and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ,
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Colossians 2:10-11 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ. For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily, and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us. He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
Parallel Translations
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and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power.
In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ,
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and ye are complete in him which is the heed of all rule and power
in whom also ye are circucised with circumcision made mith out hondes by puttinge of the sinfull boddy of the flesshe thorow the circumcision that is in Christ
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And yee are complete in him, which is the head of all principalitie and power.
In whome also yee are circumcised with circumcision made without handes, by putting off the sinfull body of the flesh, through the circumcision of Christ,
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (32)
- Ephesians 3:19 (v10) and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
- Romans 2:29 (v11) but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men,…
- Colossians 1:16-18 (v10) For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or…
- 1 Corinthians 1:30-31 (v10) Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: that, as…
- Ephesians 1:20-23 (v10) which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all…
Show all 32 cross-references
- Philippians 3:3 (v11) For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;
- 1 Peter 3:22 (v10) who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.
- Philippians 2:9-11 (v10) Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,…
- Hebrews 5:9 (v10) Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him the author of eternal salvation,
- John 1:16 (v10) From his fullness we all received grace upon grace.
- Romans 6:6 (v11) knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in…
- Galatians 3:26-29 (v10) For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There…
- Deuteronomy 30:6 (v11) Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your offspring, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your…
- Ephesians 4:15-16 (v10) but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, from whom all the body, being fitted and knit…
- Galatians 5:24 (v11) Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.
- Ephesians 4:22 (v11) that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit,
- Galatians 2:20 (v11) I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live…
- Colossians 3:8-9 (v11) but now you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth. Don’t lie to one another,…
- Colossians 3:11 (v10) where there can’t be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, or free person; but Christ is all,…
- 2 Corinthians 5:17 (v11) Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
- Revelation 5:9-13 (v10) They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your…
- Deuteronomy 10:16 (v11) Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.
- Hebrews 9:24 (v11) For Christ hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in…
- Ephesians 2:10-18 (v11) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them. Therefore…
- Hebrews 9:11 (v11) But Christ having come as a high priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,…
- Jeremiah 4:4 (v11) Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go…
- Galatians 4:4-5 (v11) But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were…
- Acts 7:48 (v11) However, the Most High doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says,
- Acts 17:24 (v11) The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands.
- 2 Corinthians 5:1 (v11) For we know that if the earthly house of our tent is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the…
- Mark 14:58 (v11) “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.’ ”
- Luke 2:21 (v11) When eight days were fulfilled for the circumcision of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was given by the angel before he was…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (23 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv10–11 10. And ye are complete in him. He adds,…
10. And ye are complete in him. He adds, that this perfect essence of Deity, which is in Christ, is profitable to us in this respect, that we are also perfect in him. “As to God’s dwelling wholly in Christ, it is in order that we, having obtained him, may posses in him an entire perfection.” Those, therefore, who do not rest satisfied with Christ alone, do injury to God in two ways, for besides detracting from the glory of God, by desiring something above his perfection, they are also ungrateful, inasmuch as they seek elsewhere what they already have in Christ. Paul, however, does not mean that the perfection of Christ is transfused into us, but that there are in him resources from which we may be filled, that nothing may be wanting to us.
Who is the head. He has introduced this clause again on account of the angels, meaning that the angels, also, will be ours, if we have Christ. But of this afterwards. In the mean time, we must observe this, that we are hemmed in, above and below, with railings, that our faith may not deviate even to the slightest extent from Christ.
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 v11 Now he dealeth perfecty against the third kind, that…
Now he dealeth perfecty against the third kind, that is to say, against them which urged the Jewish religion: and first of all, he denieth that we have need of the Circumcision of the flesh, seeing that without it we are circumcised within, by the virtue of Christ.
These many words are used to show what the old man is, whom Paul in other places calleth the body of sin.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv10–11 10 And ye are complete in him, which is…
10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
Ver. 10. And ye are complete] Ye have that true happiness of a man, which philosophers hunted after in the thicket of earthly vanities, and lost themselves in the chase. Varro makes report of 288 different opinions that they had about this subject, and were out in all, while they caught at the shadow of fruits in a hedge of thorns, but could not come at the Tree of Life, Christ Jesus, in whom we are complete.
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 vv10–11 And ye; ye saints and holy brethren, Col 1:2,…
And ye; ye saints and holy brethren, Col 1:2, who have received Christ, Col 2:6,7, and so are mystically united to him, in whom dwelleth all fulness (as you have heard); being in him, having one Spirit with him, as members with the head, Rom 8:1,9; Eph 1:23,
are complete; are implete, or filled, and so mediately and causally complete from the all-fulness that is in your Head, yet not immediately and properly complete with it (as some have been apt to think). But
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in him ye have that completeness and perfection which is reckoned and made over to you and accepted for you to justification, so that of his fulness ye receive, and grace for grace, Joh 1:16; 1Co 1:30; 2Co 5:21; Eph 1:6; Phi 3:9; derive in and from him all spiritual blessings, Eph 1:3; so that every one hath grace sufficient, 2Co 12:9, to do all things incrumbent on him, through Christ strengthening him, Phi 4:13. It is true there is here in this state no being complete or perfect actually, as to glorification, yet, virtually and seminally, that may in a sort be said of true believers not only in regard of their Head, but in regard of their certain hope of being saved in Christ, yea, and indeed as to the earnest, the seed and root of it, having already that life which shall never have an end, Joh 3:36; 4:14; Rom 5:2; Eph 4:30; 2Th 2:13; Heb 9:15; 10:14; 1Pe 1:3,4; 1Jo 5:12.
Which is the head of all principality and power: the apostle, for consolation of the saints, and in opposition to those who did endeavour a withdrawing from Christ to the worshipping of angels. Col 2:18, doth further infer, from the personal union, the dignity of the human nature of Christ, in regard of the good angels, which are here meant by
principality and power, by reason of their excellency by nature and grace, and their authority delegated to them by God over other creatures, Mat 24:36; 2Co 11:14; 1Ti 5:21. Christ having the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily, is Head unto the good angels in regard of his excellency and eminency above them, who are far below him in perfection, Eph 1:21; Heb 1:4; the best of them are ministering spirits and subject to him, and so under his authority and at his command, Mat 13:41; 16:27; 24:31; Eph 3:10; Heb 1:14; 1Pe 3:22; Rev 1:1; 22:16.
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 v11 The apostle had asserted before, that we are complete…
The apostle had asserted before, that we are complete in Christ: He proves it now, thus; we want not circumcision: Why? Because we have in Christ the thing signified by circumcision, namely, the spiritual circumcision of the heart, which consists in putting off, by the power of Christ’s Spirit, the body of natural corruption; which done, there was no need of the outward circumcision made with hands, or the cutting off the flesh of the fore-skin.
Observe, Original corruption is a body, or, as a body to us, it cleaves as close to the soul as the flesh to the bones. This body, with all its members, we must be cutting daily by spiritual circumcision or real mortification; and, where that is done, God is well pleased: He regards not that cirumcision which is outward in the flesh, which is made with hands, but that which is inward, the circumcision of the heart, and of the Spirit, whose praise is not of man, but of God.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv10–11 And ye are complete in him,.... Or "filled up",…
And ye are complete in him,.... Or "filled up", or "filled full" in him; that is, are perfect in him: saints are in Christ, and all fulness being in him, they are full too, of as much as they stand in need, and are capable of containing: for these words are not an exhortation to perfection, as the Arabic version reads then, be ye complete in him, like those in Gen 17:1; but are an affirmation, asserting not what the saints shall be hereafter, or in heaven, but what they now are; not in themselves, for in themselves none are perfect, not even those who are truly sanctified; for though all grace is seminally implanted in them, and they have a perfection of parts, of all the parts of the new man, or new creature, and are perfect in comparison of what they sometimes were, and of profane persons and hypocrites, and with respect to weaker believers, yet none are absolutely perfect; the good work of grace is not yet finished in them, sin dwells in them, they are full of wants and complaints; the best of them disclaim perfection as attained to by them, and express their desires of it; but they are perfect in Christ their head, who has all fulness in him, in whom they are chosen and blessed: they are complete and perfect in him as to sanctification; he having all fulness of grace and holiness for them, they have it in him; and he is made perfect sanctification to them: and as to justification, he has perfectly fulfilled the law for them, he has made full atonement for sin, has obtained eternal redemption, brought in a complete and perfect righteousness, by which they are justified from all things; are freed from sin, and made perfectly comely, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing: and as to knowledge, though it is imperfect in them in their present state, yet in Christ all the treasures of it are, and they have no need to go elsewhere for any; they are filled with the knowledge of God and of his will, and are complete therein in Christ; and what knowledge they have, is eternal life, the beginning, pledge, and earnest of it; so that they have no reason to be beholden to angels or men, only to Christ:
which is the head of all principality and power; not only of the body the church, and who is to be held unto as such, from whom all light, life, grace, and strength, are to be derived; but of all others, though in a different sense; and not only of the kings, princes, and potentates of this world, who hold their kingdoms, and receive their crowns from him, and rule by him; but also of the angels, good and bad, often called principalities and powers; especially the former is here meant, of whom Christ is head, being their Creator, Governor, and upholder; who not only maintains them in their beings, but has confirmed them in their state of holiness; so that they are dependent upon him, and beholden to him for all they have and are: with the Jews, "Metatron", which with them is the name of the angel in Exo 23:20 and seems to be a corruption of the word "mediator", and to design the Messiah, is said (w) to be King over all the angels. This is mentioned, partly to set forth the glory and excellency of Christ; and partly against worshipping of angels, making use of them as mediators, or applying to them on any account, since Christ is the head of these, and of every creature; therefore no creature is to be looked and applied unto, trusted and depended on: unless rather should be meant the Jewish rulers, Scribes, and Pharisees, their doctors, wise men, and Rabbins, called the princes of this world; the Jews' tutors and governors, to whom Christ is superior; he is the only master and Father, and in whom perfection of wisdom is, and not in them; and therefore should not regard them, their vain philosophy, worldly rudiments and traditions,
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(w) Zohar in Deut. fol. 120. 8.
