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Colossians 1 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
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ALFRED BARRY, D.D.<p>INTRODUCTION<p>TO<p>THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS.<p>I. The Time, Place, and Occasion of Writing.</span>—There are in this Epistle indications of the time and place of writing similar to those already noticed in the Epistles to the Ephesians and Philippians. It is written in prison: for St. Paul bids the Colossians “remember his bonds” (<a href="/colossians/4-18.htm" title=" The salutation by the hand of me Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen.">Colossians 4:18</a>), and designates Aristarchus as his “fellow-prisoner” (<a href="/colossians/4-10.htm" title=" Aristarchus my fellow prisoner salutes you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, (touching whom you received commandments: if he come to you, receive him;)">Colossians 4:10</a>). Like the Epistle to the Ephesians, it is sent by Tychicus, with precisely the same official commendation of him as in that Epistle (<a href="/context/colossians/4-7.htm" title=" All my state shall Tychicus declare to you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord:">Colossians 4:7-8</a>; comp. <a href="/context/ephesians/6-21.htm" title="But that you also may know my affairs, and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things:">Ephesians 6:21-22</a>); but with him is joined Onesimus, the Colossian slave, the bearer of the Epistle to Philemon. The persons named in the concluding salutations (<a href="/context/colossians/4-7.htm" title=" All my state shall Tychicus declare to you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord:">Colossians 4:7-14</a>)—Aristarchus, Marcus, Epaphras, Luke, Demas, and “Jesus, called Justus”—are all, except the last, named in the corresponding part of the Epistle to Philemon (<a href="/context/philemon/1-23.htm" title="There salute you Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus;">Philemon 1:23-24</a>); two of them, Aristarchus and St. Luke, are known to have accompanied the Apostle on his voyage, as a captive, to Rome (<a href="/acts/27-2.htm" title="And entering into a ship of Adramyttium, we launched, meaning to sail by the coasts of Asia; one Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us.">Acts 27:2</a>): and another, Tychicus, to have been his companion on the journey to Jerusalem, which preceded the beginning of that captivity at Cæsarea (<a href="/acts/20-4.htm" title="And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.">Acts 20:4</a>). A direction is given to forward this Epistle to Laodicea, and to obtain and read a letter from Laodicea (<a href="/colossians/4-16.htm" title=" And when this letter is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that you likewise read the letter from Laodicea.">Colossians 4:16</a>), which (as will be seen by the Note on the passage) is, in all probability, our Epistle to the Ephesians—an Epistle (see the <span class= "ital">Introduction</span> to it) addressed, indeed, primarily to Ephesus, but apparently also an Encyclical Letter to the sister Churches of Asia. All these indications point to one conclusion—not only that the Epistle is one of the Epistles of the Roman captivity (about A.D. 61-63), but that it is a twin Epistle with the Epistle to the Ephesians, sent at the same time and by the same hand, and designed to be interchanged with it in the Churches of Colossæ and Laodicea. These indications are confirmed most decisively by the substance of the Epistle itself, which (as will be seen below) presents, on the one hand, the most striking similarities to the Epistle to the Ephesians, and, on the other, differences almost equally striking and characteristic—thus contradicting all theories of derivation of one from the other, and supporting very strongly the idea of independent contemporaneousness and coincidence of thought.<p>The occasion of writing seems evidently to have been a visit to the Apostle from Epaphras, the first preacher of the gospel at Colossæ, and the profound anxiety caused both to him and to St. Paul (<a href="/colossians/2-1.htm" title=" For I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;">Colossians 2:1</a>; <a href="/context/colossians/4-12.htm" title=" Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salutes you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.">Colossians 4:12-13</a>) by the news which he brought of the rise among the Colossians (and probably the Christians of Laodicea and Hierapolis also) of a peculiar form of error, half Jewish, half Gnostic, which threatened to beguile them from the simplicity of the gospel into certain curious mazes of speculation as to the Godhead and the outgrowth of various emanations from it: to create a separation between those who believed themselves perfect in this higher knowledge and the mass of their brethren: and, above all, to obscure or obliterate the sole divine mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ. To warn them against these forms of error—the last development of the Judaism which had been so formidable an enemy in time past, and the first anticipation of an intellectual and spiritual bewilderment which was to be still more formidable in the future—St. Paul writes this Letter. The Colossian Church was indeed to receive a copy from Laodicea of our Epistle to the Ephesians; but in an Encyclical Letter this peculiar form of heresy could not well be touched upon. Epaphras was for the present to continue at Rome, and (see <a href="/philemon/1-24.htm" title="Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow laborers.">Philemon 1:24</a>) to share St. Paul’s imprisonment. Mark, the nephew of Barnabas, then with St. Paul, was perhaps coming to Colossæ (<a href="/colossians/4-10.htm" title=" Aristarchus my fellow prisoner salutes you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, (touching whom you received commandments: if he come to you, receive him;)">Colossians 4:10</a>), but not yet. Accordingly, by Tychicus, the bearer of the Encyclical Letter, and Onesimus, a fugitive Colossian slave, whom the Apostle was about to send back to Philemon, his master, this Letter is despatched. Partly it repeats and enforces the teaching of the other Epistle, but regards these common truths from a different point of view, designed tacitly to correct the errors rife at Colossæ; partly it deals directly with those errors themselves, imploring the Colossians to break through the delusions of their new “philosophy and vain deceit,” and to return to the simplicity of the gospel, in which they had all been one in the one mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ.<p><span class= "bld">II. The Church to which it is addressed.</span>—The Church of Colossæ, unlike the Churches of Ephesus and Philippi, finds no record in the Acts of the Apostles; for, although this city is not very far from Ephesus, we gather that it was not one of the churches founded or previously visited by St. Paul personally (<a href="/colossians/2-1.htm" title=" For I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;">Colossians 2:1</a>; comp. <a href="/colossians/1-4.htm" title=" Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have to all the saints,">Colossians 1:4</a>). But it appears, from what is apparently the true reading of <a href="/colossians/1-7.htm" title=" As you also learned of Epaphras our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ;">Colossians 1:7</a>, that Epaphras, named as its first evangelist, and still, to some extent, in charge of it and the neighbouring Churches of Laodicea and Hierapolis (<a href="/context/colossians/4-12.htm" title=" Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salutes you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.">Colossians 4:12-13</a>), was not only a fellow-servant, but a representative of St. Paul in his mission to Colossæ. We can, therefore, hardly be wrong in referring the conversion of the Colossians to the time of St. Paul’s three years’ stay at Ephesus, during which we are expressly told that “all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (<a href="/acts/19-10.htm" title="And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelled in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.">Acts 19:10</a>), and supposing that indirectly through Epaphras the Christianity of the Colossians was due to the influence of that great Apostolic preaching under which “the word of God grew mightily and prevailed.” We find also that St. Paul had intimate personal acquaintance, and what he calls emphatically “partnership,” with Philemon (see <a href="/philemon/1-17.htm" title="If you count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself.">Philemon 1:17</a>), apparently a leading member of the Church at Colossæ. It is not unlikely that through him also the Apostle had been able to influence the foundation or growth of that Church. These circumstances explain the style and tone of this Letter, which seems to stand midway between the personal familiarity and unhesitating authority of such Epistles as the Epistles to the Thessalonians, Corinthians, Galatians, and Philippians, addressed to churches founded directly by St. Paul, and the courteous reserve of the Epistle to the Romans, addressed to a Church over which he could claim none of the authority of a founder. This is, perhaps, especially notable in Colossians 2, where St. Paul prefaces his definite and authoritative denunciation of the peculiar errors besetting the Colossian Church with the half-apologetic introduction: “I would that ye know what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.”<p>The position and history of Colossæ are admirably described by Dr. Lightfoot in his <span class= "ital">Introduction</span> to this Epistle, sect. 1. It lay in the valley of the Lycus, a tributary of the Mæander, near Laodicea and Hierapolis. These two cities stand face to face, about six miles from each other on opposite sides of the valley, and ten or twelve miles further up, on the river itself, lies Colossæ, so that any one approaching it from Ephesus or from the sea-coast would pass by Laodicea. The three cities thus form a group, so that they might naturally receive the gospel at the same time, and the Christian communities in them might easily be under the same general charge. They seem to have been politically united under the Roman Government, and to have been distinguished by a common trade; like Thyatira, they were known for their manufacture of dyes, especially purple dyes, and derived considerable wealth therefrom. Colossæ had been once a place of importance. It is described by Herodotus (chap. vii. 20) as being, at the time of Xerxes’ invasion of Greece, “a great city of Phrygia,” the site of which is marked by a subterranean disappearance of the river Lycus; and by Xenophon (<span class= "ital">Anab.</span> i. 2, § 6), about a century later, as “a city great and prosperous.” But at the time at which this Epistle was written Colossæ was of far less note than the wealthy Laodicea, the metropolis of the district, or Hierapolis, well known as a place of resort for medicinal baths, and consecrated both to the Greek Apollo and the Phrygian Cybele. In the Apocalyptic letters to the Seven Churches of Asia it finds no mention, being probably looked upon as a dependency of the proud and wealthy Church of Laodicea. After the Apostolic age, while Laodicea and, in less degree, Hierapolis are well-known, Colossæ sinks into utter insignificance. It may possibly have been laid in ruins by one of the earthquakes which are known to have been common in these regions. Comparatively few remains of it are now found, and the very orthography of the name (<span class= "ital">Colossce, </span>or <span class= "ital">Colassæ</span>) has, it appears, been matter of dispute. It is notable that a Church so much honoured and cared for by St. Paul should have had hereafter so obscure and so adverse a future.<span class= "note">[2]<p>[2] Views of the country near the supposed site of Colossæ, and of the ruins of Laodicea and Hierapolis, are given in Lowin’s <span class= "ital">St. Paul, </span>Vol. II., pp. 357-360.</span><p><span class= "bld">III. The Genuineness of the Epistle.</span>—<span class= "ital">External Evidence.</span>—Speaking generally, the condition of the external evidence is much the same with this as with the other two Epistles. It is included unhesitatingly in all canons, from the Muratorian Canon (A.D. 170?) downwards, and in all versions, beginning with the Peschito and the Old Latin in the second century. Quotations or references to it have not, however, been traced in any of the Apostolic fathers. The first distinct allusion to it is in Justin Martyr (A.D. 110-170?), who says (<span class= "ital">Apol.</span> i. 46, ii. 6; <span class= "ital">Dial. c. Tryph.</span> c. 100):—“We were taught that Christ is the first-born of God;” “We have acknowledged Him as the first-born of God, and before all creatures;” “Through Him God set all things in order.” (Comp. <a href="/context/colossians/1-15.htm" title=" Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:">Colossians 1:15-17</a>.) The next is Theophilus of Antioch, who died about A.D. 180:—“God begat the Word, the first-born before all creation.” After this, in Irenæus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian, direct quotation begins, and continues uninterruptedly in all Christian writings. (See Westcott, <span class= "ital">Canon of the New Testament.</span>) The external evidence is therefore strong. Never until these later days of arbitrary criticism has the genuineness of the Epistle been questioned.<p><span class= "ital">Internal Evidence.</span>—This Epistle, far more than the Epistle to the Philippians, perhaps a little less than the Epistle to the Ephesians, bears traces of what I have ventured to call St. Paul’s “third manner.” To the correspondence of the change, both in style and substance, traceable in these Epistles, to the alteration of St. Paul’s circumstances, and the natural development of the gospel and of the Church, I have already referred in the <span class= "ital">General Introduction to the Epistles of</span> <span class= "ital">the Captivity, </span>and given reasons for maintaining that this change, which has been often made an argument against the genuineness of these Epistles, presents to us phenomena inexplicable on any supposition of imitation or forgery, but perfectly intelligible if we accept the Apostolic authorship.<p>Some critics, however—of whom Dr. Holtzmann (in his <span class= "ital">Kritik der Epheser- und Kolosser- briefe</span>) may be taken as the chief representative—insist on tracing extensive interpolations (almost amounting to a virtual reconstruction) in what they believe themselves able to discover as the originals both of this Epistle and the Epistle to the Ephesians. Except so far as these hypotheses depend on the supposed traces of a later Gnosticism in both Epistles, but especially in this (on which see <span class= "ital">Excursus</span> at the close of this Epistle), they seem to resolve themselves into the idea that every passage bearing strong similarity to the teaching of St. Peter and St. John must have been altered or interpolated with a view to accommodation. Without any substantial historical evidence, ignoring both the probabilities of the case and the indirect evidence of Holy Scripture, and disregarding the utter absence of any support whatever in the witness of Christian antiquity, they assume an absolute antagonism between St. Paul and the Apostles of the Circumcision, and pronounce every indication of an underlying unity, and a true development of common doctrine, which contradicts this assumption, to be a mark of interpolation or falsification by a later hand. With the rejection of this arbitrary assumption, the greater part of the ingeniously-constructed fabric of destructive criticism falls to the ground.<p>But, indeed, it appears difficult to conceive how any one attentively studying either of these Epistles, without any preconceived hypothesis, can fail to recognise the internal consistency and unity—all the more striking because indicating a free method, as distinct from a well-squared artificial system—which runs through the whole, and makes the theory of interpolation even more improbable than the theory of imitation or forgery. Nothing, for example, is more notable in this Epistle than the substantial unity, under marked difference of form, which connects the positive statement of doctrine in the first chapter (<a href="/context/colossians/1-14.htm" title=" In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:">Colossians 1:14-23</a>) with the polemical re-statement in the second chapter. In the former we trace anticipation of the latter, and (so to speak) preparation for the more explicit development of the attack on doctrinal error; in the latter, the very repetitions, with variations, of passages in the first chapter are indicative of a free treatment of the truths previously dealt with by the same hand, and are utterly unlike the tame reproductions or artificial modifications of a mere copyist. The remarkable indications, again, of the co-existence of similarity and distinctness between this Epistle and the Epistle to the Ephesians (noticed in the <span class= "ital">Introduction</span> to that Epistle), as they preclude the theory of dependence or imitation in either, so are equally fatal to the idea of an artificial interpolation and reconstruction by later hands. They indicate at every point a free, almost unconscious, coincidence, omitting or preserving the parallelisms of idea and expression by a kind of natural selection. They mark a likeness of living organic growths, not of artificial and heterogeneous fabrics. Nor should we omit to notice the sustained power of these Epistles, differing as to the peculiar style of each, but equally conspicuous in both. The Epistle to the Ephesians has about it a certain calm and almost mystic eloquence, a beauty of meditative completeness of idea, unbroken by necessities of special teaching or special warning, which well suits a general Apostolic message to Christians as Christians, in which we seen almost to hear the utterance of an inspired mind, simply contemplating the divine truth in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and speaking out, so far as they can be spoken, the thoughts which it stirs within—conscious of God and itself, only half conscious of those to whom the utterance is addressed. In the Epistle to the Colossians, on the other hand, we find a far greater abruptness, force, and earnestness. The free course of the Apostolic thought, which occasionally, perhaps, rises to an even greater height, is, on the whole, checked and modified by the constant remembrance of pressing needs and pressing dangers—accordingly developing some elements and leaving others comparatively undeveloped: and so, while perhaps increasing intensity, certainly interfering to some extent with the majestic symmetry of the universal revelation. Each Epistle has its marked characteristics; and these, unquestionably, so run through the whole as to destroy even any show of plausibility in the theory of interpolation.<p>The supposed anachronisms in the references to what afterwards became peculiarities of the Gnostic system will be treated of in the <span class= "ital">Excursus</span> (at the close of the Epistle) <span class= "ital">on the Relation of the Epistle to Gnosticism.</span> Here it will be sufficient to say that, on more attentive examination, not only do the supposed objections to the genuineness of the Epistle disappear, but the phenomena of the “philosophy and vain deceit” touched upon in this Epistle, when compared with the opinions either of the past or of the future, accord so remarkably with the characteristics of the period to which the Epistle claims to belong, as to add a fresh confirmation of the conclusions already derived from a consideration of the external evidence, and by the study of the coherence and vigour of the Epistle itself.<p>In this case, therefore, as in the others, we may unhesitatingly dismiss the questions which have been ingeniously raised, and with undisturbed confidence draw from the Epistle the rich treasures of Apostolic teaching.<p><span class= "bld">IV. The main Substance of the Epistle.</span>—In considering the substance of the Epistle, we must distinguish between the large amount of matter common to it with the Epistle to the Ephesians and the portion which is peculiar to this Epistle alone.