“Per Me venitur, ad Me pervenitur, in Me permanetur.”— AUG. InJoann.xii.
“Ἐν αὐτῷ περιπατεῖεν. In eo ambulate; in illo solo. Hic Epistolae scopus est.”—BENGEL.
“Viva, pressa, solida, nervis plena, mascula.”—BÖHMER, Isag.lx.
“Brevis Epistola, sed nucleum Evangelii continens.”— CALVIN.
AFTER a brief greeting “to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are in Colossæ,”1 he enters on the usual “thanksgiving,” telling them how in his prayers he ever thanked God our Father2 on their behalf, on hearing of their faith in Christ and love to all the saints, because of the hope stored up for them in heaven. Of that hope they had heard when the Gospel was first preached to them in its true genuineness; and as that Gospel grew and bore fruit3 in all the world, so it was doing in them, from the day when they heard of the grace of God, and recognised it in all its fulness, from the teaching of Epaphras, the Apostle’s beloved fellow–prisoner and their faithful pastor on the Apostle’s behalf.4 By Epaphras he has been informed of their spiritual charism of love, and from the day that he heard of their Christian graces it was his earnest and constant prayer that their knowledge of God’s will might be fully completed in all spiritual wisdom and intelligence, in practical holiness, in fresh fruitfulness and growth, in increasing power to endure even suffering with joy, and in perpetual thanksgiving to God, who qualified us for our share in the heritage of the saints in light, and who rescued us from the power of darkness, and transferred us by baptism into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have our redemption, the remission of our sins.5
Of the nature of that Son of God, on whose redemption he has thus touched, he proceeds to speak in the next five verses. They form one of the two memorable passages which contain the theological essence of this Epistle. They are the full statement of those truths with respect to the person of Christ which were alone adequate to meet the errors, both of theory and practice, into which the Colossians were sliding under the influence of some Essene teacher. The doctrine of Christ as the Divine Word,—the Likeness of God manifested to men—the Pre–existent Lord of the created world—could alone divert them from the dualism and ascetic rigour which their Phrygian mysticism and mental proclivities had led them to introduce into the system of Christianity. And therefore having spoken of Christ, he shows “His absolute supremacy in relation to the universe, the naturalcreation (15–17), and in relation to the Church, the new moralcreation (ver. 18).”6
“Who is the Image of the Unseen God, the First–born of all Creation, since in Him all things were created7 in the heavens and upon the earth, the things seen and the things unseen,—whether ‘thrones’ or ‘dominations,’ ‘principalities’ or ‘powers’:8 all things have been created9 by Him and unto Him: and HE IS10 before all things, and in Him all things cohere; and He is the head of the body—the Church; who is the origin, the first–born from the dead, that He and none other may become the Presiding Power in all things; because in Him God thought good that the whole Plenitude11 should permanently dwell,12 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, making peace by the blood of His cross;—by Him, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your purpose, in the midst of wicked works,—yet now were ye reconciled13 in the body of His flesh by death, to present yourselves holy and unblemished and blameless before Him, if, that is, ye abide by the faith, founded and firm, and not being ever shifted from the hope of the Gospel which ye heard, which was proclaimed throughout this sublunary world—of which I became—I, Paul—a minister.”14
The immense grandeur of this revelation, and the thought that it should have been entrusted to hisministry, at once exalts and humiliates him; and he characteristically15 continues:—
“Now I rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf, and supplement the deficiencies of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh on behalf of His body, which is the Church,16 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship of God granted to me to you–ward, to develop fully the word of God, the mystery17 which has lain hidden from the ages and the generations, but is now manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the wealth of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which mystery is Christ in you the hope of glory; whom we preach”—not to chosen mystae, not with intellectual exclusiveness, not with esoteric reserves, but absolutely and universally—“warning everyman, and teaching everyman in allwisdom, that we may present everyman ‘perfect’ in Christ.18 For which end also I toil, contending according to His energy, which works in me in power.19
“For I wish you to know how severe a contest20 I have on behalf of you, and those in Laodicea, and all who have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be confirmed, they being compacted21 in love, and so brought to all wealth of the full assurance of intelligence, unto the full knowledge of that mystery of God, which is Christ,22 in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge—hid treasures,”—yet, as the whole passage implies, hidden no longer, but now brought to light.23 “This I say”—i.e., I tell you of this possibility of full knowledge for you all, of this perfect yet open secret of wisdom in Christ—“that no man may sophisticate you by plausibility of speech. For even though personally absent, yet in my spirit I am with you, rejoicing in and observing your military array, and the solid front of your faith in Christ. As, then, ye received the Christ—Jesus the Lord—walk in Him, rooted, and being built up in Him,24 and being confirmed by your faith, even as ye were taught, abounding in that faith with thanksgiving.”25