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 vv10–11 And ye - Who believe. Are filled with him…
And ye - Who believe. Are filled with him - John i, 16. Christ is filled with God, and ye are filled with Christ. And ye are filled by him. The fulness of Christ overflows his church, Psalm cxxxiii, 3. He is originally full. We are filled by him with wisdom and holiness. Who is the head of all principality and power - Of angels as well as men Not from angels therefore, but from their head, are we to ask whatever we stand in need of.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv10–11 Verse 10. And ye are complete in him] και…
Verse 10. And ye are complete in him] και εστε εν αυτω πεπληρωμενοι. And, ye are filled with him. Our word complete quite destroys the connection subsisting in the apostle's ideas. The philosophy of the world was empty, κενη, but there was a πληρωμα, or fulness, in Christ; the Colossians were empty-spoiled and deprived of every good, while following the empty philosophy and groundless traditions of Jewish and Gentile teachers; but since they had received Christ Jesus they were πεπληρωμενοι, filled with him. This is the true meaning of the word, and by this the connection and assemblage of ideas in the apostle's mind are preserved. No fanciful completeness in Christ, of a believer, while incomplete in himself, is either expressed or intended by St. Paul. It is too bad a doctrine to exist in the oracles of God.
The head of all principality] See the notes on Col 1:16; Col 1:17.
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 v11 Col 2:11-12. In whom also ye are circumcised —…
Col 2:11-12. In whom also ye are circumcised — Ye have received the spiritual blessings signified of old by circumcision; with the circumcision made without hands — Namely, an internal, spiritual circumcision; in putting off — Not a little skin, but the whole body of the sins of the flesh — All the sins proceeding from your corrupt nature; by the circumcision of Christ — The circumcision of the heart, which Christ requires and effects. Buried with him, &c. — That is, which he wrought in you when you were, as it were, buried with him in baptism — The ancient manner of baptizing by immersion is as manifestly alluded to here, as the other manner of baptizing by sprinkling, or pouring of water, is, Heb 10:22. But no stress is laid on the age of the baptized, or the manner of performing it, in one or the other place; but only on our being quickened, or renewed, through the powerful operation of his Spirit in the soul, which we cannot but know assuredly, if we really are so: and if we do not experience this, our baptism has not answered the end of its institution. Wherein — Or rather, by which; ye are risen with him — From the death of sin, to the life of righteousness; through the faith of the operation of God — Faith wrought in you by God: see on Eph 2:8; or, through faith in the energy of God, as some render δια της πιστεως της ενεργειας του Θεου; who raised him from the dead — They who put this latter sense upon the passage explain it thus: “The circumcision which Christ performs being accomplished by the influence of the doctrines of the gospel upon the minds of believers, and their belief of these doctrines being founded on their belief of the resurrection of Christ, their belief of that great miracle is justly represented as the means whereby they are made new creatures.” The doctrines of the gospel, however, will produce no such effect, unless they be accompanied by the influence of the Holy Spirit.
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 vv10–11 And ye are complete in him - Having no…
And ye are complete in him - Having no need, for the purposes of salvation, of any aid to be derived from the philosophy of the Greeks, or the traditions of the Jews. All that is necessary to secure your salvation is to be found in the Lord Jesus. There is a completion, or a filling up, in him, so as to leave nothing wanting. This is true in respect:
(1)To the wisdom which is needful to guide us;
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(2)The atonement to be made for sin;
(3)The merit by which a sinner can be justified; and,
(4)The grace which is needful to sustain us in the trials, and to aid us in the duties, of life; compare the notes at 1Co 1:30.
There is no necessity, therefore, that we should look to the aid of philosophy, as if there was a defect in the teachings of the Saviour; or to human strength, as if he were unable to save us; or to the merits of the saints, as if those of the Redeemer were not sufficient to meet all our wants. The sentiment advanced in this verse would overthrow the whole papal doctrine of the merits of the saints, and, of course, the whole doctrine of papal “indulgences.”
Which is the head - See the notes at Eph 1:21-22.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv10–11 And--And therefore; and so. Translate in the Greek order,…
And--And therefore; and so. Translate in the Greek order, "Ye are in Him (by virtue of union with Him) filled full" of all that you need (Joh 1:16). Believers receive of the divine unction which flows down from their Divine Head and High Priest (Psa 133:2). He is full of the "fulness" itself; we, filled from Him. Paul implies, Therefore ye Colossians need no supplementary sources of grace, such as the false teachers dream of. Christ is "the Head of all rule and authority" (so the Greek), Eph 1:10; He, therefore, alone, not these subject "authorities" also, is to be adored (Col 2:18).
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 vv10–11 10. Complete—The statement is double. First, Ye are in…
10. Complete—The statement is double. First, Ye are in union with him; second, in virtue of that union, ye are filled full, as the word complete means, with all the plenitude of his gracious gifts. An empty philosophy can add nothing to this, and is therefore needless. Perfectly conclusive as this is, it is confirmed by the relation of Christ to the angels whom it is proposed to worship. He is the head of every order of them. As the unincarnate Son, he created them, Col_1:16; through his death (Col_2:15) he has brought them under the Headship of the divine-human Christ. He is their Lord, and alone to be adored, and they depend on him.
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 vv10–11 10. And ye are complete in him] Lit. and…
10. And ye are complete in him] Lit. and better And ye are (emphatic) in Him filled full; or perhaps, with Lightfoot, And ye are in Him, filled full—two statements in one; you are in Him, and you are filled full in Him. You are in immediate union with Him, and in that union you possess, potentially and as you need it, all grace, as possessing Him in whom is all the Fulness. Cp. Eph_1:23 and our notes.—The word rendered “complete” is a grammatical echo of the word just above rendered “Fulness” or “Plenitude.”
Such are the resources of the believer, and of the Church, in their wonderful union with the Lord. What need then of alien and lower secrets of succour and strength?
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which is the head &c.] See on Col_1:19 above. All the personal Powers of the Unseen, however real and glorious, are but limbs (in their order of being) of this Head; therefore no nearer to Him than you are, and no less dependent on Him. Live then on the Fountain, not on Its streams; use to the full the fulness which in Christ is yours.
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 vv10–11 (10) Ye are complete.—Literally, ye have been filled up…
(10) Ye are complete.—Literally, ye have been filled up in His fulness, as in Joh_1:16. So St. Paul had prayed for the Ephesians that they might be “filled with (or rather, up to) all the fulness of God,” and “grow into the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph_3:19; Eph_4:13). To partake of the divine plerorna is not the special privilege of the initiated; it belongs to all who are united to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Principality and power.—See Col_1:16. His headship over all angelic natures is dwelt upon (as in Heb_1:1-14) with obvious reference to the worshipping of angels. They are our fellowservants under the same Head. (See Rev_22:8-9.)
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 vv10–11 And (because) ye are in him made complete; or…
And (because) ye are in him made complete; or fulfilled (Eph_1:3, Eph_1:7-11, 23 3:18, 19 4:13; Php_4:19; Gal_3:14, 24 5:1, 4; 1Co_1:30 1Co_2:2) A complete Christ makes his people complete; his pleroma is our plerosis. Finding the whole fulness of God brought within our reach and engaged in our behalf (Php_2:7; Mat_20:28) in him, we need not resort elsewhere to supply our spiritual needs. (Php_4:19) "In him" is the primary predicate (see Alford, Ellicott, against Meyer: comp. ver. 3): "Ye are in him" is the assumption; (Rom_8:1 Rom_16:7) "(ye are) made complete" is the inference. (On the verb plhrow (the basis of pleroma), used in perfect participle of abiding result, see notes, (Col_1:9, Col_1:19) This completeness includes the furnishing of men with all that is required for their present and final salvation as individuals (vers. 11-15; Col_1:21, Col_1:22, Col_1:28) and for their collective perfection as forming the Church, the body of Christ (vers. 2, 19; Col_1:19; Eph_1:23 Eph_5:26, Eph_5:27) for this twofold completeness, comp. Eph_4:12-16. Who is the Head of all principality and dominion (vers. 15, 18; Col_1:16; Eph_1:21; Php_2:10, 11; 1Co_15:24; Heb_1:6, 14 1Pe_3:22) (On "principality," etc., see note, Col_1:16) The Colossians were being taught to replace or supplement Christ"s offices by those of angel powers (see notes, vers. 15, 18). Philo ("Concerning Dreams," 1. 23) writes thus of the angels: "Free from all bodily encumbrance, endowed with larger and diviner intellect, they are lieutenants of the All ruler, eyes and ears of the great King. Philosophers in general call them demons (daimonev); the sacred Scripture angels, for they report (diaggellousi) the injunctions of the Father to his children, and the wants of the children to their Father. Angels, the Divine words, walk about comp. (2Co_6:16) in the souls of those who have not yet completely washed off the (old) life, foul and stained through their cumbersome bodies, making them bright to the eyes of virtue." In such a strain the Colossian "philosopher" may have been talking. But if Christ is the Maker and Lord of these invisible powers , (Col_1:15, Col_1:16) and we are in him, then we must no longer look to them as our saviours.
The fulness of humanity.
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I WHEREIN THE FULNESS OF HUMANITY CONSISTS. St: Paul has been writing of the fulness of the Godhead. He now turns his thoughts to our poor, naked, hungry humanity, and he shows how there is a completion and a satisfaction that may be called our fulness, in some way corresponding to the fulness of God.
1. The full satisfaction of our wants. We are empty, hungry, and needy. We require pardon for sin; strength for trouble, temptation, and toil; light in darkness; innumerable graces for innumerable distresses. Our fulness must be the quenching of the soul"s thirst, the satisfaction of the aching void within.
2. The full attainment of the perfection of humanity. We may have every known desire satisfied and may be full up to the measure of our present capacity, and yet not have attained to the fulness of humanity. Our capacity may be enlarged, new aspirations may be inspired in us. To attain to the stature of the perfect man, to he quite like Christ, is to reach our spirit"s prime and to have our human fulness. This will be a fulness of knowledge, of goodness, of power for spiritual service.
II FROM WHAT THE FULNESS OF HUMANITY IS DERIVED. By the word "fulness" St. Paul means that which fills as well as that which is perfected in itself. Christ alone can fill and perfect us.
1. We must find the fulness in Christ. Because he is filled with the fulness of God he is himself a perfected Man and the Source of the same grace for us. We have to learn, then, that to reach our fulness we must have what is in Christ. Perfect humanity is not possible without God. When we become possessed by the Spirit of God we become true men. This true religious life does not make us less human; it perfects our humanity. Not by science, nor by learning, nor by energy in affairs of the world, nor by any purely human effort, though all these things have their missions, but through Christ, we may attain the true ideal of humanity.