<p>In regard of the common matter, it may be said generally that it is found treated with a greater width of scope and completeness of handling in the Epistle to the Ephesians. It is best studied there in the first instance (see, accordingly, the <span class= "ital">Introduction</span> and <span class= "ital">Analysis</span> of that Epistle), and then illustrated by comparison and contrast with the corresponding passages in this Epistle. It will be seen (as is explained in the Notes on various passages) that this illustration is at every point full of suggestiveness and variety. Literal identities are exceedingly rare; in almost every set of parallel passages the treatment in the two Epistles presents some points of characteristic variety, either in expression or in meaning. Speaking generally, this variety depends on two causes. The first turns on the specialty of the Epistle, addressed to a single Church, thoroughly, though indirectly, known to St. Paul, and the generality of the other, approaching nearly to the character of a treatise rather than a letter. The second and the more important cause of this variety is the subtle adaptation even of details to the characteristic doctrines which stand out in the two Epistles respectively.<p>This last consideration leads on naturally to the examination of the portions of the Epistle to which there is nothing to correspond in the Ephesian Epistle.<p>(<span class= "ital">a</span>) We have the passages in the first and last chapters which refer to the foundation of the Colossian Church by Epaphras, the declaration to them of the “truth of the gospel,” and the practical fruitfulness of that teaching (<a href="/context/colossians/1-6.htm" title=" Which is come to you, as it is in all the world; and brings forth fruit, as it does also in you, since the day you heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:">Colossians 1:6-11</a>); next, to the deep anxiety felt by Epaphras and St. Paul himself for their steadfastness in the simple truths of the gospel, against the speculations of a wild philosophy and the allurements of a mystic perfection in practice (<a href="/context/colossians/1-23.htm" title=" If you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;">Colossians 1:23-24</a>; <a href="/context/colossians/2-1.htm" title=" For I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;">Colossians 2:1-4</a>; <a href="/context/colossians/2-8.htm" title=" Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.">Colossians 2:8-10</a>; <a href="/context/colossians/2-16.htm" title=" Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:">Colossians 2:16-23</a>; <a href="/context/colossians/4-12.htm" title=" Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salutes you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.">Colossians 4:12-13</a>); lastly, the particularity and strong personality of the salutations, directions, and blessing at the close of this Epistle (<a href="/context/colossians/4-7.htm" title=" All my state shall Tychicus declare to you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord:">Colossians 4:7-18</a>), singularly contrasting with the brief generality of the other (<a href="/context/ephesians/6-21.htm" title="But that you also may know my affairs, and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things:">Ephesians 6:21-24</a>). All these correspond to the former of the causes above named. They mark the difference between a special and an Encyclical Epistle.<p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>) Of infinitely greater moment is the special prominence which is given in this Epistle to the doctrine of the sole Headship of Christ. The references to the Church as His body, though not unfrequent, are brief, secondary, unemphatic; and thus stand in marked contrast with the vivid and magnificent descriptions in the Ephesian Epistle of the predestination and election of the whole body of the Church in the eternal counsels “of the heavenly places” (<a href="/context/ephesians/1-3.htm" title="Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:">Ephesians 1:3-14</a>): of the union of Jew and Gentile in the divine “commonwealth,” all divisions being broken down which separated each from the other and both from God (<a href="/context/colossians/2-11.htm" title=" In whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:">Colossians 2:11-18</a>): of the great Temple, “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone” (<a href="/context/colossians/2-19.htm" title=" And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increases with the increase of God.">Colossians 2:19-23</a>): of the “one body” and “the one Spirit,” the “one Lord, the one God and Father of all” (<a href="/context/colossians/4-4.htm" title=" That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.">Colossians 4:4-10</a>). It is especially notable that to the last-named passage, which is the climax of the doctrinal teaching of the Ephesian Epistle, there corresponds in this the equally celebrated but wholly different passage (<a href="/context/colossians/3-1.htm" title=" If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God.">Colossians 3:1-4</a>), which addresses the Colossians as “risen with Christ,” having their “life hid with Him in God,” looking for the time “when He who is their life shall appear, and they with Him in glory.” The reason of the distinction is made clear at once by the indications of the presence at Colossæ of a tendency to vain speculations, to obsolete Jewish forms, and to half idolatrous superstitions, all of which alike prevented them from “holding the Head,” from “being dead with Christ” to the rudiments of the world, from being “risen with Him” to a communion with heaven (<a href="/context/colossians/2-8.htm" title=" Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.">Colossians 2:8-23</a>). Accordingly, the sole Headship of Christ is dwelt upon—first positively, (<a href="/context/colossians/1-18.htm" title=" And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.">Colossians 1:18-20</a>), next polemically, in warning against error (<a href="/colossians/2-8.htm" title=" Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.">Colossians 2:8</a>; <a href="/colossians/2-16.htm" title=" Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:">Colossians 2:16</a>; <a href="/colossians/2-18.htm" title=" Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,">Colossians 2:18</a>). Both passages are peculiar to this Epistle, as compared with the Epistle to the Ephesians. They deal with a subject on which the needs of Colossæ and its sister Churches forced St. Paul to lay very special emphasis.<p>(<span class= "ital">c</span>) But this emphasis does but bring out with greater force what may be found elsewhere. The great characteristic feature of this Epistle is the declaration of the nature of Christ in Himself as the “image of the invisible God;” “firstborn before all creation;” “by whom,” “for whom,” “in whom,” “all beings were created in heaven and earth” and “all things consist;” “in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (<a href="/context/colossians/1-15.htm" title=" Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:">Colossians 1:15-17</a>; <a href="/colossians/1-19.htm" title=" For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell;">Colossians 1:19</a>; <a href="/colossians/2-9.htm" title=" For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.">Colossians 2:9</a>). In this the Epistle may be compared with the Epistle to the Philippians (<a href="/context/colossians/2-6.htm" title=" As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in him:">Colossians 2:6-7</a>). But the simple declaration there made of Christ as “being in the form of God” is here worked out into a magnificent elaboration, ascribing to Him the “fulness of Godhead” and the essential divine attributes of universal creation. It may be even more closely compared with the Epistle to the Hebrews, which not only describes Him as “the express image of the essence of Godhead,” but with an emphasis which reminds us of the judaistic angel-worship condemned in this Epistle, exalts His absolute superiority over all who, however glorious, are but creatures of God and ministering spirits (<a href="/hebrews/1-1.htm" title="God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,">Hebrews 1:1</a>; <a href="/hebrews/2-4.htm" title="God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?">Hebrews 2:4</a>). It is evident, again, that it anticipates, yet with characteristic difference of expression, the doctrine of the “Word of God” taught by St. John, and the ascription to Him of essential eternity and Godhead, and both of physical and spiritual creation (<a href="/context/john/1-1.htm" title="In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.">John 1:1-5</a>; <a href="/john/1-14.htm" title="And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.">John 1:14</a>). It is this which gives to our Epistle an unique doctrinal significance and value. Called out by one of the changeful phases of a pretentious, but transitory error, it remains to us an imperishable treasure. We cannot doubt that till the end of time it will have fresh force of special application, as ancient forms of error recur with more or less of variety of outward aspect, and in their constant changes, developments, and antagonisms, stand in significant contrast with the unchanging gospel.<p><span class= "bld">V. Analysis of the</span> <span class= "bld">Epistle.</span>—To this general description is subjoined, as before, an analysis of the Epistle, shortened from the analyses in the various chapters.<p><span class= "bld">1.Doctrinal Section.</span><p>(1)SALUTATION (<a href="/context/colossians/1-1.htm" title=" Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother,">Colossians 1:1-2</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">a</span>)<span class= "ital">Thanksgiving for their faith, love, and hope, the worthy fruits of the truth of the gospel taught by Epaphras</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/1-3.htm" title=" We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,">Colossians 1:3-8</a>);<p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>)<span class= "ital">Prayer for their fuller knowledge, fruitfulness, and patience</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/1-9.htm" title=" For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;">Colossians 1:9-12</a>).<p>(2)THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST (stated positively).<p>(<span class= "ital">a</span>)<span class= "ital">His mediation in the forgiveness of sins </span>(<a href="/context/colossians/1-13.htm" title=" Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:">Colossians 1:13-14</a>);<p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>)<span class= "ital">His divine nature as the image of God and the Creator of all things</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/1-15.htm" title=" Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:">Colossians 1:15-17</a>);<p>(<span class= "ital">c</span>)<span class= "ital">His Headship over the Church and over all created being</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/1-18.htm" title=" And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.">Colossians 1:18-20</a>);<p>(<span class= "ital">d</span>)<span class= "ital">Special application of His mediation to the Colossians, and declaration of the com-mission of the preaching of this mystery to St. Paul himself</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/1-21.htm" title=" And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has he reconciled">Colossians 1:21-29</a>).<p>(3)THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST (stated polemically).<p>(<span class= "ital">a</span>)<span class= "ital">Declaration of St. Paul’s anxiety for them that they should remain rooted and established in the old truth of the gospel</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/2-1.htm" title=" For I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;">Colossians 2:1-7</a>);<p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>)<span class= "ital">Warning against speculative error, denying or obscuring the truth</span>—<p>(<span class= "greekheb"><span class= "ital">α</span></span>)Of Christ’s true Godhead;<p>(<span class= "greekheb"><span class= "ital">β</span></span>)Of the regeneration of spiritual circumcision in Him;<p>(<span class= "greekheb"><span class= "ital">γ</span></span>)Of His sole atonement and triumph over the powers of evil (<a href="/context/colossians/2-8.htm" title=" Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.">Colossians 2:8-15</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">c</span>)<span class= "ital">Warning against practical superstition</span>—<p>(<span class= "greekheb"><span class= "ital">α</span></span>)Of trust in obsolete Jewish ordinances and mystic asceticism;<p>(<span class= "greekheb">β</span>)Of superstitious worship of angels trenching on the sole Headship of Christ (<a href="/context/colossians/2-16.htm" title=" Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:">Colossians 2:16-19</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">d</span>)<span class= "ital"> Exhortation to be</span>—<p>(<span class= "greekheb"><span class= "ital">α</span></span>)Dead with Christ to the rudiments of the world;<p>(<span class= "greekheb"><span class= "ital">β</span></span>)Risen with Christ to the communion with God in heaven (<a href="/colossians/2-20.htm" title=" Why if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances,">Colossians 2:20</a> to <a href="/colossians/3-4.htm" title=" When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory.">Colossians 3:4</a>).<p><span class= "bld">2.Practical Section.</span><p>(1)GENERAL EXHORTATION—<p>(<span class= "ital">a</span>) <span class= "ital">To mortification of the flesh in all the sins of the old unregenerate nature</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/3-5.htm" title=" Mortify therefore your members which are on the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:">Colossians 3:5-9</a>);<p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>)<span class= "ital">To putting on the new man in all the graces of the image of Christ, receiving the peace of God and doing all to His glory</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/3-10.htm" title=" And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:">Colossians 3:10-17</a>).<p>(2)SPECIAL DUTIES OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIP—<p>(<span class= "ital">a</span>)<span class= "ital">Wives and husbands</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/3-18.htm" title=" Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.">Colossians 3:18-19</a>);<p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>)<span class= "ital">Children and parents</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/3-20.htm" title=" Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing to the Lord.">Colossians 3:20-21</a>);<p>(<span class= "ital">c</span>)<span class= "ital">Slaves and masters</span> (<a href="/colossians/3-22.htm" title=" Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eye-service, as men pleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God;">Colossians 3:22</a> to <a href="/colossians/4-1.htm" title=" Masters, give to your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.">Colossians 4:1</a>).<p>(3)CONCLUSION.<p>(<span class= "ital">a</span>)<span class= "ital">Exhortation to prayer and watchfulness </span>(<a href="/context/colossians/4-2.htm" title=" Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;">Colossians 4:2-6</a>);<p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>)<span class= "ital">Mission of Tychicus and Onesimus</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/4-7.htm" title=" All my state shall Tychicus declare to you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord:">Colossians 4:7-9</a>);<p>(<span class= "ital">c</span>)<span class= "ital">Salutations from St. Paul’s companions </span>(<a href="/context/colossians/4-10.htm" title=" Aristarchus my fellow prisoner salutes you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, (touching whom you received commandments: if he come to you, receive him;)">Colossians 4:10-14</a>);<p>(<span class= "ital">d</span>)<span class= "ital">Charge to exchange Epistles with Laodicea </span>(<a href="/context/colossians/4-15.htm" title=" Salute the brothers which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house.">Colossians 4:15-17</a>);<p>(e)<span class= "ital">Final salutation</span> (<a href="/colossians/4-18.htm" title=" The salutation by the hand of me Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen.">Colossians 4:18</a>).<p><span class= "bld">VI. Comparison with Epistle to the Ephesians.</span>—To this outline of the Epistle may also be added a tabular comparison with the Epistle to the Ephesians, noting the general lines of parallelism and peculiarity.<p><span class= "bld">EPHESIANS AND COLOSSIANS.</span><p>[In this Table whatever is common to the two Epistles is printed in ordinary type, and whatever is peculiar to each in italics.]<p><span class= "bld">EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.<p>1.Doctrinal Section.</span><p>1.(<span class= "ital">a</span>) Salutation (<a href="/context/ephesians/1-1.htm" title="Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:">Ephesians 1:1-2</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>)<span class= "ital">Doxology and thanksgiving for the divine election</span> (<a href="/context/ephesians/1-3.htm" title="Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:">Ephesians 1:3-6</a>).<p>(c)Prayer and thanksgiving for them (<a href="/context/ephesians/1-15.htm" title="Why I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love to all the saints,">Ephesians 1:15-18</a>).<p>2.(<span class= "ital">a</span>)Declaration of the “gathering up of all in Christ,” of His universal mediation for Jew and Gentile, and His headship over the Church, which is His Body, “the fulness of Him who filleth all in all” (<a href="/context/ephesians/1-7.htm" title="In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;">Ephesians 1:7-14</a>; <a href="/context/ephesians/1-19.htm" title="And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,">Ephesians 1:19-23</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>)<span class= "ital">Fuller declaration of the union of Jew and Gentile in one covenant and temple, on sole condition of faith in Christ</span> (<a href="/context/ephesians/2-1.htm" title="And you has he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;">Ephesians 2:1-20</a>).<p>(c)The commission to St. Paul of the mystery <span class= "ital">of the calling in of the Gentiles, </span>once hidden, now revealed to men and angels (<a href="/context/ephesians/3-1.htm" title="For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,">Ephesians 3:1-13</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">d</span>)<span class= "ital">Prayer that they may know that which passeth knowledge, by the indwelling of Christ, and be filled to me fulness of God</span> (<a href="/context/ephesians/3-14.htm" title="For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,">Ephesians 3:14-21</a>).<p>3.SUMMARY OF DOCTRINE:<p>(<span class= "ital">a</span>)<span class= "ital">The unity of the Church in God;</span><p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>)<span class= "ital">The diversity of gifts;</span><p>(<span class= "ital">c</span>)<span class= "ital">The one object of all</span>—<span class= "ital">personal and corporate</span> <span class= "ital">edification</span> (<a href="/context/ephesians/4-1.htm" title="I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation with which you are called,">Ephesians 4:1-16</a>).<p><span class= "bld">2.Practical Section.</span><p>1.(<span class= "ital">a</span>) General exhortation to put off the old man and put on the new, <span class= "ital">by learning Christ and being taught in Christ</span> (<a href="/context/ephesians/4-17.htm" title="This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you from now on walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,">Ephesians 4:17-18</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>)Warning against various sins, <span class= "ital">as breaking unity with man</span> (<a href="/context/ephesians/4-25.htm" title="Why putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.">Ephesians 4:25-30</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">c</span>)<span class= "ital">Special warnings against bitterness, against impurity and lust, and against reckless excess and drunkenness</span> (<a href="/ephesians/4-31.htm" title="Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:">Ephesians 4:31</a> to <a href="/ephesians/5-21.htm" title="Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.">Ephesians 5:21</a>).