐπίγνωσις, ἐπιστήμη (against Tittmann), to a system; according to the state of the Church and the context, an Oriental, and according to Col_2:11; Col_2:16; Col_2:18, somewhat Judaistic system, although the future (ἔσται) may point to one just arising. It is not to be regarded as Hellenic philosophy (tertullian), nor more particularly as Epicurean (Clemens Alex.), or as Platonic and Stoic (Heumann), or Pythagorean (Grotius): nor yet as Gnosticism or Kabbalism (Brucker) whose germs were just discernible. Philo had already called the Jewish religion τὴν πάτριον φιλοσοφίαν, and Josephus speaks of the three doctrinal systems of the Essenes, Sadducees and Pharisees, as τρεῖς φιλοσοφίας; yet it is by no means equivalent on this account to cultus divinus (Heinrich). Paul does not mean philosophy in itself (CalixTus: si dicam, vide, ne decipiat vinum, nec vinum damno, nee usum ejus accusc, sed de vitando abusu moneo), but a certain Judaistico-oriental one (Meyer)21 which was in itself “vain deceit.” Eph_5:6. On this account the Apostle characterizes it more closely:
After the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world.—Emphatically asyndetic, with the preposition repeated; co-ordinate clauses, which are to be joined, not with the verb, but with what immediately precedes. The first: κατὰ τὴν παράδοσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων marks the origin as purely human in contrast with the revelation from God (Bengel: antitheton, deitatis). The other: κατὰ τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου marks the substance (Bengel: antitheton, corporaliter, Col_2:9). Τὰ στοιχεῖα, used in a physical sense 2Pe_3:10; 2Pe_3:12, is here, as in Col_2:20; Gal_4:3; Gal_4:9; Heb_5:12, used in a spiritual, didactic sense; beginnings in education, the A B C of knowledge, upon which childish thoughts the Christian as a man looks down (1Co_13:11). It is incorrect to interpret: principles of the moral life in the world (Huther); precepts of the world (Luther); rudimenta legis ritualia is too limited (Schaubach: Commentatio, qua exponitur quid στ. τ. κοσ. in N.T. sibi veluit). Comp. on Col_2:20. [Wordsworth’s interpretation, following that of the Fathers, is curious: “The physical elements, such as the Sun and Moon, regulating times and seasons; and according to superstitious observances of times, Fasts, New Moons, and Seventh Day Sabbaths ordered thereby, as if they were of the same importance as articles of faith, and equally necessary to salvation.” Ellicott’s view is to be preferred: “all rudimental religious teaching of non-Christian character, whether heathen or Jewish or a commixture of both,—the first element possibly slightly predominating in thought here, the second in Col_2:20.” Whether the immediate reference be to Judaistic errors or not, the phrase must not be limited to Jewish worship (Eadie) or ritualistic observances (Alford), for the Apostle is not describing the things themselves, but giving the category (κατά) to which they belong. A careful investigation of his use of the phrase will not justify any such limitation. Comp. Galatians, pp. 96, 105.—R.]—And not after Christ.—Sharply conclusive, comprehensive negative. Comp. Eph_1:21; 2Co_5:17. Incorrect: after the doctrine of Christ (Erasmus and others). [Meyer: “The activity of this συλαγωγεῖν does not have Christ as its objective norm.” Eadie: “True Christian science has Him for its centre and Him for its object.” On the whole verse the notes of Wordsworth are very full and interesting as grouping the patristic authorities respecting the angel-worship of the early heretics.—R.]
Praise of the glory of Christ and His work. Col_2:9-15.
Col_2:9. Because in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.—̔́Οτι confirms the warning against a doctrine which does not have its norm in Christ, supposing it can transcend Him and yet not attaining to Him. By “in Him dwelleth” (κατοικεῖ not κατῴκησε) Jesus, whose importance is to be portrayed, is described as a habitation, whose value rests upon what is at home there. [“In him” is emphatic, in him and in none other than him (Ellicott).—R.] This is then “all the fulness of the Godhead” (1:19; comp. Rom_15:29; Rom_11:25). θεότης must be distinguished from θειότης (Rom_1:20); the former, vocabulum abstractum significantissimum (Bengel), means Deitas, Godhead [das Gottsein], the Divine Essence; the latter, Divinitas, Divinity [Göttlichkeit, the Divine Quality; what is here viewed metaphysically is regarded in 1:19, charismatically (Meyer). θεότης is not to be understood as meaning God’s will (the Socinians), Divine grace and gift (Schleiermacher), nor does “all the fulness of the Godhead” refer to the Christian Church (Heinrich, Schenkel and others). Σωματικῶς, placed last for emphasis, limits “dwelleth,” which refers, in the present, to the permanent state of the present and exalted Christ, founded (1:15) upon His nature, and is to be regarded, in contrast with “rudiments of the world” (Col_2:8), and “shadows” (Col_2:17), as indicating the full nature of the matter, and from the relation of οἷκος and σῶμα (2Co_5:1 sq.) with a reference to the Incarnation (Hoffmann, Schriftbew. II. pp. 27 sq, 533; Schmid, Bibl. Theologie, 2, p. 301). Hence it is neither=οὐσιωδῶς (Cyril, Steiger, Huther), since there is no contrast between οὐσία in Christ and ἐνέργεια in the prophets, nor=ἐν τῷ σώματι, whether this be referred to the Church (Schenkel) or to the body, which He assumed of the Virgin, that is now glorified (Meyer): before the Incarnation He was ε̇ν μορφῇ θεοῦ (Php_2:6). Beyond Christ there is no eternal truth; beyond Him is away from Him. [Wordsworth interprets: 1, substantially and truly (Hilary); 2, bodily, in distinction from “soul” (Council of Antioch),—quoting Augustine, who combines both views. But the literal interpretation is far preferable: “in bodily fashion” (Ellicott). “Before His Incarnation the fulness dwelt in Him, as the λόγος ἄσαρκος, but not σωματικῶς, as now that He is the λόγος ἔνσαρκος” (Alford). If this be the correct view, then with Meyer we must regard the present, κατοικεῖ, as referring the whole expression to the glorified Christ. He also finds an apologetic design in the emphasis given to the adverb, “bodily,” since the false teachers, “by their doctrine of angels (comp. Col_2:10), appear to have spiritualistically split up the πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος.”—R.]
Col_2:10. And ye are made full in him.—[Perhaps to bring out the double predication involved in the position of the words, it were better to render: “And ye (being) in Him are made full.”—R.] Kαί is a simple copulative, making the clause depend upon ὄτι. ̔Εστέ (not γίνεσθε) standing first is pregnant: “ye are,” need not first become so; the “being” is more strongly marked than the subject, in contrast to Christ; hence ὑμεῖς is not expressed. It is not the imperative (Grotius and others): Beneficium Christi, non nostrum officium (Calov.). But only in Him are they πεπληρωμένοι. Erasmus: Christo cum sitis semel insiti; Bengel: ipse plenus, nos replete. Luther is incorrect: vollkommen. [E. V. also—“complete.” Eadie’s translation is given above; Alford: “filled up;” Ellicott, as above, also “filled full,”—Rhemish, “in Him replenished.”—R. ] The perfect excludes the further effect of the fact. Neither τῆς θεότητος (Theophylact and others) nor sapientia et virtute (Bengel) is to be Bupplied; the first is not indicated by the text, which does not read καὶ υμεῖς, nor the second by the context. Divine Truth, Power, Life are treated of. Comp. Eph_3:19; Joh_1:16.—[Meyer: “Out of the ‘fulness of the Godhead’ which dwells in Christ, flows the being made full of the Christian, which therefore has its ground in none other than Christ and in nothing else than fellowship with Him. Filled with what? The answer is self-evident to the consciousness of the reader. It is the charismatic πλήρωσις which Christians in virtue of their vital union with the Lord have received and continually possess, out of the metaphysical πλήρωμα dwelling in Christ, out of the ‘fulness of the Godhead.’ ”—R.]
Who is the head of all principality and power.—This affirms the absolute dignity of Christ over against the angelic world (Col_2:18). Comp. 1:18. In Him they may, must have enough.
Col_2:11. In whom ye also were circumcised.—[Κ α ί, “also,” emphasizes the fact stated by the verb, which is a historical aorist: hence “were” not “are” (E. V.).—R.] The reference is to their entrance into Christianity, to conversion, regeneration in Christ. The Christian is circumcised, not indeed as the Judaistic teachers required, with the Jewish circumcision, but: with a circumcision made without hands, περιτοῇ ἀχειροποιήτῳ [“not hand-wrought,” Ellicott.—R.]—The Jewish external rite was χειροποίητος (Eph_2:11). Comp. Rom_2:28-29; Deu_10:16; Deu_30:6; Jer_9:26; Eze_44:7; Act_7:51. He then sets forth, wherein this spiritual circumcision of the heart, which is better than the Jewish, consists : in the putting off the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ.—[The E. V. not only retains “of the sins,” but is faulty in punctuation; the second ἐν also it renders “by,” when it is parallel to the first.—R.] The first clause is in contrast with the externality, the second with the “hand” that performs it; according to the former this circumcision is a moral advance, according to the latter an act of Christ. “In the putting off the body of the flesh” describes the body on which it takes place, as belonging to the flesh (σάρξ), entirely corresponding with the context, and parallel to “the body of sin” (Rom_6:6), which lives in the flesh, so that it is not indifferent (see Eph_2:3). The material, earthly body is not spoken of here, as in 1:22, but the sinfully sensuous organism, “the old man” (Rom_7:14). The substantive ἀπέκδυσις (only here) is emphatic and in contrast with the circumcision, which severs only a small part. It is joined with τοῦσώματος, which naturally neither means, massa, totality (Calvin and others), nor refers to Christ’s body and His death (Schneckenburger), since αὐτοῦ is wanting. Luther, retaining τῶνἀμαρτιῶν renders incorrectly: “the sinful body in the flesh.”—“In the circumcision of Christ” presents nothing new or important, except in the genitive, which denotes the author (Theodoret: αἴτιος) of the circumcision. [Ellicott: “the originating cause; Christ by union with Himself brings about the circumcision and imparts it to believers.”—R.] It is incorrect to apply it to the circumcision to which Christ was subjected (Schöttgen), or to view Christ only as the Mediator of it (Meyer). Nor should we on account of ἀχειροποιήτου apply it to baptism (Storr [Alford apparently], and others).
Col_2:12. Buried with him in baptism.—The participle συνταφέντες, following περιετμήθητε (Col_2:11), denotes the progress of the entrance of conversion. “Putting off the body” reminded of death; “being buried” was readily suggested. Αὐτῶ, governed by σύν in composition, denotes the fellowship with Christ, which is consummated “in baptism,” that is a water bath and a water grave for the “old man.” Comp. Rom_6:3-4. We live Christ’s life, with and through Him, symbolically, ethically, spiritually, but actually and really. [“Burial implies a previous death.” “The reality of death is evinced by burial.” “This point of burial they had reached—when they were baptized—for then they personally professed a faith which implied the death of sin within them” (Eadie). The reference to burial in connexion with baptism, suggests, that death to sin had already taken place, hence this ordinance has not in itself any efficacy “in the putting off the body of the flesh.” There is no doubt that the participle describes an action nearly contemporaneous with that of the preceding verb. This rite would speedily follow the “putting off;” though Alford is scarcely correct: “the new life being begun at baptism.”—Braune admits, as must be done, an allusion to immersion in baptism, but enters into no discussion as to the mode; the question is not deemed so important in Germany as it has been made here. Eadie says: “Whatever may be otherwise said in favor of immersion, it is plain that here the burial is wholly ideal.—Believers are buried in baptism, but even in immersion they do not go through a process having any resemblance to the burial and resurrection of Christ.” Alford correctly admits an allusion to the κατάδυσις and ἀνάδυσις in baptism, but adds, “To maintain from such a circumstance that immersion is necessary in baptism, is surely the merest trifling, and a resuscitation of the very ceremonial spirit which the Apostle here is arguing against.” A fair exegesis must allow that the passage proves immersion to be baptism; whether baptism is immersion turns on something else than exegesis; see controversial works on both sides of the question. A list will be found, Lange’s Com. Matthew, p. 560.—R.]
In whom ye were also raised together through the faith.—[So Braune renders. The aorist συνηγέρθητε, must be rendered “were raised.” Whether raised “together” or “with Him,” depends upon the reference in ἐνᾧ: in baptism or in Christ.—R.] Ἐν ᾧ is parallel to ἐνᾧ (Col_2:11), and refers like ὄς (Col_2:10) to Christ and not to baptism; καὶ συνηγέρθητε does not confirm the latter reference, but requires the former, since καί renders prominent an advance from the “burial” in immersion at baptism—the new life would not enter with the immersion but with the emersion, and we should find ἐξ οὗ or δι’ οὗ [i.e., were the reference to baptism.—R.]. The fellowship with the life of Christ (“raised together”) rests upon union with His Person (ἐν ᾧ). [So Davenant, Meyer, Eadie. For the other view, see Alford and Ellicott in loco.—R.] Hence there is no pleonasm here (De Wette), nor any reference to the resurrection of the body, which is an ideal possession before the parousia, but becomes a reality with it (Meyer, the Greek Fathers: καὶ γὰρ ἐγηέρμεθα τῇ δυνάμει, εἰ καὶ μῆ τῇ ἐνεργει̇α). Συνηγέρθητε notes an accomplished fact, corresponding with that accomplished in baptism, and like this, actual, but according to the context, spiritual, ethical. After the negative side of dying to sin, the positive side of a new life is set forth, prominence being given to the subjective appropriation, διὰ τῆς πίστεως, hinted at already in ἐνᾧ Bengel is excellent: ut mors est ante resurrectionem, sic baptismus natura præcedit fidem adultam. The genitive depending on πίστεως: of the operation of God, can only set forth the object, since only this (Eph_3:12; Php_1:27; Php_3:9; Rom_3:22; Gal_2:16; Gal_2:20; Gal_3:22), or the believing subject (Col_2:5; Col_1:4; 1Th_1:3; 1Th_3:2) is denoted by the genitive. [Ellicott, while taking this as the genitive objecti, considers the statement of Meyer, referred to above, and endorsed by Eadie and Alford, as not perfectly certain.—R.] Luther is incorrect: “which God works.”
God is then characterized : who hath raised him from the dead, because the syllogism runs: Has God raised Christ, then can He also bring me to new life (comp. Eph_1:19-20). It is precisely through faith in such an “operation of God,” that this is experienced.
Col_2:13. And you being dead in your sins.—[“When you were dead,” Ellicott.—R.] See on Eph_2:1-5. Here the “being dead” is more strongly marked, than the “being;” there the simple dative marks the cause of this condition, here the results manifesting the condition are added; there inward motions (ἀμαρτία) are added to outward transgressions (παραπτώματα), here is added: and the uncircumcision of your flesh (the preposition “in” is supplied in thought).—This means the uneradicated, sensuous, sinful nature which marked the heathen. “Uncircumcision” according to the context is ethical, spiritual (Deu_10:16; Jer_4:4), and is more closely characterized by the genitive. This is epexegetical, σάρξ being used, as in Col_2:11, in the ethical sense, so that the carnal nature is regarded as their uncircumcision (Bleek). Bengel: exquisita appellatio peccati originalis. Meyer is incorrect in taking νέκρους and ἀκροβυστια literally, and σάρξ as indifferent. [Meyer seems to place the moral significance in τῆςσαρκός hence ἀκροβυστία, which is their state still, is now indifferent (Alford). This gives to ἀκροβ. its literal meaning. Eadie takes the whole phrase literally: “Uncircumcision of the flesh was the physical mark of a heathen state.” Ellicott gives a slight ethical force to σαρκός, which he considers a possessive genitive—they were heathens, unconverted heathens as their very bodies could attest. Braune’s view seems more in accordance with the context.—R.]
You hath he quickened together with him, συνεςωποίͅησεν ὑμᾶς σύν αὐτᾧ. See on Eph_3:5. ὑμᾶς [omitted in Rec.; “you” to be inserted in E. V.—R.] and σύν [“together with”—R.] are repeated as an emphatic reminder to the readers. Meyer incorrectly takes the verb in its literal sense [doubtless to correspond with his interpretation of the preceding context—R.], and Heinrich makes Christ the subject, when the context requires “God,” quite as much as it refers to the new spiritual life beginning with regeneration, which is eternal life to be perfected at the resurrection. [Ellicott also makes “Christ” the subject, rendering “with Himself.” His interpretation of the whole passage is modified by this view, which he ably defends; see his notes in loco, which are highly suggestive. Still the predicates throughout are better applied to God; those in this verse, “quickened” and “forgiven,” being so generally ascribed to God, that the burden of proof rests with those who take the other view. As they have not succeeded in showing a preponderance of reasons in its favor, it is safer to consider “God” the subject (comp. Meyer).—R.]
The mode of the life is described; having forgiven us all trespasses, χαρισάμενος ἡμῖν πάντα τὰ παραπτώματα (Chrysostom: ἃ τὴν νεκρότητα ἐποίει).—The objective act of reconciliation and justification is referred to, and its universal efficacy denoted by “us” [not “you,” the Colossians merely, but all believers.—R.] At the same time the connection between the new life beginning with pardon and justification, and the propitiation of the wrath of God and reconciliation of man with Him is hinted at. Bengel: cum hac liberatione a peccato conjuncta est liberatio ab opprobrio peccati (Col_2:14) et liberatio a potestate tenebrarum (Col_2:15).
Col_2:14. Having blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us.—“Having blotted out” (ἐξαλείψας), joined like the preceding participle to “quickened together,” is contemporaneous,22 and describes significantly the act of Divine grace. The verb (here and Act_3:19; Rev_3:5; Rev_7:17; Rev_21:4) means to wash out, then to obliterate. “The handwriting against us” is the law obligating us and proving our debt, witnessing against us, a bond [Schulddokument], (Job_5:3; Job_9:5). It means God’s law among Gentiles and Jews (Rom_2:14-15), not the Mosaic law merely (Meyer); hence we cannot here distinguish between the moral and ceremonial law, and refer this exclusively to the former (Luther), or to the latter only (Calvin), which is also a moral affair, and affects the conscience. “All trespasses” are here treated of [hence “the whole law” Davenant, Ellicott—R.], and Christ’s death for the Gentiles also, indeed here with special reference to them. The dative τοῖς δόγμασιν (see Eph_2:15; ἐν δόγμασιν) denotes the contents of the handwriting, written with well-known commandments (Meyer), as Gal_6:11. This is explained by the adjectival and verbal character of the word χειρόγραφον. [The verbal element governing the dative. Meyer would make the dative instrumental; Ellicott makes it the dative with reference to, that in which the hostile aspect was specially evinced,” objecting decidedly to the government by the verbal element. Eadie and Alford agree with Braune: “The simple dative of form, that distinctive and I well known form which the handwriting assumed.—R.] The dative is not=consisting in commandments, (Calvin), nor instead of the genitive (Castellio), nor to be joined to καθ’ ἡμῶν (Calov.), nor connected with both the preceding expressions (Winer’s Gram., p. 206); as little does it belong to “having blotted out” in the sense: with reference to ordinances (Steiger, Harless on Eph_1:1), or through the gospel doctrine of faith (the Greek fathers). Schenkel joins it with what follows appealing to Act_1:22 : διὰ πνεύματος ἁγίου οῦς ἐξελέξατο, and Bleek also without sufficient grounds.
Which was contrary to us.—This relative clause is only an emphatic repetition of καθ’ ἡμῶν (Meyer), and not to be distinguished from it as is done by Bengel: contra esse et inimicum esse differunt, sicut status belli el ipsa pugna. [Ellicott: “an expansion of the preceding: it was hostile not merely in its direction and aspects, but practically and definitely.” There is no idea of secret hostility, sub contrarius.—R.]
And he has taken it out of the way.—The perfect denotes the completed, still efficient fact; the handwriting is not only blotted out, it is removed entirely, and this continues to be so. Thus the transition from the participial to the finite construction is explained (as 1:26; Winer’s Gram. p. 533). The mode of taking it away is described: By nailing it to his cross [“to the cross.”—R.] It was the law rather than Christ, which was slain and done away with on the cross, because He bore the curse of the law, took away its condemnation. Men slew Christ, but the Lord slew the law on the cross. Gal_2:13; 1Pe_2:24. [There seems to be no ground for the opinion, that there is here an allusion to the cancelling of a bond, by driving a nail through it, although Wordsworth expresses the thought thus strikingly: “He nailed the bond of our debt to the Tree, and as by the Tree in Paradise we became debtors to God in the first Adam, so by the Tree in Calvary we received remission of our debt in the Second Adam.”—R.]
Col_2:15. And having spoiled principalities and powers.—Ἀπεκδυσάμεςος, found only here and 3:9. It denotes the result of the contest against the wicked angels (comp. 1:16; 2:10; Eph_2:2; Eph_6:11-12), and has an emphatic position at the beginning of the sentence before the finite verb. Bengel: qui angelos bonas colebant, malos timebant; neutrum jure. The verb is well rendered by the Vulgate: exspolians. The middle signification, which is unmistakable in 3:9, falls into the back ground here. [Two points are open to discussion here: 1. What is the meaning of ἀπεκδυσάμενος? 2. What is the reference in τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ τὰς ἐξουσίας? 1. The more common interpretation is as above, “having spoiled,” but Wordsworth, Ellicott, Alford, render “having divested himself of,” “putting off,” giving the middle sense. 2. Of what did He divest Himself? Here the commentators above mentioned differ. Wordsworth and Ellicott, taking Christ as the subject, refer “principalities and powers” to opposing hostile powers of evil, and follow Hilary, Augustine, in explaining thus: the powers of evil had power against Christ, as mortal in His flesh: He divested Himself of His flesh, by thus doing He divested Himself of them. See Wordsworth’s full notes upholding this view. Still it seems to be a forced interpretation. Alford does not admit that these principalities and powers are infernal potentates. He considers that the angelic agency (Gal_3:19) in the giving of the law is referred to, and these “put off” by the abrogation and taking away of the law, God manifesting Himself henceforward without a vail in the exalted Person of Jesus. This too seems forced. The view so strongly supported by Meyer, which takes God as the subject, “spoiling” as the meaning of the participle, and the infernal powers as referred to in “principalities and powers,” is preferable to either of the others, on the ground of simplicity and accordance with the subsequent context.—R.] Thus deprived of their power, stripped of their armor as it were, in their helplessness: He made a shew of them with boldness.—Ἐδειγμάτισεν (only here and Mat_1:19) has God as its subject, who now as in a triumph makes a show to their shame and His honor: the subject being the same as that of ἀπεκδυσάμενος, it is not repeated. Ἐν παῤῥησίᾳ is “frankly and freely” (frank und frei), and denotes the confidence and certainty of the complete, permanent victory (comp. 1Jn_2:28) [Lange’s Commentary, p. 82.—R.] “Openly” (Luther) [and E. V.] is already found in the verb. [The idea of putting to shame (παραδειγματίσαι) does not necessarily belong to the simple verb. Alford, to carry out his view of the object of the verb, renders ἐν παῥῤησίᾳ “in openness” of speech, declaring and revealing by the cross, that there is none but Christ the Head of all principalities and powers. For this there Seems to be no good support.—R.]
Triumphing over them in it.—Here θριαμβεύσας αὐτόυς means “triumphing over them,” while 2Co_2:14 : θριαμβεύσας ἡμᾶς has the force of the Hiphil: “making us to triumph.” “Them” means the persons conceived of as “principalities and powers.” Ἐν αὐτᾧ denotes the place of contest, the cross (Col_2:14). It is not23=in Christo (Bengel), [Alford, margin of English Bible—R.]. It was precisely “the cross, this symbol of shame and sorrow, which was the place of victory over the enemies of God” (Schenkel).
[On the whole verse, see Eadie. Both he and Braune agree entirely with Meyer, whose exegesis of this, passage is highly satisfactory. Wordsworth is unusually full and valuable on this section, though his comments belong more properly to the homiletical department. Ellicott’s exegesis is modified by his taking Christ as the subject throughout.—R.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Paul’s care of the Churches. Great is the sympathy of Paul, who not only has in eye and mind, as the Epistles to the Corinthians show, all the members of a Christian congregation, but fraternally remembers in prayer and paternally cares for with his counsel, all congregations of the Church of his Lord, even those personally unknown to him, whenever, as in this case, through the coming of Epaphras to him, a way of God’s pointing out is opened to him. He does not step aside from his calling, from his immediate sphere of duty, but takes root in the soil appointed to him and bears fruit, but fruit for many without, as far as in him lies, for all. No one can appeal to the Apostle and his part in the great work, who does not take root and bear fruit in his own immediate calling, as though it were too narrow for him.
2. Error a calamity. The Apostle regards error and entanglement therein as calamity and sorrow, which begins with wavering and uncertainty, and has its root in moral deficiency. Hence his sympathizing solicitude, hence his παρακαλεῖν directed to their καρδίας (Col_2:2). [Eadie: “The conflict of error with truth could not but lead to distraction and mental turmoil; and in proportion to their misconception of the gospel, or their confusion of idea with regard to its spirit, contents and aim, would be their loss of that peace and solace, which the new religion had imparted to them.”—R.]
3. Christian unity. That saying of Rupertus Meldenius in the seventeenth century: in necessariis unitas, in non necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas, could have been taken from Col_2:2, where “in love” sets forth the subjective, and “unto full knowledge of the mystery of God” the objective moment of true unity. The “mystery” is the “necessary” matter, in which there must be unity; for a) as to its nature it is entirely God’s affair; b) as to its purport it is the fulness of all wisdom and knowledge, the treasury of all truth in the world and the plan of salvation in the kingdom of God; c) as to its position it is a fact revealed and revealing in Christ; d) as to its end, it reaches into eternity; e) as to its mission, it guides protectingly through time with its errors and dangers; f) as to its requirements, it concerns believing acceptance and living therein. [Be-living, which is implied etymologically and practically in believing.—R.] Accordingly the one centre of both the mystery and the unity is Christ in His Being and work. [Still more if we adopt the reading which makes Christ Himself the mystery. The one “necessary” matter, about which there must be unity, is the answer to the question, “what think ye of Christ ?”—R.]
4. The Being of Christ is all the fulness of the Godhead in bodily reality (Col_2:9). This Pauline statement is related to the Johannine; “the Word became flesh;” the latter gives prominence to the historical incarnation, the former to the permanent state of the Exalted One.
5. The Work of Christ is pre-supposed as that of a mediator, who suffered death upon the Cross as an atonement for us, whom God the Father has raised again, in order that this fact of salvation should be made of benefit to us; it is essentially of an ethical nature.
6. Salvation is essentially a new life, the cause of which is God (the subject in Col_2:13-15), the mediation of which is in Christ, resting objectively upon Christ’s death on the Cross, whereby forgiveness of sin has been provided, the accusations and curse of the law done away, the power of the kingdom of darkness broken, and beginning subjectively with faith, the principle of the new life, types of which are found both in the Old Testament and the life of Christ. The circumcision of the Old Testament corresponds with baptism in the New; both point, formally, to a putting away, the former partially, to a separation, the latter totally, to a dying, since the immersion points to the burial of Christ (Col_2:11-12; Rom_4:24); materially, both apply to the flesh, on which the sinful nature depends; the dying, being buried and rising again of Christ are events in His life which the believer, in contrast with the world, in and about him, must experience in his inner, moral life. In Christ, therefore, that is fulfilled, which before Him was only hinted at, prefigured; and only from Him and in Him, by means of faith, can the participation in this fulfilment be gained. [Eadie: “The Apostle looks on circumcision and baptism as being closely connected—the spiritual blessing symbolized by both being of a similar nature; though, probably, it would be straining this connection to allege it as a proof that baptism has been in all points ordained for the Church in room of circumcision.”—To this may be added that just so far as we can refer to this passage in support of any mode of baptism, to the same extent we can find in it a proof of the connexion between baptism and circumcision. If we press it in the first direction, we must also in the second, as Braune does. Whatever may be gained from it in support of immersion, is equally gained for pædo-baptism.—-R.]
7. Sin has so widely developed its power, that not only does every man stand under that power, but each man entirely : he is dead in his sinful doing and sinful being (Col_2:13), so that he must be born again. It is the first power, which Christ endured to the uttermost and, sinlessly, victoriously, overcame on the cross in His propitiatory death. With the pardon of sin the new life begins.
8. The law, given on account of sin and against it as an external one, is contrary to man in his sin as his accuser. In Christ it is fulfilled, in Him it is satisfied. Against Him it can present no accusation and no guilt: He is the Fulfilled. Bodily law, which He has at once upheld and torn; upheld on the side of righteousness, torn and done away with on the side of the accuser and the curse. Only when the law is satisfied, is it done and done away; this has taken place in Christ and takes place only in Him.