2. We can attain to this fulness by personal union with Christ. We must not simply learn the method from Christ, nor seek the blessing as a gift of his, but derive it from close, living fellowship with him. The secret is to be "in Christ," "rooted" as the tree by being rooted in the soil derives nourishment therefrom, and "builded up in him" as the temple stands firm when erected on a solid foundation. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv10–11 Ye are complete in Him.
Col_2:10
Ye are complete in Him.
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The false teachers at Colossae were Jews, but not Judaizers. They were philosophers. They designed to substitute philosophy for Christianity, not by denying the latter, but by explaining it. They distinguished between faith and knowledge. Faith was for the people, knowledge for the educated few. The objects of faith were the historical and doctrinal statements of the Bible. The objects of knowledge were the speculative truths underlying those statements, and into which they were to be sublimated. Pauls object is to prove
I. That philosophy was an utter failure. He pronounces it--
1. Vain, i.e., void
(1) of truth;
(2) of reality;
(3) of worth and power.
2. Deceit. It disappointed expectation, and betrayed those who trusted to its guidance. This was no slight matter, and so he warned his readers lest any man in this way should make a prey of them to their utter destruction.
II. That all the objects which philosophy vainly attempted were effectually accomplished in Christ.
1. What does Paul mean by philosophy? Some say heathen as opposed to Christian philosophy; others that particular system that prevailed at Colossae--the Gnostic. Every one would say false and not true, yours and not mine. There must be some way of deciding this question. The apostle decides for us.
(1) By what he says of the system he opposes. By philosophy he means systems of that nature. This system undertook to determine a priori and from the principles of reason.
(a) The nature of God, or of absolute Being.
(b) His relation to the world, or what the world was in relation to Him.
(c) What the origin, nature, and destiny of man.
(d) What Christ is, and how he effects the restoration of man.
(2) By the arguments he uses against it. He includes in philosophy every system against which those arguments legitimately bear.
(a) He argues that these are matters about which, from the nature of the case, we can know nothing. They are matters of revelation (1Co_2:9-11; Joh_1:18).
(b) He shows that God in the Scriptures has declared the wisdom of this world to be folly (1Co_1:20).
(c) Experience has proved that the world by wisdom knows not God.
(d) God has determined to save man not by philosophy, but by the gospel.
2. Paul does not depreciate reason. The senses have their sphere; so has reason. But there is a supernatural or spiritual sphere into which reason cannot enter. We might as well judge of a syllogism by the tongue. This conclusion is sustained by consciousness. What do you know? There lies the grave! Where does it lead to?
3. We see, therefore, that Paul by philosophy does not mean--
(1) Exclusively the Oriental philosophy; for what he says here he says to the Corinthians.
(2) Not natural, mental, or moral philosophy.
(3) But any attempt to solve the great problems above mentioned a priori.
III. All that philosophy vainly pretends to do is done in Christ.
1. As to knowledge. That is necessary, even of these supreme problems. In Christ are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and He is the only source of knowledge. The knowledge He gives is sure, satisfying, sanctifying.
2. Redemption.
(1) It is objective--pardon, reconciliation. This is accomplished by Christs atoning work.
(2) It is subjective--delivery from inward sin and restoration of Divine life. This Christ does because in Him dwells the fulness of the Godhead, etc. We are filled with God in Him.
3. Restoration to our former status, to the kingdom of light: it is exaltation. This is done by being made partakers of the glory of Christ.
4. All this depends on our union with Him, which is--
(1) Representative.
(2) Spiritual.
(3) Voluntary, by faith.
Lessons:
1. We must not trust to our own reason or to that of others for instruction in these great points.
2. We have sure knowledge in the gospel, and to reject it is certain perdition. (C. Hodge, D. D.)
Ye are complete in Him
1. Christ is the one infallible Teacher of the Church. Elsewhere you tread on the deceptive sand or treacherous marsh which by an appearance of solidity lures you to proceed and then sinks under your weight. His teaching alone places you on the rock. Ancient mariners sailed by the light of the stars, but when clouds intervened they were beset with dangers. Taking the words of Jesus you shall cross the sea of life with safety, but if you allow human philosophy, tradition, priesthoods, etc., to intervene, your course must be perilous.
2. He is the Head of the Church, and alone has a right to command in spiritual things. We honour the Fathers, love the names of saints and reformers, but we must not make them lords. One is your Master.
(1) The constitution of His Person qualifies Him for this spiritual throne. Divine knowledge, wisdom, power, dwell in Him, united to tenderest human sympathies.
(2) Moreover He purchased us with His own blood, and His people are made willing subjects by the power of His Spirit.
3. The spiritual increase of the Church is derived from Him. Religious progress is a growing up into Him in all things. Christ is our life. Reject Him, and you are cast forth as a severed branch and burned; but united to Him a Divine virtue shall pass into your soul, and you shall be made perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
4. These things being so, the teaching that has a tendency to draw us away from Christ is to be rejected. The apostle warns the Colossians against errors which would have this effect. The things he names are still in the world under different forms, and his advice is as needful as ever. They were in danger from--
I. Philosophy.
1. St. Paul does not speak against love of knowledge, for this is as natural as the desire for food. Nor did he suppose that the gospel had anything to fear from it. False religions may thrive in ignorance as bats in the dark, but: pure Christianity, like the eagle, delights to look the sun in the face. Be philosophers if you will, explore the wonders of nature, and the gospel will no more suffer than the finding of new planets will extinguish the sun.
2. But the Colossian philosophy was the vain and bewildering theories of men. Speculations concerning God are of little value, for He is found not by our searching, but by his revealing, and that in Him in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead. Extinguish this light and hold in your hand the torch of philosophy, and what do you make of the black expanse before you--the many gods of the heathen, the no-God of the atheist, the blind necessity of the fatalist, or nothing but matter with the materialist, or nothing bat God with the pantheist?
3. Three things are certain.
(1) Man must have a religion.
(2) He cannot discover a satisfying one by himself.
(3) He should receive thankfully that provided by Christ, who is our life and in whom we are complete.
II. The traditions of men.
1. By tradition we mean doctrine, precept, custom not named in the Word of God. Jewish traditions, embodied in the Talmud, were mingled at Colossae with mental philosophy and the truths of the gospel. This Paul regarded as injurious to spiritual life.
2. The belief in tradition is not extinct. The Greek and Roman Churches receive it as a rule of faith co-ordinate with the Bible. And other Churches, more pure and enlightened, are not entirely free.
(1) There are traditional systems of spiritual truth. Men of other days melted the Divine doctrines and cast them in human moulds. The gospel bears the same relation to these forms as a painting to its frame. We may change the frame, but must not efface a single feature of the picture.
(2) There is a traditional mode of speech with which you must clothe the truth or be suspected of heresy.
3. Tradition is at best an uncertain guide. It may be a pillar of fire, or an ignis fatuus. But we have the words of Jesus, the glorious and everlasting gospel; and our faith should rest in that, and not in fairy tales of Jewish, Roman, or Protestant tradition. Ye are complete in Him.
III. The sacred sites and seasons of a former dispensation (verse 16). Many are still Jewish in their feelings.
1. To many the Lords day is still the Jewish Sabbath. Yet its very name shews it to be a different day, and can we fear for its sancitity while we regard it as commemorative of the resurrection. Moreover, it is necessary for rest and devotion. Keep it, then, as given, not by Moses, but by Christ.
2. Baptism as set forth in the New Testament is beautiful and instructive. It acknowledges our sinfulness, symbolizes the purification of the Spirit, and puts a seal on the baptized that he belongs to Christ. But when it is regarded as regenerative, and as creating a relation which it only recognizes, the sign is mistaken for the thing signified, and a simple ordinance converted into a fruitful error.
3. The Lords Supper, in its simplicity, is an impressive representation of Christs sufferings, a vivid expression of His love, an historical evidence for the gospel. Men have built monuments to keep their names in human memory, but time has blotted them out. Therefore our Saviour ordained for His memorials productions of nature that will last as long as the world. Penetrate their meaning, and you will understand what Christ is to you. But when the idea of spiritual magic is introduced, instead of being helpful to piety, it becomes a stumbling-block and an offence.
IV. The worship of angels (verse 18). This old error still lives. The honour paid by Rome to angels exceeds that paid to Christ. It was an error to think that we in England had done with her for ever. She is very busy in this land, and wherever her teaching is received angels are worshipped. We should avoid her and repudiate her claims. Begone, spirit of error; that we may behold God in Jesus Christ. We are complete in Him. (T. Jones, D. D.)
Complete in Christ
Complete is carried on from verse 9. The fulness of the Godhead, and ye are full (same word) in Him.
I. Fulness in Christ. If you had heard Christ speak you would have said nothing can be taken away or added to those words without diminishing their force or beauty. If you had seen Christ act you would have felt that His action came up to the fulness of which that action was capable. His heart was nothing but love; and His work, although confined to a few years, fulfilled the infinite counsel of the Trinity. The Father looked down and saw no flaw and was satisfied.
II. This fulness was to be the one treasure-house of the Church for ever (Joh_1:16; Eph_4:7). And every believer being separately endowed, the whole Church is made His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. So we are filled, complete; and the Church is the complement of Jesus.
III. The process by which the completeness is effected is union with Christ.
1. The union is a simple, positive fact once for all. The Holy Spirit enters a mans mind and unites his thoughts, feelings, desires, etc., with those of Christ, and that Spirit in both is union.
2. If there be union the completeness will follow, just as a vessel must fill itself from the fountain with which it is connected.
IV. We naturally yearn and strive for completeness, but fail everywhere.
1. No man ever yet came up to the point of which he knew his powers were capable.
2. None of those sources of gratification with which God has furnished us ever gave entire satisfaction.
3. There is not a man who has not his weak points; but above all men the Christian feels his incompleteness. The better he prays the more he feels his prayer deficient. The higher his attainments the farther off he seems from what he wants. And no Christian friend, no Church, no ordinance, no grace, is all he once expected they would be.