<p>2.HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS:<p>(<span class= "ital">a</span>)Wives and husbands (<a href="/context/ephesians/5-22.htm" title="Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as to the Lord.">Ephesians 5:22-33</a>). (<span class= "ital">The sacredness of marriage as a type of the union between Christ and the Church.</span>)<p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>)Children and parents (<a href="/context/ephesians/6-1.htm" title="Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.">Ephesians 6:1-4</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">c</span>)Slaves and masters (<a href="/context/ephesians/6-5.htm" title="Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ;">Ephesians 6:5-9</a>).<p>3.CONCLUSION.<p>(<span class= "ital">a</span>)<span class= "ital">Exhortation to put on the whole armour of God</span> (<a href="/context/ephesians/6-10.htm" title="Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.">Ephesians 6:10-17</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>)Request for their prayers (<a href="/context/ephesians/6-18.htm" title="Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;">Ephesians 6:18-20</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">c</span>)Commendation of Tychicus (<a href="/context/ephesians/6-21.htm" title="But that you also may know my affairs, and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things:">Ephesians 6:21-22</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">d</span>)“Peace be to the brethren.” “Grace be with all them who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity” (<a href="/context/ephesians/6-23.htm" title="Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.">Ephesians 6:23-24</a>).<p><span class= "bld">EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS.<p>1.Doctrinal Section.</span><p>1.(<span class= "ital">a</span>) Salutation (<a href="/context/colossians/1-1.htm" title=" Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother,">Colossians 1:1-2</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>)Prayer and thanksgiving for them (<a href="/context/colossians/1-3.htm" title=" We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,">Colossians 1:3-5</a>; <a href="/context/colossians/1-9.htm" title=" For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;">Colossians 1:9-12</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">c</span>)<span class= "ital">Special reference to the teaching of Epaphras and its effect</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/1-6.htm" title=" Which is come to you, as it is in all the world; and brings forth fruit, as it does also in you, since the day you heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:">Colossians 1:6-8</a>).<p>2.(<span class= "ital">a</span>) Declaration of the universal mediation of Christ, and His headship over the Church <span class= "ital">and over all created being</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/1-13.htm" title=" Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:">Colossians 1:13-14</a>; <a href="/context/colossians/1-18.htm" title=" And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.">Colossians 1:18-22</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>)<span class= "ital">Declaration of the true Godhead and creative power of Christ</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/1-15.htm" title=" Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:">Colossians 1:15-17</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">c</span>)The commission to St. Paul of the preaching of the mystery once hidden, now revealed, “<span class= "ital">which is Christ in you the hope of</span> <span class= "ital">glory</span>” (<a href="/context/colossians/1-23.htm" title=" If you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;">Colossians 1:23-29</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">d</span>)<span class= "ital">Special warnings against peculiar forms of speculative error and practical superstition, drawing them from Christ, and obscuring His sole mediation and true</span> <span class= "ital">Godhead</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/2-1.htm" title=" For I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;">Colossians 2:1-23</a>).<p>3.SUMMARY OF DOCTRINE:<p><span class= "ital">The unity of the soul with Christ, in which it is risen and exalted to heaven in Him</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/3-1.htm" title=" If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God.">Colossians 3:1-8</a>; comp. <a href="/context/ephesians/2-5.htm" title="Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;)">Ephesians 2:5-6</a>).<p><span class= "bld">2.Practical Section.</span><p>1.(<span class= "ital">a</span>) General exhortation to <span class= "ital">mortify our earthly members, </span>to put off the old man and put on the new (<a href="/context/colossians/3-5.htm" title=" Mortify therefore your members which are on the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:">Colossians 3:5-11</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>)Warning against various sins, <span class= "ital">as unworthy of</span> “<span class= "ital">the elect of God”</span> (<a href="/colossians/3-5.htm" title=" Mortify therefore your members which are on the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:">Colossians 3:5</a>; <a href="/context/colossians/3-8.htm" title=" But now you also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.">Colossians 3:8-9</a>; <a href="/context/colossians/3-13.htm" title=" Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do you.">Colossians 3:13-17</a>).<p>2.HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS:<p>(<span class= "ital">a</span>)Wives and husbands (<a href="/context/colossians/3-18.htm" title=" Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.">Colossians 3:18-19</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>)Children and parents (<a href="/context/colossians/3-20.htm" title=" Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing to the Lord.">Colossians 3:20-21</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">c</span>)Slaves and masters (<a href="/colossians/3-22.htm" title=" Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eye-service, as men pleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God;">Colossians 3:22</a> to <a href="/colossians/4-1.htm" title=" Masters, give to your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.">Colossians 4:1</a>).<p>3.CONCLUSION.<p>(<span class= "ital">a</span>)Request for their prayers (<a href="/context/colossians/4-2.htm" title=" Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;">Colossians 4:2-6</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">b</span>)Commendation of Tychicus <span class= "ital">and Onesimus</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/4-7.htm" title=" All my state shall Tychicus declare to you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord:">Colossians 4:7-9</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">c</span>)<span class= "ital">Salutations from the brethren</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/4-10.htm" title=" Aristarchus my fellow prisoner salutes you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, (touching whom you received commandments: if he come to you, receive him;)">Colossians 4:10-14</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">d</span>)<span class= "ital">Message to Laodicea and Archippus, and direction as to the Letter from Laodicea</span> (<a href="/context/colossians/4-15.htm" title=" Salute the brothers which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house.">Colossians 4:15-17</a>).<p>(<span class= "ital">e</span>)“Remember my bonds. Grace be with you” (<a href="/colossians/4-18.htm" title=" The salutation by the hand of me Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen.">Colossians 4:18</a>).<p><span class= "bld">EXCURSUS ON NOTES TO COLOSSIANS.<p>EXCURSUS A: RELATION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS TO GNOSTICISM.</span><p>IT is not intended in this <span class= "ital">Excursus</span> to attempt any description of the actual historical developments of those singular phases of opinion, classed roughly under the name of “Gnosticism” (on which see Neander’s <span class= "ital">Church History, </span>Sect. IV.), or any imitation of Dr. Lightfoot’s exhaustive and scholarly investigation of the connections in detail, between the form of speculative and practical heresy denounced by St. Paul at Colossæ, and the tenets of the various Gnostic systems. For the purposes of this Commentary it will be sufficient to inquire generally—<p>(1) What is the fundamental principle of Gnosticism?<p>(2) What were the chief problems with which it dealt?<p>(3) How far it could, in its early stages, reasonably ally itself with the Judaic system?<p>(4) What was its early relation to Christianity?<p>(1) Gnosticism, as the name implies, is the absolute devotion to <span class= "ital">Gnosis, </span>or “knowledge.” It is, of course, obvious that “knowledge,” as it is the natural delight of man as man, so also is sanctioned by the Apostles themselves—by none more emphatically than St. Paul, and nowhere more emphatically by him than in the Epistles of the Captivity—as one of the signs and means of the growth of the spiritual life in the image of Christ. In every one of the Epistles of this period St. Paul earnestly desires for his converts progress in knowledge. (See for example <a href="/ephesians/1-17.htm" title="That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:">Ephesians 1:17</a>; <a href="/philippians/1-9.htm" title="And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;">Philippians 1:9</a>; <a href="/colossians/1-9.htm" title=" For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;">Colossians 1:9</a>.) It was, therefore, perfectly in accordance with Apostolic teaching that Clement of Alexandria and his school extolled the “true Gnostic,” as representing some of the higher phrases of spiritual life, and reflecting in some senses, more distinctly than others, the likeness of the mind of God in Christ Jesus. But St. Paul, while he thus delights in true knowledge, also speaks (<a href="/1_timothy/6-20.htm" title="O Timothy, keep that which is committed to your trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:">1Timothy 6:20</a>) of a “knowledge falsely so called,” and by this expression appears to brand with condemnation the spirit of what is commonly called Gnosticism. Where then lay the distinction between the false and the true “knowledge?”<p>In two points especially. First, Gnosticism exalted knowledge to an unwarranted supremacy in the Christian life. It made Christianity a philosophy, rather than a religion; as if its chief internal effect was enlightenment of the understanding rather than regeneration of the life, and its chief desire, in rising above self, was to discover abstract truths about God. and man, rather than to know God Himself, with “all the heart, all the soul, and all the strength,” as well as “all the mind.” Thus it fatally disturbed the true harmony of the speculative, the practical, and the devotional elements of the spiritual life. Energy in practical service, and love in devotion, it considered as good enough for the mass of men, but knowledge as the one mark of “the perfect.” Like all philosophies, it was aristocratic; for in work and in worship all might take their place, but only the few thinkers could “burst into the silent sea” of the higher speculation. There, by the esoteric doctrine, known only to the initiated, they believed themselves to be set apart from the ordinary Christians, for whom the exoteric or popular and imperfect teaching might suffice; and sometimes conceived that, with the higher mystic knowledge, they might gain also mysterious powers, and mysterious means of approach to a divine communion, unknown to others.<p>Secondly, Gnosticism also departed from the Apostolic teaching in relation to its method of knowledge. St. Paul describes, in a celebrated passage of the Epistle to the Ephesians, the process of the true knowledge of God. He prays for the Ephesians thus: “that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend . . . and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with (or rather, <span class= "ital">up to</span>) all the fulness of God.” The order is here profoundly significant. The knowledge, being a knowledge of a Personal God, revealed to us in Jesus Christ, begins in faith—a faith which knows indeed in whom it believes, but then believes on Him, as having “the words of eternal life.” It is next deepened by love, called out by the infinite love of God in Christ, naturally manifesting itself, partly in adoration, partly in active service, and by both coming to know more and more what still passes complete knowledge. Finally, even in its ultimate growth, it is still in some sense the receiving of a divine light, which pours in, and fills the soul with the revelation of God. It does not fill itself, but it “is filled up to all the fulness of God.” Doubtless in all this the energy of the soul itself is implied—first to believe, then to love and to work, lastly to open itself to the divine truth: but it is throughout subordinate. If ever St. Paul allows it to be said, “Ye have known God,” he adds the correction at once, “or rather are known of God.” The process of Gnosticism was fundamentally different. Faith (it thought) was well for the vulgar; love, especially as shown in practice, was all they could hope to add to faith. But the Gnostic, accepting perhaps the vantage ground of ordinary gospel truth, took his stand on it, first to gaze, then to speculate, then to invent, in his own intellectual strength—now by profound thought, now by wild ingenuity of fancy, now by supposed mystic visions. As usual in such cases, he mixed up what he thought he saw with what he went on to infer by pure speculation, and turned what were simple speculations, probable or improbable, into professed discoveries of truth. Nothing is more notable in the full-grown Gnostic theories than the extraordinary luxuriance and arbitrariness of speculations, which, like the cycles and epicycles of the old Ptolemaic astronomy, stand self-condemned by their artificial ingenuity.<p>Now, it is clear that Gnosticism so viewed, although its full development waited for a later period, belongs in essence to all times. It arose again and again, in connection with Christianity, whenever the gospel had won its way to a position of such supremacy over actual life as to challenge speculation. This it had certainly done at the close of St. Paul’s Apostolic career, in all the civilised world of Asiatic, Greek, and Roman thought; but perhaps nowhere more strikingly than in the provinces of Asia Minor, the ancient home of Greek speculation, and now the common meeting-ground of Western philosophy and Eastern mysticism, and in the famous city of Alexandria, where Greek and Jewish ideas had long been inextricably blended together. As we may trace its modern counterpart in much of the scientific and metaphysical speculation of our own day, so also it is but natural that it should emerge even in the earliest times, when the gospel confronted a highly cultivated and inquisitive civilisation. Whatever truth there may be in the old traditions that Simon Magus was the first Gnostic, it is, at least, clear that the germs of Gnosticism lay in his view of Christianity, recognising in it a mystic power and wisdom greater than his own, but ignoring its moral and spiritual regeneration of the soul.<p>(2) The great subjects of Gnostic speculation, under all its strange and fantastic varieties, were again the two great questions which at all times occupy the human mind. The first is speculative. What is the relation between the Infinite and the Finite, the Absolute and the Phenomenal, the First Cause and the actual Universe? The second is moral. What is the nature and origin of the Evil, both physical and moral, which forces itself upon our notice, as a disturbing element in a world essentially good and beautiful? and how can we explain its permitted antagonism to the First Cause, which is presumably good? To these two fundamental questions, belonging to all time, were added two others belonging to the centuries just before and just after the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ. What place is to be assigned to the Jewish dispensation in the philosophy of God and Man? What are the character and significance of the Incarnation, which is the central Christian mystery?<p>With regard to the first question, Gnosticism universally accepted the conception of an Eternal God, sometimes recognised, whether vividly or dimly, as a Person, sometimes looked on as a mere depth (<span class= "ital">Bythos</span>) or abyss of Impersonal Being. But it insisted that, in respect of the work of Creation of the world and of humanity, in the government of the world and in the manifestation of Himself to Man, God was pleased, or was by His Nature forced, to act through inferior beings, all receiving of His <span class= "ital">Pleroma</span> (or, “fulness”) in different degrees of imperfection, and connected with Him in different degrees of nearness through “endless genealogies.” These emanations might be regarded as personal, such as the “Angels of God,” the “Word of God,” the “Spirit of God”; they might be half-personal, like the <span class= "ital">Æons</span> of later speculation; they might be, where Platonism was strong, even the <span class= "ital">Ideas</span> or Attributes of God, gathered up in the <span class= "ital">Logos.</span> But it was through these emanations that the Supreme God made and sustained the world, created man as at once material, animal (<span class= "ital">psychic</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>and spiritual, and manifested Himself to man in different ages.<p>Next, in relation to the Moral Problem of the Existence of Evil, Gnosticism seems to have oscillated between the idea of a direct Dualism, wherever <span class= "ital">the</span> Persian influence predominated, and the conception of a dead-weight of resistance to the Will of God, where-ever Monotheistic influence, especially Jewish influence, drove out the more pronounced conceptions of Dualism. But almost, if not quite, universally it traced the origin of evil to matter, conceived probably as eternal, certainly as independent, if not of the Supreme God, at any rate of the Creative Emanations, or of the One Being called the <span class= "ital">Demiurgus, </span>or “Great Workman,” to whom the Creative was in most cases assigned. Those who were, or continued to be, “material,” enslaved to matter, were hopelessly evil; those who were “psychical,” having, that is, the soul of emotion and lower understanding as distinct from the spirit, were in a condition of imperfection, but with hope of rising to spirituality; those who were spiritual, and they only, were free from all evil, capable of communion with the Supreme God. The first class were the world; the second the mass of the religious; the last were the possessors of the higher knowledge. On what should be the end of this condition of imperfection and conflict, there was division of opinion. But a consummation either of conquest of evil, or of absorption into the Divine <span class= "ital">Pleroma, </span>was looked for by all. In the meanwhile the <span class= "ital">Demiurgus, </span>or the Creative powers of the world, were regarded, sometimes as rebellious, sometimes as blinded by ignorance, sometimes as simply finite and therefore imperfect; and to these qualities in them were traced the sin, the blindness, or the imperfection of the present dispensation.<p>From this conception of matter as the source of evil, and therefore of the body as the evil element in our nature, followed two rival and directly antagonistic conclusions as to the appetites and passions, and the view which the spiritual man should take of them and of the objects by which they were satisfied. The nobler conclusion was, in accordance with the purer Oriental religions, and the highest Platonic philosophy, that the body was simply a hindrance, a prison-house, a dead weight, a cause of blindness or dimness to the spiritual eye; and hence was to be kept under by a rigid asceticism, mortifying all its desires, and preserving the spiritual man, as much as possible, from any contact with the material. The other—perhaps the more common, certainly the ignobler—conclusion was that the indulgence of the body could not pollute any spirit, which was sustained by the higher knowledge, and, therefore, that what common opinion held to be “a shame” was to the spiritual man “a glory,” showing that the most sensual and reckless profligacy was to him a thing absolutely trivial and indifferent. It is obvious that these two rival theories would take up, and invest with a philosophical completeness, the ordinary tendencies represented by Pharisaism, on the one hand, and by Anti-nomianism on the other. Possibly by the natural law of reaction, the two extremes might often meet, in the same system, and even in the same individual.