9. The kingdom of darkness, the spiritual powers of evil have in sin their power over man, but lost it on the sinless Redeemer; in the atoning death of Christ, they gained a victory which was their defeat. Only he who lives to the flesh, remains under the dominion of the Evil one : whoever dies to sin and the flesh with Christ is snatched from this and has a share in the victory of Christ.
10. All mental culture, even the bloom of an organic science, of a philosophy, a love of wisdom, which is merely the intellectual product of the human mind, which does not proceed out of a moral life founded on Christ’s life and rooted in Him is idle, empty deceit and illusion. That which is most elegant, most noble and great without Christ is only elementary, imperfect in comparison with what He offers: the simplest, plainest of what is offered in Him, exceeds that in value. An humble Christian has and can do and knows, more and better than an unchristian philosopher. What is Christian alone is worthy of humanity, humane. As truly Christian life surpasses any other nobly moral life, so truly Christian opinion is more important and more truthful than any otherwise important speculative knowledge.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Do not meddle in spheres and activities, which do not concern you, but, with, the gifts entrusted to you, labor in the calling to which you are appointed; do not seek only for intimate friends of the same mind and station as yourself, perhaps in wider circles, to make amends for those indolent or opposed about you.—Take no offence at the ocean depth of the mystery of Redemption in Christ; the pearls of truth and wisdom, thou canst only find there. Before the truths become a harvest which we gather in, they are dull clouds in the distance, or ere in the depths.—What thou receivest as seed, return as blossom, what thou receivest as blossom, return as fruit.—Only the fellowship which has its cement in love, has its eternal end in true knowledge.—Entering into worldly mental culture without, thou not only losest something, but art thyself lost; lost to God and bound to human principles; you forego a blessed eternity, as you gaily go down the stream of time. No stand-points are more inferior than those without Christ, however well esteemed they may be of men.—Three powers are to be feared: 1) the power of Satan who stands behind the flesh and its motions; 2) the power of the flesh, that breaks out in sin; 3) the power of the law, that appears against our sin as accuser.
Calvin:
Col_2:15. No tribunal so magnificent, no regal throne so glorious, no triumphal pomp so splendid, no chariot so sublime, as was that gibbet upon which Christ overcame death and the devil, the prince of death, whom He utterly bruised under His feet.
Starke:—There are three excellent peculiarities, which must be found in a preacher, and also in any. Christian, if he would make others know a matter; 1) that he himself be certain of its truth; 2) that he be able rightly to convince others of the same; 3) that he have a good end in view.—As a mother, who has children suffering in various degrees of sickness, attends most to the one who lies lowest, but never on that account permits herself to neglect or slight the others, so an instructor cares most for those hearers, who are in the most dangerous circumstances; yet not so as to forget or neglect the others.—See what belongs to genuine Christianity; a wealth and certainty of faith, a knitting together of hearts in love, a walk in Christ.—When we rightly know and have Christ, we know and have enough, though we know and have nothing else.—God’s word is an inexhaustible mine full of treasures and riches; seek ! dig ! test! you will find one after another unto your spiritual and eternal delight.—Rational speeches are not always the truth, nor are learning and skill always a certain evidence of truth.—If we are rooted in Christ, we must prove by bearing fruit as trees of righteousness. Are we built on Christ, we must stand steadfast and unmovable, so that no winds and rains of affliction can overthrow us. A good inflow makes a good outflow; he who takes in much, can and must also give out much. Since then believers receive so much from and in Christ, so their active gratitude must flow copiously forth in unremitting obedience.—The Church is not a school of sages, where each can display the fanciful dreams of his reason.—In matters of faith the reason is an unfaithful and deceitful guide, that delivers us to error and delusion. The gospel is the true Christian philosophy, transcending all science, all human institutions, from which it can accept no law.—God is the creditor, we His debtors. 1) He is Omniscient, we cannot conceal a debt from Him; 2) He is almighty, He can exact the debt by force; 3) He is just, He will and must be paid; 4) He is omnipresent, none can escape Him. Who must not fear on this account ?
Gerlach:—To every man, unenlightened, following his own wisdom, the mystery, plainly as it is revealed in the gospel, is closed, as to the blind eye the sun at mid day does not shine. But whoever knows how to study this great book, Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, finds all knowledge therein. Humility opens the book, faith reads it, and love understands it.—[Jesus Christ; 1) The way on which the Christians walk; 2) the root from which they draw all their life-sap, 3) the foundation on which their whole inner life should rest.—R.]
Rieger:—In natural things man prefers seeing all with his own eyes, and resting on his own observation rather than on what others can tell him. In the kingdom of grace however, one must be of such a tender heart, that he from the “being knit together in love,” accepts much that others have experienced.—Among the Corinthians there was more of intelligence and knowledge, but less of submissive love reaching to others. On this account he pruned their knowledge and guided them to growing strength in love. Among the Colossians there was more of tractable love, but without sufficient light. Hence he had a conflict, that their obedient love should not be abused, but that they might acquire minds expert in examination.—The Apostle’s word of incitement: walk in Him, means more than following in His footsteps, it signifies, that for such a walk as He walked, all strength is derived from Christ, that the walk is a fruit borne from Christ the vine.—In the time when God permitted the heathen to walk their own ways, He yet granted some footprints, from which something of Him and His truth could be made an object of search. On the part of God these were given as serviceable rudiments, but on the part of men they did not remain purely so. And if now-a-days any one will extol these as the choice relics of antiquity, it is as though some one should devote himself to a heap of sweepings, to find there a lost pearl.
Schleiermacher.—Ripeness of understanding in regard to the kingdom of God and intelligence respecting the things of this world are not together (Mat_11:25; Luk_16:8).—Love furthers the growth and maturity of the understanding.—[Why we continue in Christ? He has 1) not only the words of eternal life, but 2) the power of eternal life.—R.]
Heubner:—Unity, firm knitting together, incorporation in love, increases the “plerophy” [πληροφίας fulness, made an adjective in E. V. Col_2:2.—R.]: the correct, firm conviction, the confidence in our insight, when we are certain of the matter.—External discipline and order must ever accompany faith in the life of the Church. Paul mentions their “order” first, because it first meets the eye.—In Christian faith there must be constancy. Growth therein is necessary, but change is destructive.—Man may learn to know himself from the wisdom of the world, but it cannot help him.—He who has the fulness, can give abundantly. In Christ we have abundance, all others let us hunger. Christ’s word satisfies, contents the soul.—All, whom Christ has not awakened, are to be re-girded as still dead.—[He who remains under Christ’s standard, conquers.—R.]
Passavant:—What now-a-days is so gladly shunned by many pious people, sometimes as dangerous, again as unprofitable, the Apostle here holds to be necessary, aye, he labors and struggles to bring souls thither. He would know of no poverty of spirit, which, made up of sheer laziness and cowardice, is willingly satisfied with superficial knowledge of saving truth : he insisted rather upon that riches of knowledge and of spirit, which contributes to the genuine poverty of an humble spirit. He would know of no blind or dim faith, but of open seeing eyes. He sought to produce in the Colossians a clear understanding, a plenitude of knowledge,—that their knowledge might suffer from no defects, be diseased from no obscurations or fluctuations, that might profoundly penetrate and gaze into the mystery of God and the Father.—Gratitude then helps us to stand, and joyously stand fast before every foreign spirit, before every foreign power, in every temptation and conflict; it is a rock, from which the darts of unbelief rebound. When the Roman proconsul on the judgment-seat urged that holy man Polycarp to curse Jesus Christ to save his life, the martyr answered, “For eighty-six years I have served Him: He has never yet done me harm. How can I blaspheme my King, who has saved me?”—“Vain deceit,” Paul, calls all human worldly wisdom and doctrine, which knows nothing of one true God; “tradition of men, rudiments of the world,” all that oriental philosophy, which with its old and new twilight, its destructive atmosphere, marred the divine doctrine, it would enlarge and complete,—“vain deceit,” that Jewish leaven, which through its ancient consequence, through use and abuse of the Mosaic ordinances and principles, threatened to rob the disciples of their new freedom, or stint them therein, to put again upon them “a yoke which neither their fathers nor they themselves were able to bear.”—
For the Reformation festival [October 31st, anniversary of the nailing of Luther’s theses on the church-door at Wittenberg, 1517.—R.] (Col_2:6-9) How do we prove ourselves abundantly grateful for the regeneration of our Church? If we 1) hold fast to the ground of salvation, which it proclaims to us; 2) use the means of salvation, which it offers to us; 3) walk in the way of salvation, which it prescribes to us.
[Bisping:
Col_2:6. Notice that Paul here Says, “ye have received Christ,” not the doctrine of Christ. True faith is a spiritual communion; for in faith we receive not only the doctrine of Christ, but Himself, into us: in faith He Himself dwells in us: we cannot separate Christ, as Eternal Truth and His doctrine.—R.]
[Bishop Andrewes:
Col_2:14, If one be in debt and danger of the law, to have a brother of the same blood, made of the same woman, will little avail him, except he will come also “under the law,” i. e., become his surety, and undertake for him. And such was our estate. “The handwriting,” our bond, we had forfeited. This debt of ours was no money debt, we were not sub lege pecuniariâ, but capitalii; and the debt of a capital law is death. He paid that to the full, and having paid it “blotted out the hand-writing,” cancelled the sentence of the law.—R.]
[Henry:
Col_2:1. We can think, and pray and be concerned for one another at the greatest distance; the communion of the saints is a spiritual thing.
Col_2:2. The prosperity of the soul is the best prosperity. Great knowledge and strong faith make a soul rich. The more intimate communion we have with our fellow Christians, the more the soul prospers.
Col_2:6-7, a sovereign antidote against seducers.—They who pin their faith on other men’s sleeves, and walk in the way of the world, are turned away from following after Christ.—It is not enough to put away some one particular sin, but we must put off the whole body of them.—We have communion with Christ in His whole undertaking. We are both buried and rise with Him, and both are signified by our baptism; not that there is anything in the sign or ceremony of baptism, which represent this burying and rising, any more than the crucifixion of Christ is represented by any visible resemblance in the Lord’s Supper.—Christ’s death was the death of our sins; Christ’s resurrection is the quickening of our souls. The Redeemer conquered by dying. See His crown of thorns turned into a crown of laurels. Never had the Devil’s kingdom such a mortal blow given to it, as was given by the Lord Jesus.—R.]
[Burkitt:
Col_2:1. The men of the world little understand, and less consider, what burthen of care lies upon the ministers of Christ, for, and on behalf of the whole Church of Christ in general, which is continually in danger of being corrupted by false teachers, who everywhere lie in wait to deceive.
Col_2:15. Christ’s bloody cross was a chariot of triumph unto Him. Lord! whilst thou wert bleeding and racking upon the gibbet for us, thou wert then rejoicing and triumphing for the benefits redounding to us.—R.]
[Eadie:
Col_2:1. Like the caged bird beating its bared and bleeding breast against the wires of its prison, as it hears the repeated cry of its unseen young ones, the Apostle turned ever and anon toward those churches—nor did he idly chafe in his confinement, but he wrote this letter.
Col_2:4. The traveller who has already made some progress, but who begins gradually to doubt and debate, to lose faith in himself, and wonder whether he is in the right way at all, is prepared to listen to the suggestions of any one who, under semblance of disinterested friendship, may advise to a path of danger and ruin.—No philosophy ever dreamed of such an awful expedient as God robed in humanity, and in that nature dying to redeem His guilty creatures—whose name, nature and legal liabilities He had assumed : and such a scheme never found a place in any system of jurisprudence—what men have sought in deep and perplexing speculations on the order and origin of all things, they will find in this mystery.—The hallowed sphere of walk is “in Him,” but beyond this barrier are sin and danger, false philosophies and mazy entanglements.—Any philosophy not “after Christ” must be earthly and delusive. It has missed the central truth—is amused with the stars, but forgetful of the sun.—Though the scar of circumcision might attest a nationality, it was no certificate of personal character—but wherever “the flesh” was parted with, there was the guarantee of individual purity and progress.—The nails which killed Christ pierced the sentence of doom,—gave egress to the blood which canceled it, and inflicted at the same time a mortal wound on the hosts of darkness.—R.]
[Barnes:—We should be on our guard against the seductive arts of false teachers. It is, in general, a safe rule for a Christian to abide by the views which he had on the great subjects of religion when he became converted (Col_2:6). Then the heart was tender—there are some things in which the heart judges better than the head.—If at any time we can ascertain what are the prevalent views of Christ, we can easily see what is the prevailing character of the theology of that age.
Col_2:11-15, Christ has laid us-under the highest obligations to serve Him. He has enabled us to put off our sins; He has raised us from spiritual death to spiritual life; He has removed the old ordinances that were against us, and has made religion easy and pleasant; He has subdued our enemies and triumphed over them.—R.]
Footnotes:
[1]Col_2:1.—Περὶ ὑμῶν is to be preferred as the more difficult reading to ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν which א. A. B. C. read, probably taken from 1:24. [The authorities are as follows: περί, D.1 D.3 E. F. G. K. L., most cursives, Tischendrof, Meyer, Ellicott, Eadie, Wordsworth; ὑπέρ, א. A. B. C. D.2 Lachmann, Alford. Retaining the former, “for”=“about”—R.]
[2]Col_2:1.—[Ἐώρακαν (an Alexandrian form of the perfect) is adopted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer and later English editors on the authority of א. A. B. C. and others—R.]
[3]Col_2:2.—[Instead of συμβιβασθέντων. (Rec., grammatical emendation, uncial authority slight) συμβιβασθέντες is well sustained, adopted by all modern editors.—R.]
[4]Col_2:2.—[Instead of πάντα πλοῦτον, (Rec.) modern editors adopt one of two readings; πᾶν τὸ πλοῦτος, Lachmann, Tischendrof, Meyer, Ellicott, Wordsworth: πᾶν πλοῦτος. Alford on the authority of א.1 B. The former is preferable as it accounts of the reading πάντα, το, being changed to τα. The neuter form has a distinct meaning.—R.]
[5]Col_2:2.—Τοῦ θεοῦ is found in several cursive manuscripts which usually agree with B. To this B. adds: χριστοῦ [adopted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, ed. 1, Meyer, Huther, Wordsworth, Tregelles, Ellicott, “with considerable confidence.”—R.] א. adds πατρὸς χριστοῦ; a later hand: καὶ πατρὸς τοῦ χριστοῦ; A. C. insert πατρὸς τοῦ χριστοῦ; some cursive manuscripts and versions: πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ χριστοῦ; Rec. with E. K. L. καὶ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ χριστοῦ. We find besides ἐν χριστῷ and ὅ ἐστιν χριστός. See Exeg. Notes. [Amid so great variety, we may yet conclude, 1. that the longer reading of Rec., followed by E. V., is not the true reading. 2. That the simplest explanation of the great variety is, the original text was the shorter τοῦ θεοῦ, the rest being glosses. So Braune, Tischendorf, ed. 2. 7. De Wette, Alford and many others. But 3, this reading having no uncial support, there remains a strong doubt in favor of another one of the many. Of these the most probable as well as best supported is that of B., τοῦ θεοῦ χριστοῦ. For a defence of the former, see Alford, who confesses his inability to fix the reading on any external authority; of the latter, Meyer, Ellicott, and the editors they respectively quote. The rendering, in case the latter be adopted, is still doubtful; either “of God, Christ” or “of God, even Christ” i. e., Christ in apposition with “mystery.” See Exeg. Notes.—R.]
[6]Col_2:4.—א. A. B. C. D. and others have μηδείς, [Tischendorf and modern editors generally.—R.]; better supported than μήτις, [Rec.—The above reading indicates stronger probability of their being deceived.—R.]
[7]Col_2:7.—Τῂ πίστει. B. D. [Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer, Alford, Ellicott.—R.] א. and many others insert ἐν [Rec. Wordsworth—R.], which seems to have been taken from the foregoing context. [The simple dative may be either instrumental, Braune, Meyer—“by faith,” or of reference, Alford, Ellicott. See Exeg. Notes.—R.]
[8]Col_2:7.—Ἐν αὐτῇ is to be retained with B. [D.3 E. K. L. Tischendorf, ed. 7, Lachmann, Meyer, Ellicott, Wordsworth.—R.] It is wanting in א. but ἐν αὐτῷ is added by a later hand.
[9]Col_2:8—[The E. V. is too condensed. “You” is emphatic, the more so, as the correct reading seems to be τις ὑμἀς ἔσται, B. K. L. Rec., Tischendorf, ed. 7, Meyer, Alford, Ellicott, Wordsworth. Not ἔσταἰ ὑμᾶς, Lachmann, Braune apparently.—R.]
[10]Col_2:10.—[Ὅς is the reading of א. A. C. K. L., Rec. Tischendorf, Meyer and others. ὅ, B. D. E. F. G. Lachmann “Which,” E. V., stands here for “who.”—R.]
[11]Col_2:11.—[Τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν of the Rec. is generally rejected as an explanatory gloss. Uncial authority very slight.—R.]
[12]Col_2:12.—[Ἐν ῷ may mean “wherein” or “in whom.” If the latter be adopted, read “risen together” instead of “with Him.” See Exeg. Notes;—βαπτίσματα is to be retained with most authorities and editors, instead of βαπτισμῷ, Alford.—R.]
[13]Col_2:13.—Ὑμῖν is to be retained with א. [A. C. K. L., Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer, Alford, Ellicott, Wordsworth.—R.] B. has ἡμᾶς. Some [Rec. D. F.] omit both as unnecessary.
[14]Col_2:13.—[Ὑμῖν of the Rec. is not well supported, Wordsworth retains it; ἡμῖν. א. A. B. C. D. F. K., Tischendorf and most modern writers. Ellicott says: “Both external and internal arguments suggest the more inclusive ἡμῖν.”—R].
[15]Col_2:14.—[The perfect should be retained by rendering “hath taken,” so Tyndale, Converdale and other versions.—R.]
[16]Col_2:14.—[“By nailing” preserves the model force as well as the relation of time implied in προσηλώσας.—R.]
[17]Col_2:15.—[This alternation is the only one required to make the English text harmonize with Branne’s exegesis. The various renderings that are substituted for “spoiled,” as well as the marginal reading of the E. V., “in him” for “in it,” are discussed in the Exeg. Notes.—R.]
[18][“From the construction of this Exordium I venture to assert that there is no rule laid down by Aristotle, Cicero, and other masters of eloquence, concerning the framing of introductions, which is not adhered to in this brief opening. For three things are required of them in a legitimate Exordium: That it be adopted to render the hearer attentive, and docile, and to conciliate his affection.” Davenant.—R.]
[19][The meaning of πηλίκοις (Gal_6:11) has been much discussed. See in loco. It is very doubtful whether qualibus is strictly correct.—R.]
[20][In view of the errors which assailed them, the verse implies that they needed to know, “not more than Christ, but more of Christ.”—R.]
[21][Meyer remarks: “This φιλοσοφία is not philosophy in itself and in general. however much it had, in its decay and according to its manifestation in that age, proven itself to the Apostle as folly in comparsion with the wisdom of the gospel, but the definite speculation. known to his readers, which obtained in Colosse and that region, and which consisted of gnostic theosophy blended with Judaism (Essenism), designated by the name philosophy. on account of its ontological character, and in general, irrespective of its relation to the truth rightly so called; but perhaps put forward also by the false teachers themselves under this designation, which is the more probable, since Paul uses the word only in this passage.” So Eadie, Alford and Ellicott substantially.—R.]
[22][Meyer with reason insists that it is not contemporaneous. but means: “after he had blotted out,” etc. “The divine work of redemption in Christ must occur before the forgiveness, through appropriation of it by the believers, could take place.”—R.]
[23][The original omits “not,” but it is an obvious typographical error, which I have corrected without hesitation.—R.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–3 Translate, "That their hearts may be comforted." The "their,"…
Translate, "That their hearts may be comforted." The "their," compared with "you" (Col 2:4), proves that in Col 2:1 the words, "have not seen my face in the flesh," is a general designation of those for whom Paul declares he has "conflict," including the particular species, "you (Colossians) and them at Laodicea." For it is plain, the prayer "that their hearts may be comforted," must include in it the Colossians for whom he expressly says, "I have conflict." Thus it is an abbreviated mode of expression for, "That your and their hearts may be comforted." ALFORD translates, "confirmed," or allows "comforted" in its original radical sense strengthened. But the Greek supports English Version: the sense, too, is clear: comforted with the consolation of those whom Paul had not seen, and for whom, in consequence, he strove in prayerful conflict the more fervently; inasmuch as we are more anxious in behalf of absent, than present, friends [DAVENANT]. Their hearts would be comforted by "knowing what conflict he had for" them, and how much he is interested for their welfare; and also by being released from doubts on learning from the apostle, that the doctrine which they had heard from Epaphras was true and certain. In writing to churches which he had instructed face to face, he enters into particular details concerning them, as a father directing his children. But to those among whom he had not been in person, he treats of the more general truths of salvation.
being--Translate as Greek in oldest manuscripts, "They being knit together."
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in love--the bond and element of perfect knitting together; the antidote to the dividing schismatical effect of false doctrine. Love to God and to one another in Christ.
unto--the object and end of their being "knit together."
all riches--Greek, "all the riches of the full assurance (Th1 1:5; Heb 6:11; Heb 10:22) of the (Christian) understanding." The accumulation of phrases, not only "understanding," but "the full assurance of understanding"; not only this, but "the riches of," &c., not only this, but "all the riches of," &c., implies how he desires to impress them with the momentous importance of the subject in hand.
to--Translate "unto."
acknowledgment--The Greek implies, "full and accurate knowledge." It is a distinct Greek word from "knowledge," Col 2:3. ALFORD translates, "thorough . . . knowledge." Acknowledgment hardly is strong enough; they did in a measure acknowledge the truth; what they wanted was the full and accurate knowledge of it (compare Notes, see on Col 1:9-10; Phi 1:9).
of God, and of the Father and of Christ--The oldest manuscripts omit "and of the Father, and of"; then translate, "Of God (namely), Christ." Two very old manuscripts and Vulgate read, "Of God the Father of Christ."
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 vv1–3 5. The apostle’s solicitude for their unity and stability,…
5. The apostle’s solicitude for their unity and stability, Col_2:1-5.
1. What great conflict—His deep anxiety of soul; an agony of striving. Laodicea was a wealthy commercial city on the border of Phrygia and Lydia, about eighteen miles west of Colosse, the seat of one of the seven Churches of Asia. (See on Rev_3:14.) The Christians there were evidently exposed to the same danger with those at Colosse. Most of them, in both cities, seem never to have seen their apostle, as was doubtless true of other neighbouring Churches.
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 vv1–3 Ch. Col_2:1-7. His labour of prayer for the Colossians…
Ch. Col_2:1-7. His labour of prayer for the Colossians and other unvisited converts: There is need, for errors are in the air
1. For, &c.] He takes up the word “striving,” just used, and justifies it by telling them of a certain special “strife” of his on their behalf.
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I would that ye knew] Lit. and better, I wish you to know. So 1Co_11:3; and cp. e.g. Rom_1:13; 2Co_1:8.
conflict] Agôn. See note on Col_1:29 (“striving”).—Here is the present special form of his pastoral “wrestling” on their behalf. It is (see next verse) the “strife” of prayer; “I will not let Thee go except Thou bless” them (Gen_32:26). See, for the efforts of another similar “wrestler,” Col_4:12 below.
Laodicea] Cp. Col_4:13; Col_4:15-16; Rev_3:14. “The rich, commercial city of Laodicea, formerly called Diospolis, afterwards Rhoas, and subsequently Laodicea, in honour of Laodice, wife of Antiochus II. [261–246 b.c.], was situated on the river Lycus, about eighteen [eleven?] English miles to the west of Colossæ and about six miles south of Hierapolis, which latter city is not improbably hinted at in [‘as many as,’ &c.]” (Ellicott). “The ruins at the present day are of vast extent, and indicate the importance of Laodicea” (Lewin, Life and Epp. of St Paul, i. 357; see an engraved view, ibid., opposite p. 360). See further, Introd., p. 13.
and as many as have not seen, &c.] These words, taken with the context, naturally mean that St Paul had never personally visited Colossæ, Laodicea, and their district. The opposite view has been maintained, as e.g. by Mr Lewin (who however withdrew his argument later; see his work just quoted, i. 172 note). No doubt the mere phraseology here is ambiguous; “and as many, &c.” may denote equally either a different class of persons from those just named, or the rest of the same class. But the latter alternative is strongly favoured both by the simplicity of reference natural in a passage so fervent and so passing, and by the history. See further Introd., p. 20.
my face] “My parson” (persona), Tyndale, Cranmer; “my person,” Geneva. Tyndale no doubt follows Luther’s meine Person.
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 vv1–3 (1) What great conflict.—The word is here repeated from…
(1) What great conflict.—The word is here repeated from the “striving” of the previous verse, which is, in the original, the cognate verb. It is the same word which is used in Php_1:30 (“conflict”), in 1Th_2:2 (“contention”), in 1Ti_6:12, 2Ti_4:7 (“the good fight of faith”). Evidently it describes the intense earnestness of the whole struggle against evil which he was undergoing for them; but perhaps, looking at Col_4:12, we may refer it especially to “striving in prayer” for them. It is probably dwelt upon here to show why, although unknown to them personally, he yet writes so urgently to them.
And for them at Laodicea.—Comp. Col_4:13, “For you, and for them that are in Laodicea, and for them in Hierapolis.” These three cities lay near together in the valley of Lycus, a tributary of the Mæander; probably they were converted at one time, and are evidently regarded as forming one Christian community, for which Epaphras, the evangelist of Colossæ, felt himself responsible. Colossæ and Laodicea are actually directed to exchange the apostolic Letters sent to them (see Col_4:16, and Note there), and to read both alike in the churches. (See Dr. Lightfoot’s admirable description of “The Churches of the Lycus,” prefixed to his commentary on this Epistle.) Of Laodicea, the greatest and richest of the three cities, we have no further notice in Scripture, except that stern apocalyptic letter (Rev_3:14-22), which has made its name proverbial for spiritual luke-warmness and presumptuous self-reliance. It has been noticed that in this Letter our Lord is called “the beginning of the creation of God.” (See Col_1:15-18 of this Epistle.) Of Colossæ and Hierapolis we read only in this Epistle. It is notable (see Dr. Lightfoot’s Essay) that while Hierapolis and Laodicea play a prominent part in the subsequent history of Christianity in Asia Minor, Colossæ never attains importance, and has left but “few and meagre” remains, compared with the magnificent ruins of the other cities.
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As many as have not seen my face.—This description doubtless indicates Hierapolis; but the whole context shows that it also includes Colossæ. If the reading taken in Col_1:7 is correct, Epaphras had been commissioned by St. Paul, and thus, indirectly, the Apostle might be held to be the founder of Colossæ. Accordingly this Letter stands, so to speak, midway between the unreserved familiarity of the Epistles to Corinth or Philippi, and the more formal reserve of the Epistle to the Romans.
(1-7) In these verses St. Paul declares his deep anxiety for the Colossians and Laodiceans and others who had not seen his face, that they might seek, not the false, but the true knowledge, finding “the mystery of God” in Christ alone. The reason of that anxiety is found in the “beguiling and enticing words” of an incipient Gnosticism. But “though absent in the body” he rejoices in the steadfastness of their faith, and only exhorts them to continue in it, deepening and enlarging it, but never changing its essence.
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 vv1–3 Vers. 1-7. SECTION IV THE APOSTLE"S CONCERN FOR THE…
Vers. 1-7. SECTION IV THE APOSTLE"S CONCERN FOR THE COLOSSIAN CHURCH. So far the contents of the letter have been of a general and preparatory character. New the writer begins to indicate the special purpose he has in view by declaring, in connection with his concern for the welfare of the Gentile Churches at large, (Col_1:24-29) the deep anxiety which he at present feels respecting the Colossian and neighbouring Churches.