4. Life is one vast incompleteness.
V. We are complete in Him.
1. From His cross our Lord said It is finished. From the time of creation down to that hour those words could not have been spoken about any human undertaking. But He said it, and mark the consequence. You have to do with a salvation which is perfectly complete. If you think you are to do anything you detract from the completeness of Christ.
2. We have a twofold completeness.
(1) That which we draw from Christ. The whole disposal of Gods gifts is delegated to Christ. In Him all things are treasured up for our sakes. Hence He will supply
(a) our temporal needs. The Christian, therefore, must not be anxious about them.
(b) Strength and wisdom for every work we have to do. The Christian, then, must not despair about his weakness and ignorance.
(c) Grace for Christian growth and comfort. The Christian must not despond when deprived of outward means and help.
(2) That in which we stand in Christ. God sees all who believe in Christ, and accepts Christ for them. Hence everything we do in faith loses itself in some corresponding thing that Christ has done. Our prayer, e.g., mingles with Christs intercession. What is wanting He supplies, what is redundant He deducts. His perfume gives it sweetness, and so it goes to the throne, how different from when it left us, complete. He is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, etc. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Complete in Christ
1. Every valuable mechanism represents a principle peculiar to itself. It may have many important adjuncts, but there must be one principle which imparts its force to all the rest.
2. In the same manner men are of large or small account as they recognize their individuality. Each stone is hewed for its special place, and to fail to appreciate our purpose is to degrade our manhood and to insult the prescience of the Divine Architect.
3. The claim of Christianity to be is that it, in like manner, embodies one distinctive fact. Ethically considered it has much in common with other systems; but its central feature or force is, as its name indicates, the Christ element. The degree in which Christ is present in the heart marks the purity of the Christianity.
4. The declaration, Ye are complete in Him, goes much further than the recognition of Christ as an historic character as we associate Mahomet with Islam, etc. It is Christ interpenetrating Christianity at every point. The Scriptures assert for Christ comprehensive, all-filling character and capacities. I am the Way, etc. Without Me ye can do nothing. In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead, etc. Observe--
I. This completeness in Christ in contrast with all others.
I. No life is or can be in itself alone. We sustain a multitude of important relations, family, civil, He., but it would not be possible to apply the language of the text to them. Of no relation, even the most valuable, can it be said, This is essential. It seems to be the destiny of man to grow out of existing states, and use them only as the oar employs the water that it dips as a leverage for progress. And we may thank God that in a world where death spares nothing that there is no person or condition wherein our completeness lies. The king, hero, father dies; the nation, community, family mourns as if nature had stopped in its courses; but to-morrow the world moves on unchanged save that one grave more has furrowed its surface. That any of us is essential to the place he occupies is but a fiction of his own weakness or a flattering adulation of his admirers. Only in God all things consist.
2. The reason of this, and as marking the essential difference between our relations to any other and to Christ, is that the former are in a sense conventional. We found them, we have become habituated to them, nevertheless they are not essential. Of one only can this be said. That we are complete in Christ renders necessary the preceding declaration which shows that what God can do for us Christ can do.
II. That we are complete in Christ necessarily implies that apart from Him we have no moral standing place.
1. I care not to argue the question of degrees. Incompleteness where perfection is demanded, where the judgment is by an infinitely holy standard, is as condemnatory and destructive of our moral basis as any degree of sin. Some years ago a large object glass was prepared for a telescope. With all the care employed, a single defective spot was found upon the otherwise perfect lens. It was not broken, there was no flaw, but it was condemned. Its purpose was to be a clear undeviating eye turned towards the heavens accurately to determine localities, etc. That single imperfection was its entire condemnation. This is the idea of human depravity. The defect in the web of the cloth renders the whole piece unmarketable. Slight incompleteness is still incompleteness, and when the judgment is upon righteousness the ground is taken from our feet.
2. It would be curious to investigate by what process so many cooly conclude to risk the great ordeal upon their personal moral standing, which even their fellow-men pronounce defective. A principle that may well command this easy-going complacency to halt is that the nature of sincere virtue is ever discontent with attainments. As eminence with the pencil or chisel leads to the detection of manifold deficiencies and desire for a higher ideal, so the advance towards holiness, instead of satisfying, always reveals a disheartening lack, and as invariably leads to a search for some other mode of satisfying the requirement of conscience.
3. May it not be that this failure to perceive our own incompleteness, and the necessity of a better justifying righteousness, is rather to be ascribed to moral blindness than accepted as an evidence of superior virtue? For if once our incompleteness out of Christ be admitted, then the neglect to obey the gospel is reduced to a childish trifling with our eternal interest.
4. Yet how can one more fully commend the completeness there is in Christ than to point to that spotless life consummated by the sacrificial death of the cross? For all the way through--where the suffering by innocence must either mean injustice on the part of God, or justice receiving satisfaction for us--there is not a step or act which is not eloquent with the perfection of that sacrifice. You are asked to trust a Saviour of whom it is asked, Who is he that condemneth, etc. Here is your completeness. It pleads no weak abandonment by God of His holiness. Redemption in Christ is the crown of that holiness as it is the expression of Gods love.
III. This completeness gathers in the circle of its embrace every conscious want. It keeps as well as saves. Christs intercessory prayer is not a supplication such as we offer, but a claim and recapitulation of what had been secured by His expiation. And in virtue of that Christ will bring with Him His saints, and stand at heavens gates claiming for them admission by His victory over the grave. Christs completeness must be one which does not exhaust itself on a past forgiveness. It must not only cleanse, but keep me clean.
2. The independence of God of every human condition, for the success of Christs kingdom, and the completeness for all its requirements, is found in Christ. Men have come and gone; some have seemed so important that hope almost expired in their departure, as Melancthon felt when Luther died. Yet how local are all such influences. God uses men, and so do we; but even with us how inconsiderable is a man. How quickly is the gap filled. Gods Church is not complete in man, but in Christ. (E. P. Terhune, D. D.)
Christians complete in Christ
I. What is meant by Christians being complete?
1. The word means full, wanting nothing; and as applied to Christians, it means that they have everything necessary for life and godliness, happiness and immortality.
2. The things needed in order to being complete.
(1) Wisdom and knowledge--meeting natural ignorance of, and conflicting theories about, God and the way of salvation.
(2) Pardon and righteousness. As sinners men cannot stand before God in judgment. They are unclean in His sight, and without forgiveness and acceptance they must perish.
(3) Holiness and purity. The heart is naturally evil, and by habit and indulgence acquires strength for evil. Unless this is cleansed there can be no meetness for heaven.
(4) Consolation and peace. Forgiveness is not enough, there must be a consciousness of it, so that the sense of shame, the deepest of our discomforts, may be banished, and the sense of reconciliation with God take its place.
(5) Support and strength in view of trials, labours, enemies.
(6) Deliverance from the power of death and the grave.
II. How Christians become complete. In Christ. Because being God and man all fulness dwells in Him, and out of this fulness all our need is supplied.
1. In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. By His Word He instructs, by His providence He guides, and by His Spirit He opens the mind to instruct both.
2. He is the propitiation for our sins, and has thus brought in an everlasting righteousness, by means of which believers are accepted.
3. His grace creates the heart anew, subdues sin, and developes in holiness.
4. He brings peace to the troubled conscience and consolation to the broken heart.
5. He is the strength, defence, and support of His people.
6. He hath abolished death. (E. Cooper, M. A.)
Believers complete in Christ
I. On earth.
1. In their union to Christ.
2. In their justification.
3. In Christs fulness.
4. In their title to heaven.
II. In heaven.
1. As regards their persons--the union of body and soul with the perfection of nature and grace.
2. As regards their mental faculties--in receptivity and memory.
3. As regards the graces of the Spirit- faith lost to sight, hope in fruition, love in God.
4. As regards their fellowship- undivided, uninterrupted, with our predecessors, contemporaries, followers, God.
5. As regards their happiness--perfect enjoyment, perfect service. (A. Fletcher, D. D.)
Completed life
We are to look to Christ alone.
I. For the freeing of our spirit from all evil. But how shall this great purification and perfecting be attained? The appeal is to Omnipotent Grace. And Gods response is made known in Jesus Christ: It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell of pardoning and cleansing grace. In Him who is the head of all principality and power are we to look for the sin-expelling force--the force to correct, to purify our deepest life.
1. And we must not call in any foreign aid; we are complete in Him. These Colossians were tempted by Gentile philosophy on one side, and Jewish ecclesiasticism on the other, but the apostle reminds them that everything they wanted was in Christ, and they were to confine themselves severely to His fellowship.
2. And Christ can save us completely, Whiter than snow. Let us remember that Christ aims at our completeness, and let us not rest short of that ideal. It is a present blessing.
II. For the perfecting of our nature in all its powers. It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell. In Christ we behold the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and also the fulness of humanity.
1. We need not travel beyond Christ--He is the ideal and the perfecter of the race. All colours are in the sun, and all the infinite differentiations of colour found on the landscapes of nature, in the vapours of the firmament, in the play of the sea--all are in the light. And in Jesus we have the full-orbed humanity, all the graces by which man can be adorned. When we study the character of ordinary men it is like entering an ordinary garden, in which are a few fair flowers with an unfortunate admixture of weeds; when we study the moral character of extraordinary men it is like entering the grounds of some great rose-grower or orchid connoisseur--many delightful things greeting our eyes. But on beholding Christ, it is like being set down in Kew Gardens, where the vegetation of the whole earth blooms. In these days certain critics are very anxious to send us to the sacred writings of China, India, Arabia, Persia. Very valuable indeed are those writings from certain points of view, but they have nothing to add to the ideal of humanity given in Christ.