<p>A glance at these subjects will again show that Gnosticism, as in its principles, so in its chief problems, belongs to all times, and is essentially independent both of Judaism and Christianity. It was most natural that the claim of these problems to attention should assert itself in the later periods of the first century, even in reaction against the prosaic and practical systems of Stoicism and Epicureanism, then dominant in ordinary Roman thought, and, however opposed to each other, at least united in a contemptuous discouragement of all abstract speculation, especially in things divine. No home could be more congenial to such inquiries than the classic soil of philosophic speculation in Ephesus and the other cities of Asia, or the learned atmosphere of eclecticism which pervaded the Alexandrine school.<p>(3) But there were, as has been said above, two questions which presented themselves to the special forms of Gnosticism dominant at this period, and of these the first was of the relation of Gnostic theories to the Old Testament and the Jewish dispensation.<p>Now, in Judaism there was, on the one hand, much to attract the Gnostic. In it he found the one great living system of Monotheism, setting forth the absolute and infinite Godhead as the Eternal Source of being, invisible and incomprehensible to man; so infinitely-above all creatures that His very Name was too sacred to be pronounced by human lips. In it he also found, or could easily develop, the doctrine of angelic intervention, in the creation and the guidance of nature, in the intercourse of God with man, even in the government of human history, and the protection both of individuals and of races. The peculiar privilege of a chosen people, easily represented as belonging to them simply through a higher knowledge, and not less easily transferred as an inheritance to a spiritual Israel of the enlightened and perfect, supplied the element of exclusiveness inherent in all Gnostic systems; and all the ordinances of ritual, of typical sacrifices, and ceremonial purity, readily lent themselves to the conception of a certain mystic consecration of the privileged, who might be a “royal priesthood,” a prophetic and saintly order, before God, as distinct from “the people, who knew not the mystic law,” and were “accursed.” Nor would he omit to notice in the Sapiential books of the Old Testament—such as Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes—the exaltation of Wisdom, as distinct from faith and holiness, to a supreme place; and he would find that round the memory of the Wise Man had grown up a whole crowd of legends of mystic lore, of supernatural insight, and of an equally supernatural power over the world of angels and of demons. So far, the Gnostic might find in the Jewish dispensation, freely handled after the manner of Alexandria, much that would give a kind of backbone of solidity to his vague and artificial speculations.<p>On the other hand, Gnosticism was repelled from all that element in the Jewish dispensation which is ordinarily called the “Theocracy,” placing God in direct relation to the ordinary life of Israel, manifesting Him in the local sanctity of the Tabernacle or the Temple, honouring Him with physical sacrifice, setting forth His will in the clear and prosaic ordinances of the Law, dealing with all the people as a body, and as in many points equal before Him. For all this placed the Infinite Godhead in a direct, and, as it seemed to the Gnostic, an unworthy or an impossible contact, not only with man, but with that common life, that visible and tangible sphere of man’s being, which he utterly despised. To some extent it could be got rid of, as at Alexandria, by allegorical interpretations, and by the impositions on the most prosaic text of mystic meanings, known only to the initiated, and handed down in secret “traditions of men.” But where these failed, Gnosticism had a more sweeping remedy. It was to ascribe the whole system literally to the “disposition of angels,” to attribute all that was carnal in Judaism to the inferior <span class= "ital">Demiurgus, </span>perhaps imperfectly ministering the will of the Supreme God, perhaps becoming himself the God of the Jewish nation and of the Old Testament; in either case, giving a dispensation fit only in itself for the lower psychical life, needing to be sublimed by the spiritual into a hidden wisdom, “a secret treasure of wisdom and knowledge.” Hereafter, when the Demiurgus came to be considered as antagonistic to the spiritual will of the Supreme God, this conception (as in the hands, for example, of Marcion) developed into an absolute hatred of Judaism, as a system entirely carnal, idolatrous, antagonistic to spiritual truth, and to the gospel so far as it was spiritual. But for this, in the first century, the time was not come. As yet, the growing power of Gnosticism treated Judaism as an ally, though perhaps in some degree a subject ally, in the victorious advance of its daring speculation.<p>Now, it has been shown, as with remarkable clearness by Dr. Lightfoot (in his <span class= "ital">Introduction to the Colossian</span> <span class= "ital">Epistle, </span>§ 2), that some such alliance is actually trace-able in the strange Jewish brotherhood of the Essenes—marked as it was (by consent of all authorities) by a rigid asceticism, “forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats;” by a denial of the resurrection of the body, as being a mere hindrance to the spiritual condition of the hereafter; by an abstinence from all sacrifices, as involving pollution, and perhaps as mere carnal ordinances; by mystic speculations as to the nature of the Godhead, and “the names of the angels,” and by occasional claim of supernatural powers of magic; by the jealous preservation of secret traditions, and by a careful separation of the initiated from the mass of their fellow-Israelites.<p>The chosen home of the Essenes, of whom we have detailed accounts, was in Palestine, on the borders of the Dead Sea. But it is hardly likely that so remarkable a movement should have confined itself to any single locality. Certainly in Alexandria, in the tenets of the sect of the <span class= "ital">Therapeutce, </span>and in the teaching of Alexandrian Judaism, there was much of essential similarity to the Essenic system. Now, in close connection with our Epistle we notice the presence in Asia Minor of disciples of St. John Baptist, adhering, indeed, to “the way of the Lord,” but knowing nothing of the “baptism of the Lord Jesus” (<a href="/context/acts/19-1.htm" title="And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,">Acts 19:1-7</a>). These would come naturally from Palestine, perhaps from. “the wilderness of Judæa,” where John had baptised, near the chosen home of Essenism. We find, moreover, that a great Alexandrian teacher (Apollos), also “knowing only the baptism of John,” had come down in the early part of the gospel to teach with singular power at Ephesus. That St. John himself, though probably quite erroneously, has been claimed as an Essene is well known. But in any case his ascetic and salutary life, his stern denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees, his very baptism of repentance, his declaration of the nullity of mere sonship of Abraham, would certainly be congenial to the Essene mind. Josephus’ celebrated picture of his Essene teacher (quoted by Dr. Lightfoot, p. 161), reminds us, again and again, though with difference, of St. John Baptist himself. Certainly his disciples, when they had lost their master, clinging to his name in spite of his own warning of the transitoriness of his mission, might easily find in the Essenic system the rallying point which they needed, in order to preserve their distinctive character. Nor can we well forget the “vagabond Jews, exorcists,” seeking to cast out evil spirits by the mere charm of a sacred Name of One in whom they did not believe, but a Name which they, like Simon Magus, in Samaria, recognised as having in it a supernatural power of miracle; and the mystic “books” of “curious arts “burnt publicly at Ephesus. The Essenic ideas might easily spread beyond the limits of the strict Essenic brotherhood. If once planted in the prolific soil of Asia Minor, they could hardly fail to attain a rapid development.<p>Now, it is certainly with a form of Judæo-Gnosticism that St. Paul has to deal in his Colossian Epistle, and one, moreover, which bears some marked similarities to the Essenic type of thought. On the one hand, he denounces the enforcement of the Jewish festivals (<a href="/colossians/2-16.htm" title=" Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:">Colossians 2:16</a>), and probably of the rite of circumcision (<a href="/colossians/2-11.htm" title=" In whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:">Colossians 2:11</a>): on the other, he warns against the “traditions of men” (<a href="/colossians/2-8.htm" title=" Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.">Colossians 2:8</a>), containing “a philosophy and vain deceit, ”, and alludes significantly to “the treasure, the <span class= "ital">hidden</span> treasure of wisdom and knowledge.” He describes, again, a “worship of angels,” and an “intrusion into the things not seen,” at least by the ordinary eye (<a href="/colossians/2-18.htm" title=" Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,">Colossians 2:18</a>, where see Note); and a rigid asceticism going beyond Pharisaic observance of the Law, and crying out at every point, “Touch not, taste not, handle not” (<a href="/colossians/2-21.htm" title=" (Touch not; taste not; handle not;">Colossians 2:21</a>). Indirectly, but very emphatically, he protests against exclusive pretensions, and would present “every man as perfect before Christ” (<a href="/colossians/1-22.htm" title=" In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and unreproveable in his sight:">Colossians 1:22</a>; <a href="/colossians/1-28.htm" title=" Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:">Colossians 1:28</a>). All these features belong unequivocally to Gnosticism, but to Gnosticism in its early stages, while still allied to Judaism, before it had attained to the independent luxuriance of later days. Nothing, for instance, is more striking than the reference to angelic natures, “thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers,” as intervening between man and God, and the want of any vestige of allusion to the Æons of the later Gnosticism, even such as may perhaps be traced in the “oppositions” and “genealogies” of the Pastoral Epistles (<a href="/1_timothy/1-4.htm" title="Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.">1Timothy 1:4</a>; <a href="/1_timothy/6-20.htm" title="O Timothy, keep that which is committed to your trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:">1Timothy 6:20</a>; <a href="/titus/3-9.htm" title="But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.">Titus 3:9</a>). St. Paul uses the word <span class= "ital">Æon</span> again and again (see <a href="/ephesians/1-21.htm" title="Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:">Ephesians 1:21</a>; <a href="/ephesians/2-2.htm" title="Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience:">Ephesians 2:2</a>; <a href="/ephesians/2-7.htm" title="That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.">Ephesians 2:7</a>; <a href="/ephesians/3-9.htm" title="And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:">Ephesians 3:9</a>; <a href="/ephesians/3-11.htm" title="According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:">Ephesians 3:11</a>; <a href="/ephesians/3-21.htm" title="To him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.">Ephesians 3:21</a>; <a href="/philippians/4-20.htm" title="Now to God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.">Philippians 4:20</a>; <a href="/colossians/1-26.htm" title=" Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:">Colossians 1:26</a>), but always in its proper sense of “age,” without a shadow of the strange half-personification of the later Gnostic use. Throughout there is a distinct appropriateness to the time of the imprisonment at Rome, and just that union of similarity and dissimilarity to the later growths of Gnosticism which might be expected at this early date.<p>(4) But still more important and interesting is the question of the relation of Gnosticism to Christianity indicated by the Colossian Epistle. In the full-grown development of Gnosticism there were evidently two phases of this relation. In some cases the Gnostic theory, as a whole, stands out independent of Christianity, simply weaving some ideas derived from the gospel into the complexity of its comprehensive system. Such seems to have been, for example, the attitude towards Christianity of Basilides and Valentinus. In other cases, of which Marcion may be taken as a type, it identified itself in the main with Christianity, striving to mould it by free handling to its own purpose, and appealed to the Christian Scriptures, expurgated and falsified in its own peculiar sense. Moreover, in the same advanced stages Christianity was clearly distinguished by it from Judaism;” the Christ “was independent of the <span class= "ital">Demiurgus, </span>the supposed author of the Jewish dispensation, and stood in far closer union with the Supreme Deity. Sometimes, as again notably in the system of Marcion, Christianity was characterised in a series of antitheses, as opposed to Judaism, and the salvation of the Christ was represented as a deliverance from the power of the God of the Jew. But a glance at the Epistle to the Colossians will show that of these things there is as yet no trace. Christianity had already broken through the narrow limits of Jewish legalism; the struggle marked in the Galatian and Roman Epistles had terminated in the complete victory of the freedom of the gospel. But, just as the Epistle to the Hebrews shows that there was still need to assert the transitoriness of the Jewish Ritual, Priesthood, and Sacrifice, so in this Epistle we observe that Jewish mysticism still claimed some dominion over the infant Church. Not till the hand of Providence had cut the knot of entanglement by the fall of Jerusalem, and the various manifestations of the bitter hostility of the Jews towards Christianity, was the dissociation complete.<p>In the eyes of Gnostic speculation of the East, Christianity probably as yet showed itself only as a sublimated and spiritualised Judaism, still presenting all the features which had excited sympathy, and simply crowning the hierarchy of angels by the manifestation of Him, who was emphatically “the Angel of the Lord;” while, on the other hand, it eliminated the narrowness of legalism, the carnality of ritual, and the close connection of the divine kingdom with common-place political and social life, which in Judaism had been an offence. Hence, in the phase already described at Colossæ, without throwing off its connection with Judaism, Gnosticism eagerly sought to lay hold of the new religion, to accept it in all its simplicity for the vulgar, and to mysticise it for the perfect into a higher knowledge. The error which vexed the Church at Colossæ appears still to approach it from without, much as the earlier Judaism had approached the Churches of Antioch or Galatia. Perhaps St. Paul’s foreboding words at Miletus had been justified by the rise “among their own selves of men speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them;” but the body of the Church seems still untouched, and is bidden to beware lest any man should “spoil” them, “judge” them, or “beguile them of their reward,” by drawing them to this new phase of error.<p>It has been remarked by Neander that Cerinthus, born at Alexandria, and certainly in the days of St. John at Ephesus a propagator of his doctrine in the Churches of Asia Minor, is the Gnostic, whose system is a link between Judaism and Gnosticism proper. Certainly what can be traced as to his speculations on the function of the Angels, or of one Supreme Angel, in the Creation of the world and in the giving of the Mosaic laws, agrees well enough with the indications of the Colossian heresy. But of the distinctive points of his treatment of Christ—namely, his conception that the <span class= "ital">Demiurgus</span> was ignorant of the will of the Supreme Deity, which was revealed by the Christ; his distinction between the man Jesus of Nazareth, and “the Christ,” descending upon Him in the form of the dove at His baptism, and leaving Him before the Passion—we find no trace in the Colossian Epistle. The direct warnings of St. Paul refer only to the errors of the Judæo-Gnosticism. It is rather by the declaration of the positive truth of the true Godhead of the Lord Jesus Christ, His creative function, His infinite exaltation above all principality and power, and above all, the weighty declaration that in Him “all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily,” that, as in a prophetic jealousy, he guards against the developments of Gnostic heresy in the future. We trace here a distinction from the more direct warnings even of the Pastoral Epistles— against the teaching in the Church of “other doctrines,” of “fables and endless genealogies<span class= "ital">”</span> of Gnostic emanation; the explaining away of the future resurrection; the “seducing spirits and doctrines of demons”—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>of beings intermediate between God and man; which were united with the asceticism “forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats”; “the questions and strifes of words,” and the “oppositions “(Gnostic antitheses) “of knowledge falsely so called”; the apostasy “of all which are in Asia,” and the heresy “eating like a canker “into the very heart of the Church, which will no longer “endure sound doctrine.” (<a href="/context/1_timothy/1-3.htm" title="As I sought you to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that you might charge some that they teach no other doctrine,">1Timothy 1:3-4</a>; <a href="/context/1_timothy/4-1.htm" title="Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;">1Timothy 4:1-3</a>; <a href="/1_timothy/6-4.htm" title="He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof comes envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,">1Timothy 6:4</a>; <a href="/1_timothy/6-20.htm" title="O Timothy, keep that which is committed to your trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:">1Timothy 6:20</a>; <a href="/2_timothy/2-17.htm" title="And their word will eat as does a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;">2Timothy 2:17</a>; <a href="/2_timothy/4-3.htm" title="For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;">2Timothy 4:3</a>). There is a still more marked distinction from the explicit warnings of St. John, protesting emphatically against the distinctive assertion of Gnostic heresy, that “Jesus Christ had not come in the flesh,” and dwelling on the Incarnation of “the Word of Life,” the Son, “to have whom is to have the Father,” in those weighty declarations, every word of which seems charged with reference to Gnostic error. Everything shows that the heresy noted at Colossæ belongs to an earlier stage than even the Gnosticism of Cerinthus. In contemplating it, we see the last expiring struggle of Judaism, and can just trace, inextricably entwined with it, the yet deadlier error, which was here-after to separate from it, and even to trample on it, and to advance over its dead body to the attack on the living energy of Christianity.<p>These considerations may suffice to mark with tolerable clearness the relation of the Epistle to Gnosticism. They certainly appear to show how entirely erroneous and inconsistent with the facts of the case is the idea, so confidently advanced, that the Epistle indicates a knowledge of full-grown Gnosticism fatal to its Apostolic origin. But they have far greater value, as enabling us better to understand its deeply interesting picture of the development, alike of Christian truth, and of the heresy, destined hereafter to assail or undermine it, in the closing years of the ministry of St. Paul<p><span class= "bld">EXCURSUS B: THE APOCRYPHAL EPISTLE TO THE LAODICEANS.