For I would have you know how great a strife I have on behalf of you and those in Laodicea (Col_4:12, Col_4:13; 2Co_11:28, 2Co_11:29; Rom_1:9-13; Php_1:8, 25-30; 1Th_2:17, 1Th_2:18; Gal_4:20) The apostle has dwelt at such length and so earnestly upon his own position and responsibilities, (Col_1:24-29) that the Colossians may feel how real and strong is his interest in their welfare, though personally strangers to him (see next clause). His solicitude for them is in keeping with the toil and strife of his whole ministry. "I would have you know;" a familiar Pauline phrase (1Co_11:3; Php_1:12; Rom_1:13, etc.) Hlikon ("how great") has, perhaps, a slightly exclamatory force, as in Jam_3:5 (only other instance of the word in the New Testament), and inclassical Greek. For "strife," see note on "striving": (Col_1:29) the energy and abruptness of language characterizing this second chapter bear witness in the inward wrestling which the Colossian difficulty occasioned in the apostle"s mind. (On the close connection of Colossae with Laodicea, comp. Col_4:13-17, notes; also Introduction, The danger which had come to a head in Colassae was doubtless threatening its neighbours. The words, and as many as have not seen my face in (the) flesh (ver. 5; Col_1:8; Rom_1:11; Gal_1:22; Act_20:25) raise the question whether St. Paul had ever visited Colossae. The language of Col_1:7 (see note) raises a strong presumption against his being the founder of this Church, and the narrative of the Acts scarcely admits of any visit to this region in former missionary journeys. Theodoret amongst the Greeks, followed by our own Lardner and a few recent critics, contended that the apostle distinguishes here between Colossians and Laodiceans (or at least the former), and those who had not seen His face. But the disjunction is grammatically harsh and improbable (see Ellicott). (On the general question, see Introduction, The apostle is the more anxious for this endangered Church, as the gifts that his presence might have conveyed (Rom_1:11) were wanting to them. He says, "in flesh," for "in spirit" he is closely united with them (ver. 5; Col_1:8: comp. (1Co_5:3, 1Co_5:4) The object of his strife on their behalf is
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Vers. 1-7. Sect. 4.
The apostle"s concern for the Colossian Church.
Already the apostle has breathed out his "heart"s desire and prayer to God" for these Colossians, (Col_1:9-12) "unknown by face" to him (vers. 1, 5), and yet so dear because of their faith and love, (Col_1:4, 8 2:6, 11-13 3:1-3, 9, 10, 15) and the loyalty they have hitherto maintained (ver. 5), and the objects of so much anxiety on account of the insidious and deadly nature of the assault being made upon their faith, of whose real character they seem to have been little aware. We expect, therefore, in this passage a recurrence of the strain of thought pursued in the prayer of the first chapter. We find a like prominence given to knowledge, the chief desideratum of this Church, and to the need of a Christianly instructed understanding as a safeguard against the subtleties and plausibilities of error. At the same time, the view now presented of this object has gained greatly in fulness and depth by the development of the apostle"s argument in the intervening paragraphs of his letter. The teaching of this section we may summarize in the words of 2Pe_3:18, as setting forth the nature and the elements of
I GROWTH IN THE GRACE AND KNOWLEDGE OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. (Vers. 2, 3, 6, 7.)
1. St. Paul has spoken of the. Church as "the body of Christ", (Col_1:18, Col_1:24) and so he must needs desire that its members may be knit together in love. (ver. 19; Eph_4:16; 1Co_1:10) Without such union the Church is no longer a body, and its members, broken and scattered, become an easy prey to error. The salvation of individual souls is but half the work of Christ. "He loved the Church, and gave himself for her" (Eph_5:25; Act_20:28) He seeks to build the redeemed, regenerated units of mankind as "living stones" into "a holy temple" (Eph_2:20-22; 1Co_3:16, 1Co_3:17) to integrate them into the "one body" of which he is the Head and his Spirit is the Soul: (Eph_4:3-6) comp. sect. 2, II 4 (homiletics). Of this union, love is the bond (Col_3:14; Eph_4:2; Joh_13:34, Joh_13:35) In all true and lasting union amongst men some sympathetic affection must exist, either as a basis for the fellowship or as generated by it. Mere identity of beliefs or of interests will never hold men for long together. The heart must love or hate, must be attracted or repelled, in some degree, by every personality around it. And the union of souls in Christ, being the most deep and spiritual of any, must be thoroughly pervaded and determined by love. Moreover, the growth of Christian knowledge and the perfecting of personal character depend much more largely than we are apt to suppose, in this age of exaggerated individualism and selfish culture seeking, on the soundness and completeness of cur Church life, of our Christian social life. To St. Paul"s mind the "perfect man" and the perfect Church the perfection of the part and of the whole are reciprocally dependent, and all but identical. (Eph_4:11-16)
2. But love without knowledge, heat without light, will not suffice. As "faith, being alone, is dead", (Jam_2:17) so love in like condition is blind and easily falls into error. "I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment. (Php_1:9) The apostle declared that "God willed to make known to his saints the riches of the glory of his mystery"; (Col_1:27) accordingly he desires for them "all riches of the full assurance of the understanding," "unto the knowledge of the mystery" (ver. 2).
(1) The former is the subjective counterpart of the latter. The understanding that is enlightened and informed in the truth belonging to the revelation of God in Christ, that ranges freely, yet reverently, through "the breadth, and length, and height, and depth" of this mystery, and learns to comprehend it, (Eph_3:18) is itself enriched, assured, and satisfied thereby.
(2) The object which the mind contemplates, into which it seeks to penetrate ever more deeply, is Christ, the mystery of God. "To know him" is its supreme aspiration, (Php_3:10) in which intellectual inquiry is guided by spiritual sympathy and inspired by love (Php_3:7; Joh_14:21) To know him as a historical Person is something; this knowledge supplies the material and the basis for all other knowledge of Christ. (Act_10:36-43) To know him as a living, present Saviour is the essential knowledge, the one thing needful; (Php_3:8-11) it is to "gain Christ, and be found in him." But it is yet more than this to know him as the mystery of God to discover his secret indwelling in nature and in history; to understand how "to him give all the prophets witness;" to hear the footfall of" the coming One" echoing along the silent chambers and winding corridors of the ages past; (Col_1:21) to find in him the centre of all life and law, uniting God and the world, eternity and time; (Col_1:15-17) to behold in "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world," at the same time "the outbeaming of the Father"s glory, the very Image of his substance, through whom also he made the worlds, and who upholds all things by the word of his rower", (Heb_1:2, Heb_1:3) the "Firstborn of all creation," the "Heir of all things." Here is knowledge indeed, and for him who is grounded in it, speculative theories of nature and of God and the mystic dreams of theosophy will have but little charm. This mystery of God surpasses and includes all others; for Christ, in nature and in grace, in history and personal experience, "is all and in all." In view of this Mystery, no wonder that the apostle says that we are "being renewed unto knowledge". (Col_3:10) We can conceive no object worthier of the pursuit of the loftiest and greatest minds than "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord" (Php_3:8; Eph_3:9-11; 1Pe_1:12) By it "the heart," the whole "inward man", (Eph_3:16) is "stablished" (ver. 7) and "encouraged" (ver. 2) by the "comfort of love" (Php_2:1) and "the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (ver. 3) that are "in Christ.
3. Love and knowledge must bear fruit in practical obedience. Christ Jesus was received by the Colossians as "the Lord". (ver. 6; Col_3:21 Col_4:1) He is a Master to be obeyed (Rom_14:9; Joh_13:13 Joh 14:15) as well as a Mystery to be known and a Saviour to be loved. In him we must walk. The whole conduct of life must be governed by his Spirit (Rom_8:14; Gal_5:25) and directed toward his ends (Php_1:20, 21; 2Co_5:15) He "in all things" claims to be "pre-eminent" (Col_1:18; 1Co_15:25; 2Co_10:5) Every desire, affection, pursuit, of the Christian must "acknowledge him to be the Lord." By such true obedience the soul grows in strength and security, and is ever being more completely "builded up in him". (ver. 7. comp. Col_1:10)
4. And the root of this life of advancing knowledge and obedient love is faith. By this the soul is first "rooted in him". (vers. 5, 12; Col_1:3, Col_1:23; Php_3:9; Eph_2:8; Rom_5:1, Rom_5:2, etc.) From this root springs love, (Gal_5:6) obedience, (Rom_6:8:3, Rom_6:4) satisfying knowledge, (Eph_3:17-19) every good word and work (1Th_1:3; 2Th_1:11 2Th_2:16, 2Th_2:17) If this fails, everything fails. (Gal_3:1-5) Whatever strengthens, comforts, and upbuilds the Christian, does so by ministering to his faith. A growing knowledge, a quickened love, a more steadfast obedience, enable his faith to strike deeper root stablish him in his faith (ver. 7). In this world he never ceases to "walk by faith"; (2Co_4:18 2Co_5:7) and his abounding in it is the greatest gain which the furthest advancement in the life of God can bring him. Yet faith, again, has its outward instrument and condition. It "comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God". (Rom_10:17) The Colossians are to be "stablished in their faith," "even as they were taught". (ver. 7: comp. Col_1:5, Col_1:7) To that instruction they owe all they possess in Christ, even their own selves. (Phm_1:19)
5. And he who abounds in faith will abound in thanksgiving also. The more strongly the Christian believes in the Son of God and enters into the mysteries of his kingdom, the more joyfully and constantly will he offer his tribute of praise. This, too, is a fruit of faith the fruit of the lips" (Heb_13:15; Hos_14:2) the only fruit of all his mercies which we can directly render to the great Giver. Of such thanksgiving, called forth by the contemplation of the "mystery of God" in Christ, St. Paul"s own act of praise in Eph_1:3-14 is a noble example (Rom_11:33-36 Rom_16:25-27; 1Ti_1:12-17; 1Pe_1:3-5; Rev_1:5-7; Mat_11:25-28. See sect. 1, III 2, homiletics)
II A DANGER AND A SAFEGUARD. (Vers. 4, 5.)
1. There was one thing that specially endangered Christian life and the wellbeing of the Church at Colossal. It was the charts of perverted eloquence (ver. 4). A clever tongue and a popular style are gifts by no means incompatible with the faithful and spiritual preaching of Christ; but they have their peculiar dangers for their possessor, and for the Church in which they are exercised. St. Paul appears to have admired gifts of this kind in Apollos, but he felt that a plainer and severer method became himself, in which the sheer might and majesty of the truth should stand forth without adornment of rhetoric or drapery of graceful diction that might distract attention from the all important theme of his address. (1Co_2:1-5) The possession of such powers made the men whom he is denouncing at Colossae so formidable. Perhaps their very gifts had proved a snare to them; and there are indications in St. Paul"s description of them (vers. 8, 16, 18, 23: comp. Act_20:29, Act_20:30) of the arrogance and self-seeking spirit, and the intellectual dishonesty, into which men of popular powers are liable to fall
2. On the other hand, there was one specially hopeful feature in the state ofthis Church the good order which it had maintained (ver. 5); contrast 1Co_1:11, 12 11:2-18 14:40. So far, these "deceitful workers" had not succeeded in disturbing the Church"s unity or stirring up insubordination against its officers. In every organized body it is a first condition of strength and safety that its members should "obey them that have the rule", (Heb_13:17) should "all of them be subject one to another" (Eph_5:21; 1Pe_5:5) each in his place and rank keeping step and time with the movement of the whole.
HOMILIES BY T. CROSKERY.
Vers. 1-3.
Nature and objects of the apostle"s struggle on behalf of the saints.
I would have you know how great a struggle I have for you and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh." His object is to justify his urgency in writing to a people whom he had not known personally.
I THE APOSTLE"S CONFLICT. It marks:
1. His intense anxiety on their account. "Fears within as well as fightings without.
2. His anxious labours in defending the simplicity of the gospel against the corrupting devices of false teachers.
3. His striving in prayer for the saints. (Col_4:12) Ministers who "please not men, but God," have often a great "fight of affliction" on behalf of their flocks, especially when they have to encounter men who "resist the truth" and "withstand the words" of faithful men and "do much. (2Ti_3:8 2Ti_4:14, 2Ti_4:15) The Judaeo-Gnostics had inspired him with a deep concern for the religious integrity of the Colossians, the Laodiceans, and, perhaps, the Christians of Hierapolis, who all dwelt in the valley of the Lycus. What a blessing to them that they had the prayers and the labours of an apostle who had never seen one of them in the flesh!
II THE OBJECT OF THE APOSTLE"S CONFLICT. "That their hearts maybe comforted, they being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the Mystery of God, even Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden." He thus indicates how the threatened danger was to be averted. Their hearts were to be comforted and strengthened so that they might stand fast in the faith.
1. The manner in which the comfort was to reach them. "They being knit together in love.
(1) Love is itself "the bond of perfectness". (Col_3:14) The want of love often breaks unity. It is by love "we keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace". (Eph_4:3)
(2) It seeks a fuller fellowship with the saints in the gospel. (Php_1:5 2:1)
(3) It leads to a union of judgment to the exclusion of everything like "contention and vain glory". (Php_2:2, 4) Love is "to abound in knowledge and all judgment," and is thus able to "discern things that are more excellent". (Php_1:9, 10) It is thus a protection against error and seduction. This love always springs out of "a pure heart". (1Ti_1:5)
2. The end of the consolation and the object of the union in love. "And unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the Mystery of God, even Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
(1) Love gives insight to the understanding. Therefore the apostle prays that the Philippians" "love may abound in knowledge and all judgment", (Php_1:9) and that the Ephesians may be "rooted and grounded in love," so that they may know that love "which passeth knowledge". (Eph_3:17-19) As we grow in grace we grow in knowledge. The two growths go on together helping and developing each other. There is a necessity that the saints should seek, not merely knowledge, but "a full assurance of intelligence" respecting, not alone the doctrines of the gospel, but the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The knowledge of a personal Saviour is Christianity in its essence.
(2) The mystery for the Christian understanding that solves the problem of humanity is "Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden." It is not Christ, but Christ containing these treasures. Above, it was "Christ in you, the hope of glory"; (Col_1:27) here it is Christ with these precious treasures.
(a) The knowledge of Christ is the first and the last thing in religion. The apostle counted all things but loss for "the excellency" of this knowledge. (Php_3:8) Eternal life is involved in it (Joh_17:3; Isa_53:11) It is the knowledge of him which leads to great boldness and sincerity. "Nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed". (2Ti_1:12)
(b) Access to Christ gives access to all his treasures. The treasures of the Gnostics were hid from nil but the initiated; the treasures hid in Christ are made accessible to all, so that we can know "the heavenly things" which he alone knows "who is in heaven". (Joh_3:12, Joh_3:13) It is thus he reveals to us the Father, brings life and immortality to light, and enriches the Church with "the revelation of Jesus Christ". (Rev_1:1) The treasures are twofold.
(a) Wisdom. There is "a word of wisdom" as well as "a word of knowledge" given by the Holy Spirit. (1Co_12:8) Wisdom reasons about the relations of things, and applies to actions as well as doctrines. Christ is made to us "Wisdom". (1Co_1:30) The wisdom that is "from above" has many noble qualities, (Jam_3:17) essentially moral in their nature. What but ignorance of Christ leads men to listen to deceivers?
(b) Knowledge. This is more restricted than wisdom applying to the apprehension of truths. "Though I understand all mysteries and all knowledge". (1Co_13:2) This was the very word that the Gnostics took as their watchword, but the apostle here significantly makes it secondary to wisdom. It is a right thing for believers to sound forth the praises of Christ"s wisdom and knowledge. T. C.
HOMILIES R.M. EDGAR Vers. 1-7.
The Trinity as the source of Christian love and consolation.
It would appear that Paul had not only the interests of the Colossians and Laodiceans at heart, but also as many as had not seen his face in the flesh. He did not act on the worldly principle, "Out of sight, out of mind;" but on the gospel principle, "Though out of sight, though never yet seen, yet kept in mind." We are thus brought at once to
I PAUL"S COSMOPOLITAN SPIRIT. (Ver. 1.) The selfish soul leaves out of consideration all but his own little circle; the Christian leaves out of consideration none but his own little circle. The gospel made a cosmopolitan of Paul the Pharisee. He who had been of the straitest sect becomes the man of broadest spirit. Besides, the problem of the world produced a "conflict" within him. He was in an agony of earnestness for unseen, uncounted millions. His great soul throbbed at Rome in sympathy for all who were under Caesar"s sceptre. As the "apostle of the Gentiles" he magnified his office by making all mankind his spiritual care.
II HIS DESIRE WAS THAT THROUGH CHRIST THEY MIGHT ALL UNDERSTAND THE MYSTERY OF THE TRIUNE GOD. (Ver. 2.) For the gospel does not commit the care of the universe to a "lonely God," but to a Triune Jehovah, who, as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, has the elements of social happiness within himself. A social Trinity presides over the universe. Now, so practical a truth is this of the Trinity that, as Paul here puts it, the consolation of the heart and Christian unity depend upon it. It is sometimes insinuated that the doctrine of the Trinity is a profitless and unpractical speculation. Any one who thinks so would do well to read such an essay as Mr. Hutton"s on "The Incarnation and Principles of Evidence." It will be seen from such a line of thought that there are deep longings of our nature which only an incarnation, and by consequence only a Trinity, can supply. But even apart from such subtle disquisition we may see in the sociality of the Trinity as distinguished from the awful loneliness of the Socinian hypothesis an element of consolation and of union. If God be a lonely being, and Martineau is driven to the term "lonely God;" if he is satisfied in his loneliness, then there gathers round him that repellent element which we associate with the unsocial among men. I am not encouraged to come to this lonely and infinite One. He can do without me, and it repels me to think he can. But when I learn that God is not a lonely One, but has been, so to speak, a "family Being" from all eternity, rejoicing as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in the satisfaction of his social qualities, then I am encouraged to come to him and to satisfy in him the longings of my heart. It will be found, then, that consolation is promoted by the realized truth of the Trinity in a way that cannot be secured by rival hypotheses. No unitarian abstraction can do for men what the social Trinity can. It will be found also that unity among Christians is promoted by this mighty truth. God as our Father gathers around him through the mediation of his Son Christ Jesus, and through the gift of his Spirit, the scattered members of the human family, and they feel united in a sense of sonship and sociality. A social Trinity secures a united society. Hence we find such a great thinker as John Howe preaching item ver. 2. a fine discourse for "union among Protestants." Now, it is when Christ is preached in all his fulness that "the treasury of wisdom and knowledge" to be found in him is opened up and the mystery of the Triune God becomes plain. It is in this full preaching of Christ that the present and eternal interests of the human race lie.
III HE SEES THAT THIS PREACHING WILL ALSO SECURE A PROPER CHRISTIAN WALK. (Vers. 4-7.) He tells the Colossians that he is with them in spirit, taking notice of their order and conversation. He calls upon them, therefore, to walk in Christ Jesus the Lord as they have received him. This brings before us the fact that Jesus Christ, when received by faith, becomes the tenant of the human heart. He becomes the recognized Lord of the conscience, and to his sovereignty all things are submitted. The morality secured by the gospel is therefore the simple morality of pleasing the indwelling Christ. We may here follow the sainted Henry Martyn, who thus describes what the Christian walk is. It is
(1) to continue to apply his blood for the cleansing of our consciences from guilt;
(2) to live in dependence on his grace;
(3) to follow his example; and
(4) to walk in fellowship with him.
And this morality will be pervaded constantly by the grateful spirit. In truth, gratitude is the spirit and morality is the form assumed by the gospel as it lays hold of the minds of men. God having in his gospel done so much for us, we feel that we ought to do all we can for him. We consequently walk before him in love and strive gratefully to do the things which please him. R.M.E.
HOMILIES BY R. FINLAYSON Vers. 1-7.
Introduction to the polemical part of the Epistle.
I PERSONAL CONCERN.
1. Paul"s striving. "For I would have you know how greatly I strive for you. and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh." There is an advantage in the Revised translation, in carrying forward the word "strive" from the preceding verse. Having declared his striving in general, the apostle now shows ("for") how his striving was specially directed.
(1) His striving was remarkable as directed toward those who had not seen his face in the flesh. Among these are plainly included the Colossians. With them are associated their neighbours the Laodiceans. The Hierapolitans (to whom there is reference at the close of the Epistle) are not mentioned. But it is added generally, "as many as have not seen my face in the flesh." Spiritually present he had been (as he tells us in the fifth verse), and he must have had indirect modes of intercourse with them, yet they wanted the impression of his presence in the flesh they wanted the impression of his personal ministry among them. It can be made out that in none of his journeys before this time did his route naturally lie by the valley of the Lycus. It is difficult to have an interest in those, whose faces we have not seen. There is something in the expression of the countenance, as also in the touch of the hand, the sound of the voice. We like these, not as substitutes for the spirit, but rather as helps to our getting at and fixing our impressions of the spirit. Paul, in the quickness of his sympathy, got over this difficulty. He had associations in many cases with countenance, with hand, with voice. But he reserved a portion of his sympathy for those, like the Colossians, with whom he had no such associations. His concern was simply founded on the fact that they had been rescued from heathenism, that they were exposed to perils, and on the information which he received from time to time regarding their condition.
(2) His difficulty in the circumstances in giving them any right impression of the greatness of his striving. "How greatly I strive." There was no ordinary conflict in his mind. There was the vehemence belonging to an intensely earnest nature. But how could he convey the impression of what his striving was (the moral fulcrum on which he depended for moving them) to persons in the position of the Colossians? If they had had an impression of his personal ministry, then he might have revived that wherewith to oppose the heretical teachers; but he had never been at Colossae. If he had been able then to go to the rescue, he might have given them an impression of his intensity in the way in which (like a good athlete) he grappled with those teachers. But he was in an imprisoned condition in Rome; and his conflict would be none the less because he was imprisoned and far away from them. Was he, then, like a bird beating its wearied breast against the wires of its cage? No; there was outlet for the struggle within. He could relieve himself at the throne of grace, and there, by his earnest pleading, move the hand that could move them. But that was not enough; he wished to have influence with them in impressing on them what his striving was, and so he writes; and, as he writes, feeling the difficulty that arose from their not having seen him in the flesh, he exclaims, "I would that ye knew how greatly I strive for you.
2. The end of his striving. "That their hearts may be comforted." There are positions in which Churches and individuals stand in need of heart comfort. Our English word "comforted" is etymologically "being made strong." "Fortified" belongs to the same root. And the one meaning passes into the other. If our hearts are sad, we feel unnerved for work. But if, amid our trials, we have comfort, we feel strong for work.
(1) Comforted in the way of having unity of feeling. "They being knit together in love." It is no ordinary union of Christians that is pointed to here. It is such a welding of them together as is not easily torn asunder. What an uncomfortable thing is division! How much to be desired in the way of comfort when, however assailed, Christians can present a united front! And the union which is not easily broken up can only subsist in love. And the love must not be a mere negative, or pretence; but must be a deep, pervading feeling. It is only when love avails to break down selfishness, to excite mutual interest between the members of a Christian society, that there is knitting together or the strong bond that is referred to in the third chapter.
(2) Comforted in the way of having unity of sentiment. "And unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding." Unity of feeling he desired for them; but as the cause (not the consequence) of unity of sentiment. When there is unity of feeling in a high degree, these questions can be calmly, patiently looked at without risk of a rupture. We have to aim at a right state of the understanding. "Give me understanding" is the repeated prayer of the psalmist. Our understanding is given us to examine into facts, to plan aright for our conduct, to avoid mistakes, to detect errors. And we are constituted so that we can not only judge, but have the assurance that we are judging correctly. There is an assurance which is begotten of ignorance, of self conceit. That is very different from the assurance which is the result of patient investigation, of steady contemplation. There is a self evidencing power of the truth. The words of God, when we closely examine them, shine in their own light, There is a peculiar satisfaction in our being sure of our seeing the truth. When our eyes have been enlightened by the Spirit, we can say with confidence," One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." It is this certainty extending over a wide range that is here represented as being the wealth of the understanding. This is of far more value than material riches which men heap up and know not who shall gather them. What a man gains in the way of clear convincing perception of things he can never lose. He who engages in the pursuit of these riches shall gather them in his own everlasting being. And, having begun to have an assuring view of truth, he shall go on to all riches of the full assurance of understanding. "That they may know unto the thorough knowledge of the Mystery of God, even Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden." This is parallel to the foregoing, and points to the Christian state of the understanding. All things are dark to us at first; we have, by reflection, to clear away the darkness. There is one thing which is pre-eminently dark, which we could never have found out for ourselves; it is here called "the mystery," and is explained to be Christ. He is the Mystery of God in this sense that in him lay hidden all the thought and purpose of God. The theosophists spoke of hidden things, and made much of wisdom in general and also of a special insight. The apostle declares that all the treasures that they pretended by their sophia and gnosis to discover are hidden in Christ, and that it is by coming to the thorough knowledge of him that we get possession of the hidden treasures. The object, then, of the apostle"s striving for the Colossians, as for others, was (in view of what follows) this, that, unitedly, in the use of their understanding, they might come to such an appreciation of Christ as would lay open to them all the hidden treasures. If they had that, then they would be carried away by no false sophia and ghosts.
II RELATION TO THE SITUATION.
1. Exposure of the Colossians. "This I say, that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech." He directs himself specially to the Colossians. He has been telling them about his great striving for them, and about the key to the hidden treasures, in order to put them on their guard. They were in the presence of danger. There were teachers (of whom we shall hear more) that had designs on them, They used a persuasive form of speech (in a bad sense). They had not the persuasiveness that comes from the truth. They were conscious of no basis of reality for their speech. They taught a system for which there were not proofs. They pretended by their sophia and gnosis to open up hidden things; but it was only pretence. Their fine phrases, their plausible representations, their large promises, were delusive, leading away from reality, leading away from Christ in whom alone are the hidden treasures.
2. Spiritual presence with them. "For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ." The spirit is freer than the body. The apostle was present in the spirit, where he was absent in the flesh. This spoke to a certain cognizance of them, from all that he had heard of them, and especially from the intensity of his sympathy with them. Transferred, as it were, to Colossae, his feelings (and to this prominence is given) were those of joy. He was not repelled (as from what was disagreeable), but was rather enchained. It especially gave him joy to observe two points which were important in reference to his purpose.
(1) Their order. They were (to take one of the associations of the word) like a well-appointed regiment. They were well organized as a community. They were organized for the advancement of the cause of Christ among themselves and beyond themselves. Hitherto they had been free from divisions. There was no disorderliness, such as there was in the Church of Corinth.
(2) The steadfastness of their faith in Christ. Their outward state (which was one of order) was conditioned inwardly by faith. They had an immovable object for their faith. "If we are faithless, he abideth faithful; for he cannot deny himself." Their faith in some degree corresponded. It had such a hold on Christ that it was, as the word is, something firm, like a piece of solid masonry (in a fortification) not easily battered down. It would stand, he hoped, the assaults made on it by the false teachers.
III EXHORTATION TO REMAIN TRUE TO THEIR STARTING POINT. He does not bestow praise without giving exhortation (in view of the danger). The spirit of the exhortation is given in the words of the Lord to the Church of Smyrna (where danger, however, had not been well met), "Remember therefore how thou hast received, and didst hear." In the force of the apostle"s thought there is a certain disregard of metaphor (walk, tree, building). It is, therefore, necessary to present the thought (in our division) without keeping to metaphor.
1. We are to think and act from day to day in accordance with our first reception of Christ. As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him." There is an emphatic specification of the object. They received Christ (the person of Christ being in dispute). Whom did they receive as Christ? The historical Jesus (partaker of humanity). This Jesus they received and worshipped as the Lord (with supreme power over the universe and the Church). And the apostle holds rightly that they were bound by their past action. Having thus received Christ, they were not to cast him off. They were not to think and act according to their pleasure or according to the suggestion of heretical teachers. Bat their thoughts and actions (specially the former in the present instance) were to be controlled by Christ and his laws.
2. What is added in our development is to be in accordance with its beginnings. "Rooted and builded up in him." The change of tense is not brought out in the translation. It is literally, "Having been rooted and being builded up in him? They got a rooting in Christ at the beginning, viz. under Epaphras, who presented Christ plainly to them, giving them line upon line and precept upon precept, until they came to a clear conception of the truth. This rooting was effectual in the subsequent development. To change the figure with the apostle, they got a grounding in Christ (as we get a grounding in a language or science). Every successive layer was to be in accordance with their grounding. The building was to rise up in, and to take form from, that Christ in whom they had been so well grounded.
3. Our faith is to be established in accordance with our early teaching. "And stablished in your faith, even as ye were taught." All early teaching is not good, and the development is often hindered by imperfect or faulty grounding. The early teaching enjoyed by the Colossians was proved to be good by the subsequent development. There is a missing of the thought by Meyer and Ellicott, who interpret, "Taught to become established in or, "by" the faith." The idea rather is that, under the teaching of Epaphras, they got a right hold of Christ. From him thus laid hold of by them they were not to be moved away, The whole carrying forward of their faith in the way of stability was to be toward no false Christ, but toward Christ Jesus the Lord. Subjoined exhortation to thanksgiving. "Abounding in thanksgiving." This comes in with a certain abruptness. But the duty of thanksgiving is so frequently (five times) introduced as to form a subordinate feature of the Epistle. An overflowing of thanksgiving to God for the faith by which they came in their early teaching, and for all the blessing opened up to them by faith (the hidden treasures in Christ), would be helpful to their faith being stablished in view of present danger. R.F.
