He labored for this, and with regard especially to those at Colosse and Laodicea, who had not seen his face, he had great conflict, (ver. 2) that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God. He was not at all satisfied with a sinner being simply saved and reconciled. Such might have full assurance of faith, like the Thessalonians (see ch. 1:5), having received the gospel not in word only, but in power; or, like the Hebrews, having a purged conscience, and so having boldness to enter into the holiest (see Heb. 10:2222Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:22)). Others, like the Hebrews, too, might have full assurance of hope, knowing that Christ, their forerunner, was entered within the veil, and that one day He would come out again (see Heb. 6:19, 2019Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 20Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. (Hebrews 6:19‑20)); but with regard to the Colossians he would have them filled with the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God. Nothing less than this would keep them going forward regardless of the hindrances of human wisdom, and philosophy, and tradition. The cross was the leveler of all such false ideas. A new man formed in resurrection of whom they were a part, was now formed. This was the body of Christ, the mystery which had been hid from ages and generations, but now made manifest. It was a heavenly body taken out of the world during the time of the Christ’s rejection. The saints belonged to this, and its hope was entirely heavenly.
(Ver. 3) But what was the body apart from the Head? It was true the life filled the body of which they were members, and so it was Christ in them the hope of glory, but this life was the life of the Head. In Him were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Without the Head where was the body? Human philosophy and wisdom had no place in Christ. He was all to them. There is no wisdom in the Church apart from the Head. (Ver. 4) There was great jealousy manifested by the apostle as to this, for men with enticing words were trying to put human wisdom between them and Christ. (Ver. 5) His spirit was present with them, and thus he could joy in all he saw of their order and faith. His practised eye could, however, discern something wanting. A Christian might say, Why, what do you want more? See what perfect order there is, and what faith. Ah, but they were in danger of letting go the Head; they had not come to the full knowledge of God’s will as to the character of the dispensation, and so he exhorts them that (ver. 6) as they had received Christ Jesus the Lord, so now to walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as they had been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
That heavenly Christ, in whom were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, they had received. Thus they had all these treasures. Christ was in them. They were thus constituted a heavenly people. Walk flows from this. A baby is born, receives life, and then learns to walk, but he walks as it were in that life which he has received. It was life in a heavenly Christ. (Ver. 7) This Christ they had received was a Christ that died; they were to be rooted, as it were, deeply in Him, bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, and so they would be built up in Him. A root is planted underneath the ground; that was where Christ was laid, and He has the marks still in His body in heaven. He is the propitiation. A building is built up above ground. This is Christ in resurrection (cp. Rom. 6:44Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4); 1 Cor. 3:99For we are laborers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. (1 Corinthians 3:9)). His life was to be manifested in their mortal bodies. So would they be established in that faith which they had been taught, and abound in thanksgiving. (Ver. 8) The philosophy and vain deceit of the Gentiles, and the traditions of Judaism, which had now become the rudiments of the world, were all antagonistic to the development of this life. It was not a heavenly Christ, but life in the flesh. Judaism, with its religion, law, temple ordinances, was a religion of this world and for this world; since it had rejected Christ it had become doubly so (comp. Gal. 1:4; 4:9, 10; 6:12-144Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: (Galatians 1:4)
9But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? 10Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. (Galatians 4:9‑10)
12As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. 13For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. 14But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. (Galatians 6:12‑14)).