</span><p>The translation of this Epistle here given is taken from the Latin (in which alone it is found), quoted by Dr. Lightfoot in the Appendix to his edition of the Epistle to the Colossians, with a conjectural rendering back into the Greek (which he thinks may have been the original) and two old English versions of the fifteenth century. He also gives a full description of the various Latin MSS., from which it appears that the earliest (the <span class= "ital">Codex Fuldensis</span>) is a Vulgate New Testament of A.D. 546, in which the Epistle occurs between the Epistle to the Colossians and the First Epistle to Timothy. A glance at it will show that it is little more than a tame compilation of phrases, which, however, are taken not from the Ephesians or Colossians, but mostly from the Philippians, and that it has no bias or evidence of distinctive purpose whether for good or for evil. It certainly is not the Epistle spoken of in the Muratorian Fragment, as “in Marcionis heresim conficta.” Its very simplicity induces a charitable hope that originally it may have been only “a pious imagination,” made without idea of forgery, which subsequently was accepted as claiming to be a genuine Epistle of St. Paul.<p>It runs thus:—<p>“Paul an Apostle, not of men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, to the brethren who are in Laodicea; grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.<p>“I thank Christ in all my supplications that ye are abiding in Him, and continuing steadfast in His works, waiting for the promise even unto the Day of Judgment. Neither let the vain words of some who teach beguile you, that they should turn you away from the truth of the gospel, which was preached unto you by me. And now shall God bring it to pass that they which are from me be serving to the furtherance of the truth of the gospel, and doing all goodness in the works of salvation (and) of eternal life.<p>“And now my bonds which I suffer in Christ are manifest; in which I am glad and rejoice; and this shall turn to my everlasting salvation, which also itself is wrought by your prayers, and the supply of the Holy Ghost, whether it be by life or by death. For to me both to live in Christ and to die is joy; and His mercy shall work out the same thing in you, that ye may have the same love, and be of one mind.<p>“Therefore, my dearly beloved, as ye heard in my presence with you, so hold fast and work in the fear of God, and it shall be to you unto everlasting life. For it is God which worketh in you. And do without drawing back, whatsoever ye do.<p>“Finally, my dearly beloved, rejoice in Christ, and beware of those who are greedy of filthy lucre. Let all your petitions be made known unto God, and be steadfast in the mind of Christ. Whatsoever things are sound, and true, and pure, and righteous, and lovely, do; and what ye have heard and received keep in your heart. And peace shall be with you.<p>“The saints salute you. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with your spirit, Cause this Epistle to be read to the Colossians, and that the Letter of the Colossians be read also to you.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-1.htm">Colossians 1:1</a></div><div class="verse">Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus <i>our</i> brother,</div>(1) <span class= "bld">Timotheus our brother.</span>—Except in the mention of Timotheus (as in the other Epistles of the captivity; see <a href="/philippians/1-1.htm" title="Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:">Philippians 1:1</a>; <a href="/philemon/1-1.htm" title="Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellow laborer,">Philemon 1:1</a>), the salutation is almost verbally coincident with the opening of the Epistle to the Ephesians (where see Note). The mention of Timotheus here, and the omission of his name there, mark the difference in character between the two Epistles. In a special Epistle like this Timotheus would be joined with St. Paul as usual. In a general Epistle to the churches of Asia, the Apostle alone could rightly speak.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-2.htm">Colossians 1:2</a></div><div class="verse">To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace <i>be</i> unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.</span>—The best MSS. show here, that the salutation should run simply “from God the Father,” thus varying from St. Paul’s otherwise universal phraseology. Such variation can hardly be accidental. Could it have been suggested to St. Paul’s mind, in connection with his special desire to emphasize the true Godhead of Christ, so obvious in this Epistle, by an instinctive reluctance to use in this case any phrase, however customary with him, which might even seem to distinguish His nature from the Godhead? It is certainly notable that in the true reading of <a href="/colossians/2-2.htm" title=" That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;">Colossians 2:2</a> Christ is called “the mystery of God, even the Father”—an unique and remarkable expression, which marks a preparation for the full understanding of the teaching of our Lord, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (<a href="/john/14-9.htm" title="Jesus said to him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known me, Philip? he that has seen me has seen the Father; and how say you then, Show us the Father?">John 14:9</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-3.htm">Colossians 1:3</a></div><div class="verse">We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,</div>(3-8) In this expression of St. Paul’s thanksgiving for them there is as usual a peculiar correspondence to their circumstances. They had been full of faith, love, and hope, the fruit of a true gospel preached by Epaphras; there was fear now lest they should be beguiled from it, although that fear was obviously not yet realised, as had been formerly the case with the Galatians. Hence St. Paul’s emphasis on their hearing, knowing, and learning the truth, and on the faithfulness of Epaphras as a minister of Christ.<p>(3, 4) Comp. <a href="/context/ephesians/1-15.htm" title="Why I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love to all the saints,">Ephesians 1:15-16</a>, where there is an almost exact verbal coincidence. Whatever may be the force there of the words “having <span class= "ital">heard</span> of your faith,” clearly here they harmonise with many indications that the Colossian Church, though well known to St. Paul, was not known by personal knowledge.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-5.htm">Colossians 1:5</a></div><div class="verse">For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;</div>(5) <span class= "bld">For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven.</span>—The union of hope with faith and love is natural enough. Compare the fuller expression of <a href="/1_thessalonians/1-3.htm" title="Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;">1Thessalonians 1:3</a>, “your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope.” But the place assigned to hope in this passage is notable. “For the hope” is really “on account of the hope.” Hence faith and love are spoken of, not merely as leading up to hope, but as being actually kindled by it. Similarly in <a href="/ephesians/1-18.htm" title="The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,">Ephesians 1:18</a> we find that, while faith and love are taken for granted, there is a special prayer that they may be enlightened “to know the hope of His calling” as the one thing yet needful. The prominence given to the thought of “the heavenly places” in the Epistles of the captivity, and therefore to Christ in heaven, even more than to Christ risen, is evident to any careful student. Accordingly, the hope, which is the instinct of perfection in man, and which becomes realisation of heaven in the Christian, naturally comes out with corresponding emphasis.<p><span class= "bld">Ye heard before.</span>—That is, at their first conversion. There is an implied warning against the new doctrines, which are more fully noticed in the next chapter.<p><span class= "bld">The truth of the gospel.</span>—This expression (as in <a href="/galatians/2-14.htm" title="But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, If you, being a Jew, live after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compel you the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?">Galatians 2:14</a>) is emphatic. It refers to the gospel, not chiefly as a message of graciousness and mercy, but rather as a revelation of eternal truths, itself changeless as the truth it reveals. There is a corresponding emphasis, but stronger still, in St. John. (See, for example, <a href="/1_john/2-27.htm" title="But the anointing which you have received of him stays in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him.">1John 2:27</a>; <a href="/1_john/5-20.htm" title="And we know that the Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.">1John 5:20</a>; <a href="/context/2_john/1-1.htm" title="The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth;">2John 1:1-4</a>; <a href="/context/3_john/1-2.htm" title="Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.">3John 1:2-3</a>.) The gospel was now winning its way to supremacy over civilised thought. Hence the need of warning against the sudden growth of wild speculations, contrasted with the unchanging simplicity of its main truths.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-6.htm">Colossians 1:6</a></div><div class="verse">Which is come unto you, as <i>it is</i> in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as <i>it doth</i> also in you, since the day ye heard <i>of it</i>, and knew the grace of God in truth:</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Which is come unto you . . .</span>—There is much variety of reading here, but the text followed by our version is certainly incorrect. The probable reading is, <span class= "ital">which is come unto you, just as in all the world it is now bringing forth fruit and growing, as also it does in you.</span> In this sentence there are two lessons implied. First, the universality of the gospel, in which it stands contrasted, as with all local and national religions, whether of Judaism or of Paganism, so also with the secret doctrines of Gnostic speculation, intelligible only to the initiated few. Next, the test of its reality both by practical fruit of action, and by the spiritual growth connected therewith. In relation to the former, “faith without works” is “dead”; in relation to the other it is “imperfect,” needing to be developed into maturity (<a href="/james/2-20.htm" title="But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?">James 2:20</a>; <a href="/james/2-22.htm" title="See you how faith worked with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?">James 2:22</a>). Both these lessons were evidently needed, in consequence of the appearance at Colossæ of the occult mysticism and the unpractical speculation noted in <a href="/colossians/2-8.htm" title=" Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.">Colossians 2:8</a>; <a href="/colossians/2-10.htm" title=" And you are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:">Colossians 2:10</a>; <a href="/colossians/2-18.htm" title=" Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,">Colossians 2:18</a>. But the Church itself was still faithful. Hence the last words, “as also it does in you,” turning back again to Colossæ in particular, are an insertion of kindly courtesy—one of the insertions of apparent afterthought not unfrequent in St. Paul’s Epistles—intended to show that the implied warning is by no means a condemnation.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-7.htm">Colossians 1:7</a></div><div class="verse">As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ;</div>(7) <span class= "bld">Ye also learned of Epaphras.</span>—Of Epaphras we know nothing, except what we gather from this passage, and from <a href="/colossians/4-12.htm" title=" Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salutes you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.">Colossians 4:12</a>; <a href="/philemon/1-23.htm" title="There salute you Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus;">Philemon 1:23</a>. The name is a shortened form of Epaphroditus, but it is most unlikely that he is the same as the Epaphroditus of <a href="/philippians/2-25.htm" title="Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labor, and fellow soldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants.">Philippians 2:25</a>; <a href="/philippians/4-18.htm" title="But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.">Philippians 4:18</a>. Being, it seems, a native of Colossæ itself, he was apparently its first evangelist, and is afterwards described as feeling some responsibility for it and its neighbouring cities, Laodicea and Hierapolis (<a href="/colossians/4-13.htm" title=" For I bear him record, that he has a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis.">Colossians 4:13</a>). His work could not have been transient, for under him the Colossians are said not only to have “heard,” but also to have “known” (come to know perfectly) “the grace of God.” St. Paul here gives emphatic testimony to his faithfulness, and to his preaching to them “in truth.” That he was, then or afterwards. Bishop of Colossæ is probably a mere guess of tradition. But he may have had some such charge as that which was afterwards more formally committed to Timothy at Ephesus, and Titus in Crete. At this time, however, he remained with St. Paul (<a href="/context/colossians/4-12.htm" title=" Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salutes you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.">Colossians 4:12-13</a>), and apparently shared his captivity, for he is called (in <a href="/philemon/1-23.htm" title="There salute you Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus;">Philemon 1:23</a>) his “fellow-prisoner.”<p><span class= "bld">Who is for you a faithful minister</span> <span class= "bld">of Christ.</span>—(1) “For you” is, properly, <span class= "ital">on your behalf.</span> This has been supposed to mean that Epaphras, like his Philippian namesake, had been a representative of the Colossian Church, in ministry to the Apostle; but this is hardly compatible with the entire absence of any personal reference in the sentence. Contrast <a href="/philemon/1-13.htm" title="Whom I would have retained with me, that in your stead he might have ministered to me in the bonds of the gospel:">Philemon 1:13</a>, “that on thy behalf he might minister <span class= "ital">to me.”</span> If this reading, therefore, is to stand, “on your behalf” must be taken to signify generally “for your benefit,” which is doubtless the meaning of our version. (2) But there is considerable, perhaps preponderating, MS. authority for the reading “on our behalf,” that is, <span class= "ital">in our stead.</span> This makes Epaphras a representative, perhaps an actual messenger, of St. Paul, for the conversion of the church at Colossæ; sent probably at the time when the Apostle had his head-quarters at Ephesus, and when “all that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus” (<a href="/acts/19-10.htm" title="And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelled in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.">Acts 19:10</a>). This interpretation not only gives greater force to this passage, but explains also the attitude of authority here assumed by St. Paul toward a church which he had not seen, differing so markedly from the tone of his Epistle to the Romans in a like case.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-8.htm">Colossians 1:8</a></div><div class="verse">Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Who also declared unto us.</span>—This refers to news recently brought by Epaphras to St. Paul at Rome. He had been a minister in St. Paul’s stead; he now, like Timothy afterwards, visited him to give account of his deputed work.<p><span class= "bld">Your love in the Spirit.</span>—“In the Spirit” is “in the grace of the Holy Ghost”—the Spirit of love. The love here would seem to be especially love towards St. Paul, a part of the “love towards all the saints” ascribed to them above (<a href="/colossians/1-4.htm" title=" Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have to all the saints,">Colossians 1:4</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-9.htm">Colossians 1:9</a></div><div class="verse">For this cause we also, since the day we heard <i>it</i>, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;</div>(9-12) From thanksgiving St. Paul passes, as always, to pray for them. The prayer is for their full and perfect knowledge of God’s will; but this is emphatically connected with practical “walking” in that will, first by fruitfulness in good work, next by showing themselves strong in Christ to endure sufferings, lastly by thankful acceptance of God’s call to inheritance among the saints in light. There is a hearty recognition of the blessing of knowledge (on which the incipient Gnosticism of the day was so eloquent); but it is to be tried by the three tests of practical goodness, patience, and thankful humility.<p>(9) <span class= "bld">Do not cease to pray for you.</span>—Comp. <a href="/ephesians/1-16.htm" title="Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;">Ephesians 1:16</a>. “To pray” (see <a href="/ephesians/6-18.htm" title="Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;">Ephesians 6:18</a>; <a href="/philippians/4-6.htm" title="Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.">Philippians 4:6</a>) is the general word for “to worship”; “to desire” indicates prayer, properly so called, asking from God what is requisite and necessary for ourselves or for others.<p><span class= "bld">The knowledge of his will.</span>—The “knowledge” here spoken of is the “full knowledge,” to be attained in measure here, to be made perfect in heaven. See <a href="/1_corinthians/13-12.htm" title="For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.">1Corinthians 13:12</a>, “Now I know in part; but then shall I know (perfectly) even as I am known.” On this word, especially frequent in the Epistles of the captivity, see Note on <a href="/ephesians/1-17.htm" title="That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:">Ephesians 1:17</a>. It should be noted that the knowledge here prayed for is “the knowledge <span class= "ital">of God’s will”</span>—not speculation as to the nature of God, or as to emanations from Deity, or even as to the reasons of God’s mysterious counsels, but knowledge of what actually is His will, both in the dispensation which is to be accepted in faith, and in the commandments to be obeyed in love. So St. Paul (in <a href="/context/1_timothy/1-4.htm" title="Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.">1Timothy 1:4-5</a>) contrasts with the “fables and endless genealogies” of Gnostic speculation, “the end of the commandment,” “charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned.”<p><span class= "bld">In all wisdom and spiritual understanding.</span>—This “knowledge of God’s will” is man’s “wisdom.” For “wisdom” is the knowledge of the true end of life; which is (as the Book of Ecclesiastes so tragically shows) vainly sought, if contemplated apart from God’s will, but found (see <a href="/ecclesiastes/12-13.htm" title="Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.">Ecclesiastes 12:13</a>; <a href="/job/28-28.htm" title="And to man he said, Behold, the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.">Job 28:28</a>; <a href="/proverbs/1-7.htm" title="The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.">Proverbs 1:7</a>) in the “fear of the Lord” and the “keeping of His commandments.” (On the relation of the supreme gift of wisdom to lesser cognate gifts, see Note on <a href="/ephesians/1-8.htm" title="Wherein he has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;">Ephesians 1:8</a>.) “Understanding” here is properly the faculty of spiritual insight or judgment, the speculative exercise of wisdom, as the “prudence” of <a href="/ephesians/1-8.htm" title="Wherein he has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;">Ephesians 1:8</a> is the practical. Hence St. Paul subjoins the practical element at once in the next verse.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-10.htm">Colossians 1:10</a></div><div class="verse">That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Walk worthy</span> (<span class= "ital">worthily</span>) <span class= "bld">of the Lord.</span> Here St. Paul begins to dwell on the practical life, much in the same spirit in which, in <a href="/ephesians/4-1.htm" title="I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation with which you are called,">Ephesians 4:1</a>, he returns from the profound thought of Colossians 2, 3 to the entreaty “to walk worthy of the vocation with which they are called.” “The Lord” is here, as usual, the Lord Jesus Christ; to walk worthy of Him is to have His life reproduced in us, to follow His example, to have “the mind of Christ Jesus.” The “worthiness” is, of course, relative to our capacity, not absolute.