2. In Christ we are to attain the perfection of our nature. We have not only completeness in Him, but we arc to become complete in Him. Men talk about the narrowness of Christianity, its commandments and prohibitions; they want a system of religion, wider, freer. Now, the tree on the heath or in the street may rebel against the iron bars which girdle it. Says the grumbling sapling, I dont like this iron cage; I want liberty, I want room. Room l it has plenty of room at the top. It has room for its branches to stir with every wind of heaven, to catch all the dew of the morning, all the light of the sun, all the wealth of the shower; room for the singing birds, room to leaf, to blossom, to fruit. Room! The iron bars protect you from beneath, but a whole sky is waiting for you up above. So, whilst the New Testament rings us round with protective prohibitions, Jesus Christ stands over us like a sky, pouring down upon us richest influence, and drawing forth all the powers of our nature to their fullest perfection. There is room for our whole personality, our bodily instincts, mental faculties, imagination, wit, judgment, logic, speculation; for our social instincts, all the sensibilities of kinship, friendship, patriotism; for our ethical sense, for our heart with all its wealth of affection. Christianity is not wide enough for a theatre at one end and a prize ring at the other, but wide enough for whatever is true and pure in knowledge, science, art, pleasure, patriotism, business, love. We are not straitened in Christ; let us not be straitened in ourselves, but so live in the faith of the Lord Jesus that all the riches of our nature may be realized, that we may come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
III. For the strengthening of our life in all righteousness.
1. In Christ we attain completeness alike in spiritual and in practical virtue. Holiness is that side of goodness which looks towards God; morality is that side which looks towards society. And in both Christ perfects us--filling us with reverence, admiration, love toward God, and strengthening us to fulfil all practical virtue.
2. In Christ we attain completeness in universal virtue. If we have the Spirit of Christ, it will display itself in every possible virtue--that Spirit being the essence of universal virtue. Just as in the doctrine of the convertibility of force, we are taught that heat may become light, and light electricity, and electricity magnetism, and magnetism chemical affinity, and chemical affinity be changed into motion--one force with many manifestations--so the Spirit of Christ displays itself, now as meekness, now as courage, now as temperance, now as purity, just as circumstances require, but yet is all the time the one same Divine force. It makes of one a good master, another a good servant; one a good prince, another a good subject; one a good husband, another a good wife; one a good parent, another a good child. The Spirit of Christ fits men for every rank, adorns them with every grace. Ye are complete in Him. Conclusion: We must feel condemned for our incompleteness; and yet from time to time how near we come to a life altogether full, rich, glorious 1 One of our magazines had a striking paragraph, entitled, I have touched the gold, and it went on to relate how a diver uttered these words on coming up from a sunken gold ship, and the writer proceeded to show how in religion we often touch the gold and yet never quite realize it. Oh! how often have we touched the gold--the strength that more than overcomes, the perfect peace, the faith which asks and receives, the love that many waters cannot quench, the purity that keeps itself pure, the joy that is unspeakable, the hope full of glory--we touch the gold, we always know when we touch gold it is such a pleasant feeling, and yet fail to possess it. Let us trust in Christ- with all our heart; let us do it now, so shall every man be presented perfect in Him. (W. L. Watkinson.)
The completing of the soul
If we are only to be complete in Christ, then we must be incomplete without Him. It follows then that a soul after being made is still to be completed. It may be a germ to be developed, or a blasted germ to be restored. Here then is the true work of Christs salvation, the completing of the soul.
I. What do we mean by the completing of the soul?
1. We constantly assume the necessity of a great afterwork to be done on the soul of our child to make it the complete man or woman we desire it to be. What we call education is only our attempt to bring it to completeness. The result is a being in higher quantity and finer quality, and of enlarged capacity for action and enjoyment.
2. But it is not to be assumed that we are right in all our conceptions of what takes place in the training of minds.
(1) They will not be complete if only fully educated intellectually. Sometimes they will be hampered by scholarly attainments, drugged by great authorities, and incapacitated by the overload they have taken. Perhaps one hour with God would have done more in the widening of consciousness and the kindling of divinist fires than whole years of school drill.
(2) Sometimes we think our child is only going to be complete when educated away from certain ranges of employment. If he can only be a blacksmith, or a school teacher even, we think that we have not made enough of him. Were he a qualified commander, physician, lawyer, etc., we should think him more nearly up to the measure of his possibilities. But God does not grade our completeness by any such law. He may have rated Bezaleel the brazier far above Aaron the priest. Whoever came nearer to being mated with Shakespeare than the tinker Bunyan? A great soul can be fashioned anywhere if only God is with him. God nowhere allows that souls are kept back from completeness by their employments.
3. No mere schooling, to whatever grade of life or social estimation it may lead, is any but the faintest approximation to the completion of the soul.
II. How does it appear to need any such completion? If this were a question relating to Adam in his innocence, we should say that he was a full-grown, beautiful child, but yet a child; that his perceptions are all to be gotten, his will trained, habits formed, etc. Until then he is so incomplete that he will not stand fast in good, but plunge into wrong. Our first man, commonly thought so grandly perfect, is put on probation only that he may get his nature so matured in good that he will come out able to stand. Our question after this relates to him under the conditions of moral disaster into which he has fallen.
1. The soul scarcely at all answers its true end. There is a feeling everywhere that souls are going wide of the mark. A watch is complete when it keeps time, not when it quarrels with the notations of suns and dials and almanacks. A vintage process is complete when it makes wine, not when it makes vinegar. Souls in like manner are complete when they make the good they were made for.
2. Their enjoyment is not full, but confessedly a great way short of it. Their instincts are unfulfilled, their wants unsupplied, their objects not found. They are tormented with a general unrest. It would not be so if they were complete. They would be exactly full of enjoyment, just as by their inborn necessity they crave to be. No bee misses the shape of its cells, no bird the direction of its flight, no plant the colour and kind of its flower. No more will a soul its enjoyment unless incomplete, sweltering in some torment of inbred disorder.
3. Souls do not fulfil the standards of beauty, truth, and right. These are standards we all admit, just as all flowers and fruits have standard colours and figures of their kind. An apple is not complete when it comes out a gourd; nor a rose when it comes forth blue. When a soul, then, misses its kind, and puts forth itself in deformity, falsity, and wrong, it is a witness to its incompleteness.
4. Take a more surface view, and let the question settle itself under mere first impressions. How then is it that there is so much meanness, passion, want of self-government in individuals; and so many quarrels, acts of injustice, and bloodshed in society? Who can imagine mere creatures complete in their order? Suppose all the grains in a bushel of wheat were to act on themselves and towards one another thus! And the reason why they do not do so is because they are complete creatures, resting in their own perfect mould, and in harmony with each other--they that are at the top lying just as heavily, and those at the bottom supporting the weight just as bravely as they must. Souls completed in their order would do the same, just as all Gods finished worlds and societies in glory do, without one rasping of a bad thought, or pang of mutual accusation.
5. We have a way of saying concerning a man that he is rained or blasted by his vices: in which we refer mentally to the incomplete state of the flower which we say is blasted when it does not come to fruit. And the figure is rightly chosen. Such men are incomplete.
6. It is a very curious distinction of souls that, being finite, they have yet infinite wants and aspirations; their very longing is to be completed in the outspreading of some infinite possession. What a falling short, therefore, is it when they fall short of God.
III. How in Christ they can be made complete. Here we discover three great agencies provided for the purpose.
1. Inspirations.
(1) Separated from God man is nothing. Existing in mere self-hood he cannot push himself out in any way so as to be complete as from himself. A sponge might as well complete itself in dry air; it must let in and possess the sea. Just so a soul must have Gods properties flowing in and through--liberty and life in His life, power in His power; it must be true in His truth, righteous in His righteousness.
(2) Now, it is in this inspiration force that Christ arranges for in His gift of the Spirit. He enters the soul to fill out every lack, configuring it inwardly to all that is most perfect in Himself, turning its very liberty towards all it wants and needs to receive.
2. We have ideals in Christ, who lives God in human figure and relation, so that we have in Him all that requires to be completed in us. Christ is the mirror that glasses Gods image before us, and the Spirit is the plastic force within that transfers and photographs that image, so that beholding as in an image, etc. (2Co_4:6).
3. To make the provision perfect, we are set in a various scheme of relations that we may have a training in duties and qualities, and be perfected by means of them. And we have as our remarkable advantage Christ the Divine man with us in these relations, so that trying to do the exact Christly thing in them all we are to get benefit in so many forms and degrees, and be brought when all is done and suffered to a completeness in the will of God. In this wondrous mill every blemish is to be removed, till at last there will be no spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
IV. The gospel of Christ is the only power able to bring men thus forward.
1. We try education, getting much from it, but never anything which approaches a standard of completeness.
2. What we call self-improvement is a poor desultory affair, polishing one thing, while another goes rough by neglect, and all issuing in a great self-consciousness painful to behold, and in itself how dry.
3. We try self-government under the standards of morality, but the most we obtain is to pile up what we think good acts on one another, as a man piles his days wages, but then they will be as dry and with as little continuity.
4. There is another way greatly praised--philosophy. But its ideals are for ever out-running its possible attainments, and the fine philosophic consciousness will be only a kind of equilibrium under dryness and felt limitation. And the wars of the mind are perhaps kenneled by it but not composed.
5. There is nothing, in short, but religion that can be looked to for the completing of the soul; because as nothing else does--
(1) It takes hold of the soul s eternity and its sin, to raise up, harmonize, purify, and settle it in a rest of everlasting equilibrium in God.
(2) It takes hold of all possible conditions, completing as truly the menial as the employer, the unlettered as the scholar.
(3) It completes one degree of capacity as certainly as another, preparing the feeblest to fill out his measure as roundly and blissfully as the highest. (H. Bushnell, D. D.)
Every need of man supplied in Christ
I. The errors Paul desires to counteract. These were the current philosophy of the day. There were many forms of thought which preceded Christianity. For hundreds of years men had been indulging in speculation, groping after light, and weaving systems; and the Colossian philosophy seems to have been an amalgamation of the four principal.
1. The philosophy of Plato, with its mystic doctrine of everything having an archetypal model.
2. Jewish fables and endless genealogies picked up by the exiles in Babylon.
3. Ceremonialism and the observing of days, etc.
4. Gnosticism, the affectation of superior knowledge.
II. The doctrine with which he would counteract these errors. Ye are complete in Him.
1. Note who and what Christ is. The glory of Christ is set over against these speculations.
(1) He possesses the loftiest ideal--All the fulness of the Godhead, not one of His emanations, and that fulness bodily, brought within the comprehension of man.
2. He has done a great work (Col_1:20). It is not matter that is sinful, but man, and from this Christ redeems him.
(3) He sustains a glorious relation to the universe (Col_1:15; Col_1:18; Col_2:19). He is not one of an illustrious order, but Creator and Head of all.