(Ver. 9) But outside all this in heaven, in the Christ dwelt all the fullness (Gk., pl‘rÇma) of the Godhead bodily, (ver. 10) and they were complete in Him. The wisdom and power of the princes of this world only crucified the Lord of glory, so their wisdom ran parallel with a dead Christ. But the Colossians’ Christ was a living heavenly Christ. (Ver. 9) God’s fullness was in Him, dwelt in Him bodily. What did they want with human philosophy. He was the Head of all principalities and power, having a right and title to it as the first-born of all creation, and they were complete in Him who was the Head of the body. The Gnostic philosophy was bringing in the false notions, that God was the pl‘rÇma or fullness, and that Christ was only an æon, with other æons who had all their several works to do, to bring back that which had got out of this fullness, viz., this lower creation created by an inferior or evil god, back into it. In contradiction to this, the apostle shows that the Son was the Creator, not an inferior god, and that it was the good pleasure that in Him should all the fullness dwell. The whole of the Trinity, therefore,—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—dwelt in a Man. The Church was complete in Him; outside of whom there was nothing but emptiness and vanity. I think we have the same thought in Matt. 28:18, 1918And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: (Matthew 28:18‑19). All power is given to the risen Man, the Anointed One, in heaven and earth; but in Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead, and so they were to baptize unto the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Besides, they had been made partakers of a circumcision that cut them off from everything else! (Ver. 11) This was a better circumcision than Israel’s circumcision, i.e., the circumcision of the Christ. It was a circumcision made without hands, a putting off the body of the flesh by it. What was this but the cross. (Ver. 12) Then they had been buried with Christ in baptism, the outward sign of identification with Christ under the dark waters of death, in whom also they had risen together through the faith of the operation of God who had raised Him from the dead. This was as to life in the flesh. Death and burial was applied to it. (Ver. 13) But as before God they had been dead in their sins, but now they not only had a position before God in the Christ raised out of the dead, but God had quickened them out of death together with Him, so they were now alive with the life of Christ, as united to Him; God having forgiven all trespasses. Not merely quickened, by the Son of God in the power of His divine Person as Son, but quickened together with the Christ, whom God had quickened out of death as man, after He had accomplished redemption, and the complete putting away of our sins by His death. (Ver. 14) All ordinances now that were against them, and contrary to them, Christ had taken out of the way, nailing them to His cross, (ver. 15) and as to all principalities and powers, infernal or human, He had triumphed over them, at that very same cross. For He had taken away all claims these powers had over man, and risen triumphant over them all.
(Ver. 16) Thus about questions of meats and drinks, holy days, and the Sabbath and new moons, no one had a right to judge them. (Ver. 17) They were the shadows which ended when the substance came. When I am standing at the corner of a street waiting for a friend to come, and the sun is shining behind him, as he comes to the corner, the first thing I see is his shadow. This was the case with Old Testament saints; but when I see my friend’s face I no longer think of the shadow. I have got the body, the person, and I am occupied with Him. Oh, what a person! Where is room for meats and drinks, and the Sabbath, etc.? Christ lay in the sepulcher on the Sabbath day. All life and power is in Him, not in the shadow, and our Lord’s day shows forth this. The Sabbath was the seventh day, the witness of God’s rest in His first creation. But this was spoiled by man’s sin. All this was closed by Christ’s death. He rose the first day of the week, the witness of the beginning of a new creation, of which our Lord’s day is the witness.
(Ver. 18) Besides their danger from Jewish rites and ceremonies, there was a Gnostic philosophy mixed up with it, which pretended to be humble, and worshiped angels, intruding into those things which they had not seen, vainly puffed up in their fleshly mind, and not holding the Head. (Ver. 19) They were in danger from all these things, for if anything came between them and the Head, it was like a bough fallen over a telegraph wire, it hindered communication between them and the Head. The Head was the source of all nourishment to the body; the joints and bands were the channels, and knitted together the whole body; and so, if communion was uninterrupted, it increased with the increase of God.
Alas! if the Colossians felt the loss of communion in their day, what must it be now, when the devil has come and divided the people of God from one another; when the truth of the one body is denied, and so many children of God are standing up for division instead of unity? What hindrance must there be to communion when the people of God are joined to the world, and when they prefer a combination of world and Church to the acknowledgment of the membership of the body of Christ, however few may own this ground? The most holy and separate feel it most, and bear the sin on their own hearts before God. No one, in however right a position he may stand, has any right to boast; the sin is his own, however individually he may be clear from it, for he is a member of the body. Will not my foot feel it if my hand is paralyzed? Will not the true-hearted children in a house feel if the house of their father is put in disorder by intruders? So it is with the Church of God. Still those who are pure in heart will take heed that nothing comes individually between them and the Head; they will walk also, and hold communion with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart: and why? (Ver. 20) Because as to all these things that other professors are delighting in, they see they are dead to them. Christians have died with Christ from the rudiments of the world. How, then, as though living in the world, can they be subject to its customs and ordinances? (Ver. 21) Touch not, taste not, handle not, (ver. 22) after the commandments and doctrines of men. All that man commanded ended in the crucifixion of God’s Son, according to the will of God. Now the Christian has taken sides with God in favor of His Christ who has died. He has died, therefore, in faith, out of the world. (Ver. 23) There is indeed a show of wisdom in will worship in these things. There was apparent humility and neglecting the body. Not in any honor to that end, but for the satisfying of the flesh. The cross of Christ thus is the judgment on all philosophy and wisdom of man as well as all ordinances and Judaizing ritualism; it is also the Christian’s way of deliverance from them. All will worship is here forbidden as of the flesh. Christians have no right to worship God as they like. The word of God is the sufficient rule as to this.