<p><span class= "bld">All pleasing.</span>—The word here used is not found elsewhere in the New Testament, but is employed in classic and Hellenistic Greek to mean “a general disposition to please”—a constant preference of the will of others before our own. It is here used with tacit reference to God, since towards Him alone can it be a safe guide of action. Otherwise it must have the bad sense which in general usage was attached to it. St. Paul emphatically disowns and condemns the temper of “men-pleasing” (see <a href="/galatians/1-10.htm" title="For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.">Galatians 1:10</a>; <a href="/ephesians/6-6.htm" title="Not with eye-service, as men pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;">Ephesians 6:6</a>; <a href="/colossians/3-22.htm" title=" Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eye-service, as men pleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God;">Colossians 3:22</a>; <a href="/1_thessalonians/2-4.htm" title="But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which tries our hearts.">1Thessalonians 2:4</a>), as incompatible with being “the servant of Christ.” He could, indeed, “be all things to all men” (<a href="/1_corinthians/9-22.htm" title="To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.">1Corinthians 9:22</a>); he could bid each man “please his neighbour for his edification” (<a href="/romans/15-12.htm" title="And again, Esaias said, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust.">Romans 15:12</a>). But the only “pleasing” to which the whole life can be conformed is (see <a href="/1_thessalonians/4-1.htm" title="Furthermore then we beseech you, brothers, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more.">1Thessalonians 4:1</a>) the consideration “how we ought to walk and to please God.” Only in subordination to this can we safely act on the desire of “all pleasing” towards men.<p><span class= "bld">Increasing in </span>(<span class= "ital">or, by</span>) <span class= "bld">the knowledge of God.</span>—The context evidently shows that the path towards the knowledge of God here indicated is not the path of thoughtful speculation, or of meditative devotion, but the third path co-ordinate with these—the path of earnest practice, of which the watchword is, “Do and thou shalt know.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-11.htm">Colossians 1:11</a></div><div class="verse">Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;</div>(11) <span class= "bld">His glorious power.</span>—Properly, <span class= "ital">the strength of His glory, </span>His glory being His manifestation of Himself in love to man. (Comp. <a href="/ephesians/3-16.htm" title="That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;">Ephesians 3:16</a>, “According to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His spirit in the inner man.”) On this use of “the glory” of God, frequent in these Epistles, see <a href="/ephesians/1-6.htm" title="To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved.">Ephesians 1:6</a>; <a href="/ephesians/1-12.htm" title="That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.">Ephesians 1:12</a>; <a href="/ephesians/1-14.htm" title="Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of his glory.">Ephesians 1:14</a>, and Notes there. The prayer, however, in the Ephesian Epistle looks to “knowledge of the love of Christ” as its object; the prayer here to power of endurance of trial and suffering.<p><span class= "bld">Patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.—</span>(1) “Patience” is here “endurance,” rather than what we usually call patience. It is spoken of by St. James (<a href="/james/1-3.htm" title="Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience.">James 1:3</a>) as the result of the bracing effect of trial, and is illustrated by the typical example of Job (<a href="/james/5-11.htm" title="Behold, we count them happy which endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.">James 5:11</a>). Now a glance at the Book of Job will show that, while in respect of physical trial he is resignation itself (<a href="/job/1-21.htm" title="And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.">Job 1:21</a>; <a href="/job/2-10.htm" title="But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.">Job 2:10</a>), yet that under the spiritual trial, which is the great subject of the book, he is the reverse of what is commonly called patient. He endures and conquers, but it is not without vehement passion and spiritual struggles, occasionally verging on a repining and rebellion, of which he bitterly repents (<a href="/job/41-6.htm" title="Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants?">Job 41:6</a>). (2) To this “patience,” therefore, here as elsewhere (<a href="/2_timothy/3-10.htm" title="But you have fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience,">2Timothy 3:10</a>), St. Paul adds “longsuffering”—a word generally connected (as in <a href="/1_corinthians/13-4.htm" title="Charity suffers long, and is kind; charity envies not; charity braggs not itself, is not puffed up,">1Corinthians 13:4</a>) with the temper of gentleness and love, and coming much nearer to the description of our ordinary idea of a “patient” temper, which, in its calm sweetness and gentleness, hardly feels to the utmost such spiritual trials as vexed the righteous soul of Job. Of such longsuffering our Lord’s bearing of the insults of the Condemnation and the cruelties of the Passion, when “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,” is the perfect type. (3) Yet even then St. Paul is not content without “joyfulness,” in obedience to the command of our Master (<a href="/matthew/5-12.htm" title="Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.">Matthew 5:12</a>), fulfilled in Himself on the cross (<a href="/hebrews/12-2.htm" title="Looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.">Hebrews 12:2</a>). The ground of such joy, so often shown in Christian martyrdom, is given by St. Peter (<a href="/1_peter/4-13.htm" title="But rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy.">1Peter 4:13</a>), “Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” Of that joy St. Paul himself was a bright example in his present captivity. (See <a href="/context/philippians/1-18.htm" title="What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.">Philippians 1:18-19</a>; <a href="/context/philippians/2-17.htm" title="Yes, and if I be offered on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.">Philippians 2:17-18</a>.) The words therefore form a climax. “Patience” struggles and endures; “long-suffering” endures without a struggle; “joyfulness” endures and glories in suffering.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-12.htm">Colossians 1:12</a></div><div class="verse">Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:</div>(12) <span class= "bld">Giving thanks unto the Father.</span>—These words naturally follow the words “with joyfulness,” with which, indeed, they may be grammatically connected. But the “thankfulness” here is, as the context shows, the thankfulness of humility, sensible that from the Father’s love we have received all, and can but receive.<p><span class= "bld">Which hath made us meet.</span>—The same word is used in <a href="/2_corinthians/3-6.htm" title="Who also has made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.">2Corinthians 3:6</a>, “who hath made us able ministers of the new covenant,” and corresponds to the word “sufficient” in St. Paul’s previous question (<a href="/2_corinthians/2-16.htm" title="To the one we are the smell of death to death; and to the other the smell of life to life. And who is sufficient for these things?">2Corinthians 2:16</a>), “Who is sufficient for these things?” The reference is clearly to God’s foreknowledge and call (as in <a href="/context/romans/8-29.htm" title="For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.">Romans 8:29-30</a>), in virtue of which “we are more than conquerors,” and “cannot be separated from His love in Jesus Christ our Lord.”<p><span class= "bld">To be partakers of the inheritance of the saints.</span>—Literally, for <span class= "ital">the part</span> (appointed to us) <span class= "ital">of the lot of the saints.</span> (Comp. <a href="/ephesians/1-11.htm" title="In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his own will:">Ephesians 1:11</a>, where, however, the sense is slightly different). The “lot” (like the Old Testament type of the share in the land of Canaan,” the lot of their inheritance”) is the place assigned to the saints primarily by the grace of God. It may have, as in the case of the type, to be fought for; but it is won not by our own arm, but by “God’s hand and His arm, and the light of His countenance, because He has a favour unto us” (<a href="/psalms/44-3.htm" title="For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your countenance, because you had a favor to them.">Psalm 44:3</a>). Hence, in accordance with St. Paul’s usual teaching (especially emphatic in this and the Ephesian Epistle), the whole stress is laid on God’s grace, giving us our lot, and “making us meet” to accept it.<p><span class= "bld">In light.</span>—Properly, <span class= "ital">in the light.</span> See <a href="/context/ephesians/4-8.htm" title="Why he said, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.">Ephesians 4:8-14</a>—a passage dwelling on the idea of the kingdom of light, almost as strongly and exhaustively as St. John himself (<a href="/context/1_john/1-5.htm" title="This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.">1John 1:5-7</a>, <span class= "ital">et al.</span>)<span class= "ital">.</span> “In the light” (opposed to “the power of darkness” of the next verse) is in the light of God’s countenance, revealed in the face of Jesus Christ.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-13.htm">Colossians 1:13</a></div><div class="verse">Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated <i>us</i> into the kingdom of his dear Son:</div>[<span class= "bld">2.The Doctrine of Christ.</span><p>(1) His SALVATION AND REDEMPTION of us all (<a href="/context/colossians/1-13.htm" title=" Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:">Colossians 1:13-14</a>).<p>(2) His NATURE AS THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD, the creator and sustainer of all things heavenly and earthly (<a href="/context/colossians/1-15.htm" title=" Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:">Colossians 1:15-17</a>).<p>(3) His HEADSHIP OF THE CHURCH (<a href="/colossians/1-18.htm" title=" And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.">Colossians 1:18</a>).<p>(4) His MEDIATION, reconciling all to God, first generally stated, then applied especially to the Colossians (<a href="/context/colossians/1-19.htm" title=" For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell;">Colossians 1:19-23</a>).]<p>(13-23) In this we have the great characteristic section of this Epistle, distinguished from corresponding parts of the Epistle to the Ephesians by the explicit and emphatic stress laid upon the divine majesty of Christ. It corresponds very closely with the remarkable passage opening the Epistle to the Hebrews. In the Epistles of the preceding group, to the Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans, chief and almost exclusive prominence is given to the universal mediation of Christ, as justifying and sanctifying all the souls of men. In these Epistles (this truth being accepted) we pass on to that which such universal mediation necessitates—the conception of Christ as the Head of all created being, and as the perfect manifestation of the Godhead. The former is the key-note of the Ephesian Epistle; the latter is dominant here, although the former remains as an undertone; as also in the great passage of the Epistle to the Philippians (<a href="/context/colossians/2-6.htm" title=" As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in him:">Colossians 2:6-11</a>), speaking of Him as “in the form of God,” and having “the Name which is above every name.” The especial reason for St. Paul’s emphatic assertion of the great truth here we see in the next chapter. But it is clear that it comes naturally in the order of revelation, leading up to the full doctrine of, “the Word” in St. John. As the spiritual meaning of the Resurrection, the great subject of the first preaching, had to be sought in the Atonement, so the inquiry into the possibility of an universal Atonement led back to the Incarnation, and to Christ as pre-existent from “the beginning” in God.<p>(13, 14) We enter on this great passage, as is natural, and accordant with St. Paul’s universal practice, through that living and practical truth of our redemption in Christ Jesus, which in the earlier Epistles he had taught as the one thing needful (<a href="/1_corinthians/2-2.htm" title="For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.">1Corinthians 2:2</a>).<p>(13) <span class= "bld">Who hath delivered us from the power of</span> <span class= "bld">darkness.</span>—“Delivered” is “rescued,” properly applied to dragging a person out of battle or the jaws of danger. “The power of darkness” (see <a href="/luke/22-53.htm" title="When I was daily with you in the temple, you stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.">Luke 22:53</a>) is, of course, the power of evil, permitted (see <a href="/luke/4-6.htm" title="And the devil said to him, All this power will I give you, and the glory of them: for that is delivered to me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.">Luke 4:6</a>) to exist, but in itself a usurped tyranny (as Chrysostom expresses it), not a true “kingdom. Salvation is, first of all, rescue from the guilt and bondage of sin, to which man has given occasion by his own choice, but which, once admitted, he cannot himself break. It is here described in its first origination from the love of the Father. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.”<p><span class= "bld">And hath translated us . . .</span>—The word “translated” is a word properly applied to the transplanting of races, and the settlement of them in a new home. Salvation, begun by rescue, is completed by the settlement of the rescued captives in the new kingdom of Christ. The two acts, indeed, are distinct, but inseparable. Thus baptism is at once “for the remission of sins” and an “entrance into the kingdom of God.”<p><span class= "bld">His dear Son.</span>—The original is far more striking and beautiful. It is, “The Son of His love,” corresponding to “the beloved” of the parallel passage in the Ephesian Epistle (<a href="/colossians/1-6.htm" title=" Which is come to you, as it is in all the world; and brings forth fruit, as it does also in you, since the day you heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:">Colossians 1:6</a>), but perhaps going beyond it. God is love; the Son of God is, therefore, the “Son of His love,” partaking of and manifesting this His essential attribute.<p><span class= "bld">In whom we have . . .</span>—This verse corresponds verbally with <a href="/ephesians/1-7.htm" title="In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;">Ephesians 1:7</a>, where see Note. From the love of the Father, the first cause of salvation, we pass to the efficient cause in the redemption and propitiation of the Son.<p><a href="/context/colossians/1-15.htm" title=" Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:">Colossians 1:15-17</a> pass from Christ as our Mediator to Christ as He is in Himself from all eternity, “the image of the invisible God,” and as He is from the beginning of time, the creator and sustainer of all things in heaven and earth. What was before implied is now explicitly asserted; what was before emphatic ally asserted is now taken for granted, and made the stepping-stone to yet higher and more mysterious truth.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-15.htm">Colossians 1:15</a></div><div class="verse">Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:</div>(15) <span class= "bld">The image of the invisible God.</span>—This all important clause needs the most careful examination. We note accordingly (1) that the word “image” (like the word “form,” <a href="/context/philippians/2-6.htm" title="Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:">Philippians 2:6-7</a>) is used in the New Testament for real and essential embodiment, as distinguished from mere likeness. Thus in <a href="/hebrews/10-1.htm" title="For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.">Hebrews 10:1</a> we read, “The law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not <span class= "ital">the very image</span> of the things;” we note also in <a href="/romans/1-23.htm" title="And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four footed beasts, and creeping things.">Romans 1:23</a> the distinction between the mere outward “likeness” and the “image” which it represented; we find in <a href="/1_corinthians/15-49.htm" title="And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.">1Corinthians 15:49</a> that the “image of the earthy” and “the image of the heavenly” Adam denote actual identity of nature with both; and in <a href="/2_corinthians/3-18.htm" title="But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the LORD.">2Corinthians 3:18</a> the actual work of the Spirit in the heart is described as “changing us from glory to glory” into “the image” of the glorified Christ. (2) Next we observe that although, speaking popularly, St. Paul in <a href="/1_corinthians/11-7.htm" title="For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.">1Corinthians 11:7</a> calls man “the image and glory of God,” yet the allusion is to <a href="/genesis/1-26.htm" title="And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.">Genesis 1:26</a>; <a href="/genesis/1-28.htm" title="And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.">Genesis 1:28</a>, where man is said, with stricter accuracy, to be made “after the image of God” (as in <a href="/ephesians/4-24.htm" title="And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.">Ephesians 4:24</a>, “created after God”), and this more accurate expression is used in <a href="/colossians/3-10.htm" title=" And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:">Colossians 3:10</a> of this Epistle, “renewed after the image of Him that created him.” Who then, or what, is the “image of God,” after which man is created? St. Paul here emphatically (as in <a href="/2_corinthians/4-4.htm" title="In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine to them.">2Corinthians 4:4</a> parenthetically) answers “Christ,” as the Son of God, “first-born before all creation.” The same truth is conveyed in a different form, clearer (if possible) even than this, in <a href="/hebrews/1-3.htm" title="Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:">Hebrews 1:3</a>, where “the Son” is said to be not only “the brightness of the glory of the Father,” but “the express image of His Person.” For the word “express image” is <span class= "ital">character</span> in the original, used here (as when we speak of the alphabetical “characters”) to signify the visible drawn image, and the word “Person” is <span class= "ital">substance</span> or <span class= "ital">essence.</span> (3) It is not to be forgotten that at this time in the Platonising Judaism of Philo, “the Word” was called the eternal “image of God.” (See passages quoted in Dr. Light-foot’s note on this passage.) This expression was not peculiar to him; it was but a working out of that personification of the “wisdom of God,” of which we have a magnificent example in <a href="/context/proverbs/8-22.htm" title="The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.">Proverbs 8:22-30</a>, and of which we trace the effect in the Alexandrine Book of “Wisdom” (<a href="//apocrypha.org/wisdom_of_solomon/7-25.htm" title="For she is the breath of the power of God, and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty: therefore can no defiled thing fall into her.">Wisdom Of Solomon 7:25-26</a>). “Wisdom is the breath of the power of God, and a pure stream from the glory of the Most High—the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of His goodness.” It seems to have represented in the Jewish schools the idea complementary to the ordinary idea of the Messiah in the Jewish world. Just as St. John took up the vague idea of “the Word,” and gave it a clear divine personality in Christ, so St. Paul seems to act here in relation to the other phrase, used as a description of the Word. In Christ he fixes in solid reality the floating vision of the “image of God.” (4) There is an emphasis on the words “of the invisible God.” Now, since the whole context shows that the reference is to the eternal pre-existence of Christ, ancient interpreters (of whom Chrysostom may be taken as the type) argued that the image of the invisible must be also invisible. But this seems opposed to the whole idea of the word “image,” and to its use in the New Testament and elsewhere. The true key to this passage is in our Lord’s own words in <a href="/john/1-8.htm" title="He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.">John 1:8</a>, “No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son” (here is the remarkable reading, “the only begotten God”), “who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath revealed Him.” In anticipation of the future revelation of Godhead, Christ, even as pre-existent, is called “The image of the invisible God.”