4. He maintains a close union to the man who accepts Him (Col_1:27).
2. If Christ is all this to a man, then that man is complete in Him.
(1) If a man be striving after the knowledge of God, he is complete in Christ. This has been the problem of philosophy from Thales till now. What is the first principle? Water, air, fire, mind, love, have each in turn been the answer. And now a philosophy is confessing the problem insoluble, calling God by a name more hopeless than that on the Athenian altar--the Unknowable. But who that knows Christ can ever be thus in the dark (Joh_14:9).
(2) If a man would approach God he is complete in Christ. Afar from God man cannot rest, but sin keeps him away. But through Christ we have access (Joh_14:6; Heb_10:19) and close fellowship.
(3) If a man is anxious about his standing before God he is complete in Christ. Through Him we may have a better and firmer one than Adams. In Christ a man stands accepted and welcomed with nought wanting to the fulness of his redemption.
(4) If a man wants to lead a holy life he is complete in Christ. This was the aim of the Gnostics; not holiness indeed, but freedom from the impurities of matter. Hence they tried asceticism. But sin is not to be purged by scourging the body. Christ however can kill it by the power of a new life which His Spirit implants.
(5) If a man is longing for light on the great questions of destiny he is complete in Christ, who has brought life and immortality to light.
(6) Do we ask for a bond of brotherhood in the human race? We are complete in Christ in whom there is neither Jew nor Greek, etc.
(7) Do we ask for a redemption that shall perfect body, as well as soul and spirit? We are complete in Him who is the Saviour of the body and the resurrection and the life.
III. The suitability of this doctrine for counteracting modern errors. The true method of meeting false doctrine is to show that all our nature craves is to be found in Christ. But since Christ is enough in Himself He must be accepted as being so, and not as the mere complement of some other system.
1. Are you in peril of Rationalism? Learn what Jesus is, and you will find reason and conscience to say, Here is one at whose feet we can sit to be their enlightener and lord.
2. Are you attracted by Positivism? Here in Christ is all that is attractive in its assertions, and nought of its dismal negations. They worship they know not what in worshipping Humanity. But no one who has ever caught a glimpse of Christ can ever barter a living Saviour for that. One in the race and yet over it. Over it, that He might redeem, educate, and glorify it; and yet who can give to each member eternal life.
3. Do the claims of a so-called priesthood attract you? If you knew what Christ is you would let no one have the impertinence to come between you and Him. We need a mediator between God and man; but none between us and Jesus. Con clusion: This doctrine is grand enough for the philosopher, yet simple enough for us all. We are complete in Christ for living or dying; for time or eternity. (C. Clemance, D. D.)
Completely furnished
Manton says He that is in a journey to heaven must be provided for all weathers: for though it be sunshine when ha first sets forth, a storm will overtake him before he cometh to his journeys end. Have faith in Christ and you are ready for anything, thankful for everything, afraid of nothing. Ye are complete in him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Which is the head of all principality and power.
Angels
I. In themselves. For their excellency of nature, as they are here called principalities, so elsewhere they are called stars of the morning, sons of God, yea, Gods.
II. In relation to Christ so they are implied to be of the body, and Christ to be their Head. Now we may not marvel at it, that Christ should be the head of angels, for there be divers distinct benefits, which angels from thence do receive, which by natural creation they had not.
1. They are vouchsafed a place in the mystical body under Christ, that they might be received, as it were into the new order in Christ.
2. A peace is made between them and man in Christ.
3. The room of angels fallen is supplied by the elect, the society of angels being much maimed by their fall.
4. They are refreshed with singular joy for the conversion of the elect; besides the enlarging of their knowledge, that they are vouchsafed the understanding of the secrets of the gospel.
5. They receive from Christ confirming grace, and so assurance that they shall never fall: which is their chief benefit.
6. Their obedience in its own nature is imperfect, though not sinful, and therefore may need to be covered by Christs perfections.
III. In relation to the body of Christ.
1. They are like masters and tutors, to whom the great King of heaven sends out His children to nurse. God doth adopt children, and after commit them to be kept by those most noble citizens of heaven.
2. They execute judgment upon the enemies of the Church. They attend us at the hour of death, and carry our souls to heaven. They shall gather our bodies together at the last day.
3. For the accomplishment of all designments for our good, they stand always looking on the face of God to receive commandments.
Conclusion: Inasmuch as Christ is the head of all principalities and powers, we may comfort ourselves divers ways.
1. If Christ fill the angels, how much more can He out of His fulness fill us in the supply of all our wants.
2. Shall we not rejoice in the grace here is done to us, in that we are united into communion with angels under our Head? yea, and that such glorious creatures, are appointed to be our attendants, why should we fear when Christ and His angels will be so ready about us.
3. This may also instruct us, we need not be ashamed of Christs service, seeing the very angels follow Him and depend upon Him. A prince that kept great princes to be his domestic servants, were like to be much sought to for preferment of such as would follow him. Oh! how should we long after Christ who is Head over such glorious creatures as the angels are! (N. Byfield.)
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 v11 Chapter 2 Part 4
Chapter 2 Part 4
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION
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Col_2:11-13 (R.V.)
THERE are two opposite tendencies ever at work in human nature to corrupt religion. One is of the intellect; the other of the senses. The one is the temptation of the cultured few; the other, that of the vulgar many. The one turns religion into theological speculation; the other, into a theatrical spectacle. But, opposite as these tendencies usually are, they were united in that strange chaos of erroneous opinion and practice which Paul had to front at Colossae. From right and from left he was assailed, and his batteries had to face both ways. Here he is mainly engaged with the error which insisted on imposing circumcision on these Gentile converts.
I. To this teaching of the necessity of circumcision, he first opposes the position that all Christian men, by virtue of their union with Christ, have received the true circumcision, of which the outward rite was a shadow and a prophecy, and that therefore the rite is antiquated and obsolete. His language is emphatic and remarkable. It points to a definite past time-no doubt the time when they became Christians-when, because they were in Christ, a change, passed on them which is fitly paralleled with circumcision. This Christian circumcision is described in three particulars: as "not made with hands"; as consisting in "putting off the body of the flesh"; and as being "of Christ."
It is "not made with hands," that is, it is not a rite, but a reality; not transacted in flesh, but in spirit. It is not the removal of ceremonial impurity, but the cleansing of the heart. This idea of ethical circumcision, of which the bodily rite is the type, is common in the Old Testament, as, for instance, "The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart". {Deu_30:6} This is the true Christian circumcision.
It consists in the "putting off the body of the flesh"-for "the sins of" is an interpolation. Of course a man does not shuffle off this mortal coil when he becomes a Christian, so that we have to look for some other meaning of the strong words. They are very strong, for the word "putting off" is intensified so as to express a complete stripping off from oneself, as of clothes which are laid aside, and is evidently intended to contrast the partial outward circumcision as the removal of a small part of the body, with the entire removal effected by union with Christ. If that removal of "the body of the flesh" is "not made with hands," then it can only be in the sphere of the spiritual life, that is to say, it must consist in a change in the relation of the two constituents of a mans being, and that of such a kind that, for the future, the Christian shall not live after the flesh, though he live in the flesh. "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit," says Paul, and again he uses an expression as strong as, if not stronger than that of our text, when he speaks of "the body" as "being destroyed," and explains himself by adding "that henceforth we should not serve sin." It is not the body considered simply as material and fleshly that we put off, but the body considered as the seat of corrupt and sinful affections and passions. A new principle of life comes into mens hearts which delivers them from the dominion of these, and makes it possible that they should live in the flesh, not "according to the lusts of the flesh, but according to the will of God." True, the text regards this divesting as complete, whereas, as all Christian men know only too sadly, it is very partial, and realised only by slow degrees. The ideal is represented here, -what we receive "in Him," rather than what we actually possess and incorporate into our experience. On the Divine side the change is complete. Christ gives complete emancipation from the dominion of sense, and if we are not in reality completely emancipated, it is because we have not taken the things that are freely given to us, and are not completely "in Him." So far as we are, we have put off "the flesh." The change has passed on us if we are Christians. We have to work it out day by day. The foe may keep up a guerilla warfare after he is substantially defeated, but his entire subjugation is certain if we keep hold of the strength of Christ.
Finally, this circumcision is described as "of Christ," by which is not meant that He submitted to it, but that He instituted it.
Such being the force of this statement, what is its bearing on the Apostles purpose? He desires to destroy the teaching that the rite of circumcision was binding on the Christian converts, and he does so by asserting that the gospel has brought the reality, of which the rite was but a picture and a prophecy. The underlying principle is that when we have the thing signified by any Jewish rites, which were all prophetic as well as symbolic, the rite may-must go. Its retention is an anachronism, "as if a flower should shut, and be a bud again." That is a wise and pregnant principle, but as it comes to the surface again immediately hereafter, and is applied to a whole series of subjects, we may defer the consideration of it, and rather dwell briefly on other matters suggested by this verse.
We notice, then, the intense moral earnestness which leads the Apostle here to put the true centre of gravity of Christianity in moral transformation, and to set all outward rites and ceremonies in a very subordinate place. What had Jesus Christ come from heaven for, and for what had He borne His bitter passion? To what end were the Colossians knit to Him by a tie so strong, tender, and strange? Had they been carried into that inmost depth of union with Him, and were they still to be laying stress on ceremonies? Had Christs work, then, no higher issue than to leave religion bound in the cords of outward observances? Surely Jesus Christ, who gives men a new life by union with Himself, which union is brought about through faith alone, has delivered men from that "yoke of bondage," if He has done anything at all. Surely they who are joined to Him should have a profounder apprehension of the means and the end of their relation to their Lord than to suppose that it is either brought about by any outward rite, or has any reality unless it makes them pure and good. From that height all questions of external observances dwindle into insignificance, and all question of sacramental efficacy drops away of itself. The vital centre lies in our being joined to Jesus Christ-the condition of which is faith in Him, and the outcome of it a new life which delivers us from the dominion of the flesh. How far away from such conceptions of Christianity are those which busy themselves on either side with matters of detail, with punctilios of observance, and pedantries of form? The hatred of forms may be as completely a form as the most elaborate ritual-and we all need to have our eyes turned away from these to the far higher thing, the worship and service offered by a transformed nature.
We notice, again, that the conquest of the animal nature and the material body is the certain outcome of true union with Christ, and of that alone.