HOMILIES BY U.R. THOMAS Vers. 1-3.
Three wonderful things.
We have here
I A NOBLE ANXIETY. In the words he here uses Paul pictures his eagerness as the eagerness of the racer and the wrestler in the then familiar national games. So far there is nothing very rare, for the spectacle of anxious men struggling with keenest eagerness to gain some purpose of their own is common. Life is an arena crowded with such. But the elements of nobleness in Paul as here discovered are:
1. His anxiety for others. He says to the men of Colossal My "conflict is for you." It is no self-centred life that Paul lives when he spends himself lavishly for these early Churches.
1. His anxiety for the absent. There is a counterfeit coin in current speech: "Out of sight, out of mind." It is a proverb coined in the mint of a very shallow and selfish life. It is only true of the worst men. Such a spirit
1. limits power;
2. narrows character.
Whilst real care for the absent:
(1) Increases the power of the mind. It gets strong enough to wing its pinions over oceans and even to pierce other worlds.
(2) Cultivates a spiritual habit. It delivers man from being the creature of sense.
3. His anxiety for those with whom he had no direct connection. He is caring for the grouper Churches on the Lycus that he had not planted or even visited. It was pure, disinterested love. Such is Paul"s noble anxiety. Wherein does the modern gospel of altruism excel this gospel Paul believed and practised? And where has altruism the motives with which Christianity pulsates or the examples that Christianity can cite?
II A BLESSED EXPERIENCE. Analyzing these verses, we find signs:
1. Of personal comfort. The word "comfort" here, as in the word "Comforter," points to more than solace; it tells of encouragement, strengthening. What better experience could he desire for the members of this young Church than that their hearts should be comforted? But to that is added the blessing:
2. Of social security. Few expressions can better describe a completer unity than this, "knit together." It means an interweaving of sympathies, an interlinking of destinies. And this interweaving and interlinking is attained by the highest and surest method, "in love.
3. Of firm conviction. "Full assurance." There is much more here than mere opinion; there is conviction. A conviction, too, of man"s noblest faculty, the understanding, which is more than the reason alone. And this complete conviction is, as to the truth, of the supremest importance, namely, the acknowledgment of the open secret about God.
III AN OPEN SECRET. As we have seen, Paul did not mean by "mystery" an unknowable, mystical something, but rather a truth once hidden but no longer concealed, a truth fully, freely revealed. Christianity is the open secret. The self revelation of Christ is the revelation of man, of duty, of God, of Heaven. In him were stored away all the riches of truth and love for which men cried. He is the exhaustless Storehouse of God"s supplies for man"s higher nature. He is the still small voice, and God is in the voice, and only the listening will bear. Or he is a vast mine of thought, of sympathy, of grace, and only the industrious, who sink the shaft of inquiry, of fellowship, of faith, will know what the mine contains. Paul knew. U.R.T.
HOMILIES BY E.S. PROUT Vers. 1-3.
St. Paul"s anxieties for the Colossians, and how they were allayed.
I ST. PAUL"S ANXIETIES FOR BRETHREN HE HAD NEVER SEEN. We infer from this passage, as well as from other considerations, that the apostle had not visited Colossae and was not acquainted with the Church. Yet he felt much interest in them and had many anxious thoughts about them. Our sympathies are not to be confined to the narrow circle of our acquaintance. If a heathen could say, "Homo sum," etc., much more should a disciple of "the Son of man" respond, "I am a Christian, and consider nothing that concerns Christians a matter of indifference to me;" "For we are members one of another," and the heresies that may distract our brethren in France or the persecutions that befall the converts in China should call forth our anxieties and our prayers. The apostle has to utter solemn warnings. Most skilfully does he attract and conciliate these unknown Christians by telling them of his cares and his prayers on their behalf. There was an ajgwn in his public ministry (Col_1:29) and in his quiet hours. (ver. 1; Col_4:12) It was caused by the care of souls. (2Co_11:28) Absence intensified it. (Illustrations: Caged bird hearing the cries of its young. A mother hearing of the sickness or spiritual peril of a child far from home. (Cf. 2Co_11:2, 2Co_11:3; Gal_4:19) "The pastor," says Cyprian, "is wounded by the hurt of his flock." Paul"s anxiety was for the spiritual comfort and concord of the Colossians. "Comfort" in its older sense includes the ideas of help and strength as well as of soothing and consolation. Error weakens as well as disturbs. The attitude of perpetual doubt and criticism is most unfavourable to growth and harmony. We notice three things that he was very anxious for the Colossians to enjoy as means of preserving them from the errors that encompassed and assailed them.
1. Ardent love. It is by love that we gain spiritual discernment, and are thus enabled to explore the hidden treasures of grace. The intellect is affected by the heart. (Psa_14:1) Love to a godly father may be our safeguard against scepticism; how much more may love to Christ be! Like a rocking stone, our soul may be somewhat swayed, but not "greatly moved". (Psa_62:2) Like a magnet, our hearts may be liable to partial deflections, but still point towards the pole. Moreover, love will unlock many a truth. Pascal has said, "In order to love human things, it is necessary to know them; in order to know things that are Divine, it is necessary to love them." If we trust and love Christ we shall know him ("We have believed, and we know, etc., (Joh_6:68, Joh_6:69; observe the order of the words) and then all the controversies of Christendom need not shake us. (2Ti_1:12)
1. Intelligent faith. "The full assurance of understanding," etc. Love as a mere sentiment may degenerate into a weak toleration of any error that disguises itself in the garb of love. Or, under the plea of jealousy for truth
2. and love for souls, it may be depraved into an intolerant bigotry. Love must be a means to an end. (Joh_8:31, Joh_8:32) There are hidden treasures of truth in Christ "the Truth," which need manly intelligence inspired by childlike love and trust (Psa_25:9; Mat_11:25)
3. Steadfast consistency. (Vers. 6, 7; see next sketch.) We are thus reminded of three chief preservatives against error a warm heart, a clear judgment, a clean conscience. (Eph_4:14, Eph_4:15)
II HOW ST. PAUL SOUGHT TO ALLAY HIS ANXIETIES.
1. He strives for the Colossians in prayer. Like his ancestors Abraham, Jacob, and Moses, and his brother Epaphras, (Col_4:12) he knew what it was to strive, to wrestle in prayer. No doubt, like his Master, he was sometimes "in an agony of prayer." Gather up Paul"s references to his intercessions, and illustrate from the lives of others who have been mighty in prayer; e.g. John Welsh, the minister of Ayr, and son-in-law of John Knox, of whom it is said that he used always to sleep with a plaid upon his bed, that he might wrap it round him if he rose in the night to pray. Sometimes his weeping would awaken his wife, and when she asked the reason, he would reply, "O woman, I have the souls of three thousand to answer for, and I know not how it is with many of them.
2. He points them to Christ. (Ver. 3.) With an allusion to the false teachers who boasted access to some secret knowledge and wisdom into which they could initiate their disciples, Paul assures them that all the richest treasures of a wisdom they had not yet attained to were concealed and could be discovered in Christ himself (like pearls at the bottom of the ocean). The truth is even wider than the application the apostle gives of it. As all things were made "by him and for him" and "consist in him," so all branches of knowledge have a relation to him and find their truest meaning in him.
(1) He is the Key to history. Its treasures are not unlocked until God"s education of the world in its history is connected with the advent of Christ (Joh_1:3, Joh_1:4, Joh_1:9, Joh_1:10; Gal_4:4)
(2) He is the Interpreter of science, which may reveal many of its secrets to a godless investigator, but reserves its choicest treasures for those who can see in them his handy work.
(3) The philosophy of mind and of morals is best understood if Christ be known. We see in him ideal human nature and the power which can recover men from that injury to human nature which philosophy no less than theology must recognize. We learn the supremacy of conscience, the dignity and value of the soul, and the fact of a life beyond death.
(4) Christ is the Essence of true theology. A knowledge of Divine things apart from Jesus Christ is, at the best, most imperfect and unsatisfactory. (1Co_1:20, 1Co_1:21) But Christ is Light, Truth, Revelation, God (Luk_10:22; Joh_1:18 Joh_14:9)
(5) Christ is the Wisdom of God and the Power of God unto salvation. Inhim we are made "wise unto salvation," and this pearl of great price is the most precious of all the treasures which can be found in him. (1Co_1:30, 1Co_1:31) He alone can satisfy the hunger of the soul, and thus fortify it against the errors of those who would beguile with "enticing words" which are "not after Christ. E.S.P.
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 v1 For I would that ye knew what great conflict…
Col_2:1-4
For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you.
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Ministerial anxiety
This anxiety was occasioned by the subtle errors prevalent in Colossae. Error cannot come into collision with truth without creating confusion of ideas, mental distraction, and moral restlessness. This anxiety was--
I. Intense. The thought of the preceding verse is here expanded. The conflict refers not so much to outward trial, etc., as to his fervent and importunate wrestling with God. The error must have been serious to occasion this struggle; great souls are not affected with trifles. People little know what their pastors pass through. A knowledge of this anxiety, however, is often necessary to create a responsive sympathy, and to teach the people the care they should have for their own salvation.
II. Disinterested. As many as have not seen my face--not only Colossians and Laodiceans.
III. Had reference to the highest spiritual attainments of believers. Paul was solicitous--
1. For the confirmation of their faith, comforted, i.e., encouraged, confirmed. He knew how error disintegrated the hearts confidence and produced trouble, doubt, perplexity.
2. For their union in love. Without this no solid comfort. Error snaps the bond of love and splits the Church into parties.
3. For their enrichment with the unspeakable wealth of the Divine mystery.
(1) This mystery is explained in the unique Person and endowments of Christ.
(2) The believer is privileged to attain to a full knowledge of the Divine mystery.
(3) This understanding is the true enrichment of the mind. Unto all riches. This vast store is opposed to the poverty of the mind which has only a few confused unconnected truths about the gospel. Full assurance means unclouded perception and firm conviction. This is secured only by diligent study and inner illumination of the Spirit. Every other kind of knowledge is poor and unsatisfying.
IV. Prompted the apostle to faithfully warn the Church. Error is seductive. It is needful to keep a vigilant outlook in regard to its enticing words. The most effectual antidote to any heresy is the simple proclamation of the doctrine of Christ. Lessons--
1. The true minister is anxious to promote the highest good of the people.
2. All truth finds its explanation and error its refutation in Christ, the source of eternal wisdom.
3. False doctrine should be fearlessly and faithfully exposed. (G. Barlow.)
Pauls striving for the Colossians
The strain of the apostles agony for the Colossian Church is here continued. Note the consummate art with which he prepares the way for his warnings.
I. The conflict itself was that of the arena, and great.
1. No external conflict can be meant, for he could strike no blows for them; but he could send them ammunition, and this Epistle has been a magazine and arsenal ever since. But the real struggle was in his own heart. In that lonely prison cell, and with burdens enough of his own, like some soldier left behind to guard the base, his thoughts were in the field.
2. For all Christians, sympathy in the battle of God, which is being waged all over the world, is a plain duty. Wheresoever our prison may be, we are bound to take an eager share in the conflict by interest, such help as we can render, and that intercession which may sway the fortunes of the field though the uplifted hands grasp no weapons. The men who bear the brunt of the battle are not the only combatants. In many a quiet home where wives and mothers sit there is an agony as intense as in the battle. It was a law in Israel, As his part is, dec. (1Sa_30:24). So all Christians who in heart and sympathy have taken part shall be counted as combatants and crowned as victors.
II. Those for whom the conflict was endured. As many as have not seen, etc. The Colossians might think that he cared less for them than for those communities he had planted or watered. They had never felt the magnetism of his personal presence, and were at a disadvantage from not having had the inspiration and direction of his personal teaching. But Paul shows them that from this very fact they had a warmer place in his heart. He was not so enslaved by sense that his love could not travel beyond the limits of his eyesight.
III. The object in view.
1. That their hearts might be comforted.
(1) Heart, in Scripture, means thought as well as emotion.
(2) Comfort is more than consolation. The cloud that hung over the Church was not about to break in sorrows needing consolation, but in practical errors needing strength to resist. So Paul desires that they may be encouraged not to quail, but to fight with good cheer. And what we want is the brave spirit and the serene assurance of victory in our struggles. What have we to do with fear, seeing that One fights by our side who teaches our hands to war?
2. The way to secure this is union in love.
(1) Love is the true bond which unites men, and therefore adds to the strength of each. Little faggots bound together are strong. The solitary heart is timid and weak, but many weaknesses brought together make a strength, as slimly built houses in a row hold each other up. Loose grains of sand are moved by a breath; compacted they are a rock against which the Atlantic beats in vain. A real moral defence against even intellectual error is found in the compaction of Christian love. A community so interlocked will throw off many evils, as a Roman legion with linked shields roofed itself over against missiles from the walls of a besieged city, or as the imbricated scales of a fish keep it dry.
(2) But the love is not merely love to one another, but common love to Christ, the bond of union and true strengthener of mens hearts.
3. This compaction in love will lead to a wealth of certitude in the possession of the truth. It tends to all riches of the full assurance, etc.
(1) In times of religious unsettlement Christian men are tempted to lower their own tone, and to say It is so with less certainty, because so many are saying It is not so. Some are so afraid of being thought narrow that they seek the reputation of liberality by talking as if there were a film of doubt over even the truths most surely believed. Few things are more needed now than this full assurance.
(2) This wealth of conviction is attained by living in the love of God. If we love we shall possess an experience which verifies the truth for us. Rich in the possession of this confirmation of the gospel by the blessings it brings, and which witness to their source as verdant banks do to the stream, we shall have a right to oppose to many a doubt the full assurance born of love; and while others are disputing whether there be any Lord, or living Christ, or forgiveness, or providence, we shall know that they are ours because we have felt the wealth and power they have brought into our lives.
4. This unity of love will lead to full knowledge of the mystery of God.
(1) That mystery has its stages. The revelation is finished, but our apprehension of it may grow, and although we shall never outgrow it, reflection and experience will explain and deepen it. Suppose a man could set out from the great planet that moves in the outermost rim of our system, and travel slowly inwards to the great central sun, how the disc would grow, and the light and warmth increase with each million of miles, till what had seemed a point filled the whole sky!
(2) The stages are infinite because in Him are all the treasures, etc. These four words are all familiar on the lips of later Gnostics, and were no doubt in the mouths of the false teachers. The apostle would claim for his Gospel all which they falsely claimed for their dreams.
(a) All wisdom and knowledge are in Christ. He is the Light of men, and all thought and truth of every sort came from Him who is the Eternal Word. All other media of revelation have but uttered broken syllables. Christ still pursues this work.
(b) In Christ, as in a great storehouse, lie all the riches of spiritual wisdom, the massive ingots of solid gold, which when coined into creeds and doctrines are the wealth of the Church.
(c) In Christ these treasures are hidden, but not as the heretics mysteries from the vulgar crowd, but only from eyes that will not see them; hidden that seeking souls may have the pleasure of seeking, and the rest of finding; hidden as men store provisions in the Arctic regions, in order that the bears may not find them, and shipwrecked sailors may. Conclusion: Such thoughts have a special message for times of agitation. We are surrounded by eager voices proclaiming profounder truths and wisdom than the gospel gives us. In joyful antagonism Christian men have to hold fast by the confidence that all Divine wisdom is laid up in Christ. The new problems of each generation will find their answers in Him. We need not cast aside the truth learned at our mothers knees; but if we keep true to Christ and strive to widen our minds to the breadth of that great message, it will grow as we gaze, even as the nightly heavens expand to the eye which steadfastly looks into them and reveal violet abysses, sown with sparkling points, each of which is a sun. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Three wonderful things
I. A noble anxiety. Paul pictures here his eagerness as that of the racer and wrestler. So far there is nothing very rare, for the spectacle of anxious men struggling with keenest eagerness to gain some purpose of their own is common. But the elements of nobleness here discovered in Paul are--
1. His anxiety for others. He says to the men of Colossae, My conflict is for you. It is no self-centred life that Paul lives when he spends himself lavishly for these early churches.
2. His anxiety for the absent. There is a counterfeit coin in current speech, Out of sight, out of mind. It is a proverb coined in the mint of a very shallow and selfish life. Such a spirit
(1) limits power,
(2) narrows character.
Whilst real care for the absent--
(1) Increases the power of the mind. It gets strong enough to wing its pinions over oceans, and even to pierce other worlds.
(2) Cultivates spiritual habit. It delivers a man from being the creature of sense.
3. His anxiety for those with whom he had no direct connection. He is caring for a group of churches on the Lycus that he had not even visited. It was pure, disinterested love. Wherein does the modern gospel of altruism excel this gospel Paul believed and practised? and where has altruism the motives with which Christianity pulsates, or the examples that Christianity can cite?
II. A blessed experience. Analyzing these verses we find signs--
1. Of personal comfort. The word comfort here, as in the word Comforter, points to more than solace, it tells of encouragement and strengthening. What better experience could he desire for the members of this young Church than that their hearts should be comforted? But to that is added the blessing of social security. Few expressions can describe a completer unity than this knit together. It means an interweaving of sympathies, an interlinking of destinies; and this is obtained by the highest and surest method in love.
3. Of firm conviction, and all assurance. There is much more than opinion, there is conviction; and conviction of mans noblest faculty, the understanding, which is more than the reason alone. And this supreme conviction is, as to the truth, of the supremest importance, viz., the acknowledgment of the open secret about God.
III. An open secret. Paul did not mean by mystery an unknowable, mystical something; but rather a truth once hidden but no longer concealed; a truth fully, freely revealed. The self-revelation of Christ is the revelation of man, of duty, of God, of heaven. In Him were stored away all the riches of truth and love for which men cried. He is the exhaustless storehouse of Gods supplies for mans higher nature. He is the vast mine of thought, of sympathy, of grace; and only the industrious who sink the shaft of inquiry, fellowship, faith, will know what the mine contains. (U. R. Thomas.)
The full assurance of knowledge
The second Colossian prayer is the sequel of the first (Col_1:9-14), inasmuch as it shows at once the end of all practical obedience and the ground of all practical knowledge. The words that introduce it show it to be a supplement, and also that the apostles request now deepens into a great agony which is akin to our Lords. The matter of his supplication is expressed in the form of the end which its answer would obtain, the full assurance of their understanding of Christ, the mystery of God.
I. How this is to be obtained.
1. It is hardly possible to separate the full assurance from the process by which it is reached. It is a branch, together with the knitting together in love of the one common trunk, the comfort of the heart. This last root principle of all religious establishment is the full work of the Paraclete, and the heart is the inner man in which the Spirit carries on His renewing work. Hence from this common principle spring two developments--one of charity, the other of knowledge--and these are united. The love of God strong in the heart of each, the bond of perfectness, is as brotherly love, the bond of union in which all are edified. Thus while carnal knowledge puffeth up, and makes a hollow fellowship, love buildeth up both the individual and the community. They have the riches of the knowledge of God imparted to them in the radiations of Divine light through the Word, by the Spirit. These riches are the common heritage of the sacred Treasury; but every ones individual knowledge is His own.
2. This full assurance is the clear, deep, unclouded confidence in the reality of the objects of knowledge which the understanding grasps, excluding hesitation and fortifying against error. This grace comes from the comfort of the Spirit, through the diligent study of the mystery hid in Christ. St. Paul speaks of three kinds of assurance.
(1) The full assurance of faith--the deeply wrought conviction of the reality, and the possession of the present object.
(2) The assurance of hope--the full conviction of the reality of its objects as our own in reservation.
(3) The full assurance of understanding is more general in its object, including all the truths of the common salvation, of the unity, harmony, and practical consequences of which the understanding is fully assured. So far as the individual truths of this knowledge are embraced for salvation, the soul exerts its faith in full assurance; so far as they belong to the future, its hope; but so far as they are independent of present and future, and are the possession of the mind and not of the experience, the soul delivers them to the care of the understanding.
II. What it is is itself. The mystery of God which is Christ. This being the precise sentence which St. Paul wrote, we are taught by him that the Person of Christ, God-man, is the central and all-comprehending mystery.
1. The secret as it has been expounded in the previous chapter is impenetrable to human intellect. It is the mystery of God, and He alone can understand it.
2. But it is shown forth in such a manner that we may have a full and distinct knowledge, for this is the word, not acknowledgment. There is a difference between penetrating a mystery and beholding and knowing it. In the richness of its full assurance the understanding collects all the elements that go to the conception of the Divine-human Person, and unites them in one supreme object of knowledge, certitude, assurance.
3. Yet this object contains all other objects. In this are hid all the treasures, etc. To the riches of full assurance correspond the riches of the truths of which it is assured. All other intellectual treasures are of phenomena and time, and must pass away. If the vast fabric of things be destroyed or reconstructed, all extant physical science becomes obsolete. Bus the knowledge of Christ is always becoming richer. As the individual grows daily in it, so also does the Church behold more and more the development of the manifold wisdom of God in Christ.
III. What it effects. The apostles reason for the prayer was his deep desire to defend the Colossians against oppositions of science, etc. The full assurance of understanding in the mystery of Christ would be their effectual safeguard. The mind once raised to this region of cloudless certitude would not easily be seduced to descend into the region of scepticism, where doubt chases doubt in never-ceasing restlessness of caprice. Gnosticism under other names is still darkening the counsel of the hypostatic union. Hence the necessity of this prayer to-day. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)
St. Pauls conflict
As gardeners are not satisfied with sowing good seed, but also take care to eradicate weeds, so in spiritual husbandry it is not enough to cast the Word into souls; the soil must be cleansed of the pernicious weeds of error sown privily by an enemys hand, or the Divine tillage will be marred. Hence St. Paul in chap. 1, having established the truth, now defends it against heresy, and these verses are the entrance to the controversy.
I. The conflict. What the apostle affirmed at the close of chap. 1. he here particularizes. He means--
1. The solicitude which the consideration of the Churches drew upon him. For though their faith and constancy afforded him satisfaction, the temptations around them and their human weakness led to the apprehension that they might be drawn from piety. Love is never without this, but the apostles was so great that he felt as though he had suffered their afflictions himself (2Co_11:29, cf. also verse 3).
2. But more, he comprises here all that he did to avert the danger.
(1) He was perpetually in prayer for them (2Th_1:2; Php_1:4; Col_1:9).
(2) To prayer he added action, and as he assails the enemy, he smartly appeals to the faithful, admonishing and encouraging them to needful firmness.
(3) The combat, however, did not terminate here. He often came to blows, cheerfully suffering persecution. His very chain and prison were part of his conflict, and hence he told them (Col_1:24) he suffered for them; because in effect it was for maintaining the liberty of the Gentiles that he was suffering.
3. Admire the zeal and love of this holy man. He stood, as we may say, on the scaffold, yet their danger troubled him more than his own, and neither prison nor death was able to diminish his affection, or make him lay aside the least of his cares.
4. Observe his prudence To dispose their hearts and gain authority for his remonstrances, he sets before them his solicitudes for their salvation.
5. The apostles conflict is exemplary. Let ministers learn what they owe to their flocks. Without this strife we cannot avoid the censure of the Supreme Pastor.
II. Its design. Paul fought to secure to them a treasure and to prevent the enemy snatching it away. Therefore he shows that they were in danger of losing it. It consisted of--
1. Comfort of heart which heresy necessarily disturbs, because it shakes the truth and certainty of the evangelical doctrine on which it is founded. This should make us jealous for the purity of the gospel. Food, however wholesome, will kill if mingled with poison.
2. Union in love. Their seducers troubled that by sowing the seeds of doctrinal division. This union is necessary to comfort, for what joy can there be in the trouble of division?
3. The abounding of a full assurance of understanding. The order here is to be noted. These three things are of such a nature that the first depends upon the second, and the second upon the third.
(1) The knowledge of a Christian should be understanding, i.e., he should see in the clearness of heavenly light the verities which God has revealed, not that we are bound to comprehend them, which would be impossible; but we are to know them as far as they are revealed. Here we see how far a blind faith is from the knowledge of a believer. Paul would have the faithful intelligent.
(2) All riches of understanding. Abundance of knowledge, so that we may be ignorant of none of the mysteries of Divine truth. If we do not, how shall we distinguish the voice of the shepherd from that of a stranger?
(3) Assurance. Though matters of faith are not laid open to the senses or reason, yet the truth of them is so evident, that as soon as the clouds of passion and prejudice are dispersed by the Spirit it shines into our hearts and makes itself to be believed. Thus must it be known with certainty and not with doubting (Eph_4:14). Whereby you see how false is the opinion of Rome, which makes the belief of Christianity to depend on the testimony of her prelates.
4. The apostle confines the Christians understanding within the bounds of its true subject--the mystery of--
(1) The Father, because He is the author of the gospel, anal has manifested Himself through it.
(2) Of Christ, for He has brought this doctrine from the bosom of the Father and set it in our view; and He is the principal subject of it, without whose teaching and merit we can have no true happiness.
Conclusion:
1. Pauls desire teaches us our duty.
2. Urge not the vain excuse that you are not ministers, and therefore do not need extensive knowledge. The Colossians were no more ministers than you. We are all engaged in the same war and privates need arms as much as officers. (J. Daille.)
Soul prosperity
I. Its design. That their hearts might be comforted. There may be pleasure in which mirth is frolicsome and laughter mad; a thrill of lone delight may sweep across the soul beneath some grand or peaceful scene. There may be brief and dangerous rapture in some wild moment; but no heart was ever comforted amidst scenes like these, either in possession or memory. The word has a hearty English sound about it, and embodies all the unutterable meanings that lie hidden in that word home. The leading idea is that of quiet after tempests, a present of peace after a past of trouble. And so no heart can be comforted in Christ which has not agonized in penitence. The great calm comes to the soul after the storm raised by the convincing Spirit, when it finds the atonement sufficient and the Saviour willing. It must spring from faith.
II. Its constituents.
1. Being knit together in love.
(1) The word applies to the fitting of the parts of a house in harmony. Modern architecture delights in the symmetry of buildings, different parts are arranged to be mutually strengthening without external aid.
(2) So the heart in love is to be knit together, the strongest and surest of bonds. It is the root of all other graces, the ground on which the temple is to rise; rooted and grounded in love. It is the bracelet that clasps the other graces, at once a protection and decoration. Above all put on charity. It is the mark of the Divine relationship, indwelling, image.
(3) The necessity of this to comfort is obvious. Without it hope will be a transient emotion, labour an intolerable drudgery, God alienated, the Church rent.
2. Unto all riches, etc.
(1) The possession of an assured faith, the importance of an intellectual perception of the truth, and of a decisive grasp of its great principles, is often urged by Paul; and Christ prayed that Peters faith might not fail amidst the siftings of Satan. Do not our own hearts witness to the necessity of this? There is comfort in trust, but none in suspicion and misgiving.
(2) Mark the wealthy repetition of the apostles words. When Solomon speaks of understanding he can scarcely find imagery sufficiently brilliant to set its value forth. The apostle is not satisfied that that only shall be the believers dowry; there is not only understanding, but assurance--knowledge deepening into conviction; full, no doubt hungering upon the Spirit, the truth so thoroughly appreciated that the principle becomes enfibred with mans nature, a belonging of his, his riches which no panic can scatter and no thief steal.
(3) The tendency of the present age is to leave old beliefs behind, and it is considered a proof of manliness to have outgrown the faith of our childhood, which yet was the faith upon which the sturdy manhood of our fathers grew. But surely it were a weary world if in this nineteenth century there is nothing settled. Life is all too short to be spent in dreams. Men die while we are battling with problems. And in all doubt there is discomfort, danger, and death. To the sincere and candid Christianity offers her evidences and all her riches of the full assurance, etc. Press forward, you shall know if you follow on to know the Lord.
3. There must be testimony if the heart is knit together in love, etc.
(1) It is not to be kept within like a concealed treasure, but it is to be acknowledged. The duty of confession is parallel with that of faith, and if faith be hid it will die.
(2) The mystery is to be acknowledged. The greatest triumph of faith is when proud reason bows, the rebel will submits, and the awed senses fear as they enter into the cloud. This is the mystery of God in Christ. Do not let us do the Saviour the dishonour of denying Him either by the lie of speech or the lie of silence. Bold witness-bearing will be found to be a solid comfort to the soul.