<p><span class= "bld">The firstborn of every creature</span> (<span class= "ital">of all creation</span>)<span class= "ital">.</span>—(1) <span class= "ital">As to the sense of this clause.</span> The grammatical construction here will bear either the rendering of our version, or the rendering “begotten before all creation,” whence comes the “begotten before all worlds “of the Nicene creed. But the whole context shows that the latter is unquestionably the true rendering. For, as has been remarked from ancient times, He is said to be “begotten” and not “created;” next, he is emphatically spoken of below as He “by whom all things were created,” who is “before all things,” and in whom all things consist.” (2) <span class= "ital">As to the order of idea.</span> In Himself He is “the image of God” from all eternity. From this essential conception, by a natural contrast, the thought immediately passes on to distinction from, and priority to, all created being. Exactly in this same order of idea, we have in <a href="/context/hebrews/1-2.htm" title="Has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;">Hebrews 1:2-3</a>, “By whom also He made the worlds . . . upholding all things by the word of His power;” and in <a href="/john/1-3.htm" title="All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.">John 1:3</a>, “All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made which was made. Here St. Paul indicates this idea in the words “firstborn before all creation,” and works it out in the verses following. (3) <span class= "ital">As to the name “firstborn</span>” <span class= "ital">itself.</span> It is used of the Messiah as an almost technical name (derived from <a href="/psalms/2-7.htm" title="I will declare the decree: the LORD has said to me, You are my Son; this day have I begotten you.">Psalm 2:7</a>; <a href="/psalms/89-28.htm" title="My mercy will I keep for him for ever more, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.">Psalm 89:28</a>), as is shown in <a href="/hebrews/1-6.htm" title="And again, when he brings in the first-begotten into the world, he said, And let all the angels of God worship him.">Hebrews 1:6</a>, “when He bringeth the first begotten into the world.” In tracing the Messianic line of promise we notice that; while the Messiah is always true man, “the seed of Abraham,” “the son of David,” yet on him are accumulated attributes too high for any created being (as in <a href="/isaiah/9-6.htm" title="For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be on his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.">Isaiah 9:6</a>). He is declared to be an “Emmanuel” God with us; and His kingdom a visible manifestation of God. Hence the idea contained in the word “firstborn” is not only sovereignty “above all the kings of the earth” (<a href="/psalms/89-28.htm" title="My mercy will I keep for him for ever more, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.">Psalm 89:28</a>; comp. <a href="/context/daniel/8-13.htm" title="Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said to that certain saint which spoke, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?">Daniel 8:13-14</a>), but also likeness to God and priority to all created being. (4) <span class= "ital">As to the union of the two clauses.</span> In the first we have the declaration of His eternal unity with God—all that was completely embodied in the declaration of the “Word who is God,” up to which all the higher Jewish speculations had led; in the second we trace the distinctness of His Person, as the “begotten of the Father,” the true Messiah of Jewish hopes, and the subordination of the co-eternal Son to the Father. The union of the two marks the assertion of Christian mystery, as against rationalising systems, of the type of Arianism on one side, of Sabellianism on the other.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-16.htm">Colossians 1:16</a></div><div class="verse">For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether <i>they be</i> thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:</div>(16) <span class= "bld">For by him . . . all things were created by</span> (<span class= "ital">through</span>) <span class= "bld">him, and for</span> (<span class= "ital">to</span>) <span class= "bld">him.</span>—Carrying out the idea of the preceding clause with accumulated emphasis, St. Paul speaks of all creation as having taken place “by Him,” “through Him,” and “for Him.” Now we note that in <a href="/romans/11-36.htm" title="For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.">Romans 11:36</a>, St. Paul, in a burst of adoration, declares of the Father that “from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things;” and in <a href="/hebrews/2-10.htm" title="For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.">Hebrews 2:10</a> the Father is spoken of as One “by whom are all things, and for whom are all things” (the word “for whom” being different from the word so rendered here, but virtually equivalent to it). Hence we observe that the Apostle here takes up a phrase belonging only to Godhead and usually applied to the Father, and distinctly applies it to Christ, but with the significant change of “from whom” into “in whom.” The usual language of holy Scripture as to the Father is “from whom,” and as to the Son “through whom,” are all things. Thus we have in <a href="/hebrews/1-2.htm" title="Has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;">Hebrews 1:2</a>, “through whom He made the world;” and in <a href="/context/john/1-3.htm" title="All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.">John 1:3-10</a>, “All things were made”—“the world was made”—“through Him.” Here, however, St. Paul twice adds “in whom,” just as he had used “in whom” of God in his sermon at Athens (<a href="/acts/17-28.htm" title="For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.">Acts 17:28</a>), probably conveying the idea, foreshadowed in the Old Testament description of the divine “Wisdom,” that in His divine mind lay the germ of the creative design and work. and indirectly condemning by anticipation the fancy of incipient Gnosticism, that He was but an inferior emanation or agent of the Supreme God.<p><span class= "bld">In heaven and . . . earth . . .</span>—Here again there is a reiteration of earnest emphasis. “All things in heaven and earth” is the ancient phrase for all creation. Then, lest this phrase should be restricted to the sublunary sphere, he adds, “visible and invisible.” Lastly, in accordance with the general tone of these Epistles, and with special reference to the worship of angels introduced into Colossæ, he dwells, like the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, on the superiority of our Lord to all angelic natures, whether they be “thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers.” (Comp. <a href="/ephesians/1-21.htm" title="Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:">Ephesians 1:21</a>; <a href="/context/philippians/2-9.htm" title="Why God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:">Philippians 2:9-10</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Thrones, or dominions . . .</span>—Compare the enumeration in <a href="/ephesians/1-21.htm" title="Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:">Ephesians 1:21</a>. The word peculiar to this passage is “thrones,” which in all the various speculations as to the hierarchy of heaven, naturally represents the first place of dignity and nearness to the Throne of God. (Comp. <a href="/revelation/4-4.htm" title="And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and on the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.">Revelation 4:4</a>, “Round about the throne four-and-twenty thrones.”) But it seems difficult, if not impossible, to attach distinctive meanings to those titles, and trace out their order. If St. Paul alludes at all to the Rabbinical hierarchies, he (probably with deliberate intention) takes their titles without attending to their fanciful orders and meanings. Whatever they mean, if they mean anything, all are infinitely below the glory of Christ. (See Note on <a href="/ephesians/1-21.htm" title="Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:">Ephesians 1:21</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-17.htm">Colossians 1:17</a></div><div class="verse">And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">He is before all things.</span>—The words “He is” are both emphatic. He, and He only, is; all else is created. It is impossible not to refer to the “I am” of Eternal existence, as claimed by our Lord for Himself. “Before Abraham was, I am” (<a href="/john/8-58.htm" title="Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham was, I am.">John 8:58</a>; comp. also <a href="/john/1-15.htm" title="John bore witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spoke, He that comes after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.">John 1:15</a>). Hence the word “before” should be taken, not of supreme dignity, but of pre-existence.<p><span class= "bld">By him all things consist.</span>—That is, <span class= "ital">hold together in unity, </span>obeying the primæval law of their being. In this clause is attributed to our Lord, not only the creative act, but also the constant sustaining power, “in which all lives and moves and has its being,” and which, even less than the creative agency, can be supposed to be a derivative and finite power, such as that of the <span class= "ital">Demiurgus</span> of Gnostic speculation.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-18.htm">Colossians 1:18</a></div><div class="verse">And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all <i>things</i> he might have the preeminence.</div>(18-20) In these verses St. Paul returns from dwelling on the eternal nature of the Son of God to describe Him in His mediatorial office as Son of Man, becoming the “Head” of all humanity, as called into “His Body, the Church.” In this he touches on a doctrine more fully developed in the Epistle to the Ephesians. (See <a href="/ephesians/1-10.htm" title="That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:">Ephesians 1:10</a>; <a href="/ephesians/1-20.htm" title="Which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,">Ephesians 1:20</a>; <a href="/ephesians/1-22.htm" title="And has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,">Ephesians 1:22</a>; <a href="/ephesians/2-19.htm" title="Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;">Ephesians 2:19</a>; <a href="/ephesians/2-21.htm" title="In whom all the building fitly framed together grows to an holy temple in the Lord:">Ephesians 2:21</a>; <a href="/context/ephesians/4-15.htm" title="But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:">Ephesians 4:15-16</a>.) But still, as has been already noted, there is in this Epistle more stress on the supreme dignity of the Head, as in the other more on the unity, and blessing, and glory of the Body. It should be observed that in this, His mediatorial office, there is throughout a mysterious analogy to His eternal sonship. In both He is “the Head,” first, of universal creation, next, of the new creation in His Church; He is “the beginning,” in the one case in eternity, in the other in time; He is “the firstborn,” now in Eternal Sonship, now in the Resurrection making Him the new life of mankind.<p>(18) <span class= "bld">He is the head.</span>—“He” is again emphatic. “He who is the image of God, He also is the Head.” (On the title itself, see <a href="/ephesians/1-22.htm" title="And has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,">Ephesians 1:22</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">The beginning.</span>—Chrysostom reads here a kindred word, <span class= "ital">the first-fruits.</span> The reading is no doubt a gloss, but an instructive one. It shows that the reference is to Christ, as being in His humanity “the first principle” of the new life to us—the “first-fruits” from the dead (<a href="/1_corinthians/15-20.htm" title="But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.">1Corinthians 15:20</a>; <a href="/1_corinthians/15-23.htm" title="But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.">1Corinthians 15:23</a>), and “the bringer of life and immortality to light” (<a href="/2_timothy/1-10.htm" title="But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death, and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:">2Timothy 1:10</a>).<p><span class= "bld">The firstborn from the dead.</span>—The same title is given to Him in <a href="/revelation/1-5.htm" title="And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,">Revelation 1:5</a>. In his sermon at Antioch in Pisidia (<a href="/acts/13-33.htm" title="God has fulfilled the same to us their children, in that he has raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, You are my Son, this day have I begotten you.">Acts 13:33</a>), St. Paul quotes the passage, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee,” as fulfilled in that “He raised up Jesus again.” (Comp. <a href="/hebrews/5-5.htm" title="So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said to him, You are my Son, to day have I begotten you.">Hebrews 5:5</a>.) In <a href="/romans/1-3.htm" title="Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;">Romans 1:3</a>, he speaks of Christ as “declared” (or, <span class= "ital">defined</span>) “to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.” The Resurrection is (so to speak) His second birth, the beginning of that exaltation, which is contrasted with His first birth on earth in great humility, and of His entrance on the glory of His mediatorial kingdom. (See <a href="/context/ephesians/1-20.htm" title="Which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,">Ephesians 1:20-23</a>, where the starting-point of all His exaltation is again placed in the Resurrection.)<p><span class= "bld">That in all things he might . . .</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">That in all things He might become pre-eminent.</span> The words “He might become,” are opposed to the “He is” above. They refer to the exaltation of His humanity, so gloriously described in <a href="/context/philippians/2-9.htm" title="Why God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:">Philippians 2:9-11</a>. Thus absolutely in His divine nature, relatively to the mediatorial kingdom in His humanity, He is “the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last” (<a href="/revelation/1-8.htm" title="I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, said the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.">Revelation 1:8</a>; <a href="/revelation/1-11.htm" title="Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What you see, write in a book, and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia; to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.">Revelation 1:11</a>; <a href="/context/revelation/1-17.htm" title="And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand on me, saying to me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:">Revelation 1:17-18</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-19.htm">Colossians 1:19</a></div><div class="verse">For it pleased <i>the Father</i> that in him should all fulness dwell;</div>(19) <span class= "bld">For it pleased the Father.</span>—(1) The construction is doubtful. There is nothing corresponding to “the Father” in the original. Our rendering involves the supply of the nominative <span class= "ital">God, i.e., </span>“the Father,” or <span class= "ital">Christ</span> to the verb, so that the sentence may run, <span class= "ital">the Father</span> or <span class= "ital">Christ determined of His good pleasure that, </span>&c. The supply of the nominative “Christ” is easier grammatically; but it accords ill with the invariable reference of all things, both by our Lord Himself and His Apostles, ultimately to the good pleasure of the Father. Moreover, the verb is so constantly used of God that the supply of the nominative “God,” though unexampled, is far from inadmissible. The simplest grammatical construction would, indeed, be to take “the fulness” as the nominative, and render for <span class= "ital">in Him all the fulness </span>(<span class= "ital">of God</span>)<span class= "ital"> was pleased to dwell.</span> But the personification of “the fulness,” common in Gnostic speculation, is hardly after the manner of St. Paul. Perhaps, on the whole, the rendering of our version (which is usually adopted) is to be preferred; especially as it suits better with the following verse. (2) The sense is, however, quite clear, and is enforced by <a href="/colossians/2-9.htm" title=" For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.">Colossians 2:9</a>, “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” On the word “fulness” (<span class= "ital">pleroma</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>see Note on <a href="/ephesians/1-23.htm" title="Which is his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all.">Ephesians 1:23</a>. The “fulness of the Godhead” is the essential nature, comprising all the attributes, of Godhead. The indwelling of such Deity in the humanity of Christ is the ground of all His exaltation as the “Head,” “the beginning,” the “firstborn from the dead,” and the triumphant King, on which St. Paul had already dwelt. By it alone can He be the true Mediator between God and man.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-20.htm">Colossians 1:20</a></div><div class="verse">And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, <i>I say</i>, whether <i>they be</i> things in earth, or things in heaven.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">Having made peace through the blood of his cross.</span>—On this verse, where St. Paul returns to the subject of the Atonement, with which he began, comp. <a href="/context/ephesians/2-13.htm" title="But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made near by the blood of Christ.">Ephesians 2:13-18</a>, and Notes there. In the Ephesian Epistle the treatment of the subject is fuller, and in one point more comprehensive, viz., in bringing out emphatically the unity of all, Jews and Gentiles alike, with one another, as well as their unity with Christ. But, on the other hand, this passage involves deeper and more mysterious teaching in this—that it includes in the reconciliation by the blood of Christ, not merely all humanity, but “all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” This is, indeed, only a fuller exposition of the truth that “God was in Christ reconciling the world (the <span class= "ital">kosmos</span>) to Himself” (<a href="/2_corinthians/5-19.htm" title="To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them; and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.">2Corinthians 5:19</a>); and that “the whole creation waiteth,” “in constant expectation,” “for the manifestation of the sons of God,” and “shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (<a href="/context/romans/8-19.htm" title="For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.">Romans 8:19-21</a>). But it is couched in more distinct and striking terms, opening to us a glimpse of the infinite scope, not merely of our Lord’s Mediatorship, but of His Atonement, which, while it almost bewilders, yet satisfies the thoughtful understanding, and more than satisfies an adoring faith. As there seems to be a physical unity in the universe, if we may believe the guesses of science, so, says Holy Scripture, there is a moral and spiritual unity also in Jesus Christ.<p><a href="/context/colossians/1-21.htm" title=" And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has he reconciled">Colossians 1:21-23</a> apply this truth of the Mediatorial work of the Lord Jesus Christ to the especial case of the Colossians. The subject here touched is more fully worked out in <a href="/context/ephesians/2-1.htm" title="And you has he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;">Ephesians 2:1-2</a>; <a href="/context/ephesians/2-11.htm" title="Why remember, that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;">Ephesians 2:11-18</a>; the alienation is there described as not only from God, but from His covenanted people; the reconciliation is with God and man in one great unity.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-21.htm">Colossians 1:21</a></div><div class="verse">And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in <i>your</i> mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled</div>(21) <span class= "bld">Alienated.</span>—Not naturally aliens, but estranged. (See Note on <a href="/ephesians/2-12.htm" title="That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:">Ephesians 2:12</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">By wicked works.</span>—Properly, <span class= "ital">in your wicked works.</span> The enmity of heart is not properly caused by wicked works, but shown in them, and probably intensified by reflex action through them.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-22.htm">Colossians 1:22</a></div><div class="verse">In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:</div>(22) <span class= "bld">In the body of his flesh.</span>—There seems to be some emphasis on the word “flesh:” just as in the parallel of <a href="/ephesians/2-16.htm" title="And that he might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:">Ephesians 2:16</a>, the expression is “in one body,” with a characteristic emphasis on the word “one,” suiting the genius of the passage. The meaning is, of course, His natural body, as distinguished from His mystic Body, spoken of above (<a href="/colossians/1-18.htm" title=" And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.">Colossians 1:18</a>). But this is no sufficient reason for the use of this phrase, for there could be no confusion between them in this passage. Hence, without ascribing to the word “flesh” a distinctly polemical intention, we may not unnaturally suppose that there was present to St. Paul’s mind the thought of the Gnosticism, which depreciated the body as evil, and which must have always inclined to the idea that “Jesus Christ had not come in the flesh” (<a href="/context/1_john/4-2.htm" title="Hereby know you the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:">1John 4:2-3</a>); and that the presence of this thought induced some special emphasis in his language.<p><span class= "bld">Holy and unblameable and unreproveable.</span>—See Note on <a href="/ephesians/1-4.htm" title="According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:">Ephesians 1:4</a>. The word “to present” is used both in a sacrificial sense (as in <a href="/romans/12-1.htm" title="I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.">Romans 12:1</a>) and in the sense of introduction and presentation (as of a bride, see <a href="/ephesians/5-27.htm" title="That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.">Ephesians 5:27</a>). The words, “holy and unblameable,” <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>“without blemish,” suit the former sense. But “unreproveable” is incongruous with it, and the parallel passage (<a href="/ephesians/2-18.htm" title="For through him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.">Ephesians 2:18</a>) speaks of “access” or introduction to the Father.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-23.htm">Colossians 1:23</a></div><div class="verse">If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and <i>be</i> not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, <i>and</i> which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;</div>(23) <span class= "bld">If.</span>—The word, as in <a href="/ephesians/3-2.htm" title="If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:">Ephesians 3:2</a>; <a href="/ephesians/4-21.htm" title="If so be that you have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:">Ephesians 4:21</a> (where see Notes), conveys a supposition hardly hypothetical—“If, as I presume;” “If, as I trust.” St. Paul cannot refrain from needful warning, but he refuses to anticipate failure.<p><span class= "bld">Grounded.</span>—<span class= "ital">Built on the foundation.</span> Comp. <a href="/ephesians/2-20.htm" title="And are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;">Ephesians 2:20</a>, “built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone.”<p><span class= "bld">Settled.</span>—The result of being so grounded. The word is used in the same sense, but without metaphorical association, in <a href="/1_corinthians/15-58.htm" title="Therefore, my beloved brothers, be you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.">1Corinthians 15:58</a>, “stedfast, unmoveable,” as here “settled and not being moved.”<p><span class= "bld">The hope.</span>—See Note on <a href="/colossians/1-5.htm" title=" For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;">Colossians 1:5</a>. Here, as there, great emphasis is laid on “hope.” But here there may possibly be reference to some ideas (like those spoken of in <a href="/2_timothy/2-18.htm" title="Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.">2Timothy 2:18</a>) that “the resurrection was past already,” and that the hope of a true resurrection and a real heaven was either a delusion or a metaphor.<p><span class= "bld">Every creature which is under heaven.</span>—Comp. our Lord’s command, “Preach the gospel to every creature” (<a href="/mark/16-15.htm" title="And he said to them, Go you into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.">Mark 16:15</a>). In idea and capacity the gospel is literally universal; although in actual reality such universality can only be claimed by a natural hyperbole.<p>[<span class= "bld">3.The Mission of St. Paul.</span><p>As APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES, a minister of the newly revealed mystery of their salvation, testifying to all alike by suffering and by preaching, in order “to present all perfect in Christ Jesus” (<a href="/context/colossians/1-24.htm" title=" Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:">Colossians 1:24-29</a>).]<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-24.htm">Colossians 1:24</a></div><div class="verse">Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:</div>(24-29) Here (as in Ephesians 3, in the same connection) St. Paul dwells on his own mission to set forth the universal gospel to the Gentiles. In the Ephesian Epistle this declaration is made a direct introduction to practical exhortation (comp. Col. 4, 5, 6); here it leads up to the earnest remonstrance against speculative errors in Colossians 2, which precedes a similar practical exhortation. In both cases he dwells on the committal to him of a special dispensation; in both he rejoices in suffering as a means of spiritual influence; in both cases he declares the one object to be the presentation of each man perfect before Christ.<p>(24) <span class= "bld">Who now rejoice.</span>—In the true reading of the original there is no relative pronoun. The sentence starts with emphatic abruptness, “Now (at this moment) I rejoice” (just as in <a href="/2_corinthians/7-9.htm" title="Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance: for you were made sorry after a godly manner, that you might receive damage by us in nothing.">2Corinthians 7:9</a>). In all the three Epistles of the Captivity this same rejoicing is declared in himself and urged on his brethren. In <a href="/ephesians/3-13.htm" title="Why I desire that you faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.">Ephesians 3:13</a>, “I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory;” in <a href="/philippians/2-11.htm" title="And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.">Philippians 2:11</a>, “Yea, if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. For the same cause do ye also joy, and rejoice with me.” There, as here, the rejoicing is in suffering, not in itself, not solely because it is borne with and for Christ, but also because it is for the sake of the Church. Here, however, this idea is expressed with far greater emphasis.<p><span class= "bld">Fill up that which is behind of the afflictions</span> <span class= "bld">of Christ.</span>—The sense of this passage is at first sight startling, but it could not have been thought difficult or doubtful, had not false inferences from it tempted men to shrink from the obvious meaning. Now, (1) the “afflictions of Christ” is a phrase not used elsewhere; for “affliction” (properly, <span class= "ital">hard and galling pressure</span>) is the ordinary burden of life, and is generally spoken of only as coming on His servants. But, like the common phrase “the sufferings of Christ” (<a href="/2_corinthians/1-5.htm" title="For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds by Christ.">2Corinthians 1:5</a>; <a href="/philippians/3-10.htm" title="That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death;">Philippians 3:10</a>; <a href="/1_peter/4-15.htm" title="But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters.">1Peter 4:15</a>; <a href="/1_peter/5-1.htm" title="The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:">1Peter 5:1</a>), it must moan the afflictions which He endured. It is true, as has been thoughtfully suggested (see Chrysostom and others on the passage) that we are to count as His the afflictions of His Church; but still, even if we are to include these indirect afflictions, we cannot possibly exclude the direct. Next, (2) St. Paul expressly says (in the full force of the original) that “he fills up <span class= "ital">instead”</span> of his Master, what is still left unfinished of his Master’s afflictions. (See the passages quoted by Dr. Lightfoot in his note on this verse.) He declares, <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>that, succeeding to the suffering of Christ, he carries it out for the sake of His body the Church. This is, indeed, nothing but a clearer and more striking expression of the truth conveyed in <a href="/2_corinthians/1-5.htm" title="For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds by Christ.">2Corinthians 1:5</a>, “The sufferings of Christ overflow to us,” so that we bear our part, in addition to the full measure which He bore; and even in the commoner expression, to be “partaker of Christ’s sufferings” (<a href="/philippians/3-10.htm" title="That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death;">Philippians 3:10</a>; <a href="/1_peter/4-13.htm" title="But rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy.">1Peter 4:13</a>), or “to drink of His cup and be baptised with His baptism” (<a href="/context/matthew/20-22.htm" title="But Jesus answered and said, You know not what you ask. Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say to him, We are able.">Matthew 20:22-23</a>). But, (3) looking to the meaning and use of the word “afflictions,” we note that “the afflictions of Christ” must be His sufferings on earth considered simply as a part—though immeasurably the chief part—of the burden of humanity in a sinful world, They represent, not the Cross of Atonement, on which He alone could suffer—and in which any reader of St. Paul must find it absurd to suppose that he would claim the slightest share—but the Cross of struggle against sin even to death, which He expressly bade us “take up if we would follow Him.” This He has still left “behind;” this in His strength every one of His servants bears, partly for himself, partly also for others. In the former light St. Paul says, “The world is crucified to me, and I to the world” (<a href="/galatians/6-14.htm" title="But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.">Galatians 6:14</a>); in the latter he claims it as his highest privilege “to fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ for His Body which is the Church.”<p><span class= "bld">In my flesh for his body’s sake.</span>—There is obviously an antithesis here. St. Paul suffers in his natural body for the mystical Body of Christ.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-25.htm">Colossians 1:25</a></div><div class="verse">Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;</div>(25) <span class= "bld">Whereof I am made</span> (or, <span class= "ital">became</span>) <span class= "bld">a minister.</span>—Above (in <a href="/colossians/1-23.htm" title=" If you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;">Colossians 1:23</a>) St. Paul describes himself as a “minister of the gospel,” here as a “minister (or, <span class= "ital">servant</span>) of the Church.” Elsewhere he is always the “minister of God” and “of Christ”; here of the Church, as the Body of Christ, and so indissolubly united with Christ.<p><span class= "bld">The dispensation of God.</span>—See <a href="/context/ephesians/3-2.htm" title="If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:">Ephesians 3:2-9</a>, and Notes there. The reference is to his peculiar “Apostleship of the Gentiles.”<p><span class= "bld">To fulfil.</span>—The marginal reading and reference to <a href="/romans/15-19.htm" title="Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about to Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.">Romans 15:19</a> give the explanation of the word, “fully to preach the Word of God”—to be a messenger of the perfect revelation, which had now unfolded what was previously a hidden “mystery.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-26.htm">Colossians 1:26</a></div><div class="verse"><i>Even</i> the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:</div>(26) <span class= "bld">The mystery.</span>—On the Scriptural sense of the word “mystery,” and its relation to the modern use of the word, see Note on <a href="/ephesians/1-9.htm" title="Having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he has purposed in himself:">Ephesians 1:9</a>. In this passage, perhaps, most of all, it is defined with perfect clearness, as “a secret long hidden, and now revealed.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-27.htm">Colossians 1:27</a></div><div class="verse">To whom God would make known what <i>is</i> the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:</div>(27) <span class= "bld">To whom God would</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.</span>, <span class= "ital">God willed.</span> The expression is emphatic. It was of God’s own pleasure, inscrutable to man. So in <a href="/ephesians/1-9.htm" title="Having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he has purposed in himself:">Ephesians 1:9</a>, we read “the mystery of His will.” Note also, in <a href="/context/ephesians/1-4.htm" title="According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:">Ephesians 1:4-6</a>, the repeated reference to the predestination of God in His love.<p><span class= "bld">The riches of the glory.</span>—See <a href="/ephesians/1-18.htm" title="The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,">Ephesians 1:18</a>; <a href="/ephesians/3-16.htm" title="That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;">Ephesians 3:16</a>; and Notes there.<p><span class= "bld">Which is Christ in you.</span>—This mystery specially committed to St. Paul to declare is. in <a href="/ephesians/3-6.htm" title="That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:">Ephesians 3:6</a>, defined thus, “That the Gentiles should be (or, <span class= "ital">are</span>) fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel”; and the nature of this promise is explained below, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” Here the mystery itself is boldly defined as “Christ in you;” just as in <a href="/1_timothy/3-16.htm" title="And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.">1Timothy 3:16</a>, according to one interpretation of that difficult passage, “the mystery of godliness” is Christ Himself, “who was manifest,” &c. Here we have again a significant illustration of the difference between the characteristic ideas of the two Epistles. In the Ephesian Epistle the unity of all in God’s covenant is first put forth, and then explained as dependent on the indwelling of Christ in the heart. Here the “Christ in you” is all in all: the unity of all men in Him is an inference, but one which the readers of the Epistle are left to draw for themselves. On the great idea itself, in the purely individual relation, see <a href="/philippians/1-21.htm" title="For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.">Philippians 1:21</a>, and also <a href="/galatians/2-20.htm" title="I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.">Galatians 2:20</a>; in the more general form, see <a href="/romans/8-10.htm" title="And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.">Romans 8:10</a>; <a href="/2_corinthians/13-5.htm" title="Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know you not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates?">2Corinthians 13:5</a>; <a href="/galatians/4-19.htm" title="My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,">Galatians 4:19</a>.<p><span class= "bld">The hope of (</span><span class= "ital">the</span>) <span class= "bld">glory.</span>—So in <a href="/1_timothy/1-1.htm" title="Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;">1Timothy 1:1</a>, “The Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope.” “The glory” is the glorified state of perfection in heaven, wrapt in the communion with God, and so “changed from glory to glory.” Again we note (as in <a href="/colossians/1-5.htm" title=" For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;">Colossians 1:5</a>; <a href="/colossians/1-23.htm" title=" If you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;">Colossians 1:23</a>) the special emphasis laid on the hope of heaven. Christ is “our hope,” as He is “our life,” <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the ground of our sure and certain hope of the future, as of our spiritual life in the present.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-28.htm">Colossians 1:28</a></div><div class="verse">Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:</div>(28) <span class= "bld">Warning every man, and teaching.</span>—In “warning” is implied the idea of reproof of folly or sin. (See <a href="/1_thessalonians/5-14.htm" title="Now we exhort you, brothers, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.">1Thessalonians 5:14</a>; <a href="/2_thessalonians/3-5.htm" title="And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.">2Thessalonians 3:5</a>.) “Teaching” is simply instruction—including, of course, practical exhortation—of those already warned.<p><span class= "bld">Perfect.</span>—See <a href="/ephesians/4-13.htm" title="Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:">Ephesians 4:13</a>; <a href="/philippians/3-15.htm" title="Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this to you.">Philippians 3:15</a>, and Notes there. Here, however, as in <a href="/context/1_corinthians/2-6.htm" title="However, we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nothing:">1Corinthians 2:6-7</a>, the reference may be to the sense of “perfect “as “initiated in mystery.” St. Paul, in opposition to the exclusive claim of “perfection” by the speculators in mystic knowledge (“falsely so called”) would present “every man,” learned or ignorant, “perfect before God.” In this universality of privilege lies the glorious distinction between the gospel and all schools of philosophy, whether they reject or assume its name.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/colossians/1-29.htm">Colossians 1:29</a></div><div class="verse">Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.</div>(29) <span class= "bld">Whereunto I also labour.</span>—In this verse St. Paul passes from the plural to the singular, evidently in preparation for the strong personal remonstrance of <a href="/context/colossians/2-1.htm" title=" For I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;">Colossians 2:1-7</a>.<p><span class= "bld">His working . . .</span>—See <a href="/ephesians/1-12.htm" title="That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.">Ephesians 1:12</a>, and Note there. Perhaps, as in <a href="/galatians/2-8.htm" title="(For he that worked effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)">Galatians 2:8</a> (“He that wrought effectually in Peter to the Apostleship of the Circumcision, the same was mighty in me towards the Gentiles”), there is special allusion to the grace given to him for his Apostleship of the Gentiles.<p><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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