Paul did not regard matter as necessarily evil, as these teachers at Colossae did, nor did he think of the body as the source of all sin. But he knew that the fiercest and most fiery temptations came from it, and that the foulest and most indelible stains on conscience were splashed from the mud which it threw. We all know that too. It is a matter of life and death for each of us to find some means of taming and holding in the animal that is in us all. We all know of wrecked lives, which have been driven on the rocks by the wild passions belonging to the flesh. Fortune, reputation, health, everything are sacrificed by hundreds of men, especially young men, at the sting of this imperious lust. The budding promise of youth, innocence, hope, and all which makes life desirable and a nature fair, are trodden down by the hoofs of the brute. There is no need to speak of that. And when we come to add to this the weaknesses of the flesh, and the needs of the flesh, and the limitations of the flesh, and to remember how often high purposes are frustrated by its shrinking from toil, and how often mists born from its undrained swamps darken the vision that else might gaze on truth and God, we cannot but feel that we do not need to be Eastern Gnostics to believe that goodness requires the flesh to be subdued. Everyone who has sought for selfimprovement recognises the necessity. But no asceticisms and no resolves will do what we want.
Much repression may be effected by sheer force of will, but it is like a man holding a wolf by the jaws. The arms begin to ache and the grip to grow slack, and he feels his strength ebbing, and knows that, as soon as he lets go, the brute will fly at his throat. Repression is not taming. Nothing tames the wild beast in us but the power of Christ. He binds it in a silken lash, and that gentle constraint is strong, because the fierceness is gone. "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and a little child shall lead them." The power of union with Christ, and that alone, will enable us to put off the body of the flesh. And such union will certainly lead to such crucifying of the animal nature. Christianity would be easy if it were a round of observances; it would be comparatively easy if it were a series of outward asceticisms. Anybody can fast or wear a hair shirt, if he have motive sufficient; but the "putting off the body of the flesh" which is "not made with hands," is a different and harder thing. Nothing else avails. High flown religious emotion, or clear theological definitions, or elaborate ceremonial worship, may all have their value; but a religion which includes them all, and leaves out the plain moralities of subduing the flesh, and keeping our heel well pressed down on the serpents head, is worthless. If we are in Christ, we shall not live in the flesh.
II. The Apostle meets the false teaching of the need for circumcision, by a second consideration; namely, a reference to Christian Baptism, as being the Christian sign of that inward change. Ye were circumcised, says he-being buried with Him in baptism. The form of expression in the Greek implies that the two things are contemporaneous. As if he had said-Do you want any further rite to express that mighty change which passed on you when you came to be "in Christ"? You have been baptised; does not that express all the meaning that circumcision ever had, and much more? What can you want with the less significant rite when you have the more significant? This reference to baptism is quite consistent with what has been said as to the subordinate importance of ritual. Some forms we must have, if there is to be any outward visible Church, and Christ has yielded to the necessity, and given us two, of which the one symbolises the initial spiritual act of the Christian life, and the other the constantly repeated process of Christian nourishment. They are symbols and outward representations, nothing more. They convey grace, in so far as they help us to realise more clearly and to feel more deeply the facts on which our spiritual life is fed, but they are not channels of grace in any other way than any other outward acts of worship may be.
We see that the form of baptism, here presupposed is by immersion, and that the form is regarded as significant. All but entire unanimity prevails among commentators on this point. The burial and the resurrection spoken of point unmistakably to the primitive mode of baptism, as Bishop Lightfoot, the latest and best English expositor of this book, puts it in his paraphrase: "Ye were buried with Christ to your old selves beneath the baptismal waters, and were raised with Him from these same waters, to a new and better life."
If so, two questions deserve consideration-first, is it right to alter a form which has a meaning that is lost by the change? second, can we alter a significant form without destroying it? Is the new thing rightly called by the old name? If baptism be immersion, and immersion express a substantial part of its meaning, can sprinkling or pouring be baptism?
Again, baptism is associated in time with the inward change, which is the true circumcision. There are but two theories on which these two things are contemporaneous. The one is the theory that baptism effects the change; the other is the theory that baptism goes with the change as its sign. The association is justified if men are "circumcised," that is, changed when they are baptised, or if men are baptised when they have been "circumcised." No other theory gives full weight to these words.
The former theory elevates baptism into more than the importance of which Paul sought to deprive circumcision, it confuses the distinction between the Church and the world, it lulls men into a false security, it obscures the very central truth of Christianity-namely that faith in Christ, working by love, makes a Christian-it gives the basis for a portentous reproduction of sacerdotalism, and it is shivered to pieces against the plain facts of daily life. But it may be worth while to notice in a sentence, that it is conclusively disposed of by the language before us-it is "through faith in the operation of God" that we are raised again in baptism. Not the rite, then, but faith is the means of this participation with Christ in burial and resurrection. What remains but that baptism is associated with that spiritual change by which we are delivered from the body of the flesh, because in the Divine order it is meant to be the outward symbol of that change which is effected by no rite or sacrament, but by faith alone, uniting us to the transforming Christ? We observe the solemnity and the thoroughness of the change thus symbolised. It is more than circumcision. It is burial and a resurrection, an entire dying of the old self by Union with Christ, a real and present rising again by participation in His risen life. This and nothing less makes a Christian. We partake of His death, inasmuch as we ally ourselves to it by our faith, as the sacrifice for our sins, and make it the ground of all our hope. But that is not all. We partake of His death, inasmuch as, by the power of His cross, we are drawn to sever ourselves from the selfish life, and to slay our own old nature; dying for His dear sake to the habits, tastes, desires, and purposes in which we lived. Self-crucifixion for the love of Christ is the law for us all. His cross is the pattern for our conduct, as well as the pledge and means of our acceptance. We must die to sin that we may live to righteousness. We must die to self, that we may live to God and our brethren. We have no right to trust in Christ for us, except as we have Christ in us. His cross is not saving us from our guilt unless it is moulding our lives to some faint likeness of Him who died that we may live, and might live a real life by dying daily to the world, sin, and self.
If we are thus made conformable to His death, we shall know the power of His resurrection, in all its aspects. It will be to us the guarantee of our own, and we shall know its power as a prophecy for our future. It will be to us the seal of His perfect work on the cross, and we shall know its power as Gods token of acceptance of His sacrifice in the past. It will be to us the type of our spiritual resurrection now, and we shall know its power as the pattern and source of our supernatural life in the present. Thus we must die in and with Christ that we may live in and with Him, and that twofold process is the very heart of personal religion. No lofty participation in the immortal hopes which spring from the empty grave of Jesus is warranted, unless we have His quickening power raising us today by a better resurrection; and no participation in the present power of His heavenly life is possible, unless we have such a share in His death, as that by it the world is crucified to us, and we unto the world.
III. The Apostle adds another phase of this great contrast of life and death, which brings home still more closely to his hearers the deep and radical change which passes upon all Christians. He has been speaking of a death and burial followed by a resurrection. But there is another death from which Christ raises us, by that same risen life imparted to us through faith - a darker and grimmer thing than the self-abnegation before described.
"And you, being dead through your trespasses, and the uncircumcision of your flesh." The separate acts of transgression of which they had been guilty, and the unchastened, unpurified, carnal nature from which these had flowed, were the reasons of a very real and awful death; or, as the parallel passage in Ephesians {Eph_2:2} puts it with a slight variation, they made the condition or sphere in which that death inhered. That solemn thought, so pregnant in its dread emphasis in Scripture, is not to be put aside as a mere metaphor. All life stands in union with God. The physical universe exists by reason of its perpetual contact with His sustaining hand, in the hollow of which all Being lies, and it is, because He touches it. "In Him we live." So also the life of mind is sustained by His perpetual inbreathing, and in the deepest sense "we see light" in His light. So, lastly, the highest life of the spirit stands in union in still higher manner with Him, and to be separated from Him is death to it. Sin breaks that union, and therefore sin is death, in the very inmost centre of mans being. The awful warning, "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die," was fulfilled. That separation by sin, in which the soul is wrenched from God, is the real death, and the thing that men call by the name is only an outward symbol of a far sadder fact-the shadow of that which is the awful substance, and as much less terrible than it as painted fires are less than the burning reality.
So men may live in the body, and toil and think and feel, and be dead. The world is full of "sheeted dead," that "squeak and gibber" in "our streets," for every soul that lives to self and has rent itself away from God, so far as a creature can, is "dead while he liveth." The other death, of which the previous verse spoke, is therefore but the putting off of a death. We lose nothing of real life in putting off self, but only that which keeps us in a separation from God, and slays our true and highest being. To die to self is but "the death of death."
The same life of which the previous verse spoke as coming from the risen Lord is here set forth as able to raise us from that death of sin. "He hath quickened you together with Him." Union with Christ floods our dead souls with His own vitality, as water will pour from a reservoir through a tube inserted in it. There is the actual communication of a new life when we touch Christ by faith. The prophet of old laid himself upon the dead child, the warm lip on the pallid mouth, the throbbing heart on the still one, and the contact rekindled the extinguished spark. So Christ lays His full life on our deadness, and does more than recall a departed glow of vitality. He communicates a new life kindred with His own. That life makes us free here and now from the law of sin and death, and it shall be perfected hereafter when the working of His mighty power shall change the body of our humiliation into the likeness of the body of His glory, and the leaven of His new life shall leaven the three measures in which it is hidden, body, soul, and spirit, with its own transforming energy. Then, in yet higher sense, death shall die, and life shall be victor by His victory.
But to all this one preliminary is needful-"having forgiven us all trespasses." Pauls eagerness to associate himself with his brethren, and to claim his share in the forgiveness, as well as to unite in the acknowledgment of sin, makes him change his word from "you" to "us." So the best manuscripts give the text, and the reading is obviously full of interest and suggestiveness. There must be a removal of the cause of deadness before there can be a quickening to new life. That cause was sin, which cannot be cancelled as guilt by any self-denial however great, nor even by the impartation of a new life from God for the future. A gospel which only enjoined dying to self would be as inadequate as a gospel which only provided for a higher life in the future. The stained and faultful past must be cared for. Christ must bring pardon for it, as well as a new spirit for the future. So the condition prior to our being quickened together with Him is Gods forgiveness, free and universal, covering all our sins, and given to us without anything on our part. That condition is satisfied. Christs death brings to us Gods pardon, and when the great barrier of unforgiven sin is cleared away, Christs life pours into our hearts, and "everything lives whithersoever the river cometh."