4. In regard to this mystery the apostles words are cumulative, and each has a distinct significance.
(1) Of God. How much of mystery is here! Yet what a comfort! How sad it would be to sit down in a world like ours without a God, with chance as our creator and circumstances our governor; or with gods like those of heathenism. But while the atheist cannot find a God, and the deist denies His existence, and the pantheist reduces Him to an abstraction, the Christian rejoices to believe that there is around him God, living, acting, personal.
(2) Of the Father, a greater mystery. He who is omnipotent, etc., maintains a relationship analogous to that of human fatherhood only, of infinite power and tenderness. What a comfort is this mystery! We live not under a despots tyranny, but a Fathers smile; this makes duty light, and sorrow bearable.
(3) Of Christ. The mystery deepens as we travel on. This makes God Immanuel. Gods own Son stoops to take on Himself a curse that none but Omnipotence could inflict, and none but Omnipotence bear. But vast as is the mystery the comfort is vaster. Heaven and earth reconciled; salvation for the most abandoned. (W. M. Punshon, LL. D.)
That their hearts might be comforted.
The triple fruit of evangelical doctrine
The apostle contends that they should persist in this.
I. That their hearts might be comforted. Perseverance in Christian doctrine brings true comfort.
1. Because salvation by Christ alone brings tranquillity to the troubled conscience. For as the modulations of harmony are applied to arouse the mind when sorrowful, so the promises of God in Christ bring peace to mens hearts (Rom_5:1; 2Th_2:16; Php_2:1).
2. Because the doctrine of innovators harassed mens minds with scruples and anxieties. To be exempt from these is a great part of spiritual consolation.
II. Being knit together in love as carpenters fit together two pieces of wood, so that they adhere in indissoluble union. This concord of minds is--
1. A fruit, because the intellect is the leader of the will (Act_4:32). Unity of faith is the firmest bond of unity of mind. Love is the fruit of unanimity of faith which so binds the minds of the godly, that though some light offences intervene, yet as the boughs of the same tree, driven asunder by the wind, immediately come together again because fixed in one root, so with the minds of the faithful, because still rooted in the same faith.
2. A condition without which spiritual comfort is not obtained. For comfort is not had out of Christ; if any one lives without love, he is without Christ, and vice versa
III. Unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding.
1. The faith of Christians is augmented in richness when they who have learned only the principles and elements proceed to farther attainments. For as in other sciences the principles are few, but contain innumerable conclusions, so here some few necessary principles are presented to tender minds, and afterwards a rich treasury of sacred knowledge is collected for every purpose of salvation by meditation, hearing, and chiefly the internal operation and teaching of the Spirit. They therefore who persevere in the doctrine of the gospel thence obtain all riches. Hence--
(1) The laity should not be content with an elementary knowledge in religious matters (Heb_6:1).
(2) When these riches are sought, the means necessary to their attainment should be sought. He who would have treasure must dig.
2. Full assurance denotes that firm and certain adherence to what is believed which springs from the internal operation of the Spirit illuminating the intellect, inclining the will, and firmly stamping the impress of the things believed on the mind itself. This is at length attained by those who remain firm in the doctrine of faith. For as trees newly planted are swayed by the wind, so the early faith of the godly wavers with many doubts; but the same trees in course of time fix their roots deeper, so faith shoots its roots deeper into the mind, and at length, by grace, acquires that steadiness which cannot be overthrown (Eph_4:14). Hence we learn--
(1) That the faith of a Christian ought not to depend on others, but be settled by the efficacy of the Spirit, so that if ecclesiastics, or the whole world even, should depart from the faith, yet every one of the laity should hold to it (Gal_1:9).
(2) How Romanists err who think that the assurance of our faith lies in the breast of the Pope. That cannot give lull assurance to my heart, but the operation of the Spirit can and does (1Jn_2:27).
(3) That their complaint is unjust who aver that we cannot arrive at this assurance since there are so many sects and controversies. We attain truth not by disputing, but from Him who alone can both know and teach.
3. The understanding fully assured (Eph_1:17; 1Pe_2:9). Hence that is not a Divine, but animal faith, which has no comprehension of the things believed. Such a faith Staphylus extols in the collier who professed that he believed what the Church believed, and the Church believed what he held, whilst he was ignorant all the time what either the Church or himself held.
4. To the acknowledgment, etc.
(1) Under the word mystery the apostle includes the whole doctrine of the gospel which is so called, because human reason of itself would never have found the way of salvation but for it. (Bishop Davenant.)
Knit together in love.--
Christian unity
I. Its nature.
1. There are two kinds of Christian unity.
(1) Among all believers there exists a vital union. By our faith in Christ we are united to Him and to each other as members of our body connected with the living head. This union exists in spite of all diversities of character and creed. The uniting power is faith. Without that we are dead, and death means separation.
(2) But the text speaks of another union, or it is a superfluity. The Colossians were already partakers of the union common to all Christians. Now the apostle prays that they may be knit together in love. This is not a doctrinal union; desirable as that may be, it is only a union of head. Nor is it an ecclesiastical union; desirable as that may be, it is yet mechanical and external. This is eternal, spiritual, vital.
2. The word is translated compacted (Eph_4:16), proving (Act_9:22), assuredly gathering (Act_16:10), and means to make to come together. The Colossians were not so compacted as the apostle wished them to be. Seducers had disturbed their fraternal concord. So the apostle prays that their affections may intertwine and interlace; or that as a broken joint when reset knits itself to the other members of the body, so the members of the body of believers might be united to one another, love being the uniting power.
3. Each Church should he a confederated body, so consolidated into one as to be invincible in conflict with the powers of evil.
4. We can have this unity without dull uniformity. There is unity in the Godhead, yet not uniformity; unity among the angels, but they have degrees of power and dignity; diversity among the stars, yet they are all related to the central sun. This unity does not destroy our individuality or our right of private judgment. The Churchs vesture may have divers colours, but it must be without seam. Individual members may resemble the rainbow which combines the seven prismatic colours into one glorious arch, or like the ocean in its unfettered flow, distinct as the billows, but one as the sea.
II. Its necessity.
1. Being destitute of this unity, no body of Christians can answer the end of its existence. It is only where brethren dwell together in unity that the Lord commands His blessing.
2. This unity is essential to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. It is only when believers are builded together that they are a fit habitation of God through the Spirit. Not before the temple was compacted did the glory of the Lord fill the house. When they were all of one accord in one place, there came the blessings of Pentecost.
3. It is only when united that a Church is powerful for good. Separate the particles of a ponderous hammer, and each atom will fall harmless as a snowflake; but welded into one, and wielded by the arm of the quarryman, it will split granite. Let the waters of Niagara be divided into separate drops, and they are no more than a Scotch mist.
4. Without it a Christian Church may any day be scattered. It is but a heap of sand the separate particles of which may be separated by a gust of wind.
5. It is necessary to Christian comfort. We are so constituted as to be dependent on each other. To preserve a frigid isolation is to create misery.
III. The power which secures it. Love, without which no real union is possible. The universe has no equal force to that of love. We may think alike on doctrines, polity, and methods of work, but unless our hearts are full of love to Christ and one another we are not united. This power is to be obtained at the Cross, the birthplace of Christian love. (W. Williams.)
All riches of the fall assurance of understanding.--
I. The things of which we should be assured.
1. The things done by Christ (Luk_1:1).
2. The knowledge of our liberty in things indifferent.
3. The persuasion of the truth of their ministries to whom we subject our souls (2Ti_4:5; 2Ti_4:17).
4. The doctrine of the religion we profess.
5. The hope of a better life (Heb_6:12).
6. Faith in Gods favour upon the warrant of Gods Word and Spirit.
II. The signs of full assurance.
1. It will receive the Word in affliction with much joy (1Th_1:6),
2. It will not be carried about by every wind of doctrine (Eph_4:14).
3. It is industrious in the duties of love to Gods children (Heb_6:11-12).
4. It is unrebukable, and full of integrity of life. It cannot stand with any presumptuous sin (Heb_10:22).
5. It will give glory to God against all sense and reason (Rom_4:20).
6. It mortifies and extinguishes all headstrong affections (Isa_11:7; Isa_11:9).
7. It is carried with full sails into holy duties, and is faithful in good works.
8. It is able to admonish (Rom_15:14).
III. The riches of full assurance.
1. Our spiritual riches lie--
(1) In the Word of Christ dwelling in us (chap. 3:16).
(2) In the Spirit of Christ (Tit_3:6).
(3) In works of mercy and liberality (Eph_2:4; 2Co_8:1; 2Co_9:11).
(4) In sufferings and patience.
(5) In prayer (Rom_10:11).
(6) In good works. (1Ti_6:18).
(7) In utterance and all holy knowledge (1Co_1:5).
(8) In our faith (Jam_2:5).
2. Worthily is full assurance called riches, for it does all that riches can do to men. It comforts the heart and defends from dangers much better than outward riches. It gains the godly truer reputation than houses, lands, or money. It abounds more to mercy and well-doing with more sufficiency than out ward riches, and buys for the soul all necessaries. It settles the heart against all changes, makes a man stand against the rage of tyrants and death itself; yea, it prevails with God, and, knowing Him fully, does not fail to trust Him fully in spite of mysterious providences. Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. It brings a man the certain pardon of all his offences, and settles his heart in his religion better than ten thousand arguments and volumes of controversies. Conclusion:
1. This full assurance may be had in this life (1Th_1:5; Heb_6:11; Heb_10:22; Rom_4:21).
2. Therefore we are bound to labour for it. (N. Byfield.)
The full assurance of understanding
I. The knowledge or understanding to which assurance belongs.
1. Men have two kinds of knowledge respecting Divine things--the one of the intellect alone, which is the fruit of study, just as the natural sciences are; the other a higher knowledge built upon the former, or the former transfigured. It baptizes the understanding with feeling, and the feeling with Divine influences. It is the product of love and obedience more than of inquiry, and is rather the gift of God than the acquisition of man.
2. But although distinguished these are not to be separated. We can possess the lower without the higher, but not the higher without the lower. Intellectual knowledge of the things of God is right as far as it goes. Its objects are true and its apprehension of them is correct. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing implies an understanding of what is heard. This is the window which admits into the soul the light of heaven; and as the room is lighter if the window be large and clear, so also the spiritual knowledge is likely to be more vivid if the natural knowledge of Gods things be abundant. The function of the one is to build the altar, arrange the wood, and plan the sacrifice; the function of the other is to bring the fire from heaven.
3. But this is insufficient, and the super-excellence of spiritual knowledge makes it appear pale and poor in comparison. It is superficial. It does not penetrate down to the heart and will, but lies on the surface of the mind; nor does it pierce beyond the outward aspect of Gods truth, and is not in communion with its glory.
4. Look at the texts which explain the nature of the higher knowledge.
(1) 1Co_8:1-3. Its fundamental element is love; love comprehending what the most cultured intellect without love cannot receive. The knowledge which is not grounded in love does not build up, but only puffs up.
(2) Col_1:9-10. Its nature is spiritual because its source is supernatural, and concerns itself with the highest aspects of Gods truth which are hid from the natural man. It is a power which rules the whole man and results in a walk pleasing to God. The highest degree of it, therefore, constitutes the perfection of the religious life.
(3) Php_1:9-11. Here again the chief element is love.
II. The assurance belonging to this knowledge.
1. The assurance is not a property added to the knowledge, but the cream of the knowledge itself, and the higher and more extensive the knowledge the stronger the assurance.
2. Some Christians have an assurance which to some extent is the result of study (Luk_1:4; 1Pe_3:15). This is not possessed by all the saints. They are not able to impart this assured knowledge concerning things in which they have been but imperfectly instructed. But they have assurance of the greatest personal value. Reasons may be circulated, but not intuitions and experiences. My neighbour must see with his own eyes and feel with his own heart what I see and feel in order to partake of the same assurance. It is a revelation on the one side and an intuition on the other. (J. Hughes, D. D.)
There is no wealth for mans soul like the spiritual consciousness of the glory of the truth of God.
I. By it every part of our intellectual and moral nature is enriched.
1. It gives light to the mind, such a light as only comes from the Sun of Righteousness, dissipating darkness, clearing away doubts, solving perplexities that nothing else can remove, so that the man illuminated by it becomes a child of light and of the day.
2. It gives peace to the conscience, even the peace passing all understanding which the world can neither give nor take away.
3. It sheds abroad in the heart that love which is its true life, the love of God and Christ to man.
4. It gives purity to the life and nobleness to the character, bringing it under the influence of heavenly motives and the Divine operation, so that the man is transformed into the image of God from glory to glory.
5. It gives glory to man hood, making it a partaker of the Divine nature, and enriching it with the prospect of the unfading crown and eternal blessedness.
II. These riches can never perish. Other riches may take to themselves wings and fly away, or otherwise disappoint, but the wealth which the gospel gives forms part of ourselves for ever more. Disease cannot affect it; death cannot invalidate its worth; the cares of time and the trials of life only tend to enhance its value and brighten its possession to the soul. (J. Spence, D. D.)
In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.--
The hidden treasures of wisdom in Christ
Wisdom does not consist in wide and varied knowledge. A student may be a walking encyclopaedia, and yet be far from being a wise man. Wisdom is the practical application of knowledge, the attainment of the highest moral results by the best means. The cry of the human intellect in all ages is for wisdom. The greatest souls have toiled for it and failed. It is a Divine revelation. The world by wisdom knew not God. The wisdom which all need is found only in Christ. Observe--
I. That Christ is the inexhaustible source of the truest wisdom. The false teachers at Colossae, like certain pretentious philosophers of modern times, boasted of the wast range of their wisdom and knowledge. They discussed questions which are reproduced to-day--the wisdom of this world which comes to naught. But it is only in Christ that we find all the treasures which furnish and enrich the mind and guide in the way of salvation. If we classify the principal sources of human knowledge, only in Christ does each department find its fullest explication and derive its worth.
1. He is the loftiest ideal and purest inspiration of the poet. Poetry occupies an important place in human culture. It has been abused, but the true poet pants after the noblest expression of the beautiful and the good. Of this, Christ is the embodiment, and the poet exhausts all his resources in portraying the lineaments of His character.
2. He is the grandest hero of the historian. History would be an unsolvable enigma could the name of Christ be struck out. The story of redemption unites Christ with the destiny of man in all ages.
3. He is prominent among the sublimest themes of the philosopher. A philosophy that does not recognize the Divine plunges its votaries in labyrinthine darkness. Its legitimate office is to conduct to God.
II. That the treasures of Divine wisdom are discoverable by the sincere and earnest seeker. They are hid, but not so as to be beyond our reach. They are intended for discovery and appropriation. Their brilliancy sparkles even in their hiding-place. They are like a mine whose riches, though faintly indicated on the surface, are concealed in the depths. The more diligently the mine is worked the more precious and abundant the ore appears. Lessons--
1. Man universally covets wisdom.
2. The highest wisdom is treasured up in Christ for man.
3. If man finds it not, it is his own fault. (G. Barlow.)
The boundless wealth of wisdom in Christ
Where shall wisdom be found? etc. (Job_28:12-20). These sublime words have been echoed by the inquiring spirits of every age; but the only true reply is in the text. There are modern forms of old Colossian error: those who say that there is no reliable truth but in the facts of nature; no religion but in science; no progress but in rejecting revelation.
I. In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
1. They are deposited in Him as the God-man, the image of the invisible God, etc.
2. Knowledge is simply enlightenment, acquaintance with truth; wisdom is the use and result of that enlightenment, the application of the truth. Knowledge is the study, wisdom its fruit.
3. Treasures suggest great value and excellence. All the treasures are in Christ; not select truths, but all kinds of truth.
As all things were made and consist by Christ, so all branches of knowledge for the human soul have a relation to Him and find their truest meaning in Him.
1. Jesus Christ is the key to human history.
(1) The history of ancient nations cannot be considered thoroughly apart from the Jews, with whom they were brought into contact, and every one sees that the Hebrews had relations with Jesus, clear, manifold, and vital. Their ancient records, too, bear constant reference to One, the light of whose promised and expected advent flashed back on Egypt, Assyria, etc., making every page of this history instinct with living interest.
(2) The same holds good in regard to modern nations. The unbeliever may reject Christ, still he has to account for the presence of His religion and to explain its influence as by far the mightiest moral impulse which men or nations have received. The pathway of Christs name and influence is easily traced among the nations in the lines of light and liberty.
2. Christ is the ground of all true philosophy.
(1) Nature is hung with all the insignia of Divine skill, power, and glory. Yet experience proves that the light of nature cannot make this impression an abiding principle of action. It is only when we see the material world as the theatre of redemption, and the work of creation the work of the Reconciler, that nature leads up to natures God.
(2) The philosophy of mind likewise finds its meaning in Christ. How is it possible to estimate the value of the soul without a knowledge of Him whose death was the price of its redemption? Philosophy teaches something of the prerogatives of reason, of the power of conscience, and of the relation of the animal to the spiritual nature: but what do we find? The harmony of this lofty nature disturbed, its liberty gone, the prerogative of reason overborne by the power of passion. Where is the light or wisdom that can secure the harmony between what man is and what he ought to be? Where is the knowledge or power that can bring beauty out of the chaos which religion discovers? It is in Christ alone: in Him are hid all the treasures of the only wisdom which expounds the lofty relations of mans mental being and the value and vigour of his spirit.
(3) The philosophy of morals in the relation of man to man, and to society at large, is a perplexing study. We see virtue oppressed and vice triumphant, might supreme over right, etc. The solution is in the gospel. In the knowledge of Christ we see the rule of a righteous Father--the triumph of law and of love, the harmony of righteousness and peace, and the evidence that whatever anomalies may appear in society now, all will yet be explained and rectified, and issue in the glory of God and the good of man.
3. Christ is the substance of a true theology.
(1) All saving knowledge of God and our relations to Him we find in Christ.
(2) The peace with God which men have sought everywhere by sacrifice and prayer is secured by Him who is the propitiation for our sins.
(3) The future, which has baffled all human inquiries, has been revealed by Him who has brought life and immortality to light.
II. The relation of Christ generally to all human studies.
1. In Him the mind finds its truest stimulus and healthiest impulse. He is the fosterer and guide of all wise intellectual pursuits. It is in countries where He is known and worshipped that literature and science exercise their widest sway. He emancipates the mind from the bondage of corruption and fear, and as the wisdom of God hallows all wisdom.
(1) If we investigate nature, does it make no difference whether we examine a world without God, or a world which God has made the object of His special interest?
(2) If we study the human mind, will it make no difference whether we view it as a taper to be extinguished or the offspring of an infinite Father?
(3) If we examine the human frame, will it make no difference whether we consider it as destined to rot in the grave, or as the tabernacle of the immortal spirit destined to be restored? Who does not see that the light which Christ brings enhances and elevates every branch of knowledge?
2. The word hid implies that wisdom and knowledge are stored up in Him in a hidden manner, suggesting--
(1) Concealment. All these treasures are not seen at once by the bodily or spiritual eye. They are hid from the thoughtless and unbelieving world, from the vain and unassisted intellect (1Co_2:8). God has hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes. Just as many with an uneducated eye traverse a country rich in mineral wealth, and have no idea of what lies under the surface, so the treasures that are hid in Christ are only seen by the eye of faith, and found by the devout and contrite soul taught by the Spirit of God.
(2) But these treasures thus hid are intended for discovery and appropriation. They are gradually unfolded. The number of those enriched daily increases, yet the riches are still inexhaustible, and the oldest disciples are ever discovering some new vein of preciousness in their Lord. So it will ever be. (J. Spence, D. D.)
Earthly and heavenly riches
This morning, says Mr. Fuller, I have read another of Edwards sermons, on God, the Christians Portion, from Psa_73:25. The latter part comes very close, and I feel myself at a loss what to judge as to Gods being my chief good. He asks, whether we had rather live in this world rich and without God, or poor and with Him? Perhaps I should not be so much at a loss to decide this question as another; namely, had I rather be rich in this world and enjoy but little of God, or poor and enjoy much of God? I am confident the practice of great numbers of professing Christians declares that they prefer the former; and in some instances I feel guilty of the same thing.
The treasures of Christ in relation to education
When the apostle spoke of the wisdom hid in Christ, he meant by wisdom just what his adversaries meant, that is, the know ledge of man in those sublime relations that connect him with God and Gods universal plan. Now this is a sort of knowledge to which everything may be expected to contribute some remote and faint light; but the point here to be observed is, that the revelation of Christ Jesus, alone and unaided, flashes a beam of splendour upon it in which all others are lost and disappear. Nor this only, but as all knowledge is mainly valuable as it helps our efforts for this last and mightiest knowledge of ourselves and God, so when this is attained, through virtue of the Christian truth, it, in its turn, radiates back upon all the departments of knowledge a new and blessed light. And thus the revelation of Christ not merely teaches us in itself a series of truths of inexpressible importance, and without it wholly unattainable, but it also, as a great central discovery, harmonizes all our beliefs, sacred and secular, binds them together as its own servants, gives them a new interest, and position, and colouring, and dignifies the pursuit of them as a labour in the very cause of God Himself,--begun and prosecuted with a view to His glory--for to know the beauty of the temple is to know the glory of the architect. And hence, so far are we who advocate the revelation of Christ as the basis of education, from (as our slanderers have it) restricting or dreading the free search of natural knowledge, that, on the contrary, when once the corner-stone has been fixed in our foundation, we exult in a science and a philosophy that is subservient to the faith of Christ; we hail every bright discovery as a new tribute to the creating and redeeming God whom we adore. Let but the Sun of Righteousness reign in the centre of the soul, and we know that every element of inferior knowledge will dispose itself to revolve harmoniously around it! (W. Archer Butler, M. A.)
This I say lest any man should beguile you.--As men love and desire only those things which have an appearance of good, so they believe only those which have a semblance of truth. This advantage which truth naturally has over falsehood compels its enemies to counterfeit its mask and wear its livery, as coiners give their copper or lead the colour of gold or silver in order to pass it as current coin; otherwise neither error nor base coin have a chance of acceptance. And as Christianity comprises the most important truths, so there never was a system which impostors have so laboured to corrupt; and so, therefore, ought we to strenuously endeavour to sever the falsehood which has been palmed off as the truth. This is one of the most important duties of our lives. It is loss to take bad money for good; it is hurtful to receive an error for truth in the simplest matters; but here the consequence of imposture is irreparable. So here and elsewhere the apostle warns the faithful against it (Rom_16:17; 1Th_5:21; Eph_4:14; Heb_5:14).
I. The danger of the Colossians of being deceived with enticing words. There never was a servant of Christ who was not beset by such a temptation. As soon as Satan sees the truth of the gospel appear he raises up impostors to corrupt it, and to alienate its professors from its purity.
1. The term employed means to deceive by false and ensnaring ratiocination. These bad men, knowing that we are not induced to embrace anything without some reason, our nature demanding that the understanding should precede the will, begin there to effect our ruin. It is a sophism, a false arguing which by its vain appearance and fallacious blaze leads men into error, as those fatuous fires which, rising at night, conduct those who follow them over precipices. Satan, the father of all sophisters, took this course first, attacking our first parents understandings in the first place, and beguiling them that he might destroy them. All whom he has since employed have followed the same method. No heretic ever appeared who did not paint over his impostures with specious reasons. Some act maliciously, and in defiance of their own consciences; others through ignorance (Rom_10:2), like most of those of the Roman communion. But we must take heed of both. As poison fails not to kill the man who takes it, though given in ignorance; so error, from whatever hand it come, has a bad effect.
2. The means which false teachers use are enticing words (Rom_16:18; 1Co_2:4). Under this term are comprehended all that attractiveness of discourse which is apt to touch and win hearts. Eloquence too often makes things, as it were by enchantment, appear quite opposite--honey wormwood, black white, and vice versa. It can subvert a cause, however good; and establish it, however bad. It has frequently procured condemnation for the innocent, while the guilty have been acquitted with applause. But among all the busy people who use it none more perniciously employ it than corrupters of religion. Not that eloquence is to be decried. It has done good service to the gospel, and Paul, who here condemns it as a vehicle of error, does not reject it in the service of the truth. But as innocence is not always the best clothed, so truth frequently is not the most richly decked.
II. The means of guarding against it. This I say--what? In Him are hid all the treasures, etc. None of the wiles of error can stand before these. Whoever has this principle in his heart will receive nothing out of Christ, and so has his ears effectually closed against the seductions of error. (J. Daille.)
The true safeguard against error
Paul fortifies the disciples by exalting the master and urging the inexhaustible significance of His Person and message. To learn the full meaning and preciousness of Christ is to be armed against error. The positive truth concerning Him, by pre-occupying mind and heart, guards beforehand against the most specious teachings. If you fill the coffer with gold, nobody will want, and there will be no room for pinchbeck. A living grasp of Christ will keep us from being swept away by the current of prevailing popular opinion, which is always much more likely to be wrong than right, and is sure to be exaggerated and onesided at the best. A personal consciousness of His power and sweetness will give an instinctive repugnance to teaching that would lower His dignity and debase His work. If He be the centre and anchorage of all our thoughts, we shall not be tempted to go elsewhere in search of the treasures of wisdom. He who has found the one pearl of great price needs no more to go seeking goodly pearls, but only day by day more completely to lose self, and give up all else, that he may win more and more of Christ his all. If we keep our hearts and minds in communion with our Lord, and have experience of His preciousness, that will preserve us from many a snare, will give us a wisdom beyond much logic, will solve for us many of the questions most hotly debated to-day, and will show us that many more are unimportant and uninteresting to us. And even if we should be led to wrong conclusions on some matters, if we drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt us. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Satans method
This is the devils device, first to maze people, aa birds are with a light and a bell in the night, and then to drive them into the net. If you would keep to wholesome doctrine, keep to a form of wholesome words, and do not place religion in conceited speaking. Would that this advice of Mantons were heeded. We have those about us who are for ever inventing some new thing, and using the old orthodox terms in an altogether novel sense. Their hearers are first dazzled with the clever candle light, and cannot make out what the novel brilliance means; and when they are thoroughly bewildered, a great noise and tinkling is made of pretended wisdom and deep thought, so that the poor souls are ready to fly anywhere and anyhow. Thus the fowlers business is effectually done, and by this means, if it were possible, they would ensnare the very elect. The safest way for simple souls is to keep to a definite and decided gospel ministry. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Error is insidious
Error is insidious in its approaches. It flatters by liberality and betrays by sophism. We are not reconciled to it at once. There are disgusts to be allayed and fears to be vanquished. Little by little are we allured. The voyager enters a current which seems propitious, there is no apparent diversion from his course, his bark speeds well, his oar does not toil nor his sail strain. In his confidence all promises success. But while he examines, scarcely does it seem that he has advanced. Much again and again reminds him of what he has noticed just before. A strange familiarity impresses his sense. Still current flows into current, while onward and buoyant is his track. Soon he feels an unnatural vibration. Where he glided, he now whirls along. The truth seizes upon him. He is sweeping a whirlpool. Long since he has entered the verge of a maelstrom, and he is now the sport of its gyrations. No power is left his helm or mast; he is the trembling unresisting prey. He hears the roar; he is drawn into the suck of the vortex. Not only the circle lessens, the very surface slopes. The central funnel and abyss, darkheaving, smooth, vitreous, yawns. The mariner shrieks, the skiff is swallowed up, where the waters only separate to close, where the outermost attraction was but the minister to the famine of this devouring maw. (Dr. R. W. Hamilton.)
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 v1 Chapter 2 Part 1
Chapter 2 Part 1
PAULS STRIVING FOR THE COLOSSIANS
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Col_2:1-3 (R.V.)
We have seen that the closing portion of the previous chapter is almost exclusively personal. In this context the same strain is continued, and two things are dwelt on: the Apostles agony of anxiety for the Colossian Church, and the joy with which, from his prison, he travelled in spirit across mountain and sea, and saw them in their quiet valley, cleaving to the Lord. The former of these feelings is expressed in the words now before us; the latter, in the following verses.
All this long outpouring of self-revelation is so natural and characteristic of Paul that we need scarcely look for any purpose in it, and yet we may note with what consummate art he thereby prepares the way for the warnings which follow. The unveiling of his own throbbing heart was sure to work on the affections of his readers and to incline them to listen. His profound emotion in thinking of the preciousness of his message would help to make them feel how much was at stake, and his unfaltering faith would give firmness to their less tenacious grasp of the truth which, as they saw, he gripped with such force. Many truths may be taught coolly, and some must be. But in religious matters, arguments wrought in frost are powerless, and earnestness approaching to passion is the all-conquering force. A teacher who is afraid to show his feelings, or who has no feelings to show, will never gather many disciples.
So this revelation of the Apostles heart is relevant to the great purposes of the whole letter-the warning against error, and the exhortation to steadfastness. In the verses which we are now considering, we have the conflict which Paul was waging set forth in three aspects: first, in itself; second, in regard to the persons for whom it was waged; and, finally and principally, in regard to the object or purpose in view therein. The first and second of these points may be dealt with briefly. The third will require further consideration.
I. There is first the conflict, which he earnestly desired that the Colossian Christians might know to be "great." The word rendered in the Authorised Version "conflict," belongs to the same root as that which occurs in the last verse of the previous chapter, and is there rendered "striving." The Revised Version rightly indicates this connection by its translation, but fails to give the construction as accurately as the older translation does. "What great strife I have" would be nearer the Greek, and more forcible than the somewhat feeble "how greatly I strive," which the Revisers have adopted. The conflict referred to is, of course, that of the arena, as so often in Pauls writings.
But how could he, in Rome, wage conflict on behalf of the Church at Colossae? No external conflict can be meant. He could strike no blows on their behalf. What he could do in that way he did, and he was now taking part in their battle by this letter. If he could not fight by their side, he could send them ammunition, as he does in this great Epistle, which was, no doubt, to the eager combatants for the truth at Colossae, what it has been ever since, a magazine and arsenal in all their warfare. But the real struggle was in his own heart. It meant anxiety, sympathy, an agony of solicitude, a passion of intercession. What he says of Epaphras in this very Epistle was true of himself. He was "always striving in prayer for them." And by these wrestlings of spirit he took his place among the combatants, though they were far away, and though in outward seeming his life was untouched by any of the difficulties and dangers which hemmed them in. In that lonely prison cell, remote from their conflict, and with burdens enough of his own to carry, with his life in peril, his heart yet turned to them and, like some soldier left behind to guard the base while his comrades had gone forward to the fight, his ears listened for the sound of battle, and his thoughts were in the field. His prison cell was like the focus of some reverberating gallery in which every whisper spoken all round the circumference was heard, and the heart that was held captive there was set vibrating in all its chords by every sound from any of the Churches.
Let us learn the lesson, that, for all Christian people, sympathy in the battle for God, which is being waged all over the world, is plain duty. For all Christian teachers of every sort, an eager sympathy in the difficulties and struggles of those whom they would try to teach is indispensable. We can never deal wisely with any mind until we have entered into its peculiarities. We can never help a soul fighting with errors and questionings until we have ourselves felt the pinch of the problems, and have shown that soul that we know what it is to grope and stumble. No man is ever able to lift a burden from anothers shoulders except on condition of bearing the burden himself. If I stretch out my hand to some poor brother struggling in "the miry clay," he will not grasp it, and my well meant efforts will be vain, unless he can see that I too have felt with him the horror of great darkness, and desire him to share with me the benedictions of the light. Wheresoever our prison or our workshop may be, howsoever Providence or circumstances- which is but a heathenish word for the same thing-may separate us from active participation in any battle for God, we are bound to take an eager share in it by sympathy, by interest, by such help as we can render, and by that intercession which may sway the fortunes of the field, though the uplifted hands grasp no weapons, and the spot where we pray be far from the fight. It is not only the men who bear the brunt of the battle in the high places of the field who are the combatants. In many a quiet home, where their wives and mothers sit, with wistful faces waiting for the news from the front, are an agony of anxiety, and as true a share in the struggle as amidst the battery smoke and the gleaming bayonets. It was a law in Israel, "As his Dart is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that abideth by the stuff. They shall part alike." They were alike in recompense, because they were rightly regarded as alike in service. So all Christians who have in heart and sympathy taken part in the great battle shall be counted as combatants and crowned as victors, though they themselves have struck no blows. "He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophets reward."
II. We notice the persons for whom this conflict was endured. They are the Christians of Colossae, and their neighbours of Laodicea, and "as many as have not seen my face in the flesh." It may be a question whether the Colossians and Laodiceans belong to those who have not seen his face in the flesh, but the most natural view of the words is that the last clause "introduces the whole class to which the persons previously enumerated belong," and this conclusion is confirmed by the silence of the Acts of the Apostles as to any visit of Pauls to these Churches, and by the language of the Epistle itself, which, in several places, refers to his knowledge of the Colossian Church as derived from hearing of them, and never alludes to personal intercourse. That being so, one can understand that its members might easily think that he cared less for them than he did for the more fortunate communities which he had himself planted or watered, and might have suspected that the difficulties of the Church at Ephesus, for instance, lay nearer his heart than theirs in their remote upland valley. No doubt, too, their feelings to him were less warm than to Epaphras and to other teachers whom they had heard. They had never felt the magnetism of his personal presence, and were at a disadvantage in their struggle with the errors which were beginning to lift their snaky heads among them, from not having had the inspiration and direction of his teaching.
It is beautiful to see how, here, Paul lays hold of that very fact which seemed to put some film of separation between them, in order to make it the foundation of his especial keenness of interest in them. Precisely because he had never looked them in the eyes, they had a warmer place in his heart, and his solicitude for them was more tender. He was not so enslaved by sense that his love could not travel beyond the limits of his eyesight. He was the more anxious about them because they had not the recollections of his teaching and of his presence to fall back upon.
III. But the most important part of this section is the Apostles statement of the great subject of his solicitude, that which he anxiously longed that the Colossians might attain. It is a prophecy, as well as a desire. It is a statement of the deepest purpose of his letter to them, and being so, it is likewise a statement of the Divine desire concerning each of us, and of the Divine design of the gospel. Here is set forth what God would have all Christians to be, and, in Jesus Christ, has given them ample means of being.
(1) The first element in the Apostles desire for them is "that their hearts may be comforted." Of course the Biblical use of the word "heart" is much wider than the modern popular use of it. We mean by it, when we use it in ordinary talk, the hypothetical seat of the emotions, and chiefly, the organ and throne of love; but Scripture means by the word, the whole inward personality, including thought and will as well as emotion. So we read of the "thoughts and intents of the heart," and the whole inward nature is called "the hidden man of the heart."
And what does he desire for this inward man? That it may be "comforted." That word again has a wider signification in Biblical than in nineteenth-century English. It is much more than consolation in trouble. The cloud that hung over the Colossian Church was not about to break in sorrows which they would need consolation to bear, but in doctrinal and practical errors which they would need strength to resist. They were called to fight rather than to endure, and what they needed most was courageous confidence. So Paul desires for them that their hearts should be encouraged or strengthened, that they might not quail before the enemy, but go into the fight with buoyancy, and be of good cheer.
Is there any greater blessing in view both of the conflict which Christianity has to wage today, and of the difficulties and warfare of our own lives, than that brave spirit which plunges into the struggle with the serene assurance that victory sits on our helms and waits upon our swords, and knows that anything is possible rather than defeat? That is the condition of overcoming - even our faith. "The sad heart tires in a mile," but the strong hopefulheart carries in its very strength the prophecy of triumph.
Such a disposition is not altogether a matter of temperament, but may be cultivated, and though, it may come easier to some of us than to others, it certainly ought to belong to all who have God to trust to, and believe that the gospel is His truth. They may well be strong who have Divine power ready to flood their hearts, who know that everything works for their good, who can see, above the whirl of time and change, one strong loving Hand which moves the wheels. What have we to do with fear for ourselves, or wherefore should our "hearts tremble for the ark of God," seeing that One fights by our sides who will teach our hands to war and cover our heads in the day of battle? "Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart."
(2) The way to secure such joyous confidence and strength is taught us here, for we have next, Union in love, as part of the means for obtaining it-"They being knit together in love." The persons, not the hearts, are tobe thus united. Love is the true bond which unites men-the bond of perfectness, as it is elsewhere called. That unity in love would, of course, add to the strength of each. The old fable teaches us that little fagots bound together are strong, and the tighter the rope is pulled, the stronger they are. A solitary heart is timid and weak, but many weaknesses brought together make strength, as slimly built houses in a row hold each other up, or dying embers raked closer burst into flame. Loose grains of sand are light and moved by a breath; compacted they are a rock against which the Atlantic beats in vain. So, a Church, of which the members are bound together by that love which is the only real bond of Church life, presents a front to threatening evils through which they cannot break. A real moral defence against even intellectual error will be found in such a close compaction in mutual Christian love. A community so interlocked will throw off many evils, as a Roman legion with linked shields roofed itself over against missiles from the wall of a besieged city, or the imbricated scales on a fish keep it dry in the heart of the sea.
But we must go deeper than this in interpreting these words. The love which is to knit Christian men together is not merely love to one another but is common love to Jesus Christ. Such common love to Him is the true bond of union, and the true strengthener of mens hearts.
(3) This compaction in love will lead to a wealth of certitude in the possession of the truth. Paul is so eagerly desirous for the Colossians union in love to each other and all to God, because He knows that such union will materially contribute to their assured and joyful possession of the truth. It tends, he thinks, unto "all riches of the full assurance of understanding," by which he means the wealth which consists in the entire, unwavering certitude which takes possession of the understanding, the confidence that it has the truth and the life in Jesus Christ. Such a joyful steadfastness of conviction that I have grasped the truth is opposed to hesitating half belief. It is attainable, as this context shows, by paths of moral discipline, and amongst them, by seeking to realise our unity with our brethren, and not proudly rejecting the "common faith" because it is common. Possessing that assurance, we shall be rich and heart whole. Walking amid certainties we shall walk in paths of peace, and reecho the triumphant assurance of the Apostle, to whom love had given the key of knowledge:-"we know that we are of God, and we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true."
In all times of religious unsettlement, when an active propaganda of denial is going on, Christian men are tempted to lower their own tone, and to say, "It is so," with somewhat less of certainty because so many are saying, "It is not so." Little Rhoda needs some courage to affirm constantly that "it was even so," when apostles and her masters keep assuring her that she has only seen a vision. In this day, many professing Christians falter in the clear assured profession of their faith, and it does not need a keen ear to catch an undertone of doubt making their voices tremulous. Some even are so afraid of being thought "narrow," that they seek for the reputation of liberality by talking as if there were a film of doubt over even the truths which used to be "most surely believed." Much of the so-called faith of this day is all honeycombed With secret misgivings, which have in many instances no other intellectual basis than the consciousness of prevalent unbelief and a secondhand acquaintance with its teachings. Few things are more needed among us now than this full assurance and satisfaction of the understanding with the truth as it is in Jesus. Nothing is more wretched than the slow paralysis creeping over faith, the fading of what had been stars into darkness A tragedy is being wrought in many minds which have had to exchange Christs "Verily, verily," for a miserable "perhaps," and can no longer say "I know," but only, "I would fain believe," or at the best, "I incline to think still." On the other hand, the "full assurance of the understanding" brings wealth. It breathes peace over the soul, and gives endless riches in the truths which through it are made living and real.
This wealth of conviction is attained by living in the love of God. Of course, there is an intellectual discipline which is also needed. But no intellectual process will lead to an assured grasp of spiritual truth, unless it be accompanied by love. As soon may we lay hold of truth with our hands, as of God in Christ with our understandings alone. This is the constant teaching of Scripture-that, if we would know God and have assurance of Him, we must love Him. "In order to love human things, it is necessary to know them. In order to know Divine things, it is necessary to love them." When we are rooted and grounded in love, we shall be able to know- for what we have most need to know and what the gospel has mainly toteach us is the love, and "unless the eye with which we look is love, how shall we know love?" If we love, we shall possess an experience which verifies the truth for us, will give us an irrefragable demonstration which will bring certitude to ourselves, however little it may avail to convince others. Rich in the possession of this confirmation of the gospel by the blessings which have come to us from it, and which witness of their source, as the stream that dots some barren plain with a line of green along its course is revealed thereby, we shall have the right to oppose to many a doubt the full assurance born of love, and while others are disputing whether there be any God, or any living Christ, or any forgiveness of sins, or any guiding providence, we shall know that they are, and are ours, because we have felt the power and wealth which they have brought into our lives.
(4) This unity of love will lead to full knowledge of the mystery of God. Such seems to be the connection of the next words, which may be literally read "unto the full knowledge of the mystery of God," and may be best regarded as a coordinate clause with the preceding, depending like it on "being knit together in love." So taken, there is set forth a double issue of that compaction in love to God and one another, namely, the calm assurance in the grasp of truth already possessed, and the more mature and deeper insight into the deep things of God. The word for knowledge here is the same as in Col_1:9, and here as there means a full knowledge. The Colossians had known Christ at first, but the Apostles desire is that they may come to a fuller knowledge, for the object to be known is infinite, and endless degrees in the perception and possession of His power and grace are possible. In that fuller knowledge they will not leave behind what they knew at first, but will find in it deeper meaning, a larger wisdom, and a fuller truth.
Among the large number of readings of the following words, that adopted by the Revised Version is to be preferred, and the translation which it gives is the most natural and is in accordance with the previous thought in Col_1:27, where also "the mystery" is explained to be "Christ in you." A slight variation in the conception is presented here. The "mystery" is Christ, not "in you," but "in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." The great truth long hidden, now revealed, is that the whole wealth of spiritual insight (knowledge), and of reasoning on the truths thus apprehended so as to gain an ordered system of belief and a coherent law of conduct (wisdom), is stored for us in Christ.
Such being in brief the connection and outline meaning of these great words, we may touch upon the various principles embodied in them. We have seen, in commenting upon a former part of the Epistle, the force of the great thought that Christ in His relations to us is the mystery of God, and need not repeat what was then said. But we may pause for a moment on the fact that the knowledge of that mystery has its stages. The revelation of the mystery is complete. No further stages are possible in that. But while the revelation is, in Pauls estimate, finished, and the long concealed truth now stands in full sunshine, our apprehension of it may grow, and there is a mature knowledge possible. Some poor ignorant soul catches through the gloom a glimpse of God manifested in the flesh, and bearing his sins. That soul will never outgrow that knowledge, but as the years pass, life and reflection and experience will help to explain and deepen it. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son-there is nothing beyond that truth. Grasped however imperfectly, it brings light and peace. But as it is loved and lived by, it unfolds undreamed of depths, and flashes with growing brightness. Suppose that a man could set out from the great planet that moves on the outermost rim of our system, and could travel slowly inwards towards the central sun, how the disc would grow, and the light and warmth increase with each million of miles that he crossed, till what had seemed a point filled the whole sky! Christian growth is into, not away from, Christ, a penetrating deeper into the centre, and a drawing out into distinct consciousness as a coherent system, all that was wrapped, as the leaves in their brown sheath, in that first glimpse of Him which saves the soul.
These stages are infinite, because in Him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. These four words, treasures, wisdom, knowledge, hidden, are all familiar on the lips of the latter Gnostics, and were so, no doubt, in the mouths of the false teachers at Colossae. The Apostle would assert for his gospel all which they falsely claimed for their dreams. As in several other places of this Epistle, he avails himself of his antagonists special vocabulary, transferring its terms, from the illusory phantoms which a false knowledge adorned with them, to the truth which he had to preach. He puts special emphasis on the predicate "hidden" by throwing it to the end of the sentence-a peculiarity which is reproduced with advantage in the Revised Version.
All wisdom and knowledge are in Christ. He is the Light of men, and all thought and truth of every sort come from. Him Who is the Eternal Word, the Incarnate Wisdom. That Incarnate Word is the perfect Revelation of God, and by His one completed life and death has declared the whole name of God to His brethren, of which all other media of revelation have but uttered broken syllables. That ascended Christ breathes wisdom and knowledge into all who love Him, and still pursues, by giving us the Spirit of wisdom, His great work of revealing God to men, according to His own word, which at once asserted the completeness of the revelation made by His earthly life and promised the perpetual continuance of the revelation from His heavenly seat: "I have declared Thy name unto My brethren, and will declare it."
In Christ, as in a great storehouse, lie all the riches of spiritual wisdom, the massive ingots of solid gold which, when coined into creeds and doctrines, are the wealth of the Church. All which we can know concerning God and man, concerning sin and righteousness and duty, concerning another life, is in Him Who is the home and deep mine where truth is stored.
In Christ these treasures are "hidden," but not, as the heretics mysteries were hidden, in order that they might be out of reach of the vulgar crowd. This mystery is hidden indeed, but it is revealed. It is hidden only from the. eyes that will not see it. It is hidden that seeking souls may have the joy of seeking and the rest of finding. The very act of revealing is a hiding, as our Lord has said in His great thanksgiving because these things are (by one and the same act) "hid from the wise and prudent, and revealed to babes." They are hid, as men store provisions in the Arctic regions, in order that the bears may not find them and the shipwrecked sailors may.
Such thoughts have a special message for times of agitation such as the Colossian Church was passing through, and such as we have to face. We too are surrounded by eager confident voices, proclaiming profounder truths and a deeper wisdom than the gospel gives us. In joyful antagonism to these, Christian men have to hold fast by the confidence that all Divine wisdom is laid up in their Lord. We need not go to others to learn new truth. The new problems of each generation to the end of time will find their answers in Christ, and new issues of that old message which we have heard from the beginning will continually be discerned. Let us not wonder if the lessons which the earlier ages of the Church drew from that infinite storehouse fail at many points to meet the eager questionings of today. Nor let us suppose that the stars are quenched because the old books of astronomy are in some respects out of date. We need not cast aside the truths that we learned at our mothers knees. The central fact of the universe and the perfect encyclopedia of all moral and spiritual truth is Christ, the Incarnate Word, the Lamb slain, the ascended King. If we keep true to Him and strive to widen our minds to the breadth of that great message, it will grow as we gaze, even as the nightly heavens expand to the eye which steadfastly looks into them, and reveal violet abysses sown with sparkling points, each of which is a sun. "Lord to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life."
The ordinary type of Christian life is contented with a superficial acquaintance with Christ. Many understand no more of Him and of His gospel than they did when first they learned to love Him. So completely has the very idea of a progressive knowledge of Jesus Christ faded from the horizon of the average Christian that "edification," which ought to mean the progressive building up of the character course by course, in new knowledge and grace, has come to mean little more than the sense of comfort derived from the reiteration of old and familiar words which fall on the ear with a pleasant murmur. There is sadly too little first hand and growing knowledge of their Lord, among Christian people, too little belief that fresh treasures may be found hidden in that field which, to each soul and each new generation struggling with its own special forms of the burdens and problems that press upon humanity, would be cheaply bought by selling all, but may be won at the easier rate of earnest desire to possess them, and faithful adherence to Him in whom they are stored for the world. The condition of growth for the branch is abiding in the vine. If our hearts are knit together with Christs heart in that love which is the parent of communion, both as delighted contemplation and as glad obedience, then we shall daily dig deeper into the mine of wealth which is hid in Him that it may be found, and draw forth an unfailing supply of things new and old.
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 vv1–3 1–3. What great conflict. Anxiety. For you. The brethren…
1–3. What great conflict. Anxiety. For you. The brethren at Colosse. At Laodicea. A sister church only a few miles away. See Introduction. Laodicea was one of the Seven Churches of Revelation. See Rev. 3:14. Have not seen my face. This seems to imply that he had never visited either of these churches in person. The reasons of his anxiety are revealed in this chapter. They were assailed by false teachings.
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 v1 Col_2:1. What great conflict—R.V. “how greatly I strive.” It…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Col_2:1. What great conflict—R.V. “how greatly I strive.” It is a repetition of the thought of the previous verse expressed in terms of the arena. For them at Laodicea.—About a dozen miles distant from Colossæ.
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Col_2:2. The mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.—The R.V. has greatly simplified this perplexing phrase: “The mystery of God, even Christ.” Of the eleven various readings extant (given by Lightfoot) that of our A.V. is to all appearance the latest and worst.
Col_2:3. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.—When we have “laid our reasonings at His feet,” He does not stultify us. Neither pure reason nor practical reason is to “fust in us unused,” if they seek their answers in Him.
Col_2:4. Should beguile you with enticing words.—The word for “beguile” is only again found in the New Testament at Jas_1:22. It means to lead into error by sophistical reasoning. Enticing words, or persuasive speech, plausible but false.
Col_2:5. The stedfastness of your faith in Christ.—Some think “stedfastness” (as well as “order” preceding) may have a military significance. If so, it would mean the compact firmness of the phalanx. Others say that meaning is not inherent, but derived from its context, which here does not suggest it. The word is used in the LXX. for firmament—a solid vault, as it was thought.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Col_2:1-4
Ministerial Anxiety.
The more clearly we apprehend truth in its many-sided aspects and in its complex and vital relations, the more grievous and calamitous does error appear. Error cannot come into collision with truth without creating confusion of ideas and much mental distraction, and as a consequence robbing the soul of the peace and solace it enjoyed. The apostle saw the dangerous tendency of the doctrines advocated by the false teachers against whom his epistle was directed, and he was deeply concerned lest the pure and simple gospel embraced by the new converts should be contaminated. As one drop of ink pollutes the whole vessel of water, as one stroke of the hammer diverts the rod from a straight line and spoils it throughout its whole length, so one single error obscures and warps the holiest truth.
I. This anxiety was intense.—“For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have” (Col_2:1). In the closing words of the preceding chapter the apostle referred to his stern self-discipline in training himself for his arduous and self-denying labours as an apostle; and in this verse he expands the same thought, and would have the converts know the magnitude of the struggle which his anxiety for their welfare cost him. This conflict refers not only to his external labours on behalf of the Churches, in journeys, perils, privations, persecutions, and imprisonments, but more especially to his fervent wrestling with God in prayer, like Jacob of old; his importunity, like the widow with the unjust judge; his inward soul struggles in earnest intercession for their stability in the faith. The danger must have been serious that produced in such a man so great an agony of anxiety: great souls are not affected by trifles. People little know what their pastors pass through: when they think them the most at leisure, then are they the least so—the fervent conflict of prayer is going on in secret. A knowledge of the minister’s anxiety is sometimes necessary to create a responsive sympathy, and to teach the people the care and anxiety they should feel for their own salvation.
II. This anxiety was disinterested.—“For you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh” (Col_2:1). The solicitude of the apostle was not restricted to the Colossians, as though they were more liable than others to defection from the truth, but embraced the converts in the neighbouring city of Laodicea. In this populous and thriving city, celebrated at that time for its immense commercial wealth and for the high intellectual attainments of its philosophers, the heretic leaven had begun to work; and the subsequent history of the Church there showed that it spread only too surely and disastrously (Rev_3:14-18). The apostle also extended his anxious regard to “as many as had not seen his face in the flesh.” The bulk of our troubles in this life we endure on behalf of others. The Christian spirit, in its broad, comprehensive charity, gives us a deep interest in all who have any connection with Christ. Fervent prayer on behalf of others, notwithstanding the sneers of some modern scientists, is efficacious, irrespective of locality or of actual personal intercourse. Prayers offered in private are often answered in a strange, unlooked-for manner in public. God has a sovereign right to select the mode in which He answers the prayers of the faithful. An old divine has said: “If we would reap openly in the conversion of souls and their steady walk, we must plough in secret with prayers and tears.” Our anxiety about the welfare of others is a strong evidence of our possessing the genuine love of the truth. It was a trenchant aphorism of Coleridge that, “He who begins by loving Christianity better than truth, will proceed by loving his own sect or Church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all.”
III. This anxiety had special reference to the highest spiritual attainments of believers.—
1. The apostle was solicitous for the confirmation of their faith. “That their hearts might be comforted” (Col_2:2)—i.e. encouraged, confirmed. The apostle knew the subtle power of error in disintegrating the heart’s confidence, producing trouble, dejection, doubt, and perplexity. Hence he was anxious so to present the truth as it is in Jesus, as to restore and cheer the bewildered mind and settle it on the firm basis of an intelligent and cordial faith. No man can reach the high attainments of the Christian life whose heart is not at rest in God.
2. The apostle was solicitous for their union in love.—“Being knit, together in love” (Col_2:2). The heart can never enjoy solid comfort till it is united in the love, as well as in the faith, of the truth. Error divides as well as distresses; it snaps the bond of love, splits the Christian Church into parties, rends what ought to be the seamless robe of Christ. Where there is discord in the understanding about fundamental truths, there cannot be concord in the will and affections. The stability of believers depends upon their being knit together in a mutual love, as the timbers of a building are joined and compacted by a carpenter—such is the original signification of the word—each part being fitted in with the rest, and all subserving the firmness and safety of the whole. “He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.”
3. The apostle was solicitous they should be enriched with the unspeakable wealth of the divine mystery.—
(1) The divine mystery is explained in the unique person and endowments of Christ. “The mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col_2:2-3). Christ embraced in His own person the divine and human natures. As God, He is equal with the Father, and possesses in Himself all the essentials of Deity; but as man He is dowered with moral treasures surpassing the endowments of the highest angel. The mystery is not so much Christ, as Christ containing in Himself “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” There is in Christ an all-sufficiency for every possible want of man—copious and inexhaustive riches of eternal and saving wisdom. These riches are hid in Christ as treasure in a field—concealed from the gaze of the mere passer-by, the careless, indolent, and proud; but revealed to and enjoyed by the humble, diligent, and persevering seeker. “He who is not content with Christ, but goes out of Him to philosophy or tradition, forsakes the treasures for the miserable beggary of human counterfeits.” It is still a mystery to the world how Christ can be the grand depositary of all wisdom; and the mystery is dispelled only as the soul becomes savingly acquainted with Him.
(2) The believer is privileged to gain the full knowledge of the divine mystery.—“To the acknowledgment of the mystery” (Col_2:2). The word implies that the knowledge of God and of Christ is the perfection of knowledge. The ancient sage declared: “If thou criest after knowledge, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.” And the apostle prayed for the Ephesians that “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ might give unto them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.” This knowledge is to be not a simple perception of the truths contained in the divine mystery, but a full, firm, and distinct knowledge as the result of careful sifting, and the actual experience of their soul-transforming power. We know nothing to purpose until it is strongly grasped by the heart as well as by the understanding.
(3) A clear and profound understanding of the divine mystery is the true enrichment of the mind.—“Unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding” (Col_2:2). The vast store of moral riches here indicated is opposed to the poverty of the mind, which has only a few confused, unconnected truths about the gospel laid up in its treasury. By the full assurance of understanding is meant an unclouded perception and firm conviction of the truth revealed in the gospel. This is obtained only by diligent study and the inner illumination of the Spirit; the understanding is cleared up, the judgment settled, and the individual believer enabled to apprehend each part of the gospel in its essential relation to the grand whole, and thus to grasp with a firm hold the salient features of the divine mystery. In this assured knowledge of the greatest truths the mind of man finds it true enrichment; its abiding rest and felicity. “Wisdom is more precious than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.” Every other kind of knowledge, however rare and extensive, is in itself poor and unsatisfying.
IV. This anxiety prompted the apostle faithfully to warn the Church.—“And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words” (Col_2:4). Error assumes the most seductive forms: it charms with its eloquence, bewilders with its subtle reasoning, misleads with its bold, assured statements of half-truths. The soul is fascinated as by the gaze of a basilisk, and morally poisoned by its breath. “Men are easily persuaded to believe that which flatters their own vanity, and dilutes or modifies the gospel, so as to accommodate it to their own degenerate tastes.” It is needful to maintain a vigilant outlook, and be on our guard against every phase of false teaching. Some contend that words have little to do with religion; that true religion is a sentiment in the soul independent of words. The apostle thought differently when he exhorted to hold fast “the form of sound words”; and in this verse he distinctly avers that enticing words may beguile. He solemnly warns the Ephesians, who were assailed with a similar class of errors: “Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.” The most effectual antidote to any heresy is the faithful, simple proclamation of the doctrine of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. This is the clue that leads us out of all the mazes of error.
Lessons.—
1. The true minister is anxious to promote the highest good of the people.
2. All truth finds its explanation and all error its refutation in Christ, the Source of eternal Wisdom
3. False doctrine should be fearlessly and faithfully exposed.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Col_2:3
The Hidden Treasures of Wisdom in Christ.
Wisdom does not consist in the possession of varied and extensive knowledge. The student may be deeply read in ancient and long-forgotten lore, be versed in the entire circle of the arts, sciences, and philosophies, be intelligibly familiar with the best literature of the day, be a walking encyclopædia, a literary fountain gushing in a perennial stream of information, and yet be far from being a wise man. Wisdom is the practical application of knowledge, the attainment of the highest moral results by the use of the best and simplest means. The cry of the human intellect in all ages has been, “Where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?” The greatest souls have toiled painfully in search of the coveted treasure, but failed to discover it. Their mightiest endeavours have terminated in disappointment and despair. True wisdom is a divine revelation. The world by wisdom knew not God; and one of the profoundest philosophers of any age, and who approached as near the threshold of the grand discovery as the unaided human mind was perhaps ever permitted to do, had to confess with a sigh, “If ever man is destined to know the good and the true, it must be by a revelation of the Deity.” That wisdom which all need, and of which all are in quest, is found only in Christ. This verse declares that Christ is the unfathomable depositary of the highest wisdom. Observe:—
I. That Christ is the inexhaustible Source of the truest wisdom.—“In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” The false teachers at Colossæ, like certain pretentious philosophers of modern times, boasted of the vast range of their wisdom and knowledge. They discussed questions, some of which, strange to say, are reproduced and advocated to-day—questions on the nature of the world, the eternity or non-eternity of matter, the chief good of man, the orders and ranks of the angelic hierarchies and their relation to the mediatorial work of Christ, the necessity of observing the ceremonies and austerities of the law, and of the beauty and grandeur of the theories of Plato and Pythagoras, the ruling philosophers of the time. But all this is simply “the wisdom of this world and of the princes of this world, which come to nought.” It is only in Christ we find all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge to furnish and enrich the mind and to guide into the way of salvation. He is “to us who are saved the power of God and the wisdom of God.” If, for the sake of illustration, we classify the principal sources of human knowledge into poetry, history, philosophy, and theology, we may assert that only in Christ does each department find its fullest explication, and from Him derive its significance and worth.
1. Christ is the loftiest ideal and purest inspiration of the poet.—Poetry occupies an important place in contributing to the sum of human knowledge, and to the culture, development, and happiness of man. It was the language of the world’s infancy, as it is of the infancy of man; the spontaneous outflow of the soul, on its first acquaintance with the marvels of the present life, expresses itself in strains of poetic music. It is true this great gift has been abused, and often made the instrument of debasing instead of elevating the mind. Hence Plato, in constructing his ideal republic, would exclude the poets because of the evil tendency of some of their productions, though he accords them all honour on account of their learning and genius. The genuine poet pants after the noblest expression of the beautiful and the good. Christ is the glorious ideal and embodiment of the pure and beautiful; the poet drinks in his most ravishing inspiration from Him, and exhausts all the resources of his genius in attempting to portray the exquisite lineaments of His matchless character.
2. Christ is the grandest hero of the historian.—History furnishes us with the knowledge of man and his doings in all ages—in his individual, social, and national aspects. It traces the development of the race from the first solitary man to the peopling of the world with the varied nationalities which now swarm upon its surface. But the history of the world and man would be a dark, unsolvable enigma if the name of Christ could be struck out. The story of redemption unites Christ with the destiny of man in all ages—past, present, and future; and “no history of the world, political or moral, can be either just or accurate that does not find in Christ foretold to come, or in Christ come and crucified, its centre and its key.” The world was created by Christ; it exists for Him; and, without interfering with individual freedom, it may be said that He makes its history: His name and influence are traceable everywhere, and are everywhere potent. The devout historian finds in Him the hero in whom all excellencies combine, and whose exploits he loves to chronicle.
3. Christ is prominent among the sublimest themes of the philosopher.—A philosophy that does not recognise the divine plunges its votaries into labyrinthine darkness; its legitimate office is to conduct to God. Coleridge has well said: “In wonder all philosophy began; in wonder it ends; and admiration fills up the interspace. But the first wonder is the offspring of ignorance; the last is the parent of adoration.” In every sphere where philosophy penetrates it is confronted with ineffaceable evidences of the power and presence of Christ. Among the splendid phenomena of the natural creation—the forces that move, and the laws that control its vast machinery—Christ is acknowledged as the creating and ruling spirit; and only as the material world is regarded as the theatre of redemption, and of moral conflict and discipline, does the philosopher reach its highest meaning: in the realm of mind, the true dignity, preciousness, and immortal endowments of the soul are understood only as we apprehend that the life of the great Redeemer was sacrificed to effect its ransom; and, in the sphere of morals, we decipher the relation of man to man, and to society at large, learn the duties and obligations we owe to each other and to God, discover the standard of right actions, and are aided in explaining and harmonising the inequalities that exist, when we gain an insight into the moral relation of Christ to the whole race.
4. Christ is the all-comprehensive subject of the theologian.—God is inscrutable to the unchristianised reason. “Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than bell, what canst thou know?” Men have sought God in all ages with tears, sacrifices, and sufferings indescribable; but in vain. Christ is the only way to the Father; in Himself He reveals and illustrates the Godhead. All our saving and renewing knowledge of God, and of our manifold relations to Him, we owe entirely to Christ. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” In the domain of theology “Christ is all in all.” But for Him the office of the theologian would be an impossibility.
II. That the treasures of divine wisdom are discoverable by the sincere and earnest seeker.—They are hid; but not so hid as to be beyond our reach. They are intended for discovery and appropriation. Their brilliancy sparkles even in their hiding-place. They are like a mine, whose riches, though faintly indicated on the surface, are concealed in the depths of the earth. The more diligently the mine is worked, the more precious and abundant the ore appears. So in Christ there are treasures of wisdom unseen by the superficial and careless observer; but to the humble and believing student new and deeper veins are perpetually opening up, until, still pursuing his search, he is dazzled by the splendour and inexhaustible fulness of wealth, surpassing all finite comprehension, and filling him with admiration and awe.
Lessons.—
1. Man universally covets Wisdom
2. The highest wisdom is treasured up in Christ for man.
3. If man finds it not, it is his own fault.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Col_2:1-3. Christian Unity.
I. We cannot but lament the divisions and scandals of the professed disciples of Jesus, which have more than anything else prevented the universal diffusion of the gospel.
II. We should make it manifest, by acknowledging the truth in whomsoever found, that we are not bigoted sectarians.
III. As regards those with whom we are united in fellowship, let us prove by our humble, modest, and kind disposition that we are lovers of peace and concord.
IV. Christian unity is promoted by mutual efforts to edify one another in faith and love.—W. France.
Col_2:3. Christ the Treasury of Wisdom and Knowledge.—The revelation of Christ not merely teaches us a series of truths of inexpressible importance, and without it wholly unattainable, but it also, as a great central discovery, harmonises all our beliefs, sacred and secular, binds them together as its own servants, gives them a new interest, position, and colouring, and dignifies the pursuit of them as a labour in the very cause of God Himself, begun and prosecuted with a view to His glory—for to know the beauty of the temple is to know the glory of the Architect.—Archer Butler.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Col_2:5
Apostolic Praise of Order and Stability.
It is an impressive spectacle to see a well-armed body of troops drawn up in compact military order, resisting with calm, unflinching courage the terrible charge of the enemy. Every point of attack is strongly guarded, every vacancy occurring in the exposed front line is instantly supplied, and the broad, deep phalanx remains impenetrable and invincible. The enforced companionship of the apostle with the soldiers of the prætorian guard, in his imprisonment in Rome, where he would be a daily witness of their exercises, might suggest some such metaphor as this to his mind. And as he foresaw the confusion and ruin that would be introduced into the Colossian Church if the fatal errors of the false teachers were triumphant, in this verse he expresses his joyous satisfaction in being assured of the orderly array and firmly set stability which their faith in Christ presented against the assaults of the foe. Note:—
I. The apostle commended the external order of the members of the Church.—“Beholding your order.” This is mentioned first, because it first meets the eye, though all external discipline and order must necessarily spring out of and accompany a genuine faith. There is no form of ecclesiastical government that can claim an exclusively divine sanction. The New Testament lays down broad, general principles; and the Christian Church has been left to shape itself according to circumstances and in harmony with the indications of divine Providence. True order depends, not upon the form of Church polity we adopt—whether prelacy, presbytery, or congregationalism—as upon the consistency, fidelity, and union of the individual members of the Church. Order that is not based on a vigorous Church-life, and regulated by it, is empty and powerless; it is like the ice of the Polar regions, which sometimes assumes forms of exquisite and wondrous beauty, but is cold, heartless, dead. The Scriptural directions on this subject are brief, but pregnant with meaning: “Let all things be done decently and in order”; “God is not the Author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the Churches of the saints”; “Let all things be done with charity”; “The rest will I set in order when I come.” While organisation that is not instinct with a moving, pervasive, and aggressive life is cumbersome, vapid, and useless; on the other hand, Christian steadfastness is imperilled where order is disregarded.
II. The apostle commended their stability in the faith.—“And the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.” These words describe the internal condition of the Church; and the picture of a firm, confident reliance on Christ which he beheld delighted the soul of the anxious apostle. Order is the fence and guard, steadfastness the end in view, order is the garb and ornament, steadfastness the substance of the Christian character. Faith girds and strengthens the soul with its unchanging and invincible verities; the shafts of error and profanity assail it in vain. When the Roman proconsul, from his judgment-seat, urged the holy Polycarp to save his life by cursing the name of Jesus Christ, the venerable martyr calmly answered: “For eighty-six years I have served him; He has never yet done me harm. How can I blaspheme my King, who has saved me!” Man is great and noble, not by what he possesses, not by what he says, not by what he gives, not by what he does, but by what he believes. The most magnanimous outward conduct may be, after all, a very imperfect representation of the soul’s deepest faith. What a man believes is not therefore a matter of comparative indifference, but a question of supreme importance; he must have a clear, definite creed. True a creed is but the visible, expressive mould of the inward conception of the truth believed; but as the tendency of all life is to assume form, and can be understood by us only as it does so, so faith, as a vital and irresistibly active principle, must inevitably shape itself into some outward expression. Where there is no creed, there is no faith; a creedless man believes in nothing, and he is himself that nothing. He has no more cohesion in him than the separate particles of sand in the hour-glass. All true faith takes its rise “in Christ,” and gathers its stability by continuing in Him.
III. The apostle cherished a deep, personal interest in their welfare.—
1. In spirit he was present with them. “For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit.” We have no satisfactory evidence that the apostle had as yet personally visited Colossæ. Epaphras, the faithful and anxious evangelist, sought him out in Rome, perhaps for the purpose of laying before him the state of Colossæ and of the neighbouring Churches on the banks of the Lycus. The apostle’s interest in Colossæ was further excited at this time by meeting with Onesimus, a runaway slave, belonging to the household of Philemon, a Colossian. The apostle was the means of bringing the runaway to repentance and to the enjoyment of the liberty of the spiritually free. These circumstances deepened St. Paul’s concern in the affairs of the Colossian Christians; he grasped all the points of the situation, was keenly alive to the gravity of the dangers with which they were threatened, and, as though he were personally present in their midst, expressed his sincere sympathy with them in their trials, and his profound satisfaction on hearing of their steady adherence to the truth. It is not necessary to be locally near in order to hold spiritual intercourse; oceans may roll between individuals whose souls participate in the highest communion. The soul is where it loves: thither it directs its affections, wishes, and hopes.
2. He rejoiced in their fidelity.—“Joying and beholding.” As though an actual spectator of their order and steadfastness, his soul is filled with joy. The expression of his hearty interest in their state, and his praise of their fidelity, prepared them to give heed to his cautions against the seductions of false teachers, and to his exhortations to perseverance. No disappointment is so poignant as that arising from the failure of Christian toil, and no joy so exquisite as the joy of success. The spectacle of a Christian Church poised in beauteous order, and strengthened with the might of an unfalteringly aggressive faith, is a subject of unspeakable joy to God, to His angels, and to all true ministers.
Lessons.—
1. Attention must be paid to the outward as well as the inward state of the Church. 2. While the Church preserves its order and stability it is invulnerable.
3. It is cause of rejoicing when the Church faithfully maintains the conquests already won.
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.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Col 2:1-2
Col 2:1-2
I. The first wish of the Apostle appears as if it embodied the whole, "that their hearts might be comforted," that is, that by Divine preparation and discipline, they might be prepared, and strengthened, and become heirs of sanctification and rest. "That their hearts might be comforted." Here is the design of the Apostle, God’s purpose which His messenger declares, that the end of our religion is our happiness. "That their hearts might be comforted," and that this may be brought about through the processes of obedience, and of faith, is the burden of the Apostolic prayer.
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II. The verse then proceeds to unfold the elements, the constituents by which this prosperity of the spirit is to come; and the first and highest of these would appear to be "that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love." The word here rendered "knit together" applies to the fitting of the parts of a house in completeness and harmony. So the heart is to be knit together in unity: not united after many dislocations by bonds from without; bonds which the body may fray away, bonds which the hands of violence may sunder, but compelled from within, weaving the web of its defence, like the spider that is in kings’ palaces, out of the texture of its own frame. Love is the root of all other graces, and the ground upon which the temple is to rise.
III. "Unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding." The possession of an assured faith, the importance of an intellectual perception of the truth, and of a decisive grasp of its great principles in the inner man, is urged by the Apostle in many exhortations, and enforced upon us as surely by the experiences of our own witnessing hearts. The faith that is so carefully concealed that only those who enter into the Shekinah of the spirit are aware of its existence, is in sad danger of dying from the very closeness of the air in which alone it permits itself to breathe; but the faith that gives itself to acknowledgment, to testimony, to witness-bearing, is traced by the air of the mountain, and breathes and thrives healthily among the free fellowships of men.
W. M. Punshon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 168.
References: Col 2:2.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. ix., p. 384. Col 2:6.—R. Tuck, Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 85; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 536; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 313; Ibid., Sermons, vol. viii., p. 488; W. Cunningham, Sermons, p. 292; T. M. Herbert, Sketches of Sermons, p. 02. Col 2:6, Col 2:7.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 216. Col 2:7.—Church of England Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 245. Col 2:8.—R. Thomas, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., pp. 120, 104. Col 2:8-10.—Good Words, vol. iii., pp. 373, 575. Col 2:9.—G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount, p. 18. Col 2:9-10.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 139; H. Goodwin, Church of England Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 241. Col 2:10.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ix., p. 65; I. Taylor, Saturday Evening, p. 344; R. S. Candlish, The Sonship and Brotherhood of Believers, pp. 38, 54; J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 9th series, p. 285.
Col 2:12
(with Col 3:1)
Buried with Him in Baptism.
In our baptism we are made partakers both of the death and resurrection of Christ.
I. People in general, thinking as they do more or less slightly about baptism, forget very much the way in which Holy Scripture speaks about it. They think it a right thing to have their children baptised, but they are not very anxious about it. They do it, but they are not sure that they see much good in it. Now compare with this the way in which the Bible speaks. Hear, for instance, what St. Paul says to the Romans, "Know ye not, that all we which were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into His death," etc. He tells us that in our baptism we died with Christ, that we were made partakers of His death, that we were buried with Him, that we became united in the likeness of His death. We are brought so wonderfully near to Christ by being baptised and made members of His body, that what is literally true of Him is, in a figure, true of us also; that we actually partake, by the Holy Spirit of God, of Him, and so we have a real share in everything that is His—in His sufferings, in His death, in His resurrection. Yes, and in being already citizens of heaven and sitting with Him in heavenly places.
II. God has seen fit to call on us for lives of service. He has allowed us to live on, some of us to grow old, others to look forward, so far as man can look forward, to years of life, and all sorts of toil and labour in His Church upon the earth. We must, therefore, all our lives long, repeat and enlarge, and draw out into Christian habit and the long use of holy living, the rising with Christ which in summary we partook of when we were baptised; working hard and faithfully in our several callings, doing all the good we possibly can to our neighbours, helping on the kingdom of God in all ways, showing good examples, praying for one another, seeking more and more those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, lifting up our minds to high and heavenly things.
G. Moberly, Parochial Sermons, p. 122.
Reference: Col 2:12.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 87.
Col 2:13
The New Life.
We notice here—
I. The state of the natural man "dead in sins." The death which holds the cold, lifeless limbs of flesh, is not more true and not half so awful, as this death that darkens the conscience, and perverts the reason, and corrupts the heart, and wraps up all the soul in the deep lethargy of sin from the call of the Saviour’s love.
II. The state of the spiritual man quickened together with Christ. Experience of the dead soul we all certainly have had; happy they who have experience of the living soul likewise. The ceaseless activity of bodily life, which makes it happiness to live, and pleasure to move, and which for one part or other of the frame finds ceaseless occupation, represents the motions of the Spirit, which now stir with an inward life the once slumbering soul. The soul has been called out of its grave; it has arisen from the dead, and now stands a living thing before God,—all ear and eye and heart, all love, obedience, and attention.
III. Note the procuring means of change: "having forgiven us all trespasses." All things were easy to God but this one. Was it needed for the purposes of His will to create new worlds? He did but speak, and it was done; He commanded, and they stood fast. Was it needed to deliver a chosen people from the hands of earthly enemies? He did but blow with His wind, and through the deep sea, as along a conqueror’s pathway, moved on in safety the armies of the Beloved. But to save souls and to remove out of the way those sins, which stood between us and Him, and yet to keep His truth and vindicate His justice—to be just, and yet the Justifier of man—needed a sacrifice great and wonderful even before God, the sacrifice of His own dear Son. The gift of the Holy Ghost could not be bestowed, till in the blood of the dying Son of God, and for the merits of His infinite propitiation, God had "forgiven us our trespasses."
E. Garbett, The Soul’s Life, p. 98.
References: Col 2:14.—J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 353. Col 2:14, Col 2:15.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. x., p. 12. Col 2:15.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v., No. 273; Expositor, 1st series, vol. x., p. 403. Col 2:16.—Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxix., p. 133. Col 2:16, Col 2:17.—J. Burton, Christian Life and Truth, p. 275. Col 2:19.—Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxix., p. 297.
Col 2:20
I. The one chief thing which the Lord had to accomplish upon earth was a death. That death He would have held in perpetual remembrance in His Church. The great thing which a Christian has to learn is to die daily. How to die is the great lesson for those whose "life is hid with Christ in God." We may easily appear to countenance that slavish occupation of the mind with the mere circumstance of death and experience of dying, which is the source of so much of that sickliness of soul which enfeebles the Church in our times. When I say "learn how to die," I am not thinking of the shrinking flesh which has to be mastered; that is a simple matter. Nor do I refer to the dread meeting with the realities of the eternal state to which the angel of death ushers us. I mean by learning how to die, learning how to lay up treasures which we may carry with us through death, to enrich the life which we shall live in the sphere beyond. We are dead, as the Lord was dead, to that which sin has made of His world. And what was He alive to? "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me and to finish His work."
II. Our Lord gives no hint that man can be a being of two homes—very happy here, very full of the good of this world and very satisfied with it, while very ready at the same time to find a home in the world to come. The Lord’s life seemed to say the very opposite of all this. The blessed life for man lies beyond death. Give up the world as a home, give up life as a scene of perfect satisfaction and joy. Take up thy cross; make life a pilgrimage. This is the Christian philosophy of life, wherein whoso walketh and worketh, not weary of patience, not shrinking from the cross, is thrice blessed, blessed with the blessedness of the Lord Jesus.
III. The Lord would have us simply live in a sphere which is above the shock of earth’s perturbations. The man who lives a heavenly life on earth will be in no unseemly haste to get out of it. That is the Christian expectation of death. It is the half-developed, the half-experienced, who would pluck half-ripe the fruit of immortality. To the complete Christian, death is only supremely welcome when the work of life is nobly done, and its rich fruit is treasured up on high. And that moment is only known to God. "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." When we can take that song upon our lips, it is time to go hence, to fall asleep in the arms of death, to awake in the bosom of the everlasting glory.
J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon, p. 227.
References: Col 2:20-22.—J. H. Newman, Sermons on Subjects of the Day, p. 199. Col 2:22-23.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. xii., p. 289.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Division 3. (Col 2:1-23.)
Division 3. (Col 2:1-23.)
Filled up in Him in whom all the fulness dwells.
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Christ then, is He in whom all the fulness dwells. We are now to have distinctly the part which is given us in this fulness. We are to be filled up in it, and that practically for our blessing now, not at some time to come; but that this may be manifested in us here by the way.
1. The apostle tells us, therefore, of the conflict that he was in with regard to them, but specially as to those whose face he had not yet seen in the flesh, his responsibility towards whom was not altered by this fact.
He is in conflict also, as knowing what the world is in which the saints are found. The greater the blessing. the greater incentive to the enemy, if possible, to take it from them; and alas, with this, the surer, if we think of men as such, that they will demonstrate their incapacity of themselves to hold it. But Paul’s purpose is the encouragement of those to whom he writes, -not discouragement. The warnings of what man as man is, of the flesh that dwells in us all, the practical warnings which result from the outbreak of this also, alas, in Christians, are still only to discourage self-confidence, never to move one from the assurance that he should have in God. He seeks, therefore, to encourage their hearts, and that they may be united together in love, the true binding principle, in the possession of all that was their own, the riches that God would give them in full assurance of understanding. How much is implied in this! There is to be no failure with us as to the distinct, definite, assured apprehension of all this blessing which God has given us, the full knowledge of the mystery of God of which be has spoken, in which are hid for us now "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
This may seem a strange thing to say that, in that which is only revealed at the present time, all treasures of this kind should be found; but it is manifest that in speaking to Christians, everything depends upon their being in possession of that which makes them distinctly Christian. Except as in this Christian place ourselves, we have not even the right knowledge of other things. For instance, if we do not realize the difference between the Church and Israel, how can we know even Israel aright? How can we know the Old Testament without being in possession of what is specifically ours in the New? He says here, as so constantly with him, "wisdom" as well as "knowledge," putting indeed wisdom first; for without the power to apply, what right gain could there be in the knowledge which is to be applied?
He goes on to intimate his knowledge of the power of the enemy which was abroad, and which would, by persuasive speech, seek to take from them the blessing; but he rejoiced, absent indeed in the flesh, yet with them in spirit, as seeing their order and the firmness of their faith in Christ. It is plain therefore that he does not, as some think, realize in them the beginning of any special form of evil, but that the warnings which we find here and there through the epistle are necessary to the character of it, as having to do with their walk in the world, a place in which every danger would necessarily beset them. He has, as we can see also, not merely those in mind whom he is addressing now Colosse, but us also, for whom the Spirit of God is caring, through him, and who are in the midst of evils of which they are warned here. There could not but be the foresight of such things, and provision made for them, in the love that manifests itself towards all the people of God to the last generation.
2. He proceeds at once, therefore, to bid us, as having received Christ Jesus the Lord, to walk in Him. The place of identification with Him which God has given us is to be carried out in practice here. We are to walk as identified with Him. We are to walk as in this new place and new creation, separated, therefore, from the world and under the authority, as Lord, of Him whom the world has rejected. We have received Him as our Lord, not simply as our Saviour, although these two things will necessarily go together; but we have received Him as One who has rightful title over us and One in whom we have found all that enables us to be independent of the world around. Thus we are rooted and built up in Him. It is from Him that we draw subsistence as the plant through its root, and we are thus built up in Him as the plant builds itself up through the nourishment which it thus receives. How perfectly then are we provided! Christ is our one Sufficiency; and "the faith" is that which has, so to speak, given us Christ Himself, for it is by faith that we know Him. We are to abound in it, says the apostle, with thanksgiving, -an immense point, for if our hearts are not making joy over the truth which God has given us, what shall we have to keep us from the evil around? or to produce in us the fruits which are acceptable to God? Here he adds one of his warnings, not to be led away, therefore through philosophy and vain deceit; that is, through the working of man’s mind apart from revelation. Christ is the subject of revelation, plainly. No human thought could have discovered Him: none can add to Him. All mere human teaching has upon it the essential marks of the world itself, a world into which He came in love, but which had no heart for Him.
3. Thus we are shut up to Christ, who is indeed, as has been declared, the Centre and Reason of the universe. The knowledge of Him is, therefore, the only key to the right apprehension of all things. These are the manifestations, each in its measure, of God; and Christ it is in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. That word, "bodily," makes Him our own, He has come out from the invisible to be among us; and not simply for display: He has pledged Himself to service in it, whatever the need may be, as when He showed them His hands and His side. And still "we are complete" -filled full. "in Him," who is -notice how these things are brought together -"Head of all principality and power." To Him the circumstances of the way are absolutely obedient. Here we have the perfect ministry to us, therefore of everything around us, as well as the perfect means of apprehension of it all, as knowing Him. The apostle goes on now to show us how thoroughly we have been cut off from other things. If the Jew was separated from the nations by the fact of his circumcision we, he says, have been circumcised, not with that circumcision indeed, not by something with the hand, but by something infinitely more and deeper, "the putting off of the body of the flesh," the flesh in its totality, "by the circumcision of Christ," that is, by the Christian circumcision. His cross has accomplished this for us. We are privileged to turn away from all that we find thus in ourselves, to give up self in fact altogether, as having any confidence in it, as the apostle tells us in Philippians: "We are the true circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Notice that there is nothing there of self to have confidence in. It is Christ in whom we boast or glory, and that in contrast with all fleshly confidence whatever.
Slow we may be indeed, to realize that every atom of self-confidence is confidence in the flesh. We would fain draw a distinction. We would say that there is a Christian self; that, after all, there must be something in us which is the fruit of God’s work but the cross has not set aside self in one fashion to allow it to be brought forward again in another. If we build again the things which we destroyed, we make ourselves transgressors in this sense also, and the apostle adds here what is the complete assertion of this: "We are buried with Him," he says, "in baptism." God has privileged us, thus, to put away ourselves as completely as a dead man is put away amongst the dead when he is buried.
This truth as to baptism is one of those which we derive from Romans, but we are "raised up" also, he adds; and here it is important to get clearly what the apostle really says. The common version makes it to be baptism in which also we are raised up, but what is connected with this makes it impossible to accept it. We are "raised up with Him," he says, "through the faith of the operation of God who raised Him from among the dead." We are not raised up then in an ordinance, but "through faith." The "wherein" may be, and should surely be "in whom;" and we cannot simply take this as what baptism. typifies for us, because the moment we speak of type, it does not require faith to make a type to be such. We could not be raised up typically by faith. One could not say a type was a type through faith. Baptism in itself speaks of immersion, burial. The word would not convey that of resurrection. The force of the baptism is in the burial and nothing else. The resurrection which is to follow is in Christ and from Him alone.
It is thus that we are set free from the thought of deliverance by an ordinance, which so many hold today. We are "raised up through the faith of the operation of God who raised Him from among the dead." Here we see distinctly what is meant. Resurrection is the opposite of burial. In burial a dead man is put among the dead. In resurrection a now living man is given his place among the living; and it is seen that Christ identified with us through grace in His death has been raised up of God; that we might find, therefore, our own title and ability to take our place amongst those truly alive. But then all depends upon this identification of ourselves with Him. Our eyes are now, therefore, to be upon Christ. He is in this character our true self; and our confidence, therefore, is to be in Him. As we have had it in Galatians, we live, yet no more we, but Christ liveth in us. It is the One who is before God for us who is before us now in faith and whom we accept as now our true self, a self in whom we can have confidence, a self that we can contemplate with joy and satisfaction, and without the least tendency to such pride of heart as results naturally from what we call. self-occupation. Here is One who will draw us away from self, who will, as a heavenly Object draw us completely out of the world, and accomplish our deliverance in both senses at the same time.
But he has another side now to present to us; and here we touch Ephesian truth, as before, that of Romans. "You," he says, "being dead in offences and in the uncircumcision of your flesh," not as living then, but as dead for God, having absolutely nothing that He could accept, nothing that is towards Him in your natural condition, "He has quickened together with Him." Here is a change of condition as well as the change of position spoken of before, We have got life, a new life, a life which has come to us through Christ’s death, and which is the result of divine power working towards us in Him.
With this, therefore, we have the forgiveness of all offences. Nothing could be allowed to mar the perfection of that work for us or of its fruit in us. There could be no quickening without forgiveness, as its necessary accompaniment. As a consequence, therefore, the "handwriting in ordinances" which stood against us, which was contrary to us, He has taken out of the way. It is not the law itself of which he is speaking, but of our obligation to it. This is what the "handwriting" means, and. this is what is effaced for us, it being nailed to the cross. The law is not dead, as we have seen in Romans, but we have died to it. It is stated here in another way, but the same thing in effect. With this power of condemnation cancelled for us, authorities and powers, (all the power of Satan which could work in sinful men,) are also set aside. Christ has made a show of them openly, leading captivity captive, triumphing over them by His cross.
4. The apostle warns them now that they must hold fast the Head, and for this give up the ordinances of the law and all else which would prevent their drawing absolutely out of the fulness which they had in Christ. No one was to be judged with regard to meat or drink, feasts, new moons or sabbaths. All these things necessarily went with the obligation to ordinances. They were in themselves simply a shadow of the things to come. The body, that is, the substance of them, was in Christ. Christians were not to do their own will in that which looked indeed like humility, as in the worship of angels, but which was, after all, an intrusion into things unseen, and the result of pride instead of humility, while it forfeited the blessing which was to be enjoyed alone through Christ; from whom all the body ministered to and joined together by joints and bands increases with the increase of God. Christians are themselves to be as Christ Himself was, like "a root out of a dry ground," maintained by sustenance from heaven, divine sustenance alone, as he says here. They have died with Christ out of the world and therefore out of that which belongs to it. To subject themselves to ordinances, was to take a position contradictory of this. Like the legal institutions themselves, they could only deal with things from the outside, prohibit touch and taste and what not, things which appear, as we know, wise enough, but which ignore altogether that which is God’s only remedy for the evil in man, which is a new creation. Such will-worship will indeed always have an appearance of wisdom and of humility too; and an ascetic treatment of the body will be held as a proof of zeal and devotedness. God has no pleasure in such things. The body, indwelt of the Holy Spirit, is to be held on that account in a certain honor, while the pride of man could be satisfied with that which, if it disregarded the body, built up the flesh.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The False Teaching and its Refutation
The False Teaching and its Refutation
4-15. Hold fast to Christ the All-sufficient Saviour.
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Paraphrase. '(4) I emphasise these truths about Christ lest you should be beguiled by plausible persuasions. (5) While I am physically absent from you, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing with you and beholding your order and the firm foundation of your faith in Christ. (6, 7) Let your moral life in Christ Jesus be in harmony with the teaching through which you received Him as Lord; be firmly rooted and built up in Him, established in faith as you were taught, abounding in thankfulness. (8) Let no one lead you away as his prey by any empty sham that he may recommend as 'philosophy' drawn from human tradition, with the elemental spirits of the world and not Christ for its content. (9, 10) For it is in Christ, not in them, that all the fulness of Godhead dwells, and dwells as an organic whole; and it is in Him that you find every spiritual need completely met, in Him the Head of the angelic powers. (11) You need no physical circumcision, for in your conversion you received a spiritual circumcision, not the mere cutting away of a fragment of the body, but the removal of the whole carnal nature. Really this went back to the death of Christ in which He underwent this spiritual circumcision; (12) and you have not only shared Christ's burial in baptism, but also His resurrection through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead. (13) You too, though spiritually dead by reason of your trespasses with your carnal nature unremoved by spiritual circumcision; you did God quicken along with Christ, forgiving us all our trespasses (I say 'us,' not 'you,' for I cannot be silent about God's forgiving love to me), because He had cancelled the bond which was against us by its ordinances, the Law which was hostile to us. (14) And He has taken it out of the way, annulling it by nailing it to Christ's Cross that it might be put to death with Him. (15) He despoiled the angelic forces, and showed them frankly in their true position as givers of an abrogated Law, and rulers of elements to which Christians have died, triumphing over them on the Cross.'
8. Paul is not condemning philosophy properly so called, but the empty doctrines which the false teachers dignified by that name. Spoil] RV 'maketh spoil of you'; the word means to lead away as prey. The rudiments of the world] better, as mg., 'the elements of the world.' This cannot be the first principles of religion, which could not be well called 'weak and beggarly' (Gal_4:9), were not strictly common to Jews and heathen, nor an apt description of the false teaching which was something very different. Here they are contrasted with Christ; in Gal_4:8-9 they are identified with those who by nature are not gods; and in Gal_4:8 compared with 'guardians and stewards.' They must then be personal beings, not however the spirits of the stars, but the elemental spirits that animate the material world. The false 'philosophy' had these angels not Christ for its subject-matter.
9. The reference is to the exalted Christ.
Bodily] usually explained to mean in bodily fashion. Probably we should render 'in the form of a body,' and explain it to mean as an organic whole. The fulness of the Godhead is not distributed among the angels, but exists in all its completeness in Christ.
11. The body of the sins of the flesh] RV 'the body of the flesh.' The carnal nature, the old self, is meant. The circumcision of Christ] probably an expression for the death of Christ, in which the Christian ideally died to sin.
12. RV 'Through faith in the working of God.'
13. The uncircumcision of your flesh] not physical, as if he meant, 'because you were uncircumcised Gentiles,' for the circumcised Jews also were, in Paul's judgment, spiritually dead. He means the spiritual uncircumcision, which consisted in the possession of a carnal nature.
Forgiven you] RV 'forgiven us.' Paul cannot leave himself out.
14. Handwriting of ordinances, that was against us] RM 'the bond that was against us by its ordinances.'
15. Principalities and power] mean here precisely what they mean elsewhere in this Epistle. They are not evil spirits, but the angels who gave the Law that brought Christ to His death, and that rule over the material elements. God is the subject throughout the passage.
16-23. Hold fast the treasure of which the false teachers would rob you.
Paraphrase. '(16) Since then the Law no longer exists for you, and the angels have been deposed from their rule, let no one pass judgment on you in the matter of food or sacred seasons. (17) These things are a mere shadow; it is Christ who possesses the substance. (18) Let no one give judgment against you in the matter of gratuitous humility and angel worship, vainly speculating and inflated with fleshly pride. (19) Such a man has no firm grasp of Christ the Head, from whom the whole body of the Church draws and maintains its unity by the joints and ligaments and grows with such growth as God requires. (20) If your conversion meant that in union with Christ you died to the elemental spirits that ruled the old order, why do you act as if you still belonged to it and were subject to them, and permit yourselves to be dictated to in such terms as these, (21) 'You must not handle nor taste nor even touch'? (22) What folly, when every one of the things prohibited is so unimportant that we annihilate it in the very act of use! These prohibitions have their source not in divine, but in human precepts and teachings. (23) They confer, it is true, a reputation for wisdom in respect of gratuitous worship of the angels and humility and ascetic severity to the body, but confer no true honour, and tend to the indulgence of the flesh.'
16. The Jewish character of the false teaching comes very plainly into view here.
17. In Christ they have all in reality which they think they have in Judaism. This v. might almost serve as a text for the Epistle to the Hebrews, which sees in Christianity the religion of eternity realised in time in the person and work of Jesus, but casting its shadow before it into the world in the form of Judaism.
18. Text and translation are alike very uncertain. We should probably correct the text and render: 'Let no one give judgment against you in voluntary humility and worship of the angels, treading the void of air, groundlessly puffed up by the mind of his flesh.'
Intruding into] If the text is right, 'investigating' would be a better rendering. Which he hath not seen] The negative should certainly be omitted with the best MSS. If the text is right, the meaning of the clause seems to be, 'investigating his visions,' but the text is probably incorrect, and we should read with a very slight alteration of the Gk., 'treading the void of air.' They leave the solid ground of fact and experience for the insubstantial bubbles of speculation. Fleshly mind] a sharp warning to men who fancied they were achieving the destruction of the flesh by worshipping angels and severity to the body; these practices had their origin in the flesh, which dominated their whole nature, mind and all.
19. Severance from the Head cuts off the supply of spiritual life.
20. Death with Christ is death to the old order of things, to the world and the Law and the angels who ruled them both. The false teachers would have them revert to a stage they have left below them.
21. Precepts of the false teachers.
23. Shew of wisdom] better, 'reputation for wisdom.' Will worship] a worship not required of them, the worship of angels. Neglecting of] RV 'severity to.' Not in any honour, etc.] This clause is extremely dificult, and no satisfactory explanation has been given. The RV rendering, 'but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh,' is highly questionable. Hort, our chief textual critic, and Haupt, the best commentator on the Epistle, are agreed that the text is corrupt. Perhaps some words have been accidentally omitted.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v2 mystery of God
mystery of God
The "mystery of God" is Christ, as incarnating the fulness of the Godhead, and all the divine wisdom and knowledge for the redemption and reconciliation of man.
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mystery (See Scofield "Mat 13:11").
and of The best authorities omit "and of the Father, and of Christ."
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. The mystery of God (Col 2:1-8)
II. COMPLETE IN HIM, IN WHOM ALL THE FULLNESS DWELLS
CHAPTER 2
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1. The mystery of God (Col 2:1-8)
2. Complete in Christ (Col 2:9-15)
3. Exhortations and warnings (Col 2:16-23)
Col 2:1-8
In view of the last verses of the preceding chapter we can understand his anxiety and the great conflict he had for the Colossians and for those living in nearby Laodicea, and for as many who had not seen his face in the flesh. He was deeply concerned about them after he heard of their danger of going into error. It was a spiritual conflict. He was greatly exercised in his thoughts and feelings. He knew the powers of evil so well; hence the burden for the Colossians, for the Laodiceans and for all others. In writing to them about his great conflict for them, and therefore his prayerful interest in them, he did so that their hearts might be comforted thereby and then, being knit together in love for this purpose: “unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the full knowledge of the mystery of God in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (The translation in the Authorized Version is not correct. The words “of the Father and of Christ” must be omitted. It is “The mystery of God, in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”) And what is this mystery of God in which the treasures, yea all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden? The mystery of God is Christ. But it is not Christ in incarnation, in His life on earth, His death on the cross and His resurrection. Nor is it Christ at the right hand of God, or Christ coming again to rule over the nations on earth and establish His kingdom of glory. All these things are subjects of divine revelation in the Old Testament. They are not a mystery. It is Christ, the Head of the body and believers in union with the glorious Head, joined to Him by His Spirit, possessing His life, one with Him, destined to share His glory. This is the mystery of God in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And what treasures these are! How little His people know of all this mystery of God contains! It will take eternity to know and enjoy these treasures, the unsearchable riches. The Greek word for knowledge is “gnosis”; the false teachers called themselves, after this word, “gnostics,” boasting of superior knowledge and as if they possessed mysteries unknown to those who believed on Christ. We understand in this light the brief exhortation which follows: “And this I say, lest any man should delude you with enticing words.” Being in Christ they had all in Him and no human philosophy or science, falsely so called, could give a greater wisdom or knowledge, than that which God had made known by revelation. The enemy’s work is to keep God’s people back from fully enjoying their union with Christ and increasing in the knowledge of it. Satan does this work in the garb of an angel of light, through all kinds of theories and inventions. Before the apostle sounds a more definite warning, he expressed his joy in seeing their order and steadfastness of their faith in Christ. No doubt a part of the Colossian church stood unwavering for the faith, while others had given ear to the delusive teachings. “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” This was their danger, as it is still more in these days of declension and delusion, our danger, not to walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him. They were not satisfied with Christ only. They did not realize that the secret of blessing and all a Christian needs, is to go on and know more and more of Christ. This they did not do but turned instead to other sources and listened to that which was not after Christ. “When we have received Christ, all the rest is but a development of that which He is, and of the glory which the counsels of God have connected with His person. Knowledge, or pretended knowledge, outside this, does but turn us away from Him, withdraw our hearts from the influence of His glory, throw us into that which is false, and lead our souls into connection with the creation apart from God, and without possessing the key to His purposes. Thus, since man is incapable of fathoming that which exists, and of explaining it to himself, his efforts to do so cause him to invent a mass of ideas that have no foundation, and to endeavor to fill up the void that is found in his knowledge through his ignorance of God by speculations, in which (because he is at a distance from God) Satan plays the chief part without man’s suspecting it” (Synopsis of the Bible). Then follows a stronger and important warning. “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” It is a warning against the natural man’s philosophy, and the religious man’s traditions; both are not after Christ, but aim at the person, the work and the glory of Christ. Rationalism and ritualism are still the pronounced enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ, as they were when He walked on the earth. (The Sadducees were the philosophers, the rationalists. The Pharisees, the most religious sect, the ritualists. Both combined in hatred of Christ.) Both may use His name, but deny His glory and reject the great truth of His headship. Philosophy is the wisdom of this world. Well has it been said: “Philosophy is an idol of man, a blind substitute for the knowledge of God.” It is false and ruinous whether it leaves Him out or tries to bring Him in, whether it denies the true God, or sets up a sham god. Atheism and pantheism are the ultimate goal and results of philosophy, and both set God and His revelation aside. This is especially true of the present day destructive Bible criticism, which claims to be “scientific” and “philosophical.” It is the most subtle deception the father of lies has produced. This destructive criticism, which denies with a show of learning the Word of God, denies with it God and His blessed Son; it is an antichrist, preparing the way for the final great delusion, the full manifestation of the mystery of iniquity, the man of sin. The evolution theory is another philosophy. Though proven to be untenable, preachers, and especially the teachers of the young, still adhere to it and thereby deny God’s revelation. The evolution-philosophy has no explanation for the sin and misery of the world, but makes it all a part of the nature of things which God could not avoid when He started the world evolving. It makes God the author of sin. And evolution offers no remedy for sin and its results. Evolutionists as found in all the prominent sects or denominations of Christendom teach that sin is only animalism left in man; and then they substitute for true conversion, regeneration, for reconciliation by the death of Christ and salvation by grace--they substitute for it a development for the better by civilization and culture. Evolution-philosophies are the enemies of revelation and the cross of Christ. “But obviously this evolutionary ‘salvation’ is largely or wholly a salvation of the race through the prospective future perfectibility of mankind as a whole; and it is childishly inadequate in dealing with the poor individual then and now who, under this hideous handicap fails in the sad conflict with his inherited animalism; and it has no gospel for these present moral failures (or those of the past), unless they can be reincarnated at a higher stage of the racial development, or have ‘another chance’ under some less hard conditions in the future while it goes without saying that, in the view of these theistic evolutionists, this racial culture of development can be accomplished without the intervention of a divine mediator and the help of a divine sacrifice” Professor Price. “Christian Science” also comes under the garb of a philosophy. This wicked system with its outrageous deceptions may be termed the masterpiece of Satan. Against its blasphemous inventions the Spirit of God bears a perfect witness in the first chapter of this Epistle. Christianity is not science. Science is knowledge gained by experience, by searching. Christianity is a revelation from God. It is a faith. The traditions of men and rudiments of the world are terms which apply to the religion of the flesh, by which we mean a religion which the natural man can lay hold of and which suits perfectly the natural, unregenerated man. This is ritualism, the Galatianized gospel which has the curse of God resting upon it. It brings in man’s works, law-keeping, ceremonies, holy days, saints’ days, the mass and other things. But it is not after Christ. Against these two currents, rationalism and ritualism, the Spirit of God warns. Any one who follows either must deny Christ and becomes spoiled and ruined. Col 2:9-10 introduce us to the heart of this great document. “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and in Him ye are filled full, who is the head of all principality and power. How this blessed statement recalls our attention to the great truths of the first chapter we do not need to point out. While in the first chapter He is displayed as the Incarnate One, who walked on earth, in whom all the fullness was pleased to dwell; in this statement of the second chapter we see Him as the Risen One, who is in glory as the Glorified Man and in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Glorious truth that there is the Man, in glory, in a real human body, the Man, who made peace in the blood of His cross. The fullness of the Godhead dwelleth in Him and out of this fullness we receive grace upon grace, and that we might also be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph 3:19). In Him believers are filled full. In Him we possess perfection and completeness before God and are not wanting anything whatever as to our position before God. Believers are in Him before God, not in what they do or according to their service, or anything else, but in perfection of what He is. Who could add to His fullness and who can add to the fullness and completeness the believer possesseth forever in Him! The child of God has no need of philosophy, ceremonies, asceticism, advanced thought, or any other thing. No need of the traditions of men as embodied in ritualism, a man-made priesthood which He hates (Rev 2:15); or the mass with its terrible blasphemy, or the worship of angels! We have and are all in Christ. Our only concern must be to lay hold in a practical way of this fullness, to take more and more of Him and walk in the power of it. This is viewed next. The literal rendering of Col 2:11-12 is as follows: “In whom also ye have been circumcised with circumcision not done by hand, in the putting off of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; buried with Him in baptism, in whom ye have been also raised together through faith in the operation of God, who raised Him from among the dead.” Circumcision done by hand is for the Jew, the sign of separation from the Gentiles. Believers are circumcised in the circumcision of Christ, that is, “the putting off of the body of flesh” (not “putting off the body of the sins of the flesh”) separated from it, by being made partakers of the efficacy of His death. In the death of Christ the old man is put to death as more fully demonstrated in Rom 6:1-23; we are dead to sin, because we are in Christ, who is our life. And having now no more confidence in ourselves we are the true circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus (Php 3:3). Baptism is the symbol of this “buried with Him in baptism.” And we are raised up with Him through faith in the operation of God who raised Him from among the dead. It is “through faith” this is accomplished and not in an ordinance; we are risen with Christ in possession of life. “It is thus that we are set free from the thought of deliverance by an ordinance, which so many hold today. We are ‘raised up through the faith of the operation of God who raised Him from among the dead.’ Here we see distinctly what is meant. Resurrection is the opposite of burial. In burial a dead man is put among the dead. In resurrection a now living man is given his place among the living; and it is seen that Christ, identified with us through grace in His death, has been raised up of God; that we might find, therefore, our own title and ability to take our place amongst those truly alive. But then all depends upon this identification of ourselves with Him. Our eyes are now, therefore, to be upon Christ. He is in this character our true self, and our confidence, therefore, is to be in Him. As we have had it in Galatians, we live, yet no more we, but Christ liveth in us. It is the One who is before God for us who is before us now in faith and whom we accept as now our true self, a self in whom we can have confidence, a self that we can contemplate with joy and satisfaction, and without the least tendency to such pride of heart as results naturally from what we call self-occupation. Here is One who will draw us away from self, who will, as a Heavenly Object draw us completely out of the world, and accomplish our deliverance in both senses at the same time” (Numerical Bible). The truth unfolded in the Ephesian Epistle (chapter 2) is also mentioned here by the apostle. “And you being dead in offenses and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” Blessed truth again! What follows has a meaning for both Jewish and Gentile believers. “Having blotted out the handwriting in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, He has taken it out Of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” The Colossians were Gentiles, they had not been under the law and its ordinances, therefore he writes not which were “against you” but “against us.” All the ordinances were against them, for they were as Jews under obligation to keep them, as they had, so to speak, put their handwriting, their signature to it, when they said with one voice, “All the words which the Lord hath said we will do” (Exo 24:3). And inasmuch as they did not keep these ordinances, they were against them. The work of Christ has taken it out of the way; all was nailed to the cross. Then the signature was erased and the debt paid. The ordinances are removed. This applies to Gentiles as well and also in another sense. The law and the ordinances were the middle wall of partition, which excluded the Gentiles. Christ “has broken down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, the law of commandment in ordinances, for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace (Eph 2:14-15). At the same time He spoiled principalities and powers, made a show of them openly, leading them in triumph by it. This means the principalities and powers of Satan and the wicked spirits. They were against us, but He has vanquished them in His death on the cross and in it has triumphed over them. Trespasses are forgiven; ordinances blotted out, completely gone; principalities and powers triumphed over.
Col 2:16-23.
The chapter closes with warnings and exhortations. The first warning exhortation is against ritualistic legalism. “Let none therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in matter of an holy day, or new moon, or of the Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come; but the body of Christ.” All the ceremonies of the law were shadows; the substance has come and the shadows have ceased. Ritualistic Christendom has aped the shadows and by doing so practically denies by it the truth of the gospel. It is a turning away from the substance and moving after the shadow. A religion in ordinances, so-called sacraments with mysterious powers, with an imposing ritual for the eye and the ear, which gives the flesh something to do and to boast in, is an invention of Satan. True Christianity has no holy days and feast days, saints’ days, lenten days, etc.; nor does it need these “beggarly elements.” The Sabbath is also mentioned. Some keep the seventh day, Saturday, and claim that this is the day to be kept. But the church has no Sabbath to keep in the legal sense. The first day of the week, the Lord’s day, is the day of worship. The next warning is against the worship of angels and occultism. “Let no one fraudulently deprive you of your prize, doing his own will in humility and worship of angels, entering into things which he has not seen vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh, and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God.” Here the Romish idolatry comes into view. It began early in the church. Angels are ministering spirits who minister to the heirs of glory. Their presence with and ministry to God’s people may be believed, but never must they be worshipped. Putting them between Christians and Christ as a mediatorial agency is idolatrous, sinful and a denial of the headship of Christ. The worship of angels denies the union of the believer with the Head. The Head, Christ in glory, ministers to the body in spiritual things. All looked like humility when it was in reality self-will and pride. Intruding into unseen things points to such evil systems as spiritism, theosophy, Psychical research and other cults. Whoever follows these things proves thereby that Christ as the Head over all is not recognized but denied. He who knows Christ and is in conscious union with Him will never crave after any of these things. Asceticism is the concluding thing against which the Holy Spirit warns. “If ye have died with Christ from the elements of the world, why as if alive in the world do ye subject yourselves to ordinances?” Then he gives an illustration of these “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch.” (Strange it is that these words are generally misapplied, wrested from the context, twisted and contorted to furnish a text for the drink-evil and to advocate prohibition. It has nothing to do with that.) This and the concluding words reprove asceticism “the harsh treatment of the body” not keeping the body in a certain honor and all to the satisfaction of the flesh, as he writes: “According to the injunctions and teachings of men (which have indeed an appearance of wisdom in voluntary worship, and humility, and harsh treatment of the body, not in a certain honor), to the satisfaction of the flesh.” These errorists taught that matter is evil and the body is the source of sin and therefore they treated the body harshly. They denied honor to the body but it was for their own satisfaction of the flesh. “Asceticism is utterly powerless to effect the object aimed at: it does not, it cannot sanctify the flesh. It has a show of wisdom. It is extravagant in its pretensions and loud in its promises. But it never fulfills them. The apostle here declares that it has no value against the indulgence of the flesh (Col 2:23). It, rather, stimulates the appetites and passions it is meant to extirpate. Asceticism has often proved to be a hotbed of vice. Some of the vilest men have been found among those who advocated the strictest austerities. They denounced the holiest of human associations, and branded as sensual the purest relations. Marriage was degraded, celibacy glorified, the family disparaged, domestic life despised. And some of these foes of truth have been canonized! “Asceticism does not touch the seat of sin. All its strength is exerted against the body. Sin is of the soul, has its seat in the soul. So long as the heart is corrupt, no bodily restraints will make the life holy. There is one remedy alone for human sin, one that reaches to its roots, that ultimately will totally destroy it, viz., the blood of Christ” (1Jn 1:7) (Professor W.A. Moorhead). And all these warnings are for our own times, for we live in the day when the tares the devil sowed in the field in the beginning of the age are ripening for the harvest. They are full grown. Legalism, ritualism, evolution, higher criticism, Christian Science, Russellism, demonism, spiritism, New Thought, New Religion, New Theology, theosophy, Unitarianism, Romanism, Mormonism, Seventh Dayism and other still more dangerous theories, because more subtle, are about us. Only a constant realization of our position in Christ and holding fast the head will keep His people in the days of apostasy. May God’s people today, the faithful remnant, never lose sight of the two vital truths of these two chapters: In Him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily--and we are complete in Him.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 A Warning against Error.
A Warning against Error.
The danger of being beguiled:
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v. 1. For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,
v. 2. that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ,
v. 3. in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
v. 4. And this I say lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.
v. 5. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
The apostle had told the Colossians that he was assiduously laboring in their behalf and bearing not only his own, but also a part of their share of the sufferings which the Christians assume as they take upon themselves the cross, the yoke, of their Master. He now makes a direct statement to that effect: For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and (for) those in Laodicea, and (for) as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. Paul was probably not personally acquainted with any of the members of this section of Phrygia but Epaphras and Onesimus, and the latter had not been a member when he escaped from his master. Nevertheless, the Christians of these congregations were just as near and dear to the apostle as those of other cities whom he knew in person. He was earnestly, anxiously concerned for them, for the welfare of their souls. He is wrestling for their souls, for their happiness, in view of the fact that error is endeavoring to enter their midst. He wants them all, also the Christians of Laodicea, who were exposed to the same dangers, to know of his prayerful solicitude for them.
The apostle’s object in writing to them so frankly is: That their hearts may be encouraged, being firmly knit together in love and unto all wealth of the fullness of insight, to the full understanding of the mystery of God and of Christ. Paul wants the hearts of all the Colossian and Laodicean Christians to be strengthened in comfort, to forget all doubt, uncertainty, wavering, to be possessors of a courage which overcomes all enmity and opposition. Instead, therefore, of permitting any tendencies toward disharmony to appear in their midst, their hearts should be knit together, joined together in love, brotherly affection reigning in their hearts at all times. With this love governing their hearts, they would also be joined to all wealth of the fullness of insight. The apostle cannot find words enough to characterize the blessedness of the spiritual gifts which fall to the believer’s lot. They have all the wealth, they are rich beyond the dreams of avarice. Not in this world’s goods, indeed, but in the full and complete understanding, in the knowledge of the mystery of God and Christ. The longer the Christians search the Scriptures, the longer they hear the Word of their salvation, the more firmly they are grounded in the certain understanding of the gracious will of God for their salvation. The longer a person is a Christian, the more firmly he learns and knows what the Word and the will of God is; he is sure of the revelation of the mystery of God, that Christ died for the salvation of his soul, that God in Christ has comprehended and consummated the decree of redemption, and he quietly relies upon that fact, he lets that conviction take an ever firmer hold upon his heart.
But all this is not out of man’s own reason or strength. It is rather, as Paul says: in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden. Not merely some, a few, of the riches of spiritual wisdom and knowledge are in Christ, but He is the vessel, the bearer, the source of them all. There is no counsel of God for the salvation of the world which does not find its fulfillment in Christ; there is no revelation of the salvation of the world in Scriptures which is not based upon Christ. And the most wonderful truth is that every doctrine concerning Christ, just as every attribute of Christ, presents to us the whole person of Christ, the Redeemer. The teaching of Jesus Christ is the only perfect, the only fully satisfactory, the only saving system of doctrine in the world. This knowledge the Christians should strive for, upon this wisdom they should meditate.
If this is the constant endeavor of the Colossians, then they will heed also the apostle’s warning: This, however, I say, lest anyone should deceive you with specious talk. He calls attention to his words as of great importance in the present situation. His hearers should heed his warning in time, before the errorists have made any headway in taking from them the basis of their faith. For these men that were so busy in their midst were using false reasoning, specious talk, glitteringly persuasive speech. To emphasize this warning, which is in place at all times, since the false teachers always employ the same methods, Paul adds: For though I am absent in the flesh, yet in the spirit I am with you, rejoicing and seeing your order and the firmness of your faith toward Christ. Paul’s earnest solicitude and anxiety of which he had spoken above proved that he was with them in spirit, that he was seriously concerned about their spiritual welfare, that the endeavors of the errorists to beguile the Colossians must be met. Christian love and fellowship, which unites the believers, and especially the teachers and the hearers, causes them to feel the most earnest concern as soon as danger of any kind threatens. It is not necessary that a person be physically present to have this feeling; in fact, absence rather tends to increase it. At the same time, Paul was in a position to use the strongest kind of entreaty and admonition in stating that he was full of joy in beholding the order which they observed, the fixed, orderly deportment which characterized them. They were still presenting a closed front to the enemy. They were still firmly grounded in their faith toward Christ Jesus, their Savior. If any member of the Colossian congregation had actually begun to waver, these confident words on the part of the apostle, this declaration of his trust in their Christian common sense, would be most apt to bring him back to the path of sound spiritual thinking.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v1 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Paul continues to encourage the believers in Colossae and Laodicea to understand that Christ is God and that he lives in believers, so they should live in the same way they received him.
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how great a struggle I have had for you
Paul has exerted much effort in developing their purity and understanding of the gospel.
those at Laodicea
This was a city very close to Colossae where there was also a church for which Paul was praying.
as many as have not seen my face in the flesh
Here "face in the flesh" represents the person as a whole. AT: "all those who have never seen me personally" or "all those whom I have never met face to face" (See: Synecdoche)
so that their hearts
Paul includes the Galatians even though he uses a different pronoun. AT: "so that their hearts and yours" (See: Pronouns)
brought together
This means brought together in a close relationship.
all the riches of full assurance of understanding
Paul speaks of a person who is completely sure that the good news is true as though that person were rich in physical things. (See: Metaphor)
the secret truth of God
This is knowledge that can be revealed only by God.
that is, Christ
Jesus Christ is the secret truth revealed by God.
In him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden
Only Christ can reveal God's true wisdom and knowledge. This can be stated in active form. AT: "God has hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ" (See: Active or Passive)
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
Paul speaks of God's wisdom and knowledge as if they were material wealth. AT: "the very precious wisdom and knowledge" (See: Metaphor)
wisdom and knowledge
These words mean basically the same thing here. Paul uses them together to emphasize that all spiritual understanding comes from Christ. (See: Doublet)
translationWords
love
God
Christ
wise
know
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 vv1–3 2:1-5 Paul introduces his concern to strengthen his relationship…
2:1-5 Paul introduces his concern to strengthen his relationship with the Colossians, whom he had not met, and to counter the heretical ideas which threatened their Christian community. • Laodicea was located 10 miles northwest of Colosse.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.