He has thus given them a general warning against being dazzled by erroneous teaching. He has laid down for them, with firm hand and absolute definiteness, the truth that the Pleroma dwells permanently in Christ—the sole Lord of the created universe, and therefore the guarantee that there is in matter no inherent element of inextinguishable evil; the sole Head of the Church, the sole Redeemer of the world; the sole centre, and source, and revealer of wisdom to all alike, as they had all along been taught. But it is now time to come to more specific warnings—to the more immediate application of these great eternal principles; and he continues:—
“Look that there be no person [whom one might name]26 who is carrying you off as plunder by his ‘philosophy,’27 which is vain deceit in accordance with mere human traditions, and earthly rudiments,28 and not in accordance with Christ. For in Him all the Plenitude of Godhead29 has bodily its permanent abode, and ye are in Him, fulfilled with HisPlenitude, who is the head of every ‘principality’ and ‘power.’”30
From this great truth flow various practical consequences. For instance, the Essene mystic, who was making a prey of them by the empty and specious sophistry which he called philosophy, impressed on them the value of circumcision, though not, it would seem, with the same insistency as the Christian Pharisees who had intruded themselves into Galatia. But what possible good could circumcision do them? Their circumcision was spiritual, and had already been performed—not by human hands, but by Christ Himself; not as the partial mutilation of one member, but as the utter stripping away from them of the whole body of the flesh.31 It was, in fact, their baptism, in which they had been buried with Christ, and also raised with Him through their faith in the power of God who raised Him from the dead.32
“You, too, dead by transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God quickened with Him, freely remitting to us all our transgressions, wiping out the bond which, by its decrees, was valid against us,33 which was opposed to us—this bond He has taken away, nailing it to His cross. Stripping utterly away from Him the ‘principalities’ and ‘powers’ (of wickedness),34 He made a show of them boldly, leading them in triumph on that cross”35—thus making the gibbet of the slave His feretrum, on which to carry the spoils of His triumph as an Eternal Conqueror, after deadly struggle with the clinging forces of spiritual wickedness.
Since, then, mere legal obligations are part of a dead compact, a torn and cancelled bond, which is now nailed to Christ’s Cross—
“Let no one then judge you in eating and drinking,36 and in the matter of a feast, or a new–moon, or Sabbath,37 which things are a shadow of things to be, but the substance is Christ’s. Let no one then snatch your prize from you, by delighting in abjectness,38 and service of the angels,39 treading the emptiness of his own visions40 in all the futile inflation of his mere carnal understanding, and not keeping hold of Him who is “the Head,” from whom supplied and compacted by its junctures and ligaments, the whole body grows the growth of God.41 If ye died with Christ from mundane rudiments, why, as though living in the world, are ye ordinance–ridden with such rules as ‘Do not handle,’ ‘Do not taste,’ ‘Do not even touch,’ referring to things all of which are perishable in the mere consumption,42 according to ‘the commandments and teachings of men’? All these kinds of rules have a credit for wisdom in volunteered supererogation43 and abasement— hard usage of the body—but have no sort of value as a remedy as regards the indulgence of the flesh.”44
The true remedy, he proceeds to imply, is very different:—
“If then ye were raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God. Think of the things above, not the things on the earth. For ye died” (to sin in baptism), “and your life has been hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, our life, is manifested, then ye also with Him shall be manifested in glory. Kill then at a blow”— not by regulated asceticisms, but by this outburst of a new life, which is in Christ, which isChrist—“your members that are on the earth—fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and, above all, covetousness, for that is idolatry— because of which things cometh the wrath of God.45 In which things ye also walked once, when ye were living in them; but now put ye away also all vices, anger, wrath, malice, railing, foul calumny, out of your mouths. Lie not one to another, since ye utterly stripped off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man, which is being ever renewed to full knowledge according to the image of his Creator, in a region wherein there is no room for Greek or Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian,46 slave, free, but Christ is all things, and in all. Put on then, as elect of God, saints beloved, hearts of compassion, kindness, humbleness, meekness, long–suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any one have a complaint against any one. Even as the Lord forgave you, so also do ye. And over all these things put on love, for love is the girdle of perfection; and let the peace of Christ arbitrate in your hearts, unto which peace ye were even called in one body, and show yourselves thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching one another and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns,47 spiritual songs in grace, singing in your hearts to God. And everything whatever ye do, in word or in deed, do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus, thanking God the Father by Him.”48
Then follow various practical exhortations—to wives to love their husbands, as is eternally fit in the Lord;49 to husbands to love their wives, and not behave bitterly towards them; to children to obey their parents; to fathers not to irritate their children, that they may not lose heart.50 To slaves, of whose duties and position he must often have thought recently, from his interest in Onesimus, he gives the precept to obey earthly masters, working as ever in their Great Taskmaster’s eye, looking for the reward of faithfulness to Him who would also send the retribution for wrong–doing. On masters he enjoins justice and equity towards their slaves, remarking that they too have a Lord in heaven.51
Then he tells them to be constant in watchful prayer and thanksgiving, and asks their prayers that God would grant an opening for that ministry for which he was a prisoner. To the outer world he bids them walk in wisdom, buying up every opportunity, and addressing each one to whom they spoke with pleasant and wholesome words—“in grace seasoned with salt.”52
He sends no personal news, because that will be conveyed by Tychicus, his beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellow–slave in the Lord, whom he sends for that purpose53 to strengthen their hearts, with Onesimus, their fellow–citizen, and now their faithful and beloved brother, whatever he may have been before. He sends them greetings from Aristarchus, his fellow–prisoner;54 from Mark, the cousin of Barnabas,55 about whose possible visit they had received special injunctions; and Jesus surnamed Justus—the only three Jewish Christians who worked with him to further God’s kingdom, and so became a source of consolation to him. Epaphras, also one of themselves, greets them—a slave of Christ Jesus, ever contending on their behalf in his prayers that they may stand perfect and entire in all God’s will, and one who was deeply interested in their Churches. Luke the physician, the beloved, greets them, and Demas. He begs them to greet the Laodicean brethren, and Nymphas, and the church in the house of him and his friends.56 He orders his Epistle to be publicly read, not only in the Colossian, but also in the Laodicean Church, and bids them read the circular letter which they could procure from Laodicea.57 “And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou receivedst in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.”58 The letter concludes with his own autograph salutation, to which he briefly adds, “Remember my bonds. Grace be with you.”59
It is no part of my present task to trace the subsequent history of the Churches of the Lycus. The followers of Baur in Germany, and of Renan in France, have tried to represent that St. Paul’s teaching in Asia was followed by a reaction in which his name was calumniated and his doctrines ignored. The theory is very dubious. The doctrines and the warnings of St. John to the Seven Churches are closely analogous to, sometimes almost verbally identical with, those of St. Paul; and the essence of the teaching of both Apostles on all the most important aspects of Christianity is almost exactly the same. An untenable inference has been drawn from the supposed silence of Papias about St. Paul, so far as we can judge from the references of Eusebius. It was the object of Papias to collect traditional testimonies from various Apostles and disciples, and of these St. Paul couldnot have been one. Papias was Bishop of Hierapolis, in which St. Paul may never have set his foot. Even if he did, his visit was brief, and had taken place long before Papias wrote, whereas after the destruction of Jerusalem St. John resided for many years at Ephesus, and there were gathered around him Andrew, Philip, Aristion, and others who had known the Lord. These were the authorities to which Papias referred for his somewhat loose and credulous traditions, and he may have quoted St. Paul, just as Polycarp does, without its at all occurring to Eusebius to mention the fact. Not only is there no proof of a general apostasy from Pauline principles, but in the decrees of the Council held at Laodicea about the middle of the fourth century, we read the very same warnings against angelolatry, Judaism, and Oriental speculation, which find a place in these Epistles of the Captivity. Colossæ itself—liable as it was to constant earthquakes, which were rendered more ruinous by the peculiarities of the Lycus with its petrifying waters—was gradually deserted, and the churches of Asia finally perished under the withering blight of Islam with its cruelties, its degradation, and its neglect.