Here then we have the deepest ground of Pauls intense hatred of every attempt to make anything but faith in Christ and moral purity essential to the perfect Christian life. Circumcision and baptism and all other rites or sacraments of Judaism or Christianity are equally powerless to quicken dead souls. For that, the first thing needed is the forgiveness of sins, and that is ours through simple faith in Christs death. We are quickened by Christs own life in us, and He "dwells in our hearts by faith."
All ordinances may be administered to us a hundred times, and without faith they leave us as they found us-dead. If we have hold of Christ by faith we live, whether we have received the ordinances or not. So all full-blown or budding sacramentarianism is to be fought against to the uttermost, because it tends to block the road to the City of Refuge for a poor sinful soul, and the most pressing of all necessities is that that way of life should be kept clear and unimpeded. We need the profound truth which lies in the threefold form which Paul gives to one of his great watchwords: "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God." And how, says my despairing conscience, shall I keep the commandments? The answer lies in the second form of the saying-"In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." And how, replies my saddened heart, can I become a new creature? The answer lies in the final form of the saying -"In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh." Faith brings the life which makes us new men, and then we can keep the commandments. If we have faith, and are new men and do Gods will, we need no rites but as helps. If we have not faith, all rites are nothing.
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 vv10–11 10. Ye are complete in him. You need nothing…
10. Ye are complete in him. You need nothing more. He supplies every want. Head of all principality and power. He is over and ruler of those ranks of angels that some are trying to lead you to worship.
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 v11 Col_2:11. In whom also ye are circumcised … by…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Col_2:11. In whom also ye are circumcised … by the circumcision of Christ.—What to the Jew was a bodily act, at best symbolical and of no value otherwise, was to the Colossian disciple a spiritual renovation, so complete as to render the old symbol of it inadequate.
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Col_2:12. Buried … risen.—Referring to the definite acts when, as Christian converts, they went beneath the baptismal waters and emerged to live the faith thus publicly confessed. Through the faith of the operation of God.—An obscure phrase. The R.V. is clear: “Through faith in the working of God.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Col_2:11-12
Christian Circumcision.
There were two principal errors lying at the root of the heresy that was doing so much damage at Colossæ. One was the theological error of substituting inferior and created angelic mediators for the divine Head Himself. The other was a practical error, in insisting upon ritual and ascetic observances as the foundation of moral teaching. Thus their theological speculations and ethical code alike were at fault. Both errors flowed from a common source—the false conception that evil resides in matter, a fruitful source of many fatal heresies. Some contended the Colossians could not be complete in Christ without submitting to the Jewish rite of circumcision; but the apostle showed that they were the subjects of a superior circumcision.
I. Christian circumcision is inward and spiritual.—“Ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands” (Col_2:11). The hand-wrought circumcision of the Jews was simply an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. This is abundantly clear in the language of the Old Testament: “No stranger uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into My sanctuary.” “The Lord Thy God will circumcise thine heart, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and all thy soul.” The argument of the apostle is that the Colossians had secured all the spiritual results aimed at in the ancient rite, and that by a better circumcision, even that made without hands, by the spiritual and almighty power of Christ, so that it was unnecessary for them or any other Gentiles to submit to the abrogated Hebraic ordinance. The true circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter (Rom_2:28-29).
II. Christian circumcision is complete.—“In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh” (Col_2:11); or, as Bengel translates, putting off the body of the sins—that is to say, the flesh. Manual circumcision, according to the law of Moses, was the cutting away of only a small part of the flesh. But the true spiritual circumcision consists in putting off, renouncing, and casting away with disgust the whole body of our corrupt nature—the entire fleshly principle. The whole bulk of sin is fitly compared to a body, because of the weight of guilt there is in it (Rom_7:24), and the soul is completely compassed by it, as it is with our natural body (Gen_6:5). When the heart is circumcised, the total mass of sin is put off, as the porter puts off his burden, the beggar his rags, the master his false servant, and the serpent its skin. Old things pass away; all things become new.
III. Christian circumcision is divine.—“By the circumcision of Christ” (Col_2:11). It is wrought, without hands, by the inward, invisible power of the divine Spirit of Christ. It supersedes the external form of the circumcision of the law, and fulfils all its spiritual designs in a far more perfect manner than even the spiritually-minded Jew could adequately conceive. What can never be effected by the moral law, by external, ascetic ceremonies, or by philosophic speculations, is accomplished by the circumcision of Christ. The whole body of sin is mortified, the soul is quickened and renewed, and brought into the possession of the highest moral perfection.
IV. Christian circumcision is realised by the thorough identification of the believer with Christ in His death and resurrection.—“Buried with Him, wherein also ye are risen with Him” (Col_2:12). Burial implies previous death; and to secure the true circumcision we must be spiritually identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. It is the familiar teaching of the New Testament that he who believes in Christ is said to die with Him, to be buried with Him, and to rise with Him (Col_2:13; Rom_6:11; Eph_2:5). A circumcised heart, a new nature, cannot be obtained by mere human effort, by stern resolutions, painful processes of self-mortification, or by the most advanced and rigorous mental culture. It is secured only by a complete, vital union and incorporation with Christ, and a sympathetic participation with Him in all He has done and suffered. With Christ the believer enters the grave where the vast body of sin dies, and is buried; and with Christ he emerges into a new and heavenlier life that transforms the soul into a diviner beauty, and fills it with unutterable rapture and melodious praise.
V. Christian circumcision is wrought in the soul by a spiritual baptism.—“Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him” (Col_2:12). Baptism by water, like legal circumcision, is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. But it does not appear that there is any allusion here to the ordinance of baptism. The leading ideas and figures used in these two verses refer to spiritual realities: the death, burial, and resurrection, the circumcision without hands, and the putting off of the body of the flesh, are all spiritual; and the baptism is evidently of the same character. It is by the baptism of the Spirit—the quickening and renewing power of the Holy Ghost—that the soul is so united to and identified with Christ that the believer may be said to be buried and to rise with Him. It is possible to die with Christ and to rise with Him without being baptised with water; but it is impossible to do either without the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Spiritual baptism is the grave of the old man and the birth of the new. As he sinks beneath the baptismal waters, the believer buries there all his corrupt affections and past sins; as he emerges thence, he rises regenerate, quickened to new hopes and a new life.
VI. Christian circumcision is received by faith.—“Through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead” (Col_2:12). Faith is not a natural production of the human heart. It is a divine gift, and is bestowed on man by a divine operation. Man can believe because God has given him the power to believe. No unbeliever can receive the baptism that effects the spiritual resurrection. The faith specially referred to is to be fixed on the power of God as exerted and displayed in the resurrection of Christ from the tomb. The same power is employed in that mysterious baptismal process by which the soul throws off its mass of moral vileness and rises into newness of life. Faith opens every gateway of the soul, so that it gratefully welcomes and exults in the transforming operations of the divine energy.
Lessons.—
1. All external ordinances are powerless to change the heart.
2. The true circumcision is accomplished by the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
3. To realise the renewing power of God faith is indispensable.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Col_2:11. The True Circumcision—
I. Is not an outward rite, but an inward change.
II. Is an excision of the body of sin by our union with Christ, who has conquered sin.
III. Is not an external observance, but a spiritual experience and a holy life.
Col_2:12. The True Baptism—
I. Is spiritual regeneration.
II. Is being buried and raised again with Christ.
III. Is secured by an active, realising faith in the power of God.
IV. Renders circumcision and all outward rites valueless as means of salvation.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v11 11. As physical birth in Judaism emblematized regeneration, circumcision,…
ARGUMENT 10
CIRCUMCISION, BAPTISM, AND SANCTIFICATION SYNONYMOUS
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11. As physical birth in Judaism emblematized regeneration, circumcision, following quickly, typified sanctification. (Deu 30:6.) Here we know it is spiritual, as it is “made without hands;”
12. As the baptism here mentioned is in grammatical and logical apposition to circumcision, and only separated by a comma, it is synonymous with it. The resurrection mentioned is by the Spirit, as it is by the same power that raised the body of Christ from the dead; i.e., the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit. It is parallel with Rom 6:4-6, where the crucifixion of the old man, his burial into the death of Christ, and the resurrection of the new man, are all imputed to baptism. It is none other than the one baptism (Eph 4:5) in the glorious plan of salvation. Is that baptism a burial? Not so revealed. We are buried by baptism; i.e., the burial of the old body of sin is one of the effects of baptism, like the crucifixion; but the baptism is the agent, while the crucifixion and burial are the wonderful work wrought by the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v11 the sins of
the sins of
Omit "the sins of."
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v10 You have been filled in him
You have been filled in him
Paul speaks of people as though they were containers into which God has placed Christ. AT: "You are made complete in Christ" (See: Metaphor)
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who is the head over every power and authority
Christ is the ruler over every other ruler (See: Metaphor)
In him you were also circumcised
Paul is speaking of those who belong to Christ as if they were inside Christ's body. This can also be made active. AT: "When you joined the church in baptism, God circumcised you" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)
a circumcision not done by humans
With this metaphor, Paul says that God has made Christian believers acceptable to himself in a way that reminded him of circumcision, the ceremony through which Hebrew male babies were added to the community of Israel. (See: Metaphor)
You were buried with him in baptism
Paul speaks of being baptized and joining the assembly of believers as if it were being buried with Christ. This can be made active. AT: "God buried you with Christ when you joined the church in baptism" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)
in him you were raised up
With this metaphor, Paul speaks of the new spiritual life of believers that God made possible by making Christ come alive again. This can be made active. AT: "because you have joined yourself to Christ, God raised you up" or "in him God caused you to live again" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)
you were raised up
Here to raise up is an idiom for causing someone who has died to become alive again. This can be stated in active form. AT: "God raised you up" or "God caused you to live again" (See: Active or Passive and Idiom)
translationWords
head
authority
circumcise
baptize
faith
power
God
die
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 v11 2:11 Christ performed a spiritual circumcision: Spiritual conversion to…
2:11 Christ performed a spiritual circumcision: Spiritual conversion to Christ is the Christian counterpart to physical circumcision. • the cutting away of your sinful nature (literally the cutting away of the body of the flesh): Just as Jewish boys have the flesh of their foreskin cut off to mark their initiation into the people of God, so believers have metaphorical flesh (translated sinful nature) cut off when they